Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Sally PB]

I anthropomorphize a lot. It helps me understand why something (chicken or inanimate object) is behaving, to "explain" it in terms of how people behave.

Example: I was teaching a knitting class. A woman said she had trouble counting rows completed in her pattern, but only when it was a stitch pattern, not a color pattern.

I told her to think of it this way. The stitches on the needle "don't know" if they are going to be purls, knits, cables, whatever. But they "do know" if they are red, or blue, or whatever.

I saw the light bulb go off in her head. She thanked me and said that made it very clear.

 

[no fly zone]

Skeksis laid a soft shell egg that popped as soon as I picked it up. Hope this is just a one off thing and not a sign of something serious. There is a cup filled with oyster shell available at all times in the coop.

 

[Perris]

This has been of particular interest to me for a few years now; dust bathing, the why's and how's.
I've mentioned in an a couple of articles and a number of posts that my observations and the observations of some others I consider reliable, that roosters have different bathing habits to hens. Generally people fall about laughing and I just don't bother mentioning it on the general threads on BYC any more.
In this thread I've posted a number of dust bathing pictures and what one might have noticed is the pictures are of hens dust bathing. Henry is usually standing around keeping an eye on things but not in the bath.
This is Henry having a bath. Note none of the hens are in there with him.
Note the condition of the soil. It's been raining a bit and the soil is damp; not dry and dusty.
This is what I observed with the males in Catalonia. I don't think I ever saw a rooster in one of the dry baths the hens use. They always chose places where the soil was moist. No I don't know why but I do know what I have seen and now what I'm seeing with Henry.
This isn't a it never happens statement. What it is is there seems to be a marked preference for roosters to bath in moist soil rather than dust.
Here you go. Not much in the way of evidence in one set of pictures but I've got lots and the soil always has similar qualities to that of the soil in the pictures below. Make of it what you will.
I should also mention he had a wondeful time chuntering away to himself and rolling around.
View attachment 3113624View attachment 3113625View attachment 3113628View attachment 3113629View attachment 3113630View attachment 3113632View attachment 3113633

I have seen both wet and dry, and solo and mixed bathing here, and got photos of some

 

[Perris]

I'm certainly not thinking you are a conspiracist, in fact you have just made it on the list of my personal heroes !

Thank you for all the explanations and the links, I will read those carefully. Everytime a thread comes up on BYC about making your own feed people are basically saying it's impossible or very difficult, so I'm really pleased to hear you have a different perspective.

I'm flattered but really don't deserve it

I've been shouted down on some of those threads. I think the main issue too often overlooked is the quantity and quality of free ranging available. I wouldn't have the confidence to make my own if my birds were confined for most of the day, and I didn't have 6 years' experience and quite a lot of research behind me. My blindspot is an inability to understand why any backyard keeper would want to ape commercial operations, which is what most of the people saying 'don't do it' seem to be trying to do.

 

[Shadrach]

My blindspot is an inability to understand why any backyard keeper would want to ape commercial operations, which is what most of the people saying 'don't do it' seem to be trying to do.

Even stranger given the more progressive commercial pasture raised operations far exceed the conditions many of the backyard chicken keeping models.
There are alternative backyard chicken keeping models but they are not the ones promoted here.
Add to this the way chicks are aquired, the completely irrisponsible attempts at breeding and the general ignorance regarding chicken in general and you have a topic that would a) be unwelcome here and b) cause flame wars the like of which have yet to be seen.

 

[Shadrach]

I have seen both wet and dry, and solo and mixed bathing here, and got photos of some

I can't tell from the pictures what the state of the soil is.

 

[ManueB]

My blindspot is an inability to understand why any backyard keeper would want to ape commercial operations, which is what most of the people saying 'don't do it' seem to be trying to do.

There are alternative backyard chicken keeping models but they are not the ones promoted here.

I find the way you are keeping your chickens admirable, but to be fair I think it requires 1. space 2. time. In the modern world unfortunately most people lack both of these. I'm sure many backyard chicken keepers would like to do things differently but are trapped by their work, their small garden, their neighbors...
I was raised in an urban household, as kids we had the luck to travel often for holidays and were always told that this life meant we couldn't have pets because you can't have cake and eat it too. I'm not so definite about that, because it was really something I missed out in my childhood.
Now I have both space and time I'm catching up and I'm happy not to leave on holiday.

 

[Perris]

I can't tell from the pictures what the state of the soil is.

damp in the left one, dry in the right. Like yours my roos are usually keeping watch while the girls bathe rather than joining in, but they do sometimes join and they definitely use the dry baths too (1 covered area in the garden, 1 in a plastic box).

 

[Perris]

I find the way you are keeping your chickens admirable, but to be fair I think it requires 1. space 2. time. In the modern world unfortunately most people lack both of these. I'm sure many backyard chicken keepers would like to do things differently but are trapped by their work, their small garden, their neighbors...
I was raised in an urban household, as kids we had the luck to travel often for holidays and were always told that this life meant we couldn't have pets because you can't have cake and eat it too. I'm not so definite about that, because it was really something I missed out in my childhood.
Now I have both space and time I'm catching up and I'm happy not to leave on holiday.

You are absolutely right. I couldn't have done this when I was working, or if I was living in our last house. Do you know the saying about life conspiring to only ever let you have 2 of 3 desiderata? When you're young you have time and health but not wealth. When you're middle aged you have health and wealth but not time. When you're old you have time and wealth but not health. I'm in an interstice, and am grabbing it with both hands!

 

[RoyalChick]

You are absolutely right. I couldn't have done this when I was working, or if I was living in our last house. Do you know the saying about life conspiring to only ever let you have 2 of 3 desiderata? When you're young you have time and health but not wealth. When you're middle aged you have health and wealth but not time. When you're old you have time and wealth but not health. I'm in an interstice, and am grabbing it with both hands!

I never heard that before. Very true!