Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Solanacae]

Yet another sunny day.
Everybody out.
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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.
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There is a problem. Somebody laid this. There is some very thin shell but it hasn't hardened off.
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I'm wondering if it's this hen. She had a few periods today when she wasn't quite her usual self.
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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.View attachment 3037671View attachment 3037670
Todays "as we see it" pictures.

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Henry dust bathing with those hens bring to mind college students in a hot tub.

 

[Perris]

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

Then I'll keep you posted

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.

Good to know; thanks Ribh! They'd have to go some to compete with the Penedesencas on the flighty scale (none of whom have squatted for me - though they're happy enough to do it for the real cocks here [ ], and I have yet to hold any of them either; I think they'd have to be very, very sick for me to be able to catch one). On the plus side, the Pennies are laying in the nest boxes - hooray! - as is everyone else I think this year

 

[Ribh]

Then I'll keep you posted

Good to know; thanks Ribh! They'd have to go some to compete with the Penedesencas on the flighty scale (none of whom have squatted for me - though they're happy enough to do it for the real cocks here [ ], and I have yet to hold any of them either; I think they'd have to be very, very sick for me to be able to catch one). On the plus side, the Pennies are laying in the nest boxes - hooray! - as is everyone else I think this year

I'm not sure how common my experience with Campines is. Everyone I've bought them off has warned me off them & stated flat out I'd never be able to handle them. Despite this they are my favourite of my larger birds. I spent a lot of quiet gentle time with them & this is the result:

Tuppence

Aoife.

Penedesencas I don't know @ all so I looked them up. They sound rather like Campines temperament wise & have a similar body shape.​

 

[Perris]

Penedesencas I don't know @ all so I looked them up. They sound rather like Campines temperament wise & have a similar body shape.

And I don't know anything about Campines, so we make a fine pair!

I am very happy with the Pennies - they suit conditions here perfectly, and they've delivered more than I hoped: 6 of 7 hatched, and 5 of that 6 made it to adulthood; the 3 pullets have had no issues commencing laying, and the 2 roos got through the jerk months without bloodletting of each other or anyone else. They seem robust and lithe, with just the right amount of confidence for a secure place in the flock and the environment. Phoenix is ambitious and has claimed 2nd in command spot already, and surprisingly Chirk, the dom, lets him mate any hen (who'll have him; not all yet) right under his nose. (I think 'discretion is the better part of valour' may be playing a role there , or he's OK with it because he thinks Phoenix is his son, so still passing on his genes.) Their partridge plumage offers great camouflage and they are constantly alert for dangers. Actually, thinking about it, I've yet to see one relax sunbathing - but the sun and warmth only arrived this last week, so that may just be a consequence of the awful early spring weather we had!

 

[LaFleche]

Last year I had 18 chickens and 23 turkey hens go broody.

And to think that I believed to have quite a lot!

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

The temperature is 51 and clear.

Have a great day!

 

[bruceha2000]

Despite this they are my favourite of my larger birds.

"Larger birds" LOL I had two golds. They were my smallest birds! I liked them but they would NOT stay behind the fence. In the winter I would find tracks in the snow going around the barn then back into the fenced area.

A month after the second disappeared I found a nest of maybe 20 eggs in the uphill part of the barn in some old straw bales. Maybe if I'd let her keep laying in the alpacas' hay in the lower part where the alpacas and chickens live she wouldn't have gone walkabout so much.

 

[GregnLety]

Rooster update. Red survived his beating by Cholo and looks fine now. Cholo has turned more aggressive and flogged me yesterday so he got whapped with a stick fo his effort. I hope doesn't turn into another Pancho. Pancho would wait until I turned my back for 2 seconds and attack me. I didn't cry when he met his demise.

 

[Molpet]

Rooster update. Red survived his beating by Cholo and looks fine now. Cholo has turned more aggressive and flogged me yesterday so he got whapped with a stick fo his effort. I hope doesn't turn into another Pancho. Pancho would wait until I turned my back for 2 seconds and attack me. I didn't cry when he met his demise.

I don't keep agressive males. So many nice sweet ones looking for homes.
The first heritage turkeys ended up being 4 agressive jakes. I ended up culling all and starting over. The next 2 jakes none were agressive and none of the offspring have been agressive for the last 4 years

 

[ManueB]

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.

It's a good story, you must have been pretty impressed indeed. I thought the current saying was that chicks shouldn't even be let near roosters!

It doesn't change my mind on cock fighting, but it does remind me that passionate people who do things you don't agree with, are worth listening to. You can get to learn a lot.