Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ribh]

But sailors kept a surprising number of livestock aboard the great sailing ships. Hens were the most common, since a battery like coop was easier to find room for than, say, a cow. In all fairness, one could say the humans aboard were also housed in something like a battery, if you've ever visited the HMS Victory and seen the crew quarters.

I visited the Duyfken while she was moored in Brisbane River. She's only 25.2m long & 6 across so rather tiny for a merchant vessel. No crew quarters @ all. The crew slept on the deck. Pleasant enough in good weather but it must have been a horror when it gusted & squalled.

 

[Windrider]

Yep, the seas around here have a rightly deserved reputation. Bass Strait is just a wind tunnel but I think overall the Indian Ocean is worst as there's absolutely nothing out there to break the force of the wind. Once you leave Africa all there is is water. My brother, who cruised round Asia for several years waited nearly 4 weeks for an opportune weather window to return to Oz via Cairns from PNG ~ & that was @ a good time of the year.

Excited to be paying tax.
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I love that little chicken! That is Pebble, isn't it? I wish we had bantam Australorps here. She is exactly what I am looking for this time around. I'll probably end up with bantam orpingtons.

Speaking of crazy Australian seas and the crazy Australians who sail them, I am sure you heard about your Olympic sailing medalist who sailed his Laser across the Bass Strait. My students heard about that and wanted to sail our Lasers across our Catalina channel. I told them they were allowed if they won an Olympic medal.

 

[micstrachan]

Do chickens have a uterus?
Or do you mean surgery to take out the overary.

I had a chicken that layed soft shell eggs too last year. After about 6 months she got into trouble because of this. And then she died quit suddenly. I don’t have more experience, and can’t advice properly .

I had this same experience with my Dorothy.

 

[micstrachan]

I'm thinking about starting up a pizza delivery sevice for chickens.
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Four and a half hours out today.
View attachment 3072986View attachment 3072987If I'm there for a couple of hours or more they come and gather around my chair and doze a bit. Rather pleasant I find.
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Time for a last forage.
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How lovely. You are experiencing some of the behaviors I enjoy so much from the birds in my care.

 

[Ribh]

I love that little chicken! That is Pebble, isn't it? I wish we had bantam Australorps here. She is exactly what I am looking for this time around. I'll probably end up with bantam orpingtons.

Speaking of crazy Australian seas and the crazy Australians who sail them, I am sure you heard about your Olympic sailing medalist who sailed his Laser across the Bass Strait. My students heard about that and wanted to sail our Lasers across our Catalina channel. I told them they were allowed if they won an Olympic medal.

Yes, Pebbles. My youngest chose her & named her. She was a feisty little hen for her size but I lost her completely unexpectedly. I'd just taken her egg from under her & took it inside. When I returned to the coop a couple of minutes later she was under it, quite dead. I suspect a heart attack. They are lovely hens. Like their big sisters they lay pretty regularly & their eggs are larger than most bantam eggs.

 

[ManueB]

That's a stunning location! It also explains your issues with hawks, and water supplies. I'd find carrying everything the last 300m hard, so I'm not surprised any building work is put off until it can't be put off anymore.

Thanks! The first project we undertook when we arrived 30 months ago was to enlarge access enough for the mini excavator and the thermal wheelbarrow so we didn't have to do everything on our feet. My partner's great uncle, who was the last person living there in the early 80s, still used the two donkeys.

Let me know when the roofs are done and I'll move in.

The old houses will be used as a barn and a pony shelter. But my partner will gladly take in our house anyone who's low maintenance and willing to work! I do require outside shoes not going inside the house and silence after ten .

@ManueB - I won't find your posts discussing separating Theo to give the girls a break, but I wanted to share what we do with our cockerel Merle: at breakfast and dinner, he's closed out of the coop so he can redirect his energies when his testosterone is highest. Otherwise he gets too frisky and the girls don't eat well. We did this with Stilton last spring in the mornings, and it worked wonders.

Merle has a food/grit/water station on the outside of the coop adjacent to where the girls eat. After he's finished dancing around the yard, he comes and calmy eats next to them through the wire, which I'm hoping will help reform his crepuscular habits once spring testosterone wanes, the way it did for young Stilty.

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Thank you for your kind first post, and for your explanations on how you did with Merle and Stilton before him. I've been watching carefully and although Théo still harasses Cannelle he hasn't attacked her again. He is very sweet with his bantam Chipie, probably because he has already made it clear he was the boss since a few months. I hope they will solve it with Cannelle without separation, but if I witness another fight I will try separating him like you did for a limited time and in sight of the girls, and see how it goes.

When Vanille was feeling really low he mounted her once very awkwardly and I kind of lost it and without thinking ran and picked him off her! He was completely stunned and just froze , and when I let him down he seemed very,very offended .

 

[RoyalChick]

The old houses will be used as a barn and a pony shelter. But my partner will gladly take in our house anyone who's low maintenance and willing to work! I do require outside shoes not going inside the house and silence after ten .

Wise house rules indeed!

 

[ManueB]

Scotch talk taxes

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Yes, Pebbles. My youngest chose her & named her. She was a feisty little hen for her size but I lost her completely unexpectedly. I'd just taken her egg from under her & took it inside. When I returned to the coop a couple of minutes later she was under it, quite dead. I suspect a heart attack. They are lovely hens. Like their big sisters they lay pretty regularly & their eggs are larger than most bantam eggs.

@MaryJanet is it an Australorp also in front ?
I find them very striking and didn't know they also existed in bantam size. Are they found outside Australia?

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Blasphemy!

Titus is a sweetheart. And wild snakes are an important part of keeping the rodent population under control.

I know, but I still don't like them.

When I see a snake I can't speak and I just freeze.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

If they are poisonous, just don't eat them.

And snakes are defensive, not aggressive.

You can eat poisonous snakes.

It is served in restaurants.