Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

Another article I link to when an opportunity arises. There are quite a few others now. People will read this article and forget the information it contains because people don't want their chickens/pets/livestock/food to have any of the qualities such studies suggest chickens have.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-016-1064-4

very interesting article; thanks for the link! There's another rabbit hole for me to disappear down!

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Incredibly jealous of your weather

This is probably the time of the year for the best weather in Florida.

The humidity is down which makes it nice to be outside.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

The temperature is 58 and cloudy.

Have a great day!

 

[DobieLover]

Can't help but to share Ace's first crow here. He was 18 weeks old yesterday. It's an outstanding first crow if I do say so myself!

 

[micstrachan]

Chicks do not need a hen to learn dustbathing.
I've raised plenty of chicks from hatcheries, with no hens, and they all started dustbathing in the litter in their brooder at a fairly young age.

If the Ex Batts don't dustbathe, I might wonder if their age is an issue: it might be easier to learn as a chick, and harder to learn as an adult.

My hatchery chicks also “bathe” in the shavings. Once when I dumped a bag of sand on the ground (to lay brick) and the pullets (my first little flock ever… four little hatchery chicks raised by me) immediately laid down into it and started flinging it everywhere. I think it’s more instinct than learned behavior. Maybe Shad’s comets and links have it partially bred out of them.

Edited to add, since I’ve been reading more if the discussion. Maybe it’s a combination of breeding and environment while developing. Can they never learn the behavior? Will they ever want to learn the behavior? This will be interesting to watch.

One if my current young hens, a hatchery black australorp, dust bathes just fine, but doesn’t shake the dust out, so post bath she walks around looking like she has a saggy diaper with dust all over her back.

 

[RoyalChick]

Henry is devoting his time and energy to the hens that are laying. How does he know this? Is it by the colour of their combs? Is it their willingness to crouch for him? Something else?
View attachment 2923604

How do you know which are laying? Maybe he does the same.

 

[micstrachan]

In

I think the reason 'Why' is that all creatures have windows of development. You miss the window to acquire a skill and you will likely never learn it properly if exposed to it later in life.
For language, both verbal and body, this has been shown to be true; also with social skills. I can attest to that with my nephew who is very socially awkward at 31 as he was never exposed to children his age until he entered kindergarten and by then he hadn't learned how to properly behave around others.
If the same could be said for these ex batts, I would think the ex batts integrated into a flock of "normal" chickens may be slightly better off recovering than those that are not. Offspring from those birds may express more typical chicken behaviors sooner having had "normal" chickens around to teach the ex batts.

Interesting take here. I wonder if missing a learning opportunity window shuts the door on learning that skill completely or just makes it more difficult to learn the skill. Or even the desire (or maybe instinct in chickens?) to learn the skill.

 

[micstrachan]

One of the problems I'm having is getting C to provide sufficient feed. I take 1.5 kilo with me every afternoon because I can never be certain that they've been fed in the morning or feed has been left for me to give them in the afternoon.
The math is pretty straightforward. 21 chickens need a minimum of 80 grams per day each. For RSL and Comets who are in need of putting on some weight a higher prottein content feed would be preferable. I supplement with Haddock every other day.
What you see in the feeder is what C thinks is okay for a couple of days it seems.View attachment 2922642

Shad, I know you already said no to financial assistance, but what about this. What if we also had a tax system (or really a tip system, since it would be voluntary) where we could send a little tax/tip money now and then. Since we will all learn from this, it could be like a small payment for enrolling in your class. We’d really just be contributing toward class “materials.” Or we could be “co-adopting” the chicks. I’m sure you will shoot this theory down, but wanted to throw it back out there just in case. Could you also grow some self-reseeding plants?

 

[RoyalChick]

Thanks, Dobie! Wow, your little man sure has a lot to say!

About the cuddling chickens, I think bantam cochins are as much of an oddball mutant chicken as the Ex Batts, just in a different way.

Mine were bred for show, and handled a lot young for show, and then just didn't make the cut so I got them. They were almost obnoxiously cuddly. Yes, there was the perching and sleeping on sitting humans, but if you were in the garden and ignoring them, they'd often peck at your shoes until picked up, then go to sleep tucked under your arm.

I am not discounting what Shadrach is saying, because I believe it is true most of the time, but I am thinking there may be some either so conditioned or so bred for pet qualities that they might seek out being picked up.

I have not seen the statement that all chickens make wonderful pets and love to be cuddled, but I do see that statement made with certain breeds, bantam cochins being one of them. For the record, I did not think I'd be cuddling chickens (a bit allergic), but I got the breed for a small property because they can't fly worth a damn, are so short legged they don't excavate the garden quite as much, and are very quiet. Not sure I'll be getting them again because I don't like the feathered feet and I'd like a few more eggs, but they did make my introduction to chicken keeping very easy and are much missed.

It is pretty clear to me that none of mine like to be picked up. But they also like to hang out around me. Often choosing to sit on the arm of my chair or just pop by for a chat.​

 

[Fawnpuppet]

Instinct does play a big factor in chickens. I'm new to chicken-keeping as of this year and got mine from a big box store (please no hate. I don't know how else to get them where I am other than a hatchery.) They have never been around adult or other chickens but display many behaviors that may also be learned. They dust bathe, flock together, rooster in their coop at night, keep an eye out for arial predators, the rooster crows and displays normal rooster behavior (calls to his ladies when he finds treats, watches out for them, tries to mount my currently one layer...). Where did they learn it if not by instinct?

For ex batts they probably missed the chance to inherently learn these behaviors as chicks and have it be natural to them. Can they learn them later in life? If they have a role model, it's likely, if they are interested.