Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[RoyalChick]

Not too many studies on chickens. They are cheap and not kept long in a commercial setting.
Keeping a bird separate makes it easier to treat or observe. I usually leave them with the flock though.

Actually not quite true. There are quite a lot of studies on chickens. Just not always designed for exactly what I might be interested in.
Broilers are extensively studied for nutritional deficits and skeletal development for example.
Laying hens are used as a model for ovarian cancer in people so there are a lot of studies there.
Even behavioral studies happen albeit in a rather limited range of circumstances.
Of course most of what we want to know is still unknown - but that is true of people too!

 

[Perris]

Actually not quite true. There are quite a lot of studies on chickens. Just not always designed for exactly what I might be interested in.
Broilers are extensively studied for nutritional deficits and skeletal development for example.
Laying hens are used as a model for ovarian cancer in people so there are a lot of studies there.
Even behavioral studies happen albeit in a rather limited range of circumstances.
Of course most of what we want to know is still unknown - but that is true of people too!

The chicken was also the first livestock animal to be sequenced for its full genome. It is at the forefront of genetics research. See e.g. https://genome.cshlp.org/content/15/12/1692.full.html

 

[Windrider]

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

Thank you for taking the time to answer so thoroughly, I appreciate it. Looks like I have the same keeping method as your sister, albeit with what looks like a smaller yard, but also a smaller number of chickens.

I was seriously questioning whether I should get new pullets. I fully admit I got chickens in the first place just because I like having them around. I live in California, where battery cages have been banned and all store-bought eggs and meat are at least "cage free," but pasture raised is readily available too, so I didn't need chickens for guilt free eggs. I just like them.

As you know, I approach questions in life from my zoological Illustrator background. Science plus a bit of the artist.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good morning X Batts. Think possible I have beat the cold?
at least the worst of it. Birds here.. Started with like 8 first,
so smal run as coop was more birds .. Major bird math have 20 Garden fence turned into bird run 1/4 acre.
Te other is what they have now .. My TAX

 

[bruceha2000]

by far, the most destructive invasives on earth.

I agree with many of the words but I don't think humans can be considered invasive since I think tens of thousands of years of existence means they are native

 

[no fly zone]

 

[Windrider]

I agree with many of the words but I don't think humans can be considered invasive since I think tens of thousands of years of existence means they are native

Ahem... native to Africa. Check out the debate around the Pleistocene Megafauna extinction. Is it coincidence that where Homo Sapiens went as they left Africa, megafauna extinction followed? Maybe, maybe not... it is being debated. Note that there were still Wooly Mammoths in Siberia during Roman times, so explaining it by saying "the climate changed" isn't the whole story.

 

[Sequel]

I am a huge fan of plastic coops. Not many available here (pretty much just eglu) but I think they have many advantages. Yes it does matter what sort of plastic is used, and I've yet to see if the eglu (polypropylene I believe) will hold up to New Zealand UV (one of the nastiest UV in the world). I've only had it about a year. I do understand microplastics are an issue, but so are the chemicals they treat wood with so there's compromise everywhere you turn.

I wish I could get the coop Shadrach has here. I am planning to make another grow-out coop out of a 1000L water tote. Deconstructing plastic is much more in line with my building skills!

I saw a you tube video of a man making a coop out of one of those totes! His turned out really well! I’ll look and see if I can find him.

 

[Ribh]

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.View attachment 3156958View attachment 3156960View attachment 3156961

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.

This is pretty much my present set up ~ minus a proper coop. Some of the ground covers took a beating when my chooks arrived but I've replaced that with ginger, which they will have a much harder time digging up & won't eat. I normally hose down the patio if the girls have been on it in the afternoon but figure extra fertiliser for the lawn.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Tax for deep thoughts. Rooster launch.