Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

But it prompts a serious point. I can't remember the last jerk here. I'm beginning to wonder if that is another phenomenon manufactured by unnatural keeping conditions.

I'm sure it's a factor. Cillin was around this age when he moved in with Ruffles and Fat Bird. While he had space, his upbringing after his mum got predated was far from natural because I dragged him up basically, as I have a few that acquiring Glais has brought to mind over the last couple of days.
Cillin turned out fine, as did the others, bar one I can think of. The hardest part for me was to get him to understand that I didn't want to be boss, I wanted him to be boss and I would try to support him while he made the transition from boy to man.
Cillin kept close to me and didn't venture far afield mainly because he needed to avoid the other males who had their own tribes so having lots of space didn't seem particularly important to him while safety (mainly my house) did. It was just fortunate that Ruffles and Fat Bird didn't have a rooster at the time and also used my house as a place of safety, and food of course.

While one can get some idea of a cockerels underlying temperament at around six months, one can't easily predict what they will be like once they mature and that's around one year old to eighteen months old in my experience.

Glais is off to a good start. He has two hens that will follow him, finding food isn't a problem for him, he's got somewhere to live and there isn't any competition provided I can make him realise I'm not in the running.
It's worked out well in the past.

 

[BDutch]

it prompts a serious point. I can't remember the last jerk here. I'm beginning to wonder if that is another phenomenon manufactured by unnatural keeping conditions.

I wondered about this too. It would be a great question (poll) for a new thread.

Not sure if you get answers. Unfortunately not much BYC keepers have experiences with both natural and unnatural keeping conditions and roos. But tagging the ones who have truly free ranging chickens might give at least an idea. If people chime in with roos in confinement, you can compare the two.
+ Im afraid the people who live in a climate with cold winters can’t truly free range whole year.

In fact you need answers to several questions. Like:
- do you free range the whole day or 24/7?
- do you cull all surplus cockerels?
- do you ever need to kill a cockerel because his behaviour is intolerable?
- can your chickens choose where to sleep ?
- is there enough food the whole day or 24/7?

 

[Perris]

I wondered about this too. It would be a great question (poll) for a new thread.

Not sure if you get answers. Unfortunately not much BYC keepers have experiences with both natural and unnatural keeping conditions and roos. But tagging the ones who have truly free ranging chickens might give at least an idea. If people chime in with roos in confinement, you can compare the two.
+ Im afraid the people who live in a climate with cold winters can’t truly free range whole year.

In fact you need answers to several questions. Like:
- do you free range the whole day or 24/7?
- do you cull all surplus cockerels?
- do you ever need to kill a cockerel because his behaviour is intolerable?
- can your chickens choose where to sleep ?
- is there enough food the whole day or 24/7?

why don't you run one?

Another question you really need to ask is whether the roo(s) was/ were raised at the property by a broody within the flock, or whether they've been imported as cockerels/roos, or raised in such a way as they might just as well have been strangers, rather than members of the existing flock.

 

[fluffycrow]

Eight hours today,
Great to meet Perris after all these years of internet friendship. They arrived on time, in the right place with Glais. Can't ask for more than that.

We went for the deep end introduction. Got Mow and Sylph in the coop run, unboxed Glais in the run and stood back with fingers crossed. It went very well. No fuss or drama, unless one counts Sylph going "ohhh, he's gorgeous." I thought she would be a push over.

I put food down as usual and they all ate together. No fuss there either unless one counts Glais insisting he stood in the tray to eat.

I sat in the extended run chair and let them get on with it. Glais did a minimal amount of the herding shuffle, niether Mow or Sylph objected and off they went to explore, Mow and Sylph following Glais with poor old me more or less forgotten about.

They did the extended run first. They moved as a group and Glais didn't have to do any herding, meaning Mow and Sylph were more than happy to follow his lead; both moving in close when Glais found something edible. I think Glais encouraged them to try plants they may not have tried before.
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A really big plus for Glais is once out of the extended run and in the field he led them to cover, the only close cover in that part of the field in fact. Major points for Glais here and he kept them there, or reasonably close for much of the day.
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A bit of exploring at the far end of the extended run still keeping close to each other.
Half an hour before roost time they headed back to just outside the coop run for a preen and more food.
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The hour or so before roosting time has been in my experience a peak time for mating attempts. I was lucky enough to in the coop run when Glais chest bumped Sylph and she crouched and Glais obliged. What's more, he chest bumped Mow a bit later and Mow didn't crouch and Glais moved away.

I thought there might have been a problem at roost time. In an established group the rooster usually goes to roost first. Mow and Sylph hung around outside for longer than usual. possibly waiting for Glais to inspect the coop, but once I had encouraged Sylph and Mow to go in, Glais followed up the ramp, made those friendly nesting calls a rooster does and followed them in.
There was a bit of shuffling around and I left them to sort themselves out for ten minutes or so and then took this picture quickly and shut them all in.
Looks like they've got it sorted.
View attachment 4235304

Gosh, he’s grown so much since the last time we saw him! He’s such a stunning cockerel.
Very glad it all seems to be going smoothly; looks like a natural upbringing does have a lot of benefits.

Thank you for this “collab” of sorts, it has brought some pleasant news to us all

 

[rural mouse]

I wondered about this too. It would be a great question (poll) for a new thread.

Not sure if you get answers. Unfortunately not much BYC keepers have experiences with both natural and unnatural keeping conditions and roos. But tagging the ones who have truly free ranging chickens might give at least an idea. If people chime in with roos in confinement, you can compare the two.
+ Im afraid the people who live in a climate with cold winters can’t truly free range whole year.

In fact you need answers to several questions. Like:
- do you free range the whole day or 24/7?
- do you cull all surplus cockerels?
- do you ever need to kill a cockerel because his behaviour is intolerable?
- can your chickens choose where to sleep ?
- is there enough food the whole day or 24/7?

Ummm....we come pretty close to year round free range. I have a single coop and NO run. The only time I don't open the coop doors is when temps are -10⁰F (-23⁰C) and will be staying there all day. I do provide feed year round, but the quantity consumed varies throught the year due to the availability of forage. I'm working on increasing forage options. However, most rural keepers around here do things similarly (excepting the forage options). Typically, the old/extra birds are part of the farm/ranch food supply. Not everyone allows birds to brood, so the reproduction/ breed mix side varies dramatically and contributes to the large hatcheries. Predation does happen, but people are usually willing to shoot /trap ground predators. Air attacks....birds are on their own as birds of prey are protected.

Cold: do chickens like/tolerate snow? Depends upon the depth/crust. If they have places clear of the snow that they can get to, they still prefer being outside. Sleeping out isn't desired, but does happen....including brooding....