Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

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.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Y

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

That wouldn't even last my Cornish bantams a day, and I still have less than that flock

 

[Shadrach]

One of the things I've done is to clean out the two black bins behind the coops that are used to store bedding and feed. The feed bin had rotting bread and a number of plastic bags containing mouldy feed and yet more bread.
The picture below is recent. What this is is wild bird feed mixed with a handfull of layers pellets. Something like what I think is called scratch in the US. This is what you can see in the picture above.

 

[MaryJanet]

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

I **love** this!!

 

[Shadrach]

This hen is a regular lap visitor. She rarely settles but if I sit she'll come over and jump onto my lap and "talk" to me for a few moments and then she'll join the others again.

 

[Windrider]

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.

Maybe not even an excess of hens but just an excess of chickens period. If the Jungle Fowl evolved behaviors for trios but we forced chickens to be in large flocks, it stands to reason that new behaviors would develop to cope.

My only personal chicken keeping experience was with my three Bantam Cochin hens. For the life of me, I never saw any defined pecking order between my three, and as far as I know there was no top hen. They all pecked now and then at each other, but there wasn't one that drove the other two away from treats and such. Was that because they were a small group of siblings with plenty of resources or because bantam cochins are just that mellow?

 

[Windrider]

This hen is a regular lap visitor. She rarely settles but if I sit she'll come over and jump onto my lap and "talk" to me for a few moments and then she'll join the others again.
View attachment 2922700

That close up shows pretty decent feather quality, considering. They've come a long way under your care!

Oh, and I wanted to mention that when I saw that portrait you took of Henry, "Winston Churchill" popped into my head unannounced. There is just something in the "eyebrows", the posture and mass, and just - gravitas - of that rooster in that photo. Of course he has the breadth of Henry the Eighth, as well!

 

[Shadrach]

Maybe not even an excess of hens but just an excess of chickens period. If the Jungle Fowl evolved behaviors for trios but we forced chickens to be in large flocks, it stands to reason that new behaviors would develop to cope.

My only personal chicken keeping experience was with my three Bantam Cochin hens. For the life of me, I never saw any defined pecking order between my three, and as far as I know there was no top hen. They all pecked now and then at each other, but there wasn't one that drove the other two away from treats and such. Was that because they were a small group of siblings with plenty of resources or because bantam cochins are just that mellow?

My experience tells me it's because they are a small group. The Tribes varied in size through the years. through predation and rehoming and at one point I had a couplle of tribes of three hens, one with a rooster, the other without. Both these tribes had fewer internal conflicts than the larger tribes.
Resources do of course have a majot influence.

 

[Shadrach]

That close up shows pretty decent feather quality, considering. They've come a long way under your care!

Oh, and I wanted to mention that when I saw that portrait you took of Henry, "Winston Churchill" popped into my head unannounced. There is just something in the "eyebrows", the posture and mass, and just - gravitas - of that rooster in that photo. Of course he has the breadth of Henry the Eighth, as well!

He's quite a lot bigger than the tribe roosters, except perhaps for Major who is my avatar who was large and a bit of a handfull when not impressed.
Henry doesn't like to be handled and it's taken a while for him to settle within grab range.

 

[Shadrach]

Maybe not even an excess of hens but just an excess of chickens period. If the Jungle Fowl evolved behaviors for trios but we forced chickens to be in large flocks, it stands to reason that new behaviors would develop to cope.

My only personal chicken keeping experience was with my three Bantam Cochin hens. For the life of me, I never saw any defined pecking order between my three, and as far as I know there was no top hen. They all pecked now and then at each other, but there wasn't one that drove the other two away from treats and such. Was that because they were a small group of siblings with plenty of resources or because bantam cochins are just that mellow?

May I ask what brought you to BYC if you are not a chicken keeper?