Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

These leaves on the low left side of the picture look like milk thistle to me.

I don't know. We had lots of types of thistle.

 

[Solanacae]

8 hens, 2 chicks, most are spread out. Temperature was mid-teens (F).

 

[Shadrach]

but does a chicken know what it (itself) looks like? Are they self-conscious? If they look in a mirror, do they think that's them self, or another chicken? Anybody ready any study of that?

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2066265

 

[LaFleche]

That is a striking color pattern on the three gals at the bottom left corner of the picture! What kind of chicken are they?

These three are Vorwerk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorwerk_chicken

 

[Shadrach]

Shad, did the bantam Catalonia tribes not mix with the Marans based ones? You recently posted a pic of a girl who you said was a cross between bantam and Marans, so there must have been SOME mixing. (BTW, she looked like a Xena Warrior Princess of a hen in that pic).

There was a bantam hen and a bantam rooster living with the Marans when I first arrived. The other bantams were shut into a little run not fit for a pair of rats. They were shut in there because theey went up the trees at night to roost.
I let everyone out and once I had, the two bantams that were living with the Marans moved in with the rest of the bantams.
However, the bantam hen called Mini Minx that was living with the Marans liked her roosters and it seems that she and a Marans rooster called Oswald, who was a bit of a ladies, man got together and the first cross breeds hatched when Mini Minx went broody and hatched four chicks.

 

[Shadrach]

I had to skip a few (or a lot) pages for now, but I’ll go back and read through them later Do you know what breed the gray ones are? They’re gorgeous!

If you are talking to me and refering to the grey hens I've posted pictures of, four of them are Crested Cream Legbars, one is a Legbar and Marans cross and I'm not sure what the other is.

 

[HipMystic]

If you are talking to me and refering to the grey hens I've posted pictures of, four of them are Crested Cream Legbars, one is a Legbar and Marans cross and I'm not sure what the other is.

Thank you, those were the ones

 

[Shadrach]

This is Treacle trying to convince Moon that the nest box in my house was a good place to lay her eggs.

 

[Windrider]

I let everyone out and once I had, the two bantams that were living with the Marans moved in with the rest of the bantams.

Interesting, so when given the choice, they really did mostly segregate. I can totally see that size would be something they'd pay attention to. Color and/or breed is more difficult to figure out, unless one admits that breeds really do have different temperaments.

But I have far more experience with dogs than chickens, and dogs absolutely can tell another dog is their same breed.

 

[Ribh]

That is a striking color pattern on the three gals at the bottom left corner of the picture! What kind of chicken are they?

They are Vorwerks. They are a German breed with Lakenvelders, Orpingtons, Ramelslohers and Andalusians in their heritage. They are supposed to be hardy & good foragers. I do not recommend them. I have lost more than I have managed to keep & my Campines beat them hands down for foraging. Their eggs are medium sized, off white. I know Shad won't agree with this but they have a mean streak, like some Wyandottes. I think they are more trouble than they are worth.