Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

some of mine get those pimples that make a hole

so now you know why...

 

[no fly zone]

Made another planter.

 

[SimpleJenn]

We have two new egg layers! I love how tiny and cute pullet eggs are.

Tan and BLUE!

In with our green and dark brown eggs

And Big man Breezy keeps stealing the decoy eggs to put in the nests he builds for the girls, he's a great guy.

 

[BDutch]

According to Damerow Chicken Health Handbook p. 29 a cycle of normal eggs followed by soft shelled followed by a drop in production followed by a return to normal is a typical sign of vit D deficiency, and it can be fixed by adding cod liver oil at 2% (not more).

What about sunlight. ?
Can chickens who take a sunbath make vit D in their skin like humans do?
And do the dark skin chickens like Silkies have less capacity to make vit D like dark coloured people?

 

[Molpet]

What about sunlight. ?
Can chickens who take a sunbath make vit D in their skin like humans do?
And do the dark skin chickens like Silkies have less capacity to make vit D like dark coloured people?

I remember reading somehow the oil from the preen gland on the feathers makes VD in sunlight

 

[Shadrach]

We had to divde the chickens into 2 groups. Spud and Goldie just wanted to kill each other and 3 of the other 4 boys, took Spud's side, so we created a coop and area just for Goldie.(Squeak did not get involved and took the opportunity to endear himself to some of the ladies.) We made it possible for the girls to choose where they wanted to be, and 13 moved in with Goldie. The girls still socialize with each other and sometimes go back and forth, to spend time with each other.

They each have half an acre, but do not use it all and the majority of the spaces has full vegetation. We have one section that get's extremely wet and is part of the original chicken run, so was heavily used for a while, this turns to mud and has been dug up pretty good, but most of the chicken land has grass and other vegetation that has grown higher than my knees. (I am 5'8-ish shrinking with age..lol) Everything is super peaceful, Spud, Squeak, Tater, Walnut (after being forced to watch HMFC and eat walnuts, the one time he tried to pick a fight with his dad.) and GinGin, all get along great, but Goldie will not tolerate any of the other boys so he is quite happy and very attentive to his ladies. Despite them not using all the space they have now, I am still planning on giving them the rest of the property.

The tribes in Catalonia used an acre each but it wasn't that they spent all day at the edges of their territory, or didn't venture into other tribes territory.
Most of their time was spent in a 50 metre radius from the main house. All the coops were inside that radius. They went on expeditions though: not usually for forage more for shade and cover. At one point there were five distinct groups and the newest of the groups started to explore and spend time on the other side of the valley in the woods.
At the field here in Bristol this lot use about two thirds of the available acre. Mow so far has been the only chicken to venture into the orchard and that's been where a wide path is cut for the beekeeper to get has vehicle close to the bee hives. It seems long grass with not much tree or shrub/bush cover isn't appealing for them. I think the long grass is why.

When there were twenty chickens at the field they pretty much stripped the first section of the extended run. I should measure it properly and wok out how much room per bird that is. The problem with the extended run is the types of vegetation more than the space. I've started and hope to continue doing something about that. I have a good idea of what to plant and how to manage from watching the chickens on the unused plots.

The type of arrangement Perris looks to have form their pictures with dense foliage surrounding an area of managed grass. It's getting the depth of the surrounding vegetation right that is important if one isn't to waste space.

I would go for a third of an acre for say a rooster and four hens. I don't think I would be content with them having much less than that. Of course, lots of acres would be nice.

 

[Shadrach]

I remember reading somehow the oil from the preen gland on the feathers makes VD in sunlight

I've read similar.

 

[Shadrach]

Two and a half hours. It got to 22C at one point. Everybody had a dust bath. Two hours in the extended run and half an hour out on the field today.

Sylph.

Mow.

Ground feeding. Fret will eat more from the ground than she will from the trays. I think this has something to do with being broody and expecting to feed any chicks by foraging. I've noticed this with a lot of hens.

This is behind the coop run.

And this is the cut path around the abandoned fruit bush plot I will perhaps one day incorporate into the coop run.