Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

Does this mean the same hen can be mated by different roosters ?

I certainly saw her being mated by both. People wanting to breed specific roos to specific hens are warned in the old handbooks to remove any unwanted roos at least 3 weeks before collecting eggs, as their sperm can be viable and stored in the hen's body. Venka's clutch seems to prove that hens can retain and use sperm from more than one roo.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Spurs look fine.

She looks in a lot better shape than the allotment crew. I've never looked after the breed so know nothing about them. She's got very roosterish looking hackle feathers in the second picture.
I can't see a problem even with a poopy arse.

She is the only one who has the spurs.

Is this a hen or rooster?

Thanks for your information.

 

[Perris]

Approximately how many times a day did you feed them and was it a measured quantity?

It occurs to me that the latter question might have been after the nutritional info rather than the mass, and it's useful info anyway, so, with the chicks I aimed for roughly (all eyeballed, not measured as such) 20% protein (from the milk, mealworms, sardines, catfood, or peanut butter) and the rest carbs (from the bread or grain products). I figure that adequate vitamins and minerals will be supplied by the other foods mentioned, and by the grass, weeds and bugs that they forage. I have a SS with the nutritional profile of foods I may or do give them, to consult when I can't remember e.g. how much fat or protein a live mealworm typically contains, and that highlights particularly good sources of x, y, or z, which I then make sure to give in the next meal if I haven't offered it for a while or see any sign of deficiency in it.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good morning X-Batts. We have drizzle here called Marine layer, Might get a few eggs today. Pay tax later.

 

[Shadrach]

Is this a change of name in regard to those long term chicken real-estates plans of yours ? Or because you don't like the coop and run model?

Neither really. Looking at it now and knowing what else I'm going to do to it, it's basically one big coop. Can't really call that bit under the mesh a run. It's more of a high ventilation roosting area.

 

[Shadrach]

No possibility of leaving some in a feeder over night without the rats getting at it ?

It's not that C doesn't feed them in the morning, it's what they feed them and the quanitity.
There are things that C doesn't want to accept about the chickens because once they do accept them then to seem reasonable they would have to change their behaviour. I realise people are like this; I'm like it sometimes, but C's attitudes to chicken keeping are based memories of being with their father on a farm 50 or more years ago.
C tells me stories of being a child on her fathers farm. C's told me that the chickens got fed scraps and corn occasionally. C's told me they remember chickens in the milking shed and around the farm and her father just let them get on with it. That's fine.
What C doesn't seem to understand is if you lock them in a run where they can't fend for themselves then you need to feed them properly.

 

[Shadrach]

She is the only one who has the spurs.

Is this a hen or rooster?

Thanks for your information.

I don't know. It's not something I've needed to know. Evenually it became obvious and even then it didn't matter much. There are other people on the forum who might know.

 

[Shadrach]

It occurs to me that the latter question might have been after the nutritional info rather than the mass, and it's useful info anyway, so, with the chicks I aimed for roughly (all eyeballed, not measured as such) 20% protein (from the milk, mealworms, sardines, catfood, or peanut butter) and the rest carbs (from the bread or grain products). I figure that adequate vitamins and minerals will be supplied by the other foods mentioned, and by the grass, weeds and bugs that they forage. I have a SS with the nutritional profile of foods I may or do give them, to consult when I can't remember e.g. how much fat or protein a live mealworm typically contains, and that highlights particularly good sources of x, y, or z, which I then make sure to give in the next meal if I haven't offered it for a while or see any sign of deficiency in it.

Once the coop is finished my plan is to move them onto a mash rather than pellets, one of the advantages being I can mix other ingredients in.

 

[Shadrach]

Watching some storm Ian news. Most of the houses seem to have stood up to the strom reasonably well and over here in the UK only one death reported so far.

 

[MaryJanet]

She is the only one who has the spurs.

Is this a hen or rooster?

Thanks for your information.

One of my hens has rather large spurs too. They're quite sharp but she doesn't know how to use them, so she's perfectly safe to be around.

She was recently xrayed after a treatment for slow crop failed, and it was fascinating to see her spurs extending all the way in and merging with her leg bone.