Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

I love the chevrons on some of those roosters’ tail feathers!

yes, they're natty aren't they?

 

[no fly zone]

It is like a cravat!

That's how we've always referred to it. Her fancy laced cravat.

 

[Shadrach]

Shad, you’ll be happy to hear, with the lengthening days, my birds are getting close to two hours if free ranging daily on weekdays (after work) and most of the entire day in weekends.
View attachment 3036791


I also wanted to share some cool, yet basic behavior I got to witness today. First just some background, Bridge is the only six-year-old and the alpha hen. She also reacts in different ways when I handle the other hens. Sometimes she seems jealous, sometimes indifferent and other times, protective?

Excuse me getting side tracked… back to what I witnessed today. So Bridge is the alpha, and Flo is a junior hen. Flo has always been VERY assertive. Usually, Bridge seems to tolerate Flo just fine.

Today, I saw Flo stand up tall and get in Bridge’s face. Bridge was having none of that, and I love how she put Flo in her place. There was no pecking. Bridge just stood up even taller than Flo, flashed her hackles, and gave Flo a firm look. Immediately, Flo dropped her head and shoulders below Bridge’s chest. It was not a squat, but it was definitely submission. I know it’s just part of how they communicate and keep order, but still fascinating to see.

You've seen something I have never seen. I've seen the second in command get stood down, but never with a hackle flash from a hen.

 

[Ribh]

Shad, you’ll be happy to hear, with the lengthening days, my birds are getting close to two hours if free ranging daily on weekdays (after work) and most of the entire day in weekends.
View attachment 3036791


I also wanted to share some cool, yet basic behavior I got to witness today. First just some background, Bridge is the only six-year-old and the alpha hen. She also reacts in different ways when I handle the other hens. Sometimes she seems jealous, sometimes indifferent and other times, protective?

Excuse me getting side tracked… back to what I witnessed today. So Bridge is the alpha, and Flo is a junior hen. Flo has always been VERY assertive. Usually, Bridge seems to tolerate Flo just fine.

Today, I saw Flo stand up tall and get in Bridge’s face. Bridge was having none of that, and I love how she put Flo in her place. There was no pecking. Bridge just stood up even taller than Flo, flashed her hackles, and gave Flo a firm look. Immediately, Flo dropped her head and shoulders below Bridge’s chest. It was not a squat, but it was definitely submission. I know it’s just part of how they communicate and keep order, but still fascinating to see.

I had a BR do this to a cat that was getting in her face. Pretty much the same reaction from the cat!

 

[Shadrach]

I recently read Gail Damerow's guide to raising chickens ( which I definitely should have been reading before getting them, not after). She discusses how breeders chose to emphasize either esthetics, productivity, or longevity when developing a particular strain. I was quite surprised by her statement that the breeders who had constantly put longevity and hardiness as their first goal, were the one who raised game birds.
She also says this isn't so true nowadays as cockfighting is strictly forbidden (fortunately I would say but I'm not clear that's her point of view) so they are now bred for showing and esthetics.

I've mentioned the huge role the fight cock breeders have had in chicken health and rooster knowledge in particular on By Bobs thread and a couple of others if my memory serves me.
I knew some of these trainers, or rather more often the sons of, who still keep game fowl and hens. I was often completely astounded at their depth of knowledge on matters of feeding, injuries as one might expect, but mostly their ways of ensuring that the healthiest genes get passed forward.

A bit of a story.
A hen from one of the tribes was having problems getting her chicks up the ramp to her tribes coop. She had been spending her nights with the chicks in one of the maternity units. I help on occasions; mainly out of impatience and knowing that some hens will leave the ones she has got into the tribes coop there and come back to the ground and her chicks and stay there overnight. This makes me very very nervous. Every feral creature around knows exactly where the coops are and some do a regular inspection in the hope that a door has been left open.
What the chicks tend to do once they are mobile enough is head to cover if there are roosting problems. There is lots of cover where tribe 2 and 3 have coops. II've spent hours searching for chicks that have gone to cover.
I was moaning about this to one of the game bird I knew. He told me to let the hens get in the coop, then take the rooster out and place him between the coop and the area you think the chick has gone to cover. He told me the chick would run out and stand close or under the rooster. There I can grab her/him.
I was more than a little dubious but that night I tried it. **** me if it didn't work! The chick came out of the bushes within a couple of seconds, ran straight over to the rooster and stood underneath him. You could have knocked me down with a feather.
I tried it once more the next year and it worked; not quite as quckly but the chick came out.
Now it may well not work in many other circumstances and what the chicks experience of roosters is, plus a lot more no doubt, will have an influence.
What it does show though is it can work and this has some interesting implications.

 

[Shadrach]

this year when someone goes broody (it's Gigi's turn, should she be so inclined) I'm going to get silver Braekel eggs for her; I think they'd suit the conditions here admirably, and they're gorgeous, and there's a breeder about 10 miles away - perfect!
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Braek/BRKBraekel.html

I don't know the breed. I would be interested in reading how this all goes should the time come.

 

[Ribh]

this year when someone goes broody (it's Gigi's turn, should she be so inclined) I'm going to get silver Braekel eggs for her; I think they'd suit the conditions here admirably, and they're gorgeous, and there's a breeder about 10 miles away - perfect!
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Braek/BRKBraekel.html

I know of this breed because I have silver & gold Campines. I am really curious to know what you think of their temperament. My Campines are as smart as a whip, screamers, great little foragers but do still tend to flightiness though they will squat for me & I am able to handle them if necessary. Their biggest drawback imo is their ability to hide a nest, how ambitious they are with the egg count & a devilish ability to hide the fact they have gone broody, have a hidden nest & are about to sit!!! My Ha'penny has burrowed into a brush pile with 20 eggs & finding her produced a major yard clean up as she was incredibly well hidden. I only found her because it was literally the only place left she could possibly be & I took the pile apart before I actually found her.

 

[Shadrach]

Yet another sunny day.
Everybody out.

Some didn't go very far and were intent on whatever I had in my rucksack, It was scrambled egg. Loath though I am to admit it a bit of a scrum broke out which involved two hens trying to climb down my arm having jumped onto my shoulder as I was crouching to give Henry first taste.

There is a problem. Somebody laid this. There is some very thin shell but it hasn't hardened off.

I'm wondering if it's this hen. She had a few periods today when she wasn't quite her usual self.

Henry in the bath with a few of his hens. The Ex Battery hens look but don't join in or make a bath elsewhere.

Todays "as we see it" pictures.

 

[no fly zone]

Broody Sky

 

[micstrachan]

You've seen something I have never seen. I've seen the second in command get stood down, but never with a hackle flash from a hen.

Cool! I wonder if it’s because the dynamics are different without roosters?