Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

View attachment 3240556
Hehehehe... ♡

Better than TV,

 

[Iluveggers]

Was drawn to the window today hearing a commotion coming from my hens, thinking something was wrong I ran out there to check.

One of the girls had found a teeny tiny toad, and was sprinting around with it hanging out of her mouth while the others chased her around.

Tax:

I always bring a towel outside when I’m wearing shorts and want to take a minute to hang with the ladies. No fun to get your legs scratched up!

 

[Perris]

Henry usually walks right past the new coop and heads straight for the outside roost bar in the old coop run.
This evening it looked for a moment like he was going to go in. He got as far as sticking his head through the pop door.

Nearly there...

There have been a couple of posts recently that led to what is it that makes a senior hen, apart from age. The above is an example.

I haven't been following such threads, so don't understand what Matilda's behaviour represents/ the safety issue; can you please elaborate?

I pick her up, open the back of the coop and put her ona perch. By the time I've secured the door and got to the front of the coop, Lima had come out of the pop door and was heading for Henry and the others.

 

[GregnLety]

He's my wife's favorite and to a certain degree he is jealous of me. He'll dance around her like he does for his gals. He talks to her but has a growl for me. In all honesty he's the most secure rooster we have being the bosses favorite. Lety has her favorites and I have mine so I guess that's why we have nine roosters and 20ish hens.

Ok, so the number is actually 9 roosters and 28ish hens..

 

[Shadrach]

I haven't been following such threads, so don't understand what Matilda's behaviour represents/ the safety issue; can you please elaborate?

A couple of people have asked what qualities make a senior hen. Senior as in rank.
Age and getting to that age is one of them.
Getting to that age is partly about genetics, but also about attitude and learning abilities.
For example, the first rule of survival is don't get seen by the predator. Matilda understands this, many of the Ex Battery hens don't.

 

[Perris]

A couple of people have asked what qualities make a senior hen. Senior as in rank.
Age and getting to that age is one of them.
Getting to that age is partly about genetics, but also about attitude and learning abilities.
For example, the first rule of survival is don't get seen by the predator. Matilda understands this, many of the Ex Battery hens don't.

What about being feisty? Maria, Venka and Eve have all been with me since 2018, all came in as pullets, and all are only months apart in age. 2 of them, Maria and Eve, are feisty, while Venka is not. But Maria shares her space (unless she has chicks), unlike Eve, who sees off anyone junior to her and has a sort of cordon sanitaire around her, even when she is moving or resting with the flock. Curiously, the one that is not fiesty is 2nd in the ranking, splitting the feisty ones.

What else plays a role? Size? Well, Maria is top hen, yet the smallest physically, so that looks like a non-starter.

In terms of not being seen by predators, Maria's grey, so less well camouflaged than Venka and more visible than Eve, who's mostly black. She has a crest that is so exuberant that we have to trim it after a molt so she can see much at all, which you'd have thought was a disadvantage in the survival and hierarchy stakes, but apparently not so in her case.

What Maria has in spades is attitude. She will pull herself up and face up to any challenger among the flock members. I have never seen her submit except to a roo, and then not always, and never to a junior roo. She scarpers fast if a predator appears.

 

[Ribh]

A couple of people have asked what qualities make a senior hen. Senior as in rank.
Age and getting to that age is one of them.
Getting to that age is partly about genetics, but also about attitude and learning abilities.
For example, the first rule of survival is don't get seen by the predator. Matilda understands this, many of the Ex Battery hens don't.

If I had world enough & time one of the things I should like to do is run an all Campine flock as these are by far the scattiest girls I've ever owned. I can't see how they would manage without the calm stabalising presence of saner breeds. Ha'penny grew up under the dual tutulage of Barred Rocks, who were calm unflappable hens. Luna, present top hen, is the same; a big, calm steady hen while Ha'penny still acts like the worst kind of 20's flapper. She leads everyone into trouble. She is my most predator aware hen, a great forager, but completely nuts. I think she's hiding eggs again ~ & it's not in my yard! I would love to see how an all Campine tribe manage when every member is completely loco.

 

[no fly zone]

 

[MaryJanet]

I really like Skeksis, she's such a character!

 

[Shadrach]

What about being feisty? Maria, Venka and Eve have all been with me since 2018, all came in as pullets, and all are only months apart in age. 2 of them, Maria and Eve, are feisty, while Venka is not. But Maria shares her space (unless she has chicks), unlike Eve, who sees off anyone junior to her and has a sort of cordon sanitaire around her, even when she is moving or resting with the flock. Curiously, the one that is not fiesty is 2nd in the ranking, splitting the feisty ones.

What else plays a role? Size? Well, Maria is top hen, yet the smallest physically, so that looks like a non-starter.

In terms of not being seen by predators, Maria's grey, so less well camouflaged than Venka and more visible than Eve, who's mostly black. She has a crest that is so exuberant that we have to trim it after a molt so she can see much at all, which you'd have thought was a disadvantage in the survival and hierarchy stakes, but apparently not so in her case.

What Maria has in spades is attitude. She will pull herself up and face up to any challenger among the flock members. I have never seen her submit except to a roo, and then not always, and never to a junior roo. She scarpers fast if a predator appears.

What attributes make for a senior hen doesn't seem to be at all clear cut to me.
Like you, I've had all shapes and sizes and a wide range of temperaments.
Being there at the start would seen to be a common factor with the tribes and here at the allotments.
There was this study which is now behind a paywall. Like many such studies the oppertunities to show the range of behaviours was limited by the experiments.
Basically the study concludes that bodyweight was a likely determinant.
I don't doubt it's a factor but Bluespot was a lightweight (bantam) and one just didn't argue with Bluespot. Even the Marans hens accepted that Bluespot while not their senior hen was a senior hen and treated her accordingly.
Producing offspring is a factor that makes a hen mobile in a heirachy but it doesn't make her most senior hen.
Gedit was big but she was very mellow and didn't lay eggs. I expected a hen called Dink to take the senior spot but she never did. Dink had been there, done that and got the scars to prove it.
I've known four other senior hens apart from Matilda and I cannot think of anything they obviously have in common. Strangely the tribes were better at minimum conflict resolutions than the allotment lot. I've often wondered if it was because there were competing tribes around them. There were always opportunities for the males to fight, which they did most days with males from other tribes. Not usually serious fights but they did like to do it. The hens would fight to but very rarely in tribe and not often with other tribe hens.

Having enough resources and space makes a massive difference to behviour in every species. The tribes had this so I don't really know what happens when the going gets tough.