Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Marie2020]

Morning going grocery shopping

Happy shopping

 

[Marie2020]

Tax

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!

The temperature is 78 and mostly cloudy.

Have a great day!

 

[MTKitty]

After being coop-bound (self-imposed) for two days because of snow and sub-freezing temps, Big Guy and one of the girls are ... damp-earth? bathing on a balmy 45* afternoon. (Prepaid tax, if I’m not in arrears).

 

[Ribh]

Don't believe it. Ribh has two breeds, feather dusters and nutters.
I've checked all those super knowledgeable breed guides and I can't find either.
The feather dusters while gorgeous are not really my sort of chicken but the nutters...well now yer talkin!

Hold on. I know I am hopeless at breeds but aren't there some feather dusters who are nutters? Maybe those are crosses?

You two owe tax! For disparaging my feather dusters if nothing else. There is no defending the nutters.

 

[Ribh]

Contemplating her escape options...

 

[Solanacae]

This is a fascinating thread, and it’s taken me several days to read through it. I live in an area where summers are hot and dry (going up to 100+ degrees F for a few weeks in July) and fairly cold in the winter (-20 degrees F is usually the coldest) and I researched extensively trying to figure out what breeds were best suited to my climate. All my hens have done fine, and I credit the fact that they have plenty of shade and cool dirt in the summer more than a breed’s reputation. My feather footed birds don’t like going out in the snow as much, because the feathers don’t dry off quickly. One of my big combed birds did lose the tips of her comb due to frostbite, but I think that was more due to inadequate ventilation in their first coop. I’ve built a better once since then.
Tax for lurking here so long and adding comments to an old tangent:
1. Fluffy butts all in a row preening
2. My fluffiest fluffy butt (who requires periodic trimming or she gets poop stuck in her feathers)
3. I let one of my broodies hatch eggs for the first time this year
4. Nosy flock queen, Fuzzy
5. Saiorse and Mister. Mister was gorgeous and a favorite of my youngest but he became aggressive towards her, and I had to rehome him because I didn’t have the time or ability to teach his good manners while keeping my littles safe. She was only two and didn’t understand why she couldn’t visit ‘her tickies’.

 

[Windrider]

I'd love to see this too.
It also raises the question why teeth evolved out of birds' mouths.

Jurassic Chicken Actually, Jurassic Bantam, since they were tiny, about 110 grams. Not actually bird ancestors, but non-avian theropods like T. rex.

Birds still have the genes to grow teeth, there is just a mutation that disables it. Researches know HOW birds lost their teeth, but there is no consensus on WHY.

https://www.audubon.org/news/how-birds-lost-their-teeth

 

[Shadrach]

Welcome to the thread @Pippin quail , @Windrider , @Solanacae .

 

[Shadrach]

Jurassic Chicken Actually, Jurassic Bantam, since they were tiny, about 110 grams. Not actually bird ancestors, but non-avian theropods like T. rex.
View attachment 2922598

Birds still have the genes to grow teeth, there is just a mutation that disables it. Researches know HOW birds lost their teeth, but there is no consensus on WHY.

https://www.audubon.org/news/how-birds-lost-their-teeth

Interesting link.
I would be very interested in knowing when the so called pecking order was established by hens. The jungle fowl have no need of it. They are related small groups, usually two or three per tribe unless rearing young.
Roosters ime are not in the pecking order. It seems to somehting hens have evolved to keep conflict to a minimum in groups where there are an excess of hens.