Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[GregnLety]

Try bantams. Almost guarranteed to spend the summer broody. I had 8 & they all sat all summer.

Very true, out of 7 broody hens 6 are bantams.

 

[BDutch]

Beautiful! Good for you for keeping such a rare breed.

I should have been clearer, I was suggesting two broody breeds for you, sorry for the confusion!

I have more then enough broodies throughout spring and summer. My 3 Dutch are broody a few times each year and one of my young bantam RIRs was champion in persistence for almost three weeks. My Dutch always quit after a couple days/within a week when taking actions like ’kicking’ the broody out , confinement in the second run, taking away all eggs, never let a broody sleep in the nestbox at night. But this RIR wouldn’t give up for weeks.

 

[no fly zone]

I have to say as some others have, I'm not a fan of the look of the Transelvanian.
This lot look cute though.

Skeksis is my all time favorite pet.

 

[Perris]

chick starter feed or broiler feed as it's called in some places

Is chick starter feed generally the same as broiler feed? The stuff they give chicks that go off to slaughter at 39 days? If so, I think I don't want to use that anymore.

 

[ManueB]

Here on this thread which most won't read it's good to have some alternative views and like Perris, I'm very interested in old school chicken keeping books and advice. Some really did know an awful lot about chickens. They were probably not the type of chickens the majority of the contributors

The eggs broody Chipie is sitting on, both Chipie and Théo, and the advice on the egg-bread mixture for chicks come from a 75 year old farmer, Gaston.
He doesn't view his animals like I do mine at all. They are livestock and have no name except for the dogs. He does care a lot about them, and this has always been the way he spends his whole days, but he cares for a flock/herd, and he will always give priority to overall vigor over saving one individual. For example he will go through a lot of trouble and time and pull some pretty disgusting tricks of the trade to get a motherless lamb adopted by a ewe, but he doesn't bother to treat a lamb with vitamin deficiency which is very common and easy to treat.
In his way of thinking using a homemade mixture to feed chicks makes sense because time for preparation isn't a criteria and the broody will indeed take over and the chick will learn to forage for itself, whereas using medicated starter definitely wouldn't. I'm not in the same mindset and for my chickens I wouldn't value public health above each individual life .

 

[ManueB]

Skeksis is my all time favorite pet.

You're very brave to have such a monster for a pet . Especially since you said she is very intelligent.

 

[ManueB]

Vanille would like to make a contribution to the debate on diversified nutrition for chickens. She wants to remind everyone that at this time of year, a monodiet of cherry is essential to a layer hen's well being.

She has overhead the nice human perch tell his bossy hen that he's allowed to feed her the whole cherry tree because this is her last cherry season as laying is killing her.

 

[no fly zone]

You're very brave to have such a monster for a pet . Especially since you said she is very intelligent.

She is crazy smart. One time she helped me "hunt" a rabbit by flanking it and driving it my way.

 

[Ribh]

She is crazy smart. One time she helped me "hunt" a rabbit by flanking it and driving it my way.
View attachment 3122760

My chickenless neighbour is revising her opinion of them after watching my girls in action. It's not just they've hopped the fence to clean up her grasshopper problem. She can't believe how smart they act when the hawk is around. It's not just they call for me. They move from cover to cover & the little girls run between shrubbery & a bigger hen for maximum safety, rather like combat soldiers. And, of course, I have very pretty girls!

 

[Perris]

She is crazy smart.

as they say, if there's a deficiency in one department, e.g. looks, nature usually makes up for it in another department, e.g. brains