Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Chopped cabbage, bird seed and oats.

Henry.

 

[Iluveggers]

Someone grew some stuff. It's been left to rot.

Looks like Redbor Kale. My chickens love it. The leaves on top are still edible, wonder why they left them like that? Especially when there are chickens on site?

 

[Shadrach]

@Perris asked if I had in mind any other what I considered to be great articles.
This one. It covers the essentials. There is more to add imo to make a really thorough guide but as of now it's as good as they come.
Some of the other articles by Beekissed are also worth reading. She has an interesting view of chicken keeping much of which I agree with.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/bees-key-points-to-successful-and-safe-free-ranging.65895/

 

[Windrider]

My advice would be don't free range and increase supervised out of run time.
You would needed to have followed my posts from when I first joined BYC to fully appreciate why I write this. If you free range some chickens will die. It's almost unavoidable.
I will try and explain this advice in detail, but it won't be quick. I've been meaning to write perhaps an article on this very subject for some time.
Please, take my advice for the short term at least and wait.

Thanks for the advice, Shad, and the lovely pictures of the tribes. Yes, I've read some (but not all) of your stories from Catalonia.

I do not want to free range. Actually, I have to laugh about urban chicken keepers calling what they do "free range" anyway. My whole yard is roughly 60' x 40' not including the patio. Plenty of people on BYC have runs bigger than that.

My old hens spent most of their time in a fully covered, predator proof open air coop/run combo that was more than generous by the usual BYC standards, but was still a plant-less run, and my work days they only had a few hours in the whole yard, which is fully fenced too.

I really liked Ribh's island extended run. I was hoping to create a similar extended run in that back bed under the fruit trees, where all my durable established plants are with multiple layers of cover (fruit trees high, camellias middle, and azaleas low). I already had the poultry netting to keep them in there, but they'd have no overhead cover netting, just the plants. They'd still get some time in the whole yard.

Of course, it would be the safety of the coop/run at night, when the raccoons and possums come out.

 

[Windrider]

I would be willing to give it a try. Is it the whole area you would be able to net ?


That cooper hawk video is scary, but it does seem this is very specific to this hawk specie. The ones we have around here do not behave in this way at all.

No, just the strip under the trees and bushes, just to give them a more interesting run. It would be around 4' x 40'.

I've never seen our Cooper's do that behavior, though of course I can't say they haven't. What I see frequently are some spectacular aerials where they stoop from way up high, flip upside down, and pick off a pigeon just as it is reacting and dropping off the phone line.

I do love to watch hawks. I walk my dogs along the wetlands where the Cooper's nest. There are some kestrels that hunt the wetlands, too. The osprey at our sailing center has become something of a mascot, and uses our boat masts as a hunting vantage point. Good to see them make a come back after the DDT ban.

 

[Windrider]

Chopped cabbage, bird seed and oats.
View attachment 3002139
Henry.View attachment 3002142View attachment 3002141

How the heck is Henry still white after all that mud? He is such a dignified rooster.

 

[bruceha2000]

I've yet to see any of the RSL's do it.

Because they know they were bred to lay tons of eggs and die young. No time to make kissy face with a rooster.

where the allotment fox lives.

Allotment fox!!!!! Good thing your chickens are safely locked up when you aren't there.

 

[GregnLety]

Ruddy cannibals

Yes they are. After that instance I do headshots only so there's no tracking them in the thicket.

 

[GregnLety]

Where, approximately, do you live? You can put it in your profile.
Somehow you'll meet a neighbor that you'll get along with and can share help when needed.


So the answer is to give the apple to the rooster so he can call the girls over and brag about his foraging proficiency.

Between my chickens and dogs I got very few apples or pears last year. This year I'll put up temporary fences.

 

[BY Bob]

No, just the strip under the trees and bushes, just to give them a more interesting run. It would be around 4' x 40'.

I've never seen our Cooper's do that behavior, though of course I can't say they haven't. What I see frequently are some spectacular aerials where they stoop from way up high, flip upside down, and pick off a pigeon just as it is reacting and dropping off the phone line.

I do love to watch hawks. I walk my dogs along the wetlands where the Cooper's nest. There are some kestrels that hunt the wetlands, too. The osprey at our sailing center has become something of a mascot, and uses our boat masts as a hunting vantage point. Good to see them make a come back after the DDT ban.

It was amazing and frightening at the same time to watch that hawk. I also knew at that moment that there was almost nothing that I could do to stop it from a determined hunt.

They also have no fear of me. I could walk up and almost touch him.

I have since learned that they will land and walk into a chicken run to get at them if they need to. They are a very different predator than I ever imagined.