Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Solanacae]

I am fascinated by the amount of engineering that went into making this process, though I’m sure the whole process was rather terrifying for a day-old chick. I don’t love that such a factory exists though.

I feel the same both for the cockerel and the values, though mine aren't religious, and I don't think I'm doing very well .

Gaston crowed for the first time this morning and I don't want him to become anybody's supper. I fully respect the choice of turning them into nourishment but I'm not able to do it.

Oh, that was the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while! Good effort on his part, I’m sure he’ll get more competent.

I am fascinated to see the different viewpoints people have and really appreciate that we can be respectful of other’s views. I do eat meat but have worked to source what I consume as local land humanely raised as possible. I’m happy that I can support local agriculture that way. I am a religious person and part of that belief system is that we are expected to be good stewards of the earth and have a responsibility to the plants/animals that live on it.

Husbandry practices that put the health of the animals, plants, soil, and air as a priority are going to be more beneficial to everyone involved than the cheap inputs and the host of problems they create. For example: I see so many people in my neighborhood spraying to kill spiders and then complain about how bad the mayflies are. I don’t like spiders in my house, but I just catch them in a jar and chuck them out the door. I’m delighted to see them outside and have seen webs full of flies to attest that they’ve been hard at work.

My RSL x Brahma baby is following in the footsteps of her mother so far. She is very charming, started laying at 20wks and is laying 5 eggs per week. View attachment 3224375
She is a joy.

Who laid that huge egg in the middle?!?

Fortunately I'm very fond of these people. I just don't understand their spending preferences.
I've never been much of a consumer. I am apparently the worst person in the world to buy presents for. It's not that I don't like things, more I've got most of what I want and anything I haven't got and might want is expensive. Guess I'm the male equivelant of only diamonds will do darling.

My mother in law complains that I’m hard to buy presents for. I think it’s because she doesn’t think that a rain barrel or a nice pair of wool socks is really a good gift. She insists on buying me “something that I want, not something that I need” but I reply by saying that I don’t technically need the rain barrel or the nice wool socks, but I really want them. I’m sure there was some eye rolling involved, but I did get nice wool socks and a very well designed rain barrel for Christmas last year.

Is it common for chickens to sleep on the floor or is this something specific to the allotments hens?

My Cordelia hasn’t slept in a roosting bar for several months now. I thing her crop issue was what started her doing it, and now she does it all the time. I’m not sure if I should interfere or not.

Going away for the weekend and then the first week of school was a whirlwind, it was nice to catch up on the thread today.

A couple of pictures from my weekend trip, there was the coolest storm system that moved past the cabin one night. Lightening and thunder all around us! So much fun.

Tax: my girls out foraging this morning

 

[Sortacountrychicken]

I apologize for my prolonged absence yet again. I'm not dead! There has been a very busy summer here so I have had time to keep up with the thread but not to post. Our hatches this year went terribly. Sundew managed to hatch 5 out of 8 eggs. Two chicks died shortly after hatching. Queen's eggs did not make it to full term and they actually ended up co-parenting the three surviving chicks. I have had 4 hatchery birds and 4 of my own hens sit and either fail to have eggs make it to full term or have the chicks survive more than a day. I do believe that AI came through the flock this spring and that the chicks were picking it up and simply not surviving it. I buried 11 day old chicks this year. The surviving chicks are now 2 1/2 months old and are really starting to fill in. For some time I believed I had one male and two females but lately the black chick has seemed to be a late blooming male. The brown male is out of one of the hatchery bird eggs. I'm not sure which. He is fathered by Furio. The brown female is a Queen/Furio chick. The black male is a Grackle/Jackdaw chick. A few pictures of them:

 

[Perris]

the flock is now between 9 and 12 weeks old (two different groups)

they're lovely what breeds are they?

Our hatches this year went terribly.

It sounds horrendous, and as if something very nasty was going through the flock as you suggest. I suspect if it was AI though you'd have lost some/many adult birds too.

The surviving chicks are now 2 1/2 months old

they're lovely too - and proven to be made of tough stuff!

 

[Sortacountrychicken]

I suspect if it was AI though you'd have lost some/many adult birds too.

I had similar thoughts. I did a bit of reading this spring with all the issues they were having and came across an article mentioning some less severe strains of AI that caused sickness but rarely death in otherwise healthy adults. I'm kicking myself for not saving that article somewhere but if I find it I will have to share it here. I did have many sick adults, all with respiratory symptoms that would clear up in a few days. Many of the eggs that were laid in this time period were wrinkly and wavy which it seems can be from AI, Newcastle's or perhaps simply stress. I have also had a couple of hatchery birds die this summer but all seemed to be related to reproductive issues. Thankfully the flock doesn't seem to be suffering any long term effects. Queen is setting on a second clutch currently so I have my fingers crossed for some healthy chicks in a couple weeks.

 

[Iluveggers]

they're lovely what breeds are they?

Thank you!
The ladies in the first pic are Welsummer (DS’s favorite girl), Ameraucana, Blue Cuckoo Marans, and French Black Copper Marans. The second pic has two of them again plus the Speckled Sussex Rosie (she *might* be my favorite, curious and bold, yet sweet and gentle…she chirps softly when I stroke her neck feathers…)

I joke that we should have named the FBCM “Goose”…she has a deep voice for a pullet and makes the sweetest quiet honking noise when she talks to us!

 

[Shadrach]

The shopping trolly strikes again!
I cut the lengths I need at the flat outside on the grass and this is the first of the hoop cover bits.

As I've weeded I've chucked the weeds in a pile and left them to rot with the intention of removing the sticks and stems later when the forage was minimal. that time came this week. Matida was on it like a shot.

The others got the hang of it a bit later.

My friend turned up with Tuna and chopped veg; enough to feed an army. There were some very full crops at bedtime.

Henry's comb looks almost okay one minute and not the next.

As we see it.

 

[MaryJanet]

The shopping trolly strikes again!
I cut the lengths I need at the flat outside on the grass and this is the first of the hoop cover bits.
View attachment 3228907

As I've weeded I've chucked the weeds in a pile and left them to rot with the intention of removing the sticks and stems later when the forage was minimal. that time came this week. Matida was on it like a shot.View attachment 3228919
The others got the hang of it a bit later.View attachment 3228918
My friend turned up with Tuna and chopped veg; enough to feed an army. There were some very full crops at bedtime.

View attachment 3228912

View attachment 3228914
Henry's comb looks almost okay one minute and not the next.

As we see it.
View attachment 3228916
View attachment 3228915

Was his comb continuously purple at first? Maybe his health is improving?

 

[Shadrach]

Was his comb continuously purple at first? Maybe his health is improving?

If it is his heart then a sticky valve would produce what I see.

 

[ManueB]

I apologize for my prolonged absence yet again. I'm not dead! There has been a very busy summer here so I have had time to keep up with the thread but not to post. Our hatches this year went terribly. Sundew managed to hatch 5 out of 8 eggs. Two chicks died shortly after hatching. Queen's eggs did not make it to full term and they actually ended up co-parenting the three surviving chicks. I have had 4 hatchery birds and 4 of my own hens sit and either fail to have eggs make it to full term or have the chicks survive more than a day. I do believe that AI came through the flock this spring and that the chicks were picking it up and simply not surviving it. I buried 11 day old chicks this year. The surviving chicks are now 2 1/2 months old and are really starting to fill in. For some time I believed I had one male and two females but lately the black chick has seemed to be a late blooming male. The brown male is out of one of the hatchery bird eggs. I'm not sure which. He is fathered by Furio. The brown female is a Queen/Furio chick. The black male is a Grackle/Jackdaw chick. A few pictures of them:View attachment 3226875View attachment 3226876View attachment 3226878View attachment 3226898View attachment 3226899View attachment 3226866View attachment 3226900View attachment 3228592View attachment 3228593

Nice to hear from you but I'm sorry for those sad news. Burying all those chicks must have been hard . I love that the broodies co-raised the remaining three, they're all striking, beautiful colours. I hope queen's next hatch fares better!

Thank you!
The ladies in the first pic are Welsummer (DS’s favorite girl), Ameraucana, Blue Cuckoo Marans, and French Black Copper Marans. The second pic has two of them again plus the Speckled Sussex Rosie (she *might* be my favorite, curious and bold, yet sweet and gentle…she chirps softly when I stroke her neck feathers…)

I joke that we should have named the FBCM “Goose”…she has a deep voice for a pullet and makes the sweetest quiet honking noise when she talks to us!

Quite a mixed bunch ! I was very surprised by the sounds chicks make. It's as if they have a whole different language and then they change when they grow up.

The shopping trolly strikes again!
I cut the lengths I need at the flat outside on the grass and this is the first of the hoop cover bits.
View attachment 3228907

As I've weeded I've chucked the weeds in a pile and left them to rot with the intention of removing the sticks and stems later when the forage was minimal. that time came this week. Matida was on it like a shot.View attachment 3228919
The others got the hang of it a bit later.View attachment 3228918
My friend turned up with Tuna and chopped veg; enough to feed an army. There were some very full crops at bedtime.

View attachment 3228912

View attachment 3228914
Henry's comb looks almost okay one minute and not the next.

As we see it.
View attachment 3228916
View attachment 3228915

Did you actually manage to get that roll of mesh in the trolley ? On the photo it doesn't look like it would fit in!
If Henry has one less valve working what would it mean for him ? How long after did the four roosters that you saw having the same issue survived ?
And is Mathilda doing better ?

 

[ManueB]

Oh, that was the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while! Good effort on his part, I’m sure he’ll get more competent.

Well, for now he's getting "louder", but not really "better", if you see what I mean .

My mother in law complains that I’m hard to buy presents for. I think it’s because she doesn’t think that a rain barrel or a nice pair of wool socks is really a good gift. She insists on buying me “something that I want, not something that I need” but I reply by saying that I don’t technically need the rain barrel or the nice wool socks, but I really want them. I’m sure there was some eye rolling involved, but I did get nice wool socks and a very well designed rain barrel for Christmas last year.

In my family, we haven't done the Christmas / birthday present thing since we were kids. As teens my parents did a donation to whoever we wanted, and then as adults my mum gets second hand books and horrible trinkets at thrift stores and anyone who wants to, can pick something of his choice . My partner's mother wants to do presents ; this year we asked her to knit wool hats and mittens for Christmas and it was the coolest present in many years!

I'm getting really frustrated that we can't move on with redoing the run as it's getting obvious now that we have a housing problem. The chicks/ teens are so scared of the other chickens that they refused to shelter in the coop when we had a horrible storm two days ago and they are still sleeping in that nest hole although they don't fit in there -every evening there's some rough squeezing going on. Gaston has gotten so big that he would barely fit alone! I know they can get to all the other places to roost because if they are alone in the coop, they do. Gaston is excessively terrified and the other chicks who are much less afraid follow him and won't leave him on his own most of the time.

Several storms and rain in ten days turned everything green again, very different from automatic watering. Lea in the growing last phacelie spot.

Morning niceties and washing

Théo and Cannelle standing guard while Nougat is laying hidden behind.