Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[ManueB]

Looks like she's decided to make her own tribe now.

I don't know what to think because she is still trying to get them inside the coop. But maybe that's because there is no other coop available. And also I'm not sure the chicks will want to stay with her when they grow up, she's so mad . She is very happy now and I hope she doesn't find herself completely alone when she weans them.

 

[Perris]

every one of mine I have taken to a vet has received the observation that they seem under weight

But I imagine they were visibly ill or injured when you took them to a vet, so not their normal weight?

This is the area I would like to site the new coop and a new run.

Nice! It appears even to have a little tree...?

then always ends up laying on the BBQ

That bird's a certifiable nutcase!

 

[MaryJanet]

I think mash has that effect.

I think so too. I provide mash an hour before roosting while the hens are foraging outside of their run and coop, and it's always a popular choice.

 

[Ribh]

That bird's a certifiable nutcase!

Yep. That's what I say too.

 

[RoyalChick]

Same for me, I thought the proportion of confined chickens would be more important.
I also found interesting reading the answers that a quite a few people have different accomodations for different flocks. This is to be expected from small breeders but I didn't think it would be the case for backyard keepers. I also see this on other social medias : a few people that have both house hens, coop +run flock, and free ranging flock.

Remember there will be sample bias - meaning those who choose to answer will be those interested in the topic, and that interest may correlate with giving chickens some free range time.

 

[ManueB]

Remember there will be sample bias - meaning those who choose to answer will be those interested in the topic, and that interest may correlate with giving chickens some free range time.

Yes that's was exactly my reaction on the thread also because I think it's may be difficult to answer the poll for people who feel bad about having their chickens confined.

 

[Shadrach]

Or, do you think, as you sometimes come across, that people with these small properties and no allowance for roosters shouldn't have chickens?

I'll start with this.
I get accused of being anti backyard chicken keeping a lot. Sometimes it's a not so subtle dig, sometimes it's a direct insult.
I've been told I shouldn't be on the site.
I've been told that my semi feral chicken keeping arrangement as it was perceived when I was in Catalonia was so far removed from the average backyard keeper that my view was irrelevant to all intents and purposes.

Lets have a look at what evidence we have.
My model while in Catalonia was dawn to dusk free ranging essentially. This was the most common model in the area of Catalonia I lived in. It applied to rural and those few remaining suburban keepers.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/feed-management-methods-poll.1533521/

The last five options in the poll are pretty much the same as my keeping arrangements in Catalonia.
Forget about the secure word in the poll. You can't free range for 8 hours a day and be secure. In fact you can't free range at all and claim to be secure. It's a misleading poll option.
As I write this there are 113 votes in total.
51 of the votes are near enough to how I kept the chickens in Catalonia.
51 of the votes. Almost half the vote total.
On the evidence I'm not so much of an outlier as some have suggested.
What's more, the advice I might give is going to be relevant to that percentage of the identified free range and semi free range keepers.
The standard backyard chicken keeping model as currently promoted on this site isn't in many instances.
The next three options working up the poll are for time out of the coop and run keepers. They account for a further 22 votes. This is how I am trying to care for the EX Battery chickens; out every day supervised for a couple of hours if possible.
That's 76 votes out of the 113.
It seems to me that I'm more representitive of the majority of those that have voted than those who advocate the fully confined backyard model.
Yes it's important. The advice for a number of topics from broody hens and hatching to feeding and welfare is different for the two models if the welfare of the chicken is the primary aim.

 

[Shadrach]

Next. Do I think a quarter acre plot is a fit place to keep chickens.
This is my elder sisters garden. It's less than a quarter of an acre. She's been keeping chickens for 25 years as a UK backyard keeper. Her chickens are out of the coop and run from morning to dusk.
The garden looks lovely enough to me. My sister fences in her vegetable plot and her delicate flowers and cleans up after the chickens.
It obviously can be done.

An old friend of mine in Hertfordshire in the UK has a half acre backyard. He grows veg etc and has five hens and a rooster ranging morning to dusk.
A man I know in the next county who I help from time to time keeps chickens in his backyard. He has a bit over half an acre. He has two tribes (two roosters) and a few hens.

So, it's not the size of the plot. It's the attitude and being prepared before one goes and gets chickens.

 

[bruceha2000]

There is a rail strike tomorrow and that is going to make getting to a from the chickens more difficult.

An e-bike sure sounds good for that!

I don't want to feed every sparrow in the entire neighborhood.

Me either. I don't leave feed out other than in the winter, it is in a hanging feeder in the coop. There are always sparrows in the coop in the winter other than overnight. The stupid things lose their minds when I go into the barn and they are in the coop. Even after I open the people door half of them can't find their way out even though they came in through the much smaller auto chicken door.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

72 and sunny.

With the black netting I don't have birds in the run or coop.

My chickens have feed available 24/7.

Have a great day!