Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Lady Red]

Wait, what? I get chicks from a hatchery practically every year? How is this wrong? Someday I do hope to get either hatchlings or (gulp!) eggs from a good breeder of Pia Pintas, but until then ... mail order eill have to do.

It is more a comment knowing shad's feelings/opinions on it - from hybrids to mail order, etc.

As well, I haven't even been at this for a solid year yet. I had no idea that prolific layers are more prone to reproductive issues and premature death when I bought a 10 pack of "rare standard size layers" as a mail order.

Do I love them any less? Nope. Will I research breeds with better diligence next time? Yes, because I can and have options outside of what I did.

 

[Pippin quail]

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?
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I have been wondering this about my rooster. Currently out of 18 females in my flock, some not yet laying and some not laying since their moult.... 3 are laying and those 3 are the only ones getting mated and getting called for special treats from Moonshine. In fact he was the one who alerted me to my newest layer a day or two before she even started laying. He all of a sudden started paying attention to her and learning all kinds of new dance moves.
It's amazing what they learn through instinct, as I hatched most of my flock in an incubator. (Didn't know any better at the time and wanted to start a mixed flock without buying chickens from all over the place). I'm quite interested to see how many of my incubator hatched hens will go broody next spring or summer.

 

[GregnLety]

Wow! Another shot at me.

My wife definitely has an effect on the pecking order and to an extent the behavior of our birds.

 

[Sortacountrychicken]

Once again, coming at this question as a biologist rather than a longtime chicken keeper, I doubt you can truly and completely "breed out" broodiness. That would entail actually eliminating the DNA sequences that are responsible for multiple hormones that induce broodiness and all the other genes that are responsibly for triggering them.

While I haven't researched this, I would bet that the selective breeding for less broodiness is just selecting for inhibitor genes, and all the broodiness genes are still there and can be activated if the conditions are right. The more inhibitor genes, the less likely that would be, but it could still happen. And... the inhibitor genes could be "bred" out" if the chickens went feral, since the original genes would all still be there.

This. I would add that these inhibitor genes are being selected for a very specific and very consistent environment. I would imagine you could take a hen that has been bred to not go broody at whatever lighting/temperature conditions there are in that specific hatchery and put her in a variable environment with actual seasons and changes in day length and you would see broodiness.

 

[GregnLety]

She looks like my cinnamon queen

This is Lima. On her way somewhere at a trot as usual. She's still having problems feathering the front of her neck but everywhere else is coming along well.
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[GunnyBun]

I finally just got finished with all 96 pages!!! Whew I’m worn out! How much tax does that add up for me???

 

[JacinLarkwell]

So I suppose I should make a note in my 2022 thread about who in my flocks (for the most part) are hatchery vs home brewed and who is natural vs artificial and see who to go broody.

I'll have an all female flock for one large group too this next season, so we'll see if any go broody in that group (I have all 4 of the above categories, as well as both known broody breeds and not broody breeds)

Tax for this post, had to go out and get more pictures. Here's Booth and I think Angela. Might be Cam though. They're both Mosaics I hatched artificially in May. Supposedly their mama's would show broody signs so we'll see

 

[BigBlueHen53]

@BY Bob now you know how I feel whenever I miss a few days on your thread

TAX:
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Please will you id this breed?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Please will you id this breed?

Looks like a gold version of my Phoenix/Calico princess boy

 

[Sortacountrychicken]

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?
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Non laying females are virtually ignored by the males here. When they come into lay they get their share of the boys' attention. As combs get big and red, the boys will start "testing" them if you will. They will walk up to them, flare hackles, and make as if they were going to mate her. If she crouches, he will mate her. If not, he will move on. The boys will also start calling these soon-to-lay girls over for food that they find and will generally spend time trying to win them over. The process is much the same for a hen that is coming back into lay for any reason(coming off of broody hormones, coming into lay in the spring, etc.). Now, I can say that all of these things are intertwined and that they all happen about the same time but I am not yet sure how all the different factors influence each other.