Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Sortacountrychicken]

I have 18 ladies of various ages and have been lucky if I get 1 egg a day. At the most.

Tax View attachment 2935566

I'm getting 1-2 a day from 34 girls. And it's the same two girls laying.

Tax:
Magpie and Jackdaw

 

[Shadrach]

I think Slip is dying. She's laid six lash eggs in a row, is losing weight and tonight I found her trying to lay in the broody coop but no egg to deliver. Her crop was only half full.
I picked her up and put her with the others in the main coop which will hopefully keep her warmer. Such a shame. She's a friendly hen and gets on with everyone it seems. Henry will miss her. He likes her.

 

[Ribh]

I think Slip is dying. She's laid six lash eggs in a row, is losing weight and tonight I found her trying to lay in the broody coop but no egg to deliver. Her crop was only half full.
I picked her up and put her with the others in the main coop which will hopefully keep her warmer. Such a shame. She's a friendly hen and gets on with everyone it seems. Henry will miss her. He likes her.

The worst part of chicken keeping...

 

[Shadrach]

Cold again today but everyone came out. I scrambled a dozen eggs for them this afternoon which went down well.

 

[Shadrach]

Finally managed to get a half decent picture of Matilda.

 

[Shadrach]

I love them. Easy going, great foragers and predator aware. Sven is a wonderful roo. But Venka's never gone broody (and she's 4 now) and her son Chirk is her only surviving offspring to date; a daughter died without warning after a very good first 18 months, cause unknown. V lays ivory coloured eggs, about 65g, about 150 per year. Which is very respectable I think. And they are real eye candy, her as well as the boys; it's always a pleasure to see them in the garden.

My elder sister had Swedish Flower hens. She still has one. She did try and get more from the person she got hers from over ten years ago. The breeder doesn't breed them anymore unfortunately. Apparently the prices he had to charge were too much for most people. I'll find a picture.

 

[Shadrach]

I was really happy to find a lady close by who breeds quality chickens. I didn’t love going to feed stores to get chicks, but when I first started, I didn’t know anywhere else to go. Those two ISA’s I have were from a feed store, but I couldn’t find any chicks elsewhere from a source I trusted. There are plenty of people around here that trade chickens around seemingly without much care for disease. The hatchery chicks, I figured would be at least a little tighter in biosecurity, though reading some of the articles on this thread, I wonder if that’s really the case. Is it any different with chicks as opposed to meat/egg hens?

I'm so heavily biased against hatcheries in general that I doubt my opinion is worth anything.
Getting vaccinated chicks is more likely from a hatchery but that isn't much comfort if you already have chickens. It just means the ones you get from the hatchery are less likely to suffer from whatever the hatchery has vaccinated against.
One of the major disadvantages of not having a rooster is to make additions to the chickens for whatever reasons you have to take a degree of risk.

 

[Shadrach]

The worst part of chicken keeping...

Yeah, it's sad but she did find out some of what being a proper chicken is all about. Millions don't and die much the same and nobody even notices.

 

[Ribh]

Yeah, it's sad but she did find out some of what being a proper chicken is all about. Millions don't and die much the same and nobody even notices.

I know. Each hen is so individual it is such a pity they're not respected more ~ especially when they're friendly.

 

[Solanacae]

I'm so heavily biased against hatcheries in general that I doubt my opinion is worth anything.
Getting vaccinated chicks is more likely from a hatchery but that isn't much comfort if you already have chickens. It just means the ones you get from the hatchery are less likely to suffer from whatever the hatchery has vaccinated against.
One of the major disadvantages of not having a rooster is to make additions to the chickens for whatever reasons you have to take a degree of risk.

Yes, I agree. The area I live in doesn’t allow roosters, though the local ordinances do allow for more chickens than most of the surrounding areas. (My neighbors liked my rooster, so I don’t think it would have been a problem had I not had an issue with how the rooster had started acting towards my kids.) I think that’s part of the reason why the backyard chickens movement has resulted in so many mixed flocks, honestly. A lot of areas don’t allow roosters, so people turn to feed stores, hatcheries, or breeders for their birds. That allows them quite a few options and if you can’t breed the birds you like the look of, you might as well have fun picking out an assortment. That’s how I felt, anyway.
I’m glad I’ve been able to find a good breeder with an assortment of breeds to choose from. Just like sourcing my meat from local farmers instead of going to the grocery store, I’m much more comfortable knowing the quality of life that the breeding stock has. Supporting those farmers by buying their meat (and supporting local slaughterhouses/butchers that process the meat for me, and it’s only slightly more expensive than the grocery store), or my chicken lady by paying a few dollars extra for a healthy chick is worth it to me. I also know that she practices good biosecurity, and that’s about as good as I can hope to get.