Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[ManueB]

The current woefully inadequate allowance for a run is ten square foot per bird

When I looked up french websites and blogs on advice regarding to the adequate space in the run for backyard hens the numbers were much, much larger, between 100 and 200 sq ft per chicken.

Should one of us be unfortunate enough to get sent to prison under most civilised regimes we would be entitled to an hour of exercise away from our cells. So, one hour a day minimum would seem humane. Lets go with this as a starting point.
It's not just the extra room, it's some relief from the boredom and monotony of living with the same surroundings day in day out. Bored chickens are not well or happy chickens in my experience.

Prison turn people crazy, it's not humane. Also, it's not illegal to have a family of fifteen live in a 50 M2 flat and it's fairly inhumane. What it leads to is inadequate behavior. However I and many chicken keepers don't necessarily know what would be adequate chicken behaviour. I learnt a lot about it on this thread. I wouldn't have been able before reading all this to tell if my chickens were displaying disturbing behaviour for chickens. I know a little better by now but wouldn't feel experienced enough to say if they are happy or just adapting.

Years ago I kept a cat in a flat with no access to the outdoor and I honestly believed she was happy. Now we have two cats in what really is the ideal environment for them and it completely changed my mind.

 

[Perris]

One Ex Battery hen is dead

I'm guessing, but hoping I'm wrong, that it's Dustin

 

[ManueB]

I'm guessing, but hoping I'm wrong, that it's Dustin

I'm guessing not and it was a human mistake.

Both the known flyers were accounted for.

 

[TropicalBabies]

They have a nice landscape but it needs more covered ground. Just under them there's about 400 sq. ft of very steep land with trees and bushes, to access another vegetable garden underneath. I'm trying to convince my partner to let them have it, he is reluctant as it means we'll have to protect five planted saplings with wire and he hates jailing baby trees .

My chickens problem isn't space, it's the dreary state of the coop (an old 20 M2 / 215 sq fr barn in a vaulted basement). It needs to be completely whitewhashed with lime and all the perches and ladders should be changed. We would need at least two days, maybe three, so it means temporary accomodations for the chickens. I'm very poor at logistics and I don't see how to organize it. My partner doesn't think it's a priority as we have so many things to do.

I live in a beautiful place but you live in a charming fairy tale. I think your hen house looks awesome and I don't know that I would ever be able to leave it if I had one like that. I'd probably pull up a charming stool and sit for days in content bliss I am sure of it.

I was thinking byc should have its own vacation house swap. Like no one better to watch your animals than some of the folks I see on byc. I surely don't trust my big kids or neighbors to keep clean waters or scrape poop. Last time was a $500. Vet bill and 3 dead chickens.

Shad would be in high demand lol but pretty sure if he came this way he would never leave. We have 1000s of feral chickens to be observed and cared for...

 

[Perris]

big news this morning on the domestication of the chicken:
https://www.theguardian.com/science...ted-down-from-trees-by-rice-research-suggests
key finding is that "The experts re-evaluated chicken remains found in more than 600 sites in 89 countries. They found that the oldest bones of a definite domestic chicken were at the Neolithic Ban Non Wat in central Thailand, dating to between 1650BC and 1250BC." Much more recent than hitherto thought.

 

[Ribh]

big news this morning on the domestication of the chicken:
https://www.theguardian.com/science...ted-down-from-trees-by-rice-research-suggests
key finding is that "The experts re-evaluated chicken remains found in more than 600 sites in 89 countries. They found that the oldest bones of a definite domestic chicken were at the Neolithic Ban Non Wat in central Thailand, dating to between 1650BC and 1250BC." Much more recent than hitherto thought.

Yes I saw that. It was reported out here too.

 

[MaryJanet]

They have a nice landscape but it needs more covered ground. Just under them there's about 400 sq. ft of very steep land with trees and bushes, to access another vegetable garden underneath. I'm trying to convince my partner to let them have it, he is reluctant as it means we'll have to protect five planted saplings with wire and he hates jailing baby trees .

My chickens problem isn't space, it's the dreary state of the coop (an old 20 M2 / 215 sq fr barn in a vaulted basement). It needs to be completely whitewhashed with lime and all the perches and ladders should be changed. We would need at least two days, maybe three, so it means temporary accomodations for the chickens. I'm very poor at logistics and I don't see how to organize it. My partner doesn't think it's a priority as we have so many things to do.

What do you think about setting up a fresh new home for the chickens then using the vaulted barn for some other purpose? Would that work?

 

[ManueB]

What do you think about setting up a fresh new home for the chickens then using the vaulted barn for some other purpose? Would that work?

It's not Impossible but would have other major inconveniences. The actual coop has three real advantages that I would like to keep: it's big, it's stays cool in summer and relatively warm in winter, and it's completely predator safe. I've mentioned before that the ground is really steep in most of the chicken zone so it would be quite special to accommodate a coop with that slope ; in summer it would be really hot as there are no shady spot we could put it in without really cutting up on the Cherry tree. And, we couldn't build a little covered pen next to the coop like we have now for when we need to lock up the hens for a few hours, with the slope.
The other solution would be to put the coop in a completely different place of the property but that means we wouldn't be able to see it from the house and from our dining table outside and that would make a huge difference in keeping them safe from air predators.

 

[MaryJanet]

It's not Impossible but would have other major inconveniences. The actual coop has three real advantages that I would like to keep: it's big, it's stays cool in summer and relatively warm in winter, and it's completely predator safe. I've mentioned before that the ground is really steep in most of the chicken zone so it would be quite special to accommodate a coop with that slope ; in summer it would be really hot as there are no shady spot we could put it in without really cutting up on the Cherry tree. And, we couldn't build a little covered pen next to the coop like we have now for when we need to lock up the hens for a few hours, with the slope.
The other solution would be to put the coop in a completely different place of the property but that means we wouldn't be able to see it from the house and from our dining table outside and that would make a huge difference in keeping them safe from air predators.

I understand.

Hmmm what about working on the chickens coop little by little? Can you fence off a small section, do the work it needs, release it to the hens, fence off another small section... Until it's all done? It would be a nuisance but maybe easier than rehousing the hens for the duration of the limewashing.

On that note, I'll butt out and get on with some work I need to finish

 

[Perris]

The homemade chickfeed experiment is going well so far, I think. This morning Eve rejected yesterday's leftovers for herself and her brood, and led them off to forage instead, so I took the hint and when I changed it out to freshly made feed, she ate it and told them to eat it, so I know I can rely on her instincts to tell me if I get it wrong, which is a great relief. The basic mix is blitzed hard boiled egg, breadcrumbs +/- milk, and enough polenta or a wheat/maize flour to make it crumbly, delivered little and often. There's a lot of hostility on BYC to giving bread, but I see no problem with it as yet (of course time may prove me wrong), and I've not to date read anything to explain what exactly is supposed to be the problem with it. Anyone who thinks they know, please chip in, but I'm not interested in unsubstantiated condemnations; I want to see some evidence please.

They also enjoyed their first little mealworms - and Eve only took two for herself, which is remarkably restrained by her normal (non-broody) standards. Needless to say, small mealworms are substantially bigger than anything else I've offered as food (can't speak for Eve, but her forage is limited; see below), and they have no problems at all swallowing them, in the same way that wild bird chicks seem to manage just fine even with what sometimes look like impossibly large insects or fish that the parents present them with.

Eve is a much better broody this year than last time (2 years ago); she is more careful when scratching and she does it with less vigour, so any that get in the way only get a relatively gentle fling backwards, not the 6 foot slingshot their predecessors endured . And she got them all up the ramp and back into the coop on her own, through many attempts starting around 6pm, and continuing patiently until they were all in. I'm sure it helped that I am confining them for the first week or two this time, because in the past she's exhausted her chicks by leading them all over the garden and beyond. The scaffolding netting is proving an unexpected asset as a fly trap, so she doesn't have to chase flies very far before they're stopped or she is (the pen is about 3x2m). You can just about see her in the front right corner.

this is a better shot of her and them