Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Dustin was out again when I arrived. She trotted up to me as I came up the path.

Hard to scold her when she looks like this.

Matilda retired first. Being the senior hen she gets what she wants in the way of food before the others so she may as well get comfortable before the roost scrum starts. Lima was last on and when I left there were six on the bar.

 

[Ribh]

The climate is and has been changing since the planet was formed.

Am doing archaeology & our present climate change has nothing on some periods!

 

[Perris]

Sour milk was in it

Whenever milk 'goes off' here, i.e. turns into curds and whey, I give it to the chickens and they love it. Some go for the curds first, some the whey. I haven't looked it up but both have got to be a good source of protein and lactobacilli.

Dustin was out again when I arrived. She trotted up to me as I came up the path.

She may be a rescue but she's my kind of chicken
Is she modifying your view of rescues as a whole? She is mine.

 

[BDutch]

The climate is and has been changing since the planet was formed.

But the last decades it changes so quickly that many species have no time to adapt. Nowadays change of climate is not a natural one , but because the industry and humans use too much fuels.

I find this money and comfort driven use of fuels not funny at all and it makes me sad that people and governments were not capable to make the right and necessary changes 5-10 years ago.

 

[ManueB]

Good questions. We have multiple coops and yards. Stilton does not abide male chickens.

When we brought home straight-run chicks from a breeder last year, including hatchmates Merle & Andre, we actually built them a whole new coop and yard, then upgraded another small coop to a mobile tractor in case we needed a bachelor pad (which we did). We make up for chicken inexperience by building them more space.

So, Merle moved back into his group's coop with "Merle's Girls." Andre lives in the bachelor setup, maybe one day with "Dre's Baes." Stilton kept his yard with "Ton's Hons" (still working on that title; not much rhymes with Stilton).

Here's a picture. Hard to see, but Stilty's yard is on the left, split from Merle's by a 6' fence. The newer coop is just visible in the back. The netted area on the far right is the bachelor setup. The net to the left encloses a big area for the birds to safely be on grass, in shifts and supervised, since neither net's electrified when they're out. In the foreground is Carrots, our biggest flirt, making eyes at Andre.

View attachment 3115885
We thought the roosters would need visual barriers on the fences, but they just puff up and run back and forth a few times a day. They know they can fly over so must not be too set on killing each other. Each coop has a large, covered run where the birds stay if we leave, in case anyone did ever decide to fly over, and because predators may be emboldened to find a way around the electric fence or hawk strings when we're not there.

For the record, I dislike telling chickens where their territory is, and it's expensive to make all this room for them, but they wouldn't last a month without the protection. We're in a jungle of predators.

Chipie's absolutely adorable, btw.

That's quite a setting. Did I understand correctly that you only put the electricity when you're not there to supervise them ? I like netting too because it's convenient to move around if you need to switch something. However if a chicken is determined to go out the netting will not stop it I find .
I'm happy to discover there actually is a thing officially called hawk strings because I and everyone around teased my partner quite a bit when he came up with this (it's clothesline) :

It unfortunately only keeps away the bigger birds but our bigger scare have come from smaller hawks and they still land.

 

[ManueB]

Skeksis laid a perfectly normal egg today.

Good news ! That said two of mine have been laying laying soft shelled for about a month now and they don't seem worse for it as long as nothing gets stuck inside.

Whenever milk 'goes off' here, i.e. turns into curds and whey, I give it to the chickens and they love it. Some go for the curds first, some the whey. I haven't looked it up but both have got to be a good source of protein and lactobacilli.

When Caramel was sick our oldest neighbour (95) told us the remedy they used to give sick hens here was a mixture of oil and curdled milk in a syringe.

But the last decades it changes so quickly that many species have no time to adapt. Nowadays change of climate is not a natural one , but because the industry and humans use too much fuels.

I find this money and comfort driven use of fuels not funny at all and it makes me sad that people and governments were not capable to make the right and necessary changes 5-10 years ago.

I'm with you there! I went through stages of sadness, anger, disbelief, now I'm just happy I don't have kids and the sooner humankind disappears the better for everyone else. I still hope I'm wrong so I'm not going to try and convince anyone . I just try to make the changes in my own life to be coherent with what I believe.

 

[Perris]

the remedy they used to give sick hens here was a mixture of oil and curdled milk

interesting; what sort of oil? You're too high for olives I imagine.

 

[BDutch]

That's quite a setting. Did I understand correctly that you only put the electricity when you're not there to supervise them ? I like netting too because it's convenient to move around if you need to switch something. However if a chicken is determined to go out the netting will not stop it I find .
I'm happy to discover there actually is a thing officially called hawk strings because I and everyone around teased my partner quite a bit when he came up with this (it's clothesline) :
View attachment 3116990
It unfortunately only keeps away the bigger birds but our bigger scare have come from smaller hawks and they still land.

Handy for laundry .
I use Trixie cat netting, love it.

 

[BDutch]

1 Good news ! That said two of mine have been laying laying soft shelled for about a month now and they don't seem worse for it as long as nothing gets stuck inside.

2 When Caramel was sick our oldest neighbour (95) told us the remedy they used to give sick hens here was a mixture of oil and curdled milk in a syringe.

3 I'm with you there! I went through stages of sadness, anger, disbelief, now I'm just happy I don't have kids and the sooner humankind disappears the better for everyone else. I still hope I'm wrong so I'm not going to try and convince anyone . I just try to make the changes in my own life to be coherent with what I believe.

1 I had a chicken who did so too (on and off). She probably got into trouble and died after about 6 months. I thought there was nothing you could do about it. Until I read about giving a high dosis of calcium (tablet) to such a chicken to heal her. It seems to work most of the time. But I don’t have any experience with giving a high dosis of calcium myself.

2 interesting

3 wow. What a choice. But imo its okay to have 2 kids, and teach them about the the environment when they grow up. I work for an organisation that makes a difference for the environment (advising on building with natural , mostly biobased materials) . Now my adult children are trying to contribute in a possitive way too. I do have high hopes that this new generation (and the next) will make the change we need so badly.

 

[ManueB]

interesting; what sort of oil? You're too high for olives I imagine.

They used olive oil. I have to admit I didn't dare to try it !
Up to the 50s olive trees could be found lower in the valley 20 km away ; when my partner was a young child they grew in the lower part of our village (650 meters high). We planted one at 1060 m high 6 years ago, that is doing quite well (on the photo on the post above, you can see it on the right of the scarecrow). Because the land is so steep, rusticity zones change in a lifetime here!