Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ribh]

"Larger birds" LOL I had two golds. They were my smallest birds! I liked them but they would NOT stay behind the fence. In the winter I would find tracks in the snow going around the barn then back into the fenced area.

A month after the second disappeared I found a nest of maybe 20 eggs in the uphill part of the barn in some old straw bales. Maybe if I'd let her keep laying in the alpacas' hay in the lower part where the alpacas and chickens live she wouldn't have gone walkabout so much.

Yeah, keeping them behind a fence is near impossible! And they are really good fliers! My neighbour gets the occasional large white Campine egg in her bantams' nesting box.

What is it with the huge stockpile of eggs?! I will say Ha'penny had covered them all ~ much good it was going to do her as none of them were fertile.

When I started I had Australorps, BRs, Favorelle Xs & a standard frizzle [they're a breed out here], all of which are considerably larger than a Campine, & with a completely different body shape! But I've also always had @ least one bantam in the flock so the Campine have always been lumped with my larger girls. My lone Aracuna is about the same size & going forward I won't get any hens larger than that. I love my bantams & they don't seem to get as many reproductive issues as the big laying girls. Campines are on the rare & endangered list here so keeping them is my small contribution to keeping the breed alive.

 

[no fly zone]

Mr. Bumble voicing his disapproval of me taking his picture.

 

[GregnLety]

We have 7 roos in 5 different tribes. Both Red and Cholo are the only roosters in their tribes. Up to this point they have avoided each other.

Some babies escaped from the brooder and into Red's pen so I was forced to let Red's tribe outside with Cholo. Later Red found Cholo and wanted revenge but I broke them up. I chased Cholo into a pen. Their hormones are getting the better of them.

 

[Shadrach]

I'm not sure how common my experience with Campines is. Everyone I've bought them off has warned me off them & stated flat out I'd never be able to handle them. Despite this they are my favourite of my larger birds. I spent a lot of quiet gentle time with them & this is the result:

Tuppence
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Aoife.
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Penedesencas I don't know @ all so I looked them up. They sound rather like Campines temperament wise & have a similar body shape.​

I think you got warned off because lots of people prefer docile to interesting.

 

[Ribh]

I think you got warned off because lots of people prefer docile to interesting.

They are certainly interesting & from my limited understanding more like wild fowl than many other breeds. They are independent birds, very predator aware but also complete lunatics. I call them my clowns.

 

[Shadrach]

It's a good story, you must have been pretty impressed indeed. I thought the current saying was that chicks shouldn't even be let near roosters!

It doesn't change my mind on cock fighting, but it does remind me that passionate people who do things you don't agree with, are worth listening to. You can get to learn a lot.

Well, so far, despite having unrestricted access to both broody and chicks when hatched I have never had a rooster harm a chick. That's a decade in Catalonia and at least a further five years on my uncles farm.
I can't say it never happens but it's not just me, my chicken keeping friends say the same.
I've had plenty of hens give chicks pecks hard enough to draw blood though.

I've always been very anti cockfighting so being introduced to people whose family had bred and trained fighting cocks I found a bit difficult.
The two men I got to know reasonably well adored their roosters and the roosters hens. Note the hierachy here.
Most were kept in runs. although one man had some pairs free ranging in a kind of rota.
A few of the things these men did to thier roosters on a rota baisis.
File the toe nails. They are kept short to amintain strong growth.
Soak the underside of the roosters foot in Surgical Spirit and then apply some cream. I never found out what the cream comprised. The spirit helps to harden off the pads on the feet and the cream does something to make the skin more leathery.
Clean and oil the roosters legs. This was done daily.
Apply an ointment to the outside of the roosters beak and polish it in.
They got a parasite and skin check every week.

Then there was the food. I don't put that much trouble into my own dinners.
They were horrified when I admited to giving the tribes commercial feed.

 

[MaryJanet]

They sound like my kind of bird. I like them a bit mad, don't I, @Shad? I've got a feeling they'll be really hard to source out here.

I think you're right, I've never seen them.

 

[MaryJanet]

Well, so far, despite having unrestricted access to both broody and chicks when hatched I have never had a rooster harm a chick. That's a decade in Catalonia and at least a further five years on my uncles farm.
I can't say it never happens but it's not just me, my chicken keeping friends say the same.
I've had plenty of hens give chicks pecks hard enough to draw blood though.

I've always been very anti cockfighting so being introduced to people whose family had bred and trained fighting cocks I found a bit difficult.
The two men I got to know reasonably well adored their roosters and the roosters hens. Note the hierachy here.
Most were kept in runs. although one man had some pairs free ranging in a kind of rota.
A few of the things these men did to thier roosters on a rota baisis.
File the toe nails. They are kept short to amintain strong growth.
Soak the underside of the roosters foot in Surgical Spirit and then apply some cream. I never found out what the cream comprised. The spirit helps to harden off the pads on the feet and the cream does something to make the skin more leathery.
Clean and oil the roosters legs. This was done daily.
Apply an ointment to the outside of the roosters beak and polish it in.
They got a parasite and skin check every week.

Then there was the food. I don't put that much trouble into my own dinners.
They were horrified when I admited to giving the tribes commercial feed.

That's quite a routine!

 

[Shadrach]

I would love to do things this way. I don't really know how to find those breeders though, the ones that are relatively close by either raise hybrids or breeds that are in fashion now like Marans or cream legbars. Maybe I could find some sort of breeders directory.

Have a look around the local farms if you're not intent on having a "proper" breed. Fortunately a lot of farm stock has been free ranged and unmanaged with regard to breeding. One often finds that if the chickens are left to make their own decisions on this matter, predation and environment will move forward the most suitable genes.

 

[Shadrach]

They sound like my kind of bird. I like them a bit mad, don't I, @Shad? I've got a feeling they'll be really hard to source out here.

You do. But, I'm much the same.