Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

Todays tax (only females)

bantam RIR in front, black Dutch behind her.

Bantam mix and 1 of my Dutch and 1 RIR.

A real help against the heat : sunscreen on the laying nests and lots of shade inside the run.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

87 and sunny with high pollen count.

Spent most of yesterday by working in chicken run.

Increased the run size by approximately 400 square feet.

Have a great day!

 

[Shadrach]

Wish you all the luck you need.



I mean an other volunteer group. Not the allotment group.
In my town there is a workshop in one of the elderly flats where volunteers can use machinery and space to work on things for a good cause. + There is a organisation with members that volunteer in helping elderly, people with 2 left hands at home . + And there is a repair club that helps people once a week in a community center with repair and reuse and all kind of things. From clothing - complicated machines. I thought that there might be someone in you’re town that has the right space and would like to coopereate with you to build a framework for a run and transport it to the allotment.

nothing else?

It's feasable but it would likely take a long time to organise.

Everything else! The overalls do what they say on the tin so to speak; go over everything else.

 

[Shadrach]

Todays tax (only females)
View attachment 3134808
bantam RIR in front, black Dutch behind her.
View attachment 3134810
Bantam mix and 1 of my Dutch and 1 RIR.

A real help against the heat : sunscreen on the laying nests and lots of shade inside the run.View attachment 3134816

That looks like good chicken territory.

 

[Shadrach]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

87 and sunny with high pollen count.

Spent most of yesterday by working in chicken run.

Increased the run size by approximately 400 square feet.

Have a great day!

Well done. An extra 400 square feet is a decent expansion.

 

[Shadrach]

Of course it rained today. If I believed in such things I would put it down to divine intervention showing disaproval of the queens celebration party.

I got soaked on my way to the chickens and only a couple were interested in coming out once they realised they would get fed under cover. So, an early night home for me.

 

[Shadrach]

Pictures from Catalonia.
Moon, Hurry and Fudge all trying to lay an egg.

Treacle.

Where.

 

[MaryJanet]

Pictures from Catalonia.
Moon, Hurry and Fudge all trying to lay an egg.
View attachment 3135268

Treacle.
View attachment 3135269
Where.
View attachment 3135270

It's so good to see them again, especially Treacle, but I don't think I ever knew Where.

 

[ManueB]

I would have prefered to build a new coop. I could have built something better for less money I believe.

.
All these things require time and money to sort out. I don't have unlimited funds and just getting C to pay half the cost of the coop has been a result.
Basically the whole chiicken keeping arrangement was not well thought out at the outset and now it's a question of making what improvements I can rather than aiming for something closer to the ideal.

I really believe it to be the better choice in your circumstances. Having it done fast was important, for one thing, to relieve the chickens from that dreary housing situation. And to show the people from the allotments that it wasn't such a terrible and complicated endeavour should a second new coop be thought of.
It has been mentioned before, bluntly if ever something happened that meant you had to stop taking care of the chickens, it's better having an actual new coop in place than a work in progress.

Pictures from Catalonia.
Moon, Hurry and Fudge all trying to lay an egg.
View attachment 3135268

Treacle.
View attachment 3135269
Where.
View attachment 3135270

It's so good to see them again, especially Treacle, but I don't think I ever knew Where.

Beautiful pictures! Now I'm really wondering what could have happened that got you to name a hen "where".

 

[ManueB]

One of my birds recently started pecking my leg on the trouser seam; I assumed till now that she thought the thread was something tasty. Now I'm thinking it might be an affectionate peck, but I have to say I don't care for it - their beaks are sharp, and even a light peck registers through the fabric. Just had an idea: I need chaps!

What can I say ? This is how I spend hours with my ex-batts.

[The chickens loved it so much that they started to sleep there asap. They never went back to the old coop not even when it got cold. ).
View attachment 3134390
The original coop
View attachment 3134389After 10 years - with the extension on the right. And the 3x3m party-run behind it.

Are you sure it wasn't those furry aliens with long ears that drew them out ?
Did you keep them together and do you still have them ?

That they're willing to not only orbit but tour Scary New Thing seems like a huge win.

That's cool about Matilda. Some of our less human-affectionate chickens initiate contact after something stressful, e.g., when a pullet lays her first egg, or I've chased a big snake out of their yard, or they've recovered from an illness.

They could be seeking reassurance or increasing their alliance with the one who demonstrates power over scary things. My human brain still wants to see it as gratitude. Maybe it is.

Sometimes it's a one-off, but other times that chicken is affectionate from then on. Frida Bakawlo, the One-Wattle Wonder, was completely aloof until I nursed her back to health from an illness at 6 mos old. A couple years later, I can still pick her up in the daytime, and she always finds time to swing by to peck me hello.

View attachment 3134654

Frida Bakalow is really beautiful (and has a funky name)
Is she some kind of Australorp ?
Most of the black hens we have here are a sort of black sex link called harco and they don't have that glossy black sheen at all.