Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[micstrachan]

How much do you think the rats are taking? Is there any rodent control going on?

Good point.

 

[micstrachan]

Just an idea Shad. I buy 15kg bags of feed, pay for them over the phone and have them delivered all without human contact. Could you have big bags of feed delivered straight to the allotment?

My supplier also sells big empty drums to store feed in. I also use a galvanized rubbish bin to store grain. I scoop out what the chooks need for the day with a big, plastic measuring jug.
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I haven't had any problems with rodents and the containers are water tight and keep everything fresh and dry. Might something like this be a possible solution for you?

I keep my feed in a metal garbage can with lid, as well.

 

[micstrachan]

Exhibit #1. Le Rat in the run.

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Exhibit #2. Le Rat in the coop
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Oh my gosh, Bob! I don’t remember the coop rat, just the run rat. Same rat?

 

[micstrachan]

This was today. Better weather.
Feeders empty but...
The past week has been particularly grim. One can tell how hungry the chickens are as soon as one opens the gate. If they've had a reasonable quantity of food then all they want to do is get out on that green stuff and forage and run around. After a while Henry will come and find me, and now he marches off to where I hang my rucksack and the hens who are most clued in follow him. Of course, not wanting to damage his reputation as the great finder and provider of food, I go over and get whatever I've brought in the way of treat food out of the rucksack and after a bit of manouvering, get to a less soden piece of ground and offer Henry the first handful. He's good. He drops what he can for the hens if they haven't already grabbed it out of his beak. I chuck some around to relieve the pressure and offer Henry some more. Eventually Henry gives up trying to take bits out and drop them and I spread the food around in small handfulls trying to throw some to the less competitive hens. Then finally a large handful gets fed to Henry and any hens that are not otherwise occupied.
Today they must have had enough food this morning because they shot out to forage and it was at least 15 minutes before Henry came to find me.
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That sounds better.

 

[micstrachan]

This is from yesterday. Due to the storm and it's effect on public transport, I haven't been able to get to the allotments today.
Something is not right with Lima. Henry knows and has been fussing and herding.
I've had a look at her and I think and hope, she is about to lay the first egg since her arival here. She's been crouching for Henry a lot over the past few days and when I picked her up yesterday I could feel what I think is an egg on it's way. I'm hoping she'll get it out okay. I'll find out tomorrow I guess.
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Her poop is a bit watery but nothing there to raise any alarm.
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I hope to read on and learn Lima is OK.

 

[micstrachan]

That does seem like a humane approach to keeping the rodent population to a minimum. I really like that the dead rodents can be fed to other animals.

I zapped three rats and a mouse in less than 24 hours. I was dumping the rats out into the yard and something is taking them at night.

 

[micstrachan]

I guess it's a "natural " death. Once she shakes it the neck probably snaps pretty quickly.

I've seen my girls catch frogs. They don't last long.

Bridge swallows lizards whole. Bagheera was my best snake catcher and she swallowed those whole, too.

 

[micstrachan]

A word of caution on this subject.
Poisoning rats is very common in the UK. Some of the poisons take a few days to take effect I'm told. Just because a trap caught and killed a rat does not mean it is safe to feed to wildlife.
Where I lived in Catalonia, because it was a National Park, poisoning any pests was against the park rules, mainly to protect the wildlife and in particular the owls who eat a lot of rats.
It's not like this in the UK.
Do not leave rats out for the wildlife.

Ugh. I never thought of them potentially being poisoned before hanging out in my garage.

 

[micstrachan]

On the far left is an egg from one of the Legbars. The next is one of the RSL. The next is from the Legbar Marans cross. She lays small eggs. The pale brown egg is from Slide (Golden Comet) and the last from Matilda (Light Sussex)
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Wow, the RSL egg is a nice color!

 

[micstrachan]

Sorry about all those posts as I caught up. Shad, thought you’d like to hear my lot was out almost all day. Like close to 8 hours!

Some of you will roll your eyes, but this happened today, too.