Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[HiEverybirdy]

I tend to see things very similarly and think of Théo as an awkward 14 years old boy! I know that's anthropomorphic but sometimes he has such expressions, I can see him wondering "should I jump on this hen, or would tidbitting be a better tactic" ?
He actually changed his roosting place to be closer to the ex-batts, but not on their ladder . And he protects brooding Chipie when the other hens approach her nest. And he's beginning to make an impression on Nougat, the hen that most detested him from the start, by giving her over and over worms.
Most of you are so used to this rooster thing but it's very new to me and I could watch him for hours.
You were probably more patient with Stilton than I am. I have to remind me to not intervene everytime he hurts a hen because it's just the normal way things go. I hope in time he settles down a bit, when he does not have to prove himself all the time. And i'm not sure either how he sees me, but I'm pretty sure he sees my partner as a bigger rooster.

That's a good analogy. And a cool conversation sparked about anthropomorphism.

I'm not too used to this rooster thing I'm a beginner with chickens. Month 27, I believe. Though we've had male chickens all of those months, and I've been extra focused on them. I want to move away from hatcheries, which typically means bringing home or hatching roosters, and I've fallen for roosters too much to be raising them to kill every year.

In March, my first bachelor pad failed. I'm trying not to let this setback ruin me, but we won't add more chicks until I've had more time to reflect. The boys' personalities were probably the culprit. Merle was never going to be okay without girls. He was crowing by 3 weeks and preparing nests and tidbitting soon after, like a tiny grown-up bird. Meanwhile, Andre is a slow-growing bully who used to steal treats from pullets.

I reluctantly separated the guys into a bachelor tractor at 5 months, when their cockerelly mayhem resulted in minor pullet injuries but before they were sparring with each other. They lived peacefully for 5 months. Merle would even groom Andre. Then, after 2 days of severe weather, they decided they could no longer co-exist. I separated them, patched up their abrasions, giving Merle extra attention so he'd look good for the ladies, and began preparing a plan to transition Merle back with his female broodermates.

From what I understood, you can't just drop a chicken back into a group after 5 months. But when I brought Merle into the girls' space, they rushed the fence to see him, not in an aggressive way. He began tidbitting so hard the neighbors a mile away could probably hear. After a few minutes, I relented and tentatively cracked the door that separated them. They ran off together and started foraging like they'd never been apart. It was beautiful, while making me feel awful for ever separating them.

We pulled the bachelor setup back next to the chicken yard so Andre can preen and talk with the others through the fences without inciting rooster riots. Eventually, I think he should have his own girls, but to my inexperienced eyes, he's a contented single. He's a different kind of guy. Giant, slow growing, aloof, though he's recently started to dance at the hens who flirt through the fence.

Besides rooster relations, chicken nutrition is a topic I'm really trying to learn about. @Perris - thank you so much for sharing your regimen and reasoning. Very gracefully articulated and thought-provoking.

I hope to gain enough knowledge and experience to evolve our feed strategy in the coming years. So far, my focus has been how to find good commercial feed, including the "why" behind the ingredients. Jeff Mattocks at Fertrell tends to bring up great discussion points in the many podcasts he's on (below is a link to one of them). Fertrell also welcomes being contacted to discuss feed and supplements. They're nice people who go out of their way to be helpful.

https://www.breedersacademy.com/ep35-interview-with-jeff-mattocks-about-poultry-nutrition-part-1/

That said, I take any advice with a grain of salt. Commercial feed researchers don't ever seem to satisfactorily address a) the affect of foraging/seasons on feed needs, and b) how roosters and "spent" ladies are actually affected by the calcium in layer feed.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

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.

We had a few weeks of extremely dry weather in early spring. One afternoon I noticed Stilton on his own, enthusiastically excavating deep leaf litter. It was around the time you were posting about roosters liking damp dirt for bathing, and it was obvious this is what Stilton had in mind – he had revealed a patch of damp earth and he was fluffed up with that blissful look in his eye – so I whipped out the phone camera.

Instead of documenting a rooster dustbath, I caught the tough life of a Don Juan. Some hens dashed over to see what he had dug up for them; surely he wouldn't be kicking those those long, green legs if not on their behalf. As he'd start to lay down, a hen would rush under him to grab a bug or intriguing piece of dirt. He'd shuffle a few steps and begin to crouch again, just in time for another hen to dive under his chest to see what he'd found for her. This went on for minutes. Bebe even foiled him once with a quick grooming, like, "Hey, you've got dirt on you. Let me get that."

He ultimately gave up on the bath.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good morning X Batts. has several pages to catch up on ..
I feed .. It is mash 16%. Will take a few photos ...
This is tax till then.

 

[Ribh]

We had a few weeks of extremely dry weather in early spring. One afternoon I noticed Stilton on his own, enthusiastically excavating deep leaf litter. It was around the time you were posting about roosters liking damp dirt for bathing, and it was obvious this is what Stilton had in mind – he had revealed a patch of damp earth and he was fluffed up with that blissful look in his eye – so I whipped out the phone camera.

Instead of documenting a rooster dustbath, I caught the tough life of a Don Juan. Some hens dashed over to see what he had dug up for them; surely he wouldn't be kicking those those long, green legs if not on their behalf. As he'd start to lay down, a hen would rush under him to grab a bug or intriguing piece of dirt. He'd shuffle a few steps and begin to crouch again, just in time for another hen to dive under his chest to see what he'd found for her. This went on for minutes. Bebe even foiled him once with a quick grooming, like, "Hey, you've got dirt on you. Let me get that."

He ultimately gave up on the bath.

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What a gorgeous rooster!

 

[Shadrach]

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.

The keeping of any creature requires space and time and doubtless other things such as being able to afford to feed them and the medical bills should they fall sick.

The brutal but quite reasonable answer is if one cant afford these commitments then don't get the creature in the first place.

 

[Shadrach]

We had a few weeks of extremely dry weather in early spring. One afternoon I noticed Stilton on his own, enthusiastically excavating deep leaf litter. It was around the time you were posting about roosters liking damp dirt for bathing, and it was obvious this is what Stilton had in mind – he had revealed a patch of damp earth and he was fluffed up with that blissful look in his eye – so I whipped out the phone camera.

Instead of documenting a rooster dustbath, I caught the tough life of a Don Juan. Some hens dashed over to see what he had dug up for them; surely he wouldn't be kicking those those long, green legs if not on their behalf. As he'd start to lay down, a hen would rush under him to grab a bug or intriguing piece of dirt. He'd shuffle a few steps and begin to crouch again, just in time for another hen to dive under his chest to see what he'd found for her. This went on for minutes. Bebe even foiled him once with a quick grooming, like, "Hey, you've got dirt on you. Let me get that."

He ultimately gave up on the bath.

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Yup, that sounds like Henry with the Ex Battery hens. Trying to convince them that he isn't hiding something particularly tasty in all that crooning and rolling around is a mission. One in particular pecks at his beak and wattles, a couple of others attempt to stick their heads underneath him as he rolls and then look very aggrieved when he rolls back pushing their faces into the dirt.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!

I've been very busy with everything going on at my house.

91 and mostly cloudy.

Have a great day!

 

[MaryJanet]

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.

I'm in the lucky position of keeping hens in a large backyard. So their run provides lots of space and they can roam the whole backyard and forage for an hour or two in the afternoons. Also, I have neighbours with backyard chickens and we care for each other's flocks and cats when a holiday is needed.

 

[Shadrach]

Behaviour studies are notoriously difficult.
Some of the problems are obvious. They take an enormous amount of time in observation. The circumstances/environment the study is conducted in has a massive impact. What is normal in one set of circumstances isn't in other circumstances.
Even with my very small group of who I consider to be reliable observers our obsevations often lead to different conclusions and we go over the details fairly thoroughly and adjust the conclusion accordingly.
Take this for example.
From my observations I came to believe that moulting hens went off commercial feed. Now if commercial feed is all there was to eat then the drive to hang on to life would in most instances force the hen to eat whatever was available or die. I haven't read any accounts of moulting hens dying of starvation.
One way to try and put this theory to the test is to create a poll which I did.
Here is the poll.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...off-their-usual-feed-when-they-moult.1498056/
What to make of it?
Well it is a problem observed by some is a reasonable start.
It's also reasonable to guess that those who voted yes have observed this at some point.
Polls being what they are and people being what they are a proportion of the no votes will be people who just haven't observed this. It doesn't mean it isn't happening though.
There are according to the poll experts those who will just vote no, perhaps through trolling of a kind, perhaps because they have disliked something else the OP has posted.
Roughly, the poll experts have it the yes votes are likely to be more reliable.
So just on the yes and no votes even if you don't account for poll slanting there is a 50/50 split.
Include the other two options and it's reasonable to say there is a problem with hens going off their feed when moulting.
I can't recal ever having seen this dealt with at any depth on BYC which is a chicken related forum. There are no articles about it that I could find. No "educator" advice on the subject, yet 50% of the votes suggest the problem is real.
The often trotted out catch all is every hen is an individual and different etc etc.
This may well be true but a group of individuals can and do exhibit what we would describe as "normal" behaviour. In the statistical bell curve there will always be the outliers but the norm falls within a fairly well defined range.
So far I've read more reliable reports of roosters prefering moist soil for bathing than not. I think there is an issue here that warrants further investigation.

 

[Ribh]

Behaviour studies are notoriously difficult.
Some of the problems are obvious. They take an enormous amount of time in observation. The circumstances/environment the study is conducted in has a massive impact. What is normal in one set of circumstances isn't in other circumstances.
Even with my very small group of who I consider to be reliable observers our obsevations often lead to different conclusions and we go over the details fairly thoroughly and adjust the conclusion accordingly.
Take this for example.
From my observations I came to believe that moulting hens went off commercial feed. Now if commercial feed is all there was to eat then the drive to hang on to life would in most instances force the hen to eat whatever was available or die. I haven't read any accounts of moulting hens dying of starvation.
One way to try and put this theory to the test is to create a poll which I did.
Here is the poll.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...off-their-usual-feed-when-they-moult.1498056/
What to make of it?
Well it is a problem observed by some is a reasonable start.
It's also reasonable to guess that those who voted yes have observed this at some point.
Polls being what they are and people being what they are a proportion of the no votes will be people who just haven't observed this. It doesn't mean it isn't happening though.
There are according to the poll experts those who will just vote no, perhaps through trolling of a kind, perhaps because they have disliked something else the OP has posted.
Roughly, the poll experts have it the yes votes are likely to be more reliable.
So just on the yes and no votes even if you don't account for poll slanting there is a 50/50 split.
Include the other two options and it's reasonable to say there is a problem with hens going off their feed when moulting.
I can't recal ever having seen this dealt with at any depth on BYC which is a chicken related forum. There are no articles about it that I could find. No "educator" advice on the subject, yet 50% of the votes suggest the problem is real.
The often trotted out catch all is every hen is an individual and different etc etc.
This may well be true but a group of individuals can and do exhibit what we would describe as "normal" behaviour. In the statistical bell curve there will always be the outliers but the norm falls within a fairly well defined range.
So far I've read more reliable reports of roosters prefering moist soil for bathing than not. I think there is an issue here that warrants further investigation.

It is one of the things that has surprised me about our move.. I was a yes voter on your poll. Here the hens have more accesible ground to free range over every day & obviously found enough all summer that I wasn't feeding as much commercial feed. There are several really deep litter areas in the yard & with all the rain I expect a lot of bugs, worms & other creepy crawlies are close to the surface but all my moulters are asking for commercial feed. My fence hoppers [Campines & Vorwerks] are being encouraged by 1 neighbour to clean up her grasshopper problem so I know they have access to natural protein. Apparently they're doing a really good job. I can't imagine they have totally debugged this yard in just 6 monthhs so I'm not sure what the issue is.