Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

Great show!

The latest series are no longer with DI Perez, Still great, maybe even better.

Www-info: 'Shetland' lead actor Douglas Henshall as DI Jimmy Perez is replaced by 'Agatha Raisin' star Ashley Jensen as DI Ruth Calder (BBC/AcornTV)

Unless one doesn't have a broody, then incubator is the only option.

Buy a few hens that are known for being good broodies. And if you have a rooster let nature do its work.

Problem with some humans is they want/have chickens who are known for to lay 300 eggs a year - or - don’t have enough patience to wait for spring/broodytime. Leaving a clutch of (fake) eggs in a nestbox often stimulates a hen to become broody (my experience). Takes max a week with at least one of my bantams.

I was able to film/video a chick zip to hatch!

Where is the video?

If we purchase from a feed store, they are taken from mother right away, put in a box and shipped for 2-3 days to the store.

Did you ask? Most commercially sold chicks are incubator chicks.

 

[Shadrach]

31/07.

 

[BDutch]

Atm my husband and I are on a vacation near the Alps, a bit to the south of France. We are staying on a farm-campsite with :

about 10 free ranging chickens.

and
a bunch of caged rabbits.
By the looks of it they keep them for food.

The landscape is amazing here. Especially near sunset.

 

[fluffycrow]

Unfortunately we have no choice if we want more chickens.

I suppose it could be done, but it would be incredibly hard. One would need to research quite a few breeds and mixes to find a variety of breeds that fit their environment, and who brood naturally. Then one would need to find a source of those breeds, ideally one that broods naturally as well. The latter will be much harder to find than the former.

Here there are three options when it comes to purchasing birds. POL RSLs, all incubator grown, and probably the last choice for anyone looking to start a free range self-sustaining chicken group.

The second category is hatcheries and farms that raise a lot of breeds. I only know of two, and both don’t work like the typical US hatchery. They do not ship day old chicks, rather 6 to 8 week olds, that are delivered to one’s desired location by a truck driven by a hatchery employee or acquaintance. That way, the birds get fed, watered and checked on throughout their journey. Said hatcheries do not allow you to purchase from them unless you get at least one male with your pullets. Still, most of those chicks are hatched in an incubator.

The last category, is backyard breeders, who tend to have rarer breeds, or local landraces and mixes. That would be the best way to get teenage birds that were born and raised under a broody, and are also the desired breed/mix. Of course, this is quite hard to do, as very few of those people advertise their birds, or sell to outsiders entirely. If one can get access to birds like that, then than would seem to be the best way.

I hope my post doesn’t read as criticism to whoever starts their natural chicken group journey any other way. For the first 7 years of chicken keeping all I tended to (and with the exception of a few roosters) were ISA browns and Leghorns bought as POL pullets, born and raised artificially. Even now, only 6 (or 7, Big Red might have been broody raised before he came to me) birds here have been raised by a broody

 

[MrsNorthie]

Finally getting back to normal temps after today!

 

[C Siena]

The latest series are no longer with DI Perez, Still great, maybe even better.

Www-info: 'Shetland' lead actor Douglas Henshall as DI Jimmy Perez is replaced by 'Agatha Raisin' star Ashley Jensen as DI Ruth Calder (BBC/AcornTV)

Buy a few hens that are known for being good broodies. And if you have a rooster let nature do its work.

Problem with some humans is they want/have chickens who are known for to lay 300 eggs a year - or - don’t have enough patience to wait for spring/broodytime. Leaving a clutch of (fake) eggs in a nestbox often stimulates a hen to become broody (my experience). Takes max a week with at least one of my bantams.

Where is the video?

Did you ask? Most commercially sold chicks are incubator chicks.

The video is on the computer, in the chicken file. I guess, I'll have to get a YT account.

I did read about most hatcheries only using incubators.

In reading about hens more likely to be broody, I was still unsure. Some say this one is the best, others, same breed, didn't go broody. Still a thought. The bantam silkie I borrowed can be broody much of the time.

I'll be on the watch for a couple of broody breed hens. We have 2 roos, and it was their eggs that we hatched in April.

 

[thistlewick]

How old is Chuck? Is it possible he is still maturing? Spud wasn't always the perfect lad, but he got better as he got older, he is now 3 years old.

He is almost 18 months old -- which I know is the "setting" age for behavior.

When mating, he does 3 touches. Oscar only does 1. Maybe the boy is just taking too long up there, and hence, the feather destruction.

EVERY girl almost always fluffs/accepts. They DO like these boys and hang with them and CUDDLE with Chuck, especially, at roost time. Oscar has no cuddlers yet, but he does roost next to hens and they both seem to have curated harems that stay separate most of the day but breezily forage together too.

I really just want to know, is the feather thing something I should be not at all allowing -- and is it something I should choose against and re-home Chuck? The girls are becoming naked back there, I can only imagine the injuries will start happening soon.

You know what though, Chuck's cuddle bugs do not have feather disruption. The ones who do have it do NOT cuddle him.

I'm annoyed that it takes SO FREAKING LONG to discover behavior. It's wasting my time, tbh.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Unfortunately we have no choice if we want more chickens.

Sorry I am kind of late to this conversation but when I didn’t have a rooster I bought fertilized eggs from local keepers and let my broodies hatch those. It wad a good way to get different breeds-I would network a little and keep numbers of people with breeds I wanted then text around when I had a broody. Now that I have a rooster I still plan on getting some eggs from elsewhere to bring in breeds I don’t have. Brooding chicks stresses me out too much anymore.

 

[Shadrach]

Said hatcheries do not allow you to purchase from them unless you get at least one male with your pullets. Still, most of those chicks are hatched in an incubator.

 

[SimpleJenn]

Finally caught a crow from Riddick.
Speaking of imprinting, I need to get the dig barrier set up around the triangle growout pen and move Navy and her chicks out there. Riddick wants to see his kids. He coos to them every day across the yard.