Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Sortacountrychicken]

What may I ask brought about this decision?

The homeowner decided she wants flower beds.

 

[Shadrach]

The homeowner decided she wants flower beds.

I'm having a similar discussion with some of the plot owners at the allotments.
Hopefully I've persuaded enough of them that a small chicken wire hooped tunnel will not only keep chickens off their veg but the wild birds as well.

 

[Sortacountrychicken]

I'm having a similar discussion with some of the plot owners at the allotments.
Hopefully I've persuaded enough of them that a small chicken wire hooped tunnel will not only keep chickens off their veg but the wild birds as well.

Yes I've been trying to get this point across for two years but apparently it's less work to fence the chickens than to fence the plants. I have plenty of opinions on the matter which is why the decision was made outside my presence.

 

[ManueB]

Back to the egg.collecting discussions : we would like to have at least Chipie the bantam go broody one day and I'm understanding that if I go on collecting eggs just after they laid it's probably not sending the right message. Should I leave her own eggs where she lays them, which most of the time is a very inappropriate place ? Or if I leave any eggs that's not hers and that she can easily find, she would understand that there is a chance for her to brood ?

 

[ManueB]

Yes I've been trying to get this point across for two years but apparently it's less work to fence the chickens than to fence the plants. I have plenty of opinions on the matter which is why the decision was made outside my presence.

I use chicken netting that can be very easily moved around to keep the chicken inside a certain zone. It's a bit costly ( though fencing is also at the price of wood now!) and it allows us to keep 300 to 500 meters square for the chickens right next to the garden with no damage. I got some second hand that had a few holes that could easily be mended, since it's just to keep chickens in and not predators out. It doesn't work for the bantams though.

You must feel really bad for them and angry that the decision was made without you.

 

[Perris]

Back to the egg.collecting discussions : we would like to have at least Chipie the bantam go broody one day and I'm understanding that if I go on collecting eggs just after they laid it's probably not sending the right message. Should I leave her own eggs where she lays them, which most of the time is a very inappropriate place ? Or if I leave any eggs that's not hers and that she can easily find, she would understand that there is a chance for her to brood ?

In my experience there isn't a correlation between no. of eggs in box and a hen going broody, beyond there being 1 or more eggs in a box. Something inside them flips on when the time seems right for them.
I wouldn't let a hen brood in an inappropriate place - it's just asking for heartache later down the line.
But further to that, old poultry manuals are convinced you can make a hen broody by confining her to a broody coop with fake eggs to switch over to real ones a few days later when she's flipped.

 

[ManueB]

Well, the coop roof is leaking. Again. Right into the hanging feeder, ruining the feed in it (mold/fungus grows within hours anytime something gets wet here in Florida).

I hope you managed to fix it ?

The saying "when it rains it pours" hit us in full force. After praying for rain since November without success, now that the roof and the wall of the old house are down we are having ten days of rain and thunderstorm. We had to put some tarps over climbing on the roof of the other house that's still on and we take them off for the few hours without rain the builders manage to work. And my step-father is there every single day from sunrise till dawn because he loves playing around with mechanical building tools .

Vanille is now completely healed, but now Caramel is feeling off. She has always been in full health up to now and I can't find any symptoms apart from the fact that she is being really lethargic and not eating. She was a heavy hen and now she weighs nothing.

Sick Caramel

Now Théo has turned into a painful young rooster he stays with the six ex-batts most of the time. Chipie cries after him all the time but he only comes when she is laying or if she is attacked by another hen. I am thinking again of getting another bantam to keep her company but because she is such a wild crazy thing I'm afraid it may not work out so well.

 

[BDutch]

I did try fake eggs a couple of times in an attempt to encourage the hens to lay in the nest boxes. I have no idea if they worked or if the hens would have laid there eventually anyway. What was apparent was once the hen had laid one of her own eggs in the nest box, she and others that laid there pushed the fake eggs out.

I often take away the fakes when I have a broody. Result: some chickens search other places to lay an egg. Like under the roost () , randomly in the run or in the compost heap outside.

Sometimes I have only real eggs in the nest box. The fake one seem to have disappeared. But always shows up again later. Somewhere else.

When I hide the fake egg under a little hay in the coop, a broody will find it to tuck it under her belly.

 

[BDutch]

Back to the egg.collecting discussions : we would like to have at least Chipie the bantam go broody one day and I'm understanding that if I go on collecting eggs just after they laid it's probably not sending the right message. Should I leave her own eggs where she lays them, which most of the time is a very inappropriate place ? Or if I leave any eggs that's not hers and that she can easily find, she would understand that there is a chance for her to brood ?

In my experience there isn't a correlation between no. of eggs in box and a hen going broody, beyond there being 1 or more eggs in a box. Something inside them flips on when the time seems right for them.
I wouldn't let a hen brood in an inappropriate place - it's just asking for heartache later down the line.
But further to that, old poultry manuals are convinced you can make a hen broody by confining her to a broody coop with fake eggs to switch over to real ones a few days later when she's flipped.

I have another experience with the number of eggs. With > 4 eggs its easy to get a (Dutch) broody on that spot.
So when I want a broody I leave eggs in the nest which is a good place to hatch chicks.
I replace the real eggs with fake eggs for a few days. Until I have (gathered / bought) fertilised eggs. I mark the fertilised eggs. That way it’s easy to take out new eggs.

It’s better to start the breeding proces on the same day for all eggs. -> all eggs have the opportunity to hatch. I would hate it the broody has to leave the nest while there are still a few almost developed eggs in the nest.

 

[BDutch]

Is chicken netting different from bird netting?
edited: I had this question, but found the answer already.
Yes. I looked it up, here they call it fence net. But they also use the name sheep/poultry/chicken/.. net or fencing.

Here they sell a lot of bird netting. I hate the bird netting because its too weak and gets torn apart too easily. And if it’s hanging, songbirds get trapped in it.

I do love cat netting. Its very strong (with a thin metal thread in it) and seems to be predator proof too. It’s even better than the thicker netting I bought for birds of prey.

I don’t think the fence net will work for my bantams. They can fly over a 1 meter fencing.