Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[MrsNorthie]

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.

Maybe he is just clumsy still?

 

[SimpleJenn]

She looks similar to my mutt a few generations removed from a Polish. Don't know what other breeds she is, but I have crossed her to my Ayam Cemani rooster.
View attachment 4187774


This post is about those chicks. All the way on the right is a SilkieXCemani cross, second from right is a rooster and the other three are pullets. So female chicks would probably look very similar to them. Still wondering how the rooster chick will turn out colour wise.

Oh they are adorable. I will definitely be allowing Riddick kids to hatch in the future. I want fibro eggers!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I don't know about better, but I really like like the series. We don't get it live here, it is on the streaming service, "BritBox", and I always start over with Series 1, Episode 1, when a new series is about to drop, it makes it last longer..LOL

We watched 3-4 episodes of the first season and liked them, especially for the scenery, but never followed up. We just don’t watch TV much, except for some sports in season. I’m one of those people who talk back to the TV in series that are based on books that I’ve read. “No, that’s all wrong, he was supposed to be sort of nondescript so he could fit into crowds, and you’ve cast a heart-throb!”

My husband is the only one who will watch TV with me.

 

[thistlewick]

Maybe he is just clumsy still?

He's been mating for over a year, so I don't think so, no.

Just saw Cracker get on Blanche (he is 18 weeks old) and he only touched once, too


I think Chuck is too extreme potentially

 

[SimpleJenn]

He's been mating for over a year, so I don't think so, no.

Just saw Cracker get on Blanche (he is 18 weeks old) and he only touched once, too


I think Chuck is too extreme potentially

Riddick touches one to three times depending on how well he lines up the first time or if the hen moves when he gets on.
He's not much bigger than some of them so lining up must be difficult?

 

[MrsNorthie]

We watched 3-4 episodes of the first season and liked them, especially for the scenery, but never followed up. We just don’t watch TV much, except for some sports in season. I’m one of those people who talk back to the TV in series that are based on books that I’ve read. “No, that’s all wrong, he was supposed to be sort of nondescript so he could fit into crowds, and you’ve cast a heart-throb!”

My husband is the only one who will watch TV with me.

We have it on as background noise while we are doing other things. I can't sit and watch TV, because I fall asleep. I just can't sit idle, but when I try to go to bed at night, my brain suddenly starts thinking of all the things I could do, like new coop designs, fast growing shrubs/trees to use for the hedgerow... other trees/plants for the food forest, LOL I actually only sleep about 3 hours a night.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

We have it on as background noise while we are doing other things. I can't sit and watch TV, because I fall asleep. I just can't sit idle, but when I try to go to bed at night, my brain suddenly starts thinking of all the things I could do, like new coop designs, fast growing shrubs/trees to use for the hedgerow... other trees/plants for the food forest, LOL I actually only sleep about 3 hours a night.

 

[C Siena]

I love bantam cochins, they're such sweet little bowling balls. I almost bought a pair of calico bantam cockerels early this summer.
The way I see it, any individual hen may have the mothering gene. I've even seen posts where leghorns and production reds have gone broody and successfully raised chicks!
As tax, more sweet BeansView attachment 4187726View attachment 4187727
She has bukbukked at her chicks to come over to me, but they aren't brave enough.

We have no bantams and our 2 roos are Buckeye and RIR. All free range every day together. I would be concerned about the larger birds mounting the bantams and am unwilling to take that chance.

We do sell eggs and that helps with the feed costs. We don't need all production breeds and some are not, But they are not prone to broody.

At this time, we don't want to build a separate coop for bantams and not allow all to free range together. We have a large cage (that we were going to use for an aviary when we had Macaws, 20'x15' x 9'T) that can be another/3rd coop. We are thinking of making it a 3rd coop with breed specific chickens. I'm looking at Australorps.

 

[Shadrach]

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?

In my experience the keepers are a lot more bothered by the feather loss caused through mating than the hens are.

I was lucky with Henry in that he was less interested in mating than the hens were. He was a 4.2 Kg rooster and was pretty efficient at getting the job done. Even so, I had quite a few partially bare backed hens, mainly Ex Battery hens.
Some hen's feathers seem to more fragile than others. I haven't seen enough to know if breed makes a difference.

I've provoked indignation and some anger when I've written, keep just one breed of chicken. Nature has the mating business sorted in so much as the rooster of the same breed as the hens is going to be the right size and weight for her.
If one isn't going to keep a single breed then pick a rooster that is of a similar size to the hens. If there is a major difference in the sizes of the hens, pick a rooster with the smallest hen in mind.

You can fit saddles to the hens. I wouldn't and haven't. For a contained group it's an option; for ranging or free ranging group they are dangerous. Losing a few feathers getting stuck in a bush is one thing., getting trapped by the saddle is a terrible thing to happen to a chicken. The damage they do to themselves trying to get free needs to be seen to be believed. Don't go there is my advice.

File the points of the spurs and smooth down the spur shaft. It's quite common on older roosters to find the spur point isn't that sharp but growths along the length of the spur can be like razors.
Most feather damage, apart from missing patched on the back of the neck, aren't caused by the spurs. It's the toe nails sliding down the hens back. Check the roosters nails and give them a file.

One needs to take age into consideration, both males and females. Most roosters tend to steady up from eighteen months onward in my experience.

From what I've read on your thread and this one it seems you are trying to farm the land and while one can enjoy the chickens they are in the end a source of food, eggs for most backyard keepers. If one is going to let the hens sit and hatch then half of what they hatch will over time be males. Yes, one can re-home some; I want to know a lot about where they are going and how they'll be kept before I'll give the males away.

A bit of proactive management and clarity of thought is required if one is going free range farm chickens. Have the thought in ones mind that those chickens one doesn't want to keep are food and that's what farms are supposed to produce. If the keeper can't bring themselves to kill the unwanted livestock then the keeper should find someone who is.

Finally, I know some keepers manage with one large group with multiple males for a while at least, but reading these forums one can find many posts where the arrangement has gone horribly wrong and the keeper has ended up with a no option problem. One can minimize such problems by splitting the group (it's that long term management stuff again) and separating out one male with his three most favorite hens. This requires planning and some expense because the way to give maximum options is to always have a spare coop and that coop is accessible.

There is a lot more to add but even further off the point of your post.

 

[Shadrach]

I just harvested my first fig of the year (having spotted a blackbird tucking into one with gusto); they are ripening at least 2 weeks earlier than hitherto, thanks to the good spring we had this year I guess. I only recently learned that a fig is an inside-out flower (long noticed the weird inside, but never really stopped to consider why it was that way), and that it's a really important fruit tree as a lot of birds and mammals eat them.

What sort of fig tree is it and how long did it take to bear fruit?