Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[topochico225]

Sorry for the hijack! Back to Shad's story.

Tax time

 

[Folly's place]

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Ih, forgot my tax for derailing it a bit. Here is Romero (like the zombie) dustbathing and Big Boy with his flock

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

What a great picture of Corona. I think Marans hens look particularly attractive at this stage.

Thank you. Actually while it shows off her hackle markings, it is a very unflattering picture of her. In person she has a neck and carries herself really well. That was taken when the temperatures first dropped and it was a windy day. Like me, she was less then impressed with the weather. I can see miss priss totally boycotting the weather and staying on the roost when she sees her first snowfall. Not that I would blame her.

 

[Ribh]

Is it a matter of looking alike, or is it a matter of being raised together? I think it's fairly common for the same-appearance ones to also be same-breed, same-age, and raised together. It could be hard to sort out which of those points is actually more important to the chickens.

If someone got 1 each of several breeds, the same mix each year, I wonder if they would tend to stick with their yearmates or their breedmates. (If someone's flock does have this composition, I'd be quite interested in knowing how they interact.)

I also wonder if chicks raised by a hen might want to hang out with chickens that look like that hen, regardless of whether she was their biological mother or just raised them.

I have a very mixed lot.
Mine tend to mix via similar looks. I have a SLW frizzle & a GLWF but the SLW hangs with the Belgian D'Uccle frizzle. The GLW hangs with the Vorwerks.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

My Phoenix flock has the gold duckwings and then weird colors that got hatched out somehow. The duckwings are usually on one side of the flock master and the weird colors on the other side. The weird male I posted earlier is usually with the duckwings though

 

[Perris]

It can be both. Same genes has been first and then if no blood realtives can be found to live with then it seems to go by looks next. It is more complicated and of course, how the chickens are kept has a huge influence.
One can only really see this in action when the chickens free range over acres of land and there are differnet breeds to start with.

It's not my experience, and my flock range and are different breeds, some related, some not. Clutch mates here consist of either (i) full or half genetic siblings when the clutch is eggs from different hens and father or son roos, or (ii) purchased hatching eggs of a breed different from any I've already got, so unrelated to their broody as well as everyone else. They all choose who to roost with each night, and there is no real consistency over who roosts with whom or even which coop they go to on any given night - they have a choice of three. Sometimes I interfere if one coop is seriously overcrowded (as if they were having a party that night!) and hoik out the nearest few when I take the back off the coop, but by and large there's a lot of dynamism in friendship groups.

I think one factor is that youngsters mature at different rates. Even among my Penedesencas, who are a breed with a reputation for not getting on with other breeds, and who are only now really integrating since hatching in June, there is one pullet who decided a month ago she belonged with the mature hens (a mix of SFH, Araucana, Welsumer, Norfolk Grey, - and Barbezieux (sorry Gigi!) - and hybrid offspring of those) rather than her siblings, and the mature hens accepted her into their company. And their broody, an Araucana, also stuck with them for 4 months, which is far longer than she spent with her own chicks in previous years.

 

[Ribh]

It's not my experience, and my flock range and are different breeds, some related, some not. Clutch mates here consist of either (i) full or half genetic siblings when the clutch is eggs from different hens and father or son roos, or (ii) purchased hatching eggs of a breed different from any I've already got, so unrelated to their broody as well as everyone else. They all choose who to roost with each night, and there is no real consistency over who roosts with whom or even which coop they go to on any given night - they have a choice of three. Sometimes I interfere if one coop is seriously overcrowded (as if they were having a party that night!) and hoik out the nearest few when I take the back off the coop, but by and large there's a lot of dynamism in friendship groups.

I think one factor is that youngsters mature at different rates. Even among my Penedesencas, who are a breed with a reputation for not getting on with other breeds, and who are only now really integrating since hatching in June, there is one pullet who decided a month ago she belonged with the mature hens (a mix of SFH, Araucana, Welsumer, Norfolk Grey, - and Barbezieux (sorry Gigi!) - and hybrid offspring of those) rather than her siblings, and the mature hens accepted her into their company. And their broody, an Araucana, also stuck with them for 4 months, which is far longer than she spent with her own chicks in previous years.

I think friendship dynamics are more complicated than we realise & whether chickens get along with each other or not is a combination of lots of different factors: space, age, raised together or not, personalities etc. I have, for the most part, chosen breeds with reputations for being easy going, non~aggressive & have had very few problems. Mostly everyone gets along with each other.

 

[Shadrach]

I think friendship dynamics are more complicated than we realise & whether chickens get along with each other or not is a combination of lots of different factors: space, age, raised together or not, personalities etc. I have, for the most part, chosen breeds with reputations for being easy going, non~aggressive & have had very few problems. Mostly everyone gets along with each other.

Lima and Similie being a prime example. They are almost inseperable.

 

[Shadrach]

View attachment 2914486

Lovely pair and a great picture. You should enter that for POW.