Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Canadian Wind]

Methinks Shad was eating some of that boozy fruit cake.

 

[BDutch]

Methinks Shad was eating some of that boozy fruit cake.

Without the cake.

 

[Perris]

Why don't broody mums carry their chicks?

Hens will move/carry a laid egg.

I believe I've had one carry a chick in its wing, as it would an egg. At first I thought a chick was missing, after several counts when the new little family was temporarily confined by scaffolding netting and they were learning how to get back into the coop. As I was working round the bottom of the netting to look for said chick, assuming it must have got trapped there somehow, the hen sat down and when she got up again, there was a chick beneath her, and now a full complement of chicks in the pen.

 

[Shadrach]

Methinks Shad was eating some of that boozy fruit cake.

Sober as a judge, as the saying goes.

 

[Shadrach]

Two and a half hours today. Chilly with mostly sunny skies.
One brief moment of high stress when a fox slid accross the bottom of the field but otherwise a good day out.
Mow.

Henry bathing.

Fret foraging.

They went around the back of the run today.

This is what the floor looks like after one night. Easy to poop check. You can see the small seeds they haven't picked up from the overnight feed bowls.
Each bowl holds around 200 grams. There are five chickens so even with the spilt small seeds at least 500 grams of feed has been eaten in the early morning. Who ate how much is an interesting question.
It's this spilt feed that I spread on the ground outside the run where you have seen them ground feeding. Not all the seed is clean so some is lost there.

Mow and Fret are usually in the field run shortly after Henry goes to roost. I put about half the salvaged seeds down when they arrive. Tull and Sylph eat a bit from the tray and then go and see whats left in ground feed. I give the other half then. There isn't much squabbling between the hens. Once they've gone to roost I sweep up what's left and throw at the edge of the wild hedge where some of the smaller birds live.

 

[fuzzi]

Two and a half hours today. Chilly with mostly sunny skies.
One brief moment of high stress when a fox slid accross the bottom of the field but otherwise a good day out.
Mow.
View attachment 4034347

Henry bathing.
View attachment 4034348

Fret foraging.
View attachment 4034349

They went around the back of the run today.
View attachment 4034351

This is what the floor looks like after one night. Easy to poop check. You can see the small seeds they haven't picked up from the overnight feed bowls.
Each bowl holds around 200 grams. There are five chickens so even with the spilt small seeds at least 500 grams of feed has been eaten in the early morning. Who ate how much is an interesting question.
It's this spilt feed that I spread on the ground outside the run where you have seen them ground feeding. Not all the seed is clean so some is lost there.
View attachment 4034352

View attachment 4034353

Mow and Fret are usually in the field run shortly after Henry goes to roost. I put about half the salvaged seeds down when they arrive. Tull and Sylph eat a bit from the tray and then go and see whats left in ground feed. I give the other half then. There isn't much squabbling between the hens. Once they've gone to roost I sweep up what's left and throw at the edge of the wild hedge where some of the smaller birds live.
View attachment 4034355View attachment 4034356View attachment 4034357View attachment 4034358

They look like Butterballs!

 

[kcan2]

Henry bathing

Great lighting in that photo of Henry's spa time. Mow looking lovely. They really all do look wonderful, healthy, and content.
Per this thread, I purchased a set of rechargeable hand warmers and they have been very helpful in this cold weather. My rooster also approves as he objects to all gloves that move, which is all gloves. No objections to the hidden hand warmers, however!

 

[L-plate chicken mum]

They look like Butterballs!

Nooo, fluffy clouds and soft pillows, surely? Or even more correctly happy, healthy chickens with an abundance of floof and just perfect the way they are

 

[SimpleJenn]

I have also just purchased a pair of reusable hand warmers for my husband. He had to plow in -4°F (-20C) the other day and was so miserable.

 

[no fly zone]

I have also just purchased a pair of reusable hand warmers for my husband. He had to plow in -4°F (-20C) the other day and was so miserable.

It was bad enough for me shoveling snow off the sidewalk in 14° F. Took 2½ days to get over the sciatic nerve flare up.