Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Boppo]

I think I caught up again. How is the sick hen, Shad?

Thought you’d appreciate nine arses in the air. The tenth, Bridge, is in the dust bowl she created.
View attachment 3042074

A nine gun salute! Very cute. I have been working at both ends trying to catch up on this HUUGE thread. It's fascinating, heartbreaking, and very informative. But also sometimes very, very funny. I have no chickens yet, so I am sorry I can't pay taxes yet. I appear to be riding in micstrachan's tail. Sry.

 

[MaryJanet]

I did too.

Me too.

 

[pennyJo1960]

There is still and likely to be for a long time yet one basic problem, for the vast majority, no matter what they tell you, or write, when push comes to shove they are "just chickens".
For the lucky chickens by the time their "owners" have found out they are not quite as just chicken as they originally thought, the damage is done. The very act of buying chickens sees to that in the majority of cases.
One cannot imagine another creature that is so badly abused or one that has less protection in law. Everybody it seems thinks it's okay to play about with breeding them, hatching chicks, sawing bits off them; the list of abuses is long.
They're livestock, they're pets, they are egg production units. They're stupid and worthless. As I've read more often than I care to dwell on here on BYC, "I'm not going to all that bother and expense for something I can buy for a dollar down the road".
The fate of far too many roosters is no different from that of those hatched in hatcheries and by breeders; it's just a bit earlier at the hatcheries.
Forum contributors cheer along the what seem to me to be children essentially when they attempt this or that breeding experiment. People are still buying chicks out of bins in supermarkets or having them sent through the post.
I just cannot believe the way chickens are perceived and treated can be right under any circumstances, or even necessary.
I found this an interesting read.

https://richsoil.com/raising-chickens.jsp

Very good read very!

 

[Sortacountrychicken]

There is still and likely to be for a long time yet one basic problem, for the vast majority, no matter what they tell you, or write, when push comes to shove they are "just chickens".
For the lucky chickens by the time their "owners" have found out they are not quite as just chicken as they originally thought, the damage is done. The very act of buying chickens sees to that in the majority of cases.
One cannot imagine another creature that is so badly abused or one that has less protection in law. Everybody it seems thinks it's okay to play about with breeding them, hatching chicks, sawing bits off them; the list of abuses is long.
They're livestock, they're pets, they are egg production units. They're stupid and worthless. As I've read more often than I care to dwell on here on BYC, "I'm not going to all that bother and expense for something I can buy for a dollar down the road".
The fate of far too many roosters is no different from that of those hatched in hatcheries and by breeders; it's just a bit earlier at the hatcheries.
Forum contributors cheer along the what seem to me to be children essentially when they attempt this or that breeding experiment. People are still buying chicks out of bins in supermarkets or having them sent through the post.
I just cannot believe the way chickens are perceived and treated can be right under any circumstances, or even necessary.
I found this an interesting read.

https://richsoil.com/raising-chickens.jsp

A very interesting read indeed. I wonder how the chickens would do with all of the moving around suggested here in reference to using paddocks. I can't imagine they're very content with having their territory disrupted that often. Also some interesting points against free ranging.

 

[Solanacae]

Overdue off topic tax
1-2. Ginger loves the compost piles and standing in the pallet frame. She even used them to jump the fence and go on an adventure in the neighbor’s yard last week. That one escapade seems to have quenched her wanderlust for now, as she hasn’t done it since.
3. Goldilocks looking pretty.
4. Cordelia is getting more color in her comb, so I expect she will start laying again. Her laying was very erratic when she started in the fall, and she stopped laying entirely in the coldest winter months. I’m curious to see how she does now that the weather is nicer and days are much longer.
5-6. Kitchen scrap time, plus an egg that got dropped on the floor and partially cracked open. I scrambled it up shell and all. It was gobbled up in about 15 seconds.

 

[Perris]

Not one got in the bath with Henry.

do the ex-batts not bathe at all? ever? (to be said in the same astonished tone as Julie Andrews about not singing, on the lead in to Do Re Mi if memory serves correct and that's the part where it occurs in the Sound of Music!)

 

[ManueB]

C has always been responsible at the allotments. That isn't the problem. C has the ability to rub people up the wrong way at lightning speed and not realise they're doing it. C is much like me in this respect. This could account for some of the friction.

I'm prepared to tone it down a bit...a lot in fact. C on the other hand isn't turning it down enough imo. C is was brought up on a farm which was still using "techniques" used 100 years earlier. A lot has moved on in those 150 years.
C will tell you their father used to feed his hens scraps and a few handfulls of grains each day. Further into the childhood tales comes the revelation that there were hens in the cowshed, in the outside part of the kitchen; in fact one finds out the chickens were to all intents and purposes completely free range.
Also one needs to consider the state of the breeds 150 years ago. Backyard chicken keeping, such as it was, and chicken farming in general was not much like the type of affair one finds on say BYC and many other forums.

C's knowledge and experience hasn't moved on much since thier childhood. It was C's partner who dealt with the majority of the other creatures that have lived there. C's partner spent most afternoons and some at the allotments.
When C's partner died it all fell on C to keep it all going. C has kept it going somehow. The creatures have not been dying of malnutrition directly and each year most of the allotment plots show some degree of activity. Then C has to work full time. 9 to 10 hours a day when one includes travel. For much of the year it's dark when C leaves and returns from work. The chickens and geese aren't even up mid winter and have gone to bed by the time C gets home.
It's almost impossible to check over 20+ chickens, 5+ geese in the dark, in the winter etc etc.
So, through circumstances, despite C's best intentions the creatures got neglected and any more then the bare necessities to keep the place going didn't get done.
I know, I've covered most of this in earlier posts but it bears pointing out again that there is no malice in C's "neglect".

There has been others who have helped care for the chickens and geese before me. I know a couple of them. In the end they just couldn't work with C. Add to this these people were well intentioned but knew very little about farming and even less about chickens and geese. There were some terrible disasters. Lost all but two chickens in one of them. Losts 5 or 6 goslings in another. They fed the chickens and geese what C gave them from what I can gather.

Now I've shown up. Not only have I shown up for six months now and I have not missed a single afternoon, unless booked at least two days ahead, for the entiresix months.
To make matters worse, I've come equiped with Flubendazole wormer, Coxiod, Ivermectin, Metacam, headtorch quite a few other bits and pieces C not only doesn't have, but doesn't know about and without wanting to sound conceited, a lot of hands on chicken knowledge, including much more up to date science to draw from.
It gets worse. I bring food, over a third of the chickens entire food consumption. That would be a considerable monthly money saving if that actually got spent on feeding the chickens.
Lastly I can make stuff and repair stuff. It doesn't matter much what it is, I usually lash up something that will work.

C is very independantly minded if that's the right expression. The simple truth is C just doesn't have the skill set needed to maintain and/or improve things.
I can and have. Nothing major yet but if you were watching you would think I looked promising.

Underlying all of this is the view of the entire allotment/smallholding. It's something C can't let go of but can't keep a grip on either. It's the whole growing food/farming ideal and the fact that C's partner loved the place and died in it that drives C.
I don't care a lot about the allotment. Wile it's there it will thrive with or without people. What I care about is the chickens and geese and the other creatures that live and use the place. These two views should be compatible given their interdependance but in reality it's not that simple.

The main problem in my eyes is that C can't or won't accept that while feeding free range chicken like her father did might be okay, it isn't okay for 1) mostly confined chickens 2) completely unsuitable for Ex Battery hens.
There is so much research on how much of what at the most basic level laying hens need in the way of nutrition it's irritating that any one should still be debating this. How one makes up these basic nutrients isn't really important.
The stuff C seems to want to feed the chickens and geese contians far too much fat, not nearly enough calcium and is missing the usaul additives fond in pellets. For example C buys bird seed for the chickens. It's 40% fat with less than 1% calcium! Yes the chickens like it. Chickens are much like humans in this respect; they like a lot of foodstuffs that are not particulary good for them as a major part of a diet.

There is a rat problem. C's solution, don't leave food in the run. That's fine if you can feed them three or four times a day when we're talking about confined chickens. C can't do this so feeds them in the morning and sometimes that's been it. You can't get all the chickens to come off their roosts two hours after dark to eat!
I want to build a new coop away from where it is on the higher ground at the other end of the allotment run. I don't mind doing the work but I don't really want to be paying for it when C says they have money put by for yet another shed on the allotment for storing tools.

The final problem for C when it comes to me is lots of people have commented on how much better the chickens look these days and how it's lovely to see them running around etc. Even C has siad this on a number of occasions now.
And there you have it. C may wish I had never turned up at times but I've delivered as they say and that probably pisses C off the most.

I'm not sure you explained before that it was C's partner that used to be responsible for the allotments. If you did, I missed it. I find it heartbreaking. I know many readers have commented harshly on how C. has neglected the chickens and I agree that there is no excuse for that. But I can't help feeling some sort of compassion at the same time.

 

[ManueB]

She's not doing well. She's probably dying

I hope she doesn't suffer too long and that knowing you allowed her to have a few months tasting "real chicken" life helps seeing her passing away.

There is still and likely to be for a long time yet one basic problem, for the vast majority, no matter what they tell you, or write, when push comes to shove they are "just chickens".
For the lucky chickens by the time their "owners" have found out they are not quite as just chicken as they originally thought, the damage is done. The very act of buying chickens sees to that in the majority of cases.
One cannot imagine another creature that is so badly abused or one that has less protection in law. Everybody it seems thinks it's okay to play about with breeding them, hatching chicks, sawing bits off them; the list of abuses is long.
They're livestock, they're pets, they are egg production units. They're stupid and worthless. As I've read more often than I care to dwell on here on BYC, "I'm not going to all that bother and expense for something I can buy for a dollar down the road".
The fate of far too many roosters is no different from that of those hatched in hatcheries and by breeders; it's just a bit earlier at the hatcheries.
Forum contributors cheer along the what seem to me to be children essentially when they attempt this or that breeding experiment. People are still buying chicks out of bins in supermarkets or having them sent through the post.
I just cannot believe the way chickens are perceived and treated can be right under any circumstances, or even necessary.
I found this an interesting read.

https://richsoil.com/raising-chickens.jsp

Your post and that link raise quite a few questions and gave me food for thought. If we saw, like you say you do, chickens (or other animals for that matter) as children, or let's say as having as much right to consideration for their need than our own children have, then I guess raising them is wrong in itself, that's the antispecist position. But then if we didn't raise and breed them, what would become of them in the world as it is. If any of you have recommandations of articles or books on that subject I'm interested.

Regarding to the link you posted I find the methodology they used very interesting because anyone can use it to evaluate their own setting, whatever it be, and try to make some improvements. I'm definitely going to give it a shot.
Also I think now I'm going to put off trying to raise chicks before I know better .

 

[ManueB]

do the ex-batts not bathe at all? ever? (to be said in the same astonished tone as Julie Andrews about not singing, on the lead in to Do Re Mi if memory serves correct and that's the part where it occurs in the Sound of Music!)

My ex-batts bathe every day! In fact when it rains so much they can't bathe outside (which I'm sorry has not happened for ages, sorry to be rambling about our lack of rain again) they make huge holes in the coop to get under the hay to the beaten earth and bathe in there even though it makes a huge cloud of dust in the coop .

 

[ManueB]

Overdue off topic tax
1-2. Ginger loves the compost piles and standing in the pallet frame. She even used them to jump the fence and go on an adventure in the neighbor’s yard last week. That one escapade seems to have quenched her wanderlust for now, as she hasn’t done it since.
3. Goldilocks looking pretty.
4. Cordelia is getting more color in her comb, so I expect she will start laying again. Her laying was very erratic when she started in the fall, and she stopped laying entirely in the coldest winter months. I’m curious to see how she does now that the weather is nicer and days are much longer.
5-6. Kitchen scrap time, plus an egg that got dropped on the floor and partially cracked open. I scrambled it up shell and all. It was gobbled up in about 15 seconds.

Ginger and Goldilocks have such expressive faces : the curiosity of youth! Is it the light or is ginger turning a lighter color as she grows ?