Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ribh]

The problem is wind. It's a rare day when there isn't a wind blowing and we get some very strong gusts.

You want some sort of structure that forces the wind up & over...

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Sorry but I have to disagree. We have just had the winter solstice & 1/2 my nutty lot are roosting outside. It is not pleasant out. However, the roosts they are choosing are higher than the one inside, which I think has some bearing on their choice. Most of those choosing to roost outside are bantams & fliers & younger birds. The older girls prefer inside on the lower roost.

I have one hen who roosts on the roof of the main coop. She has to fly to the back fence then up onto the roof, which is tin. I attempted to convince her she would rather sleep inside but she's not having it. So I attached an old woolen blanket over the top of it for her to sit on because it's the middle of winter. She stays there rain or shine. There are multiple other dry options for her other than the main coop too. Chickens gonna do what chickens gonna do!

 

[Ribh]

I have one hen who roosts on the roof of the main coop. She has to fly to the back fence then up onto the roof, which is tin. I attempted to convince her she would rather sleep inside but she's not having it. So I attached an old woolen blanket over the top of it for her to sit on because it's the middle of winter. She stays there rain or shine. There are multiple other dry options for her other than the main coop too. Chickens gonna do what chickens gonna do!

Good heavens! You'll be colder than I am too. I don't like them getting too high. Apart from the fact I can't reach them, all the yards backing onto us have big dogs & I have a bunch of fence hoppers I don't want getting ideas. Here are my outsiders. You can just see Shuri up her tree.

 

[BDutch]

I have one hen who roosts on the roof of the main coop. She has to fly to the back fence then up onto the roof, which is tin. I attempted to convince her she would rather sleep inside but she's not having it. So I attached an old woolen blanket over the top of it for her to sit on because it's the middle of winter. She stays there rain or shine. There are multiple other dry options for her other than the main coop too. Chickens gonna do what chickens gonna do!

I had a chicken that preferred to roost outside in a tree too. And two wanted to roost on top of the run door. And another one was hiding one evening in the Ivy.

As soon as I discovered where a chicken went to roost, I would grab her and put her inside. They always return to same spot.
After about 6 weeks they gave in. But next spring they might do it again.

The two ladies on the run () did this every year until I started to give the chickens some scratch in the run every evening and close the run door asa they were all inside. I didn’t have to catch chickens anymore after using this trick.

 

[Shadrach]

I wouldn’t mind a robot assistant to help around the place.

There was an article somewhere in the BBC I think that had some interesting information on the most recent progress in AI. Terminator is looking more likely by the day.

 

[Shadrach]

I have a forest preserve probably 1000ft to the west so the strongest winds are blocked.
I fasten the west side of the tarp with washer and screws. The east side is 6 inches short and I use ball bungee to hold it tight. So far no problems with the tarp. The north side has 6mil plastic stapled on. I have had a strong south wind blow that out.

North side in winter with half CX cockerel

View attachment 3160044

I'll have another look at your coop later.
Securing the tarpaulin is where I'm short on experience and ideas. I've found one that is affordable with eyelet rivits every 6 inches at a fixed size which if fitted would only cover say 60% of the hoop. I could stitch that to the weldmesh with line wire. The stitch won't give but the eyelets might tear out.
Having the tarpaulin rip loose, I and the chickens can cope with. It would just blow onto the main run fence. Finding out that the tarpaulin had held but ripped the hoop structure off the ground and maybe torn away from the coop itself is not what I'm after. Best of all is if it all just stayed put.

I've done the coop's blown over bit a few times in the past. I can't be doing with the drama. Hurt chickens possibly. Coop needs sorting out and quickly. You've been up most of the night checking that the chickens haven't flown off with the coop. Then it happens, you've just managed an hours sleep between 5am and 6am and gone out to see in the coming daylight and a coops on its back with busted panels and some very frightened chickens inside if the roof stayed on.

 

[Shadrach]

That may be the case in Bristol, and maybe 'big business' is an exaggeration, but it is hard to see the sheer number and choice of products available and the marketing that goes into them in the US without concluding there is at least medium-sized business involved.
- My Pet Chicken's revenues are about $10m which I guess is small business. They are geared almost exclusively to the backyard chicken market. The so-called big hatcheries are similarly sized businesses and there must be about a dozen of those - probably mainly catering to the backyard market as well as to breeders. The big commercial producers generally breed and hatch their own.
- Several of the main pet retailers have got on the bandwagon so you can buy toys (I was gifted a chicken swing for goodness sake!) and any number of highly priced but not very sturdy prefabricated coops. Amazon lists about 180 different coops ranging from about $100-1,800 in price
- Specialty feed companies have emerged with a prime focus on the backyard keeper - I have recently shifted to one that uses insect protein rather than soy - I don't think they are primarily selling to working farms
- And the big feed companies have got in on the act - Purina will sell me chick starter feed in 5lb bags - that is perfect for me raising 3 chicks in my back yard - it is useless for anyone who is more than a backyard operator
- An old USDA survey had 1% of US households keeping chickens and that was predicted to grow to 5% by 2019 - the pandemic boosted that a lot with sales estimates in various categories up 500%. A UK survey showed 5million chickens being kept in homes in the UK compared to only 1 million hamsters
So maybe I mis-spoke by saying 'big business' - but businesses are making money off the backyard chicken keeping phenomenon and that is because many backyard chicken keepers are not trying to do it on the cheap but are prepared to pay a bit for their beloved pets.
I doubt it will ever be a lobby stronger than Tyson, Perdue etc. but maybe there is enough business there to put pressure on some of the sillier restrictions on caring for chickens at small scale.
Sorry, soap box officially stowed back under the bed.

Soapboxes are allowed on this thread.
I didn't know those percentages. I wonder if the prediction was right.
Even in the UK the pandemic seems to have boosted the range of chicken accessories you can get. I believe there was a notable increase in people taking in Ex Battery hens. How they fared, chickens and keeper would be an interesting study.

 

[Shadrach]

I think it's like a pendulum, back and forth
Used to be a farming community where I live on my great grandparents farm. I had chickens on and off, as far as I know they were legal. In 2015 there was a hubbub about some people who had hens and they weren't zoned for them. Turned out I wasn't zoned for them either with 10 acres not in town. Not sure when the zoning changed.... Anyway they changed the law so people can have hens with a bunch of restrictions. However it's enforced by complaints. I plow the neighbors driveways so I don't think they are going to complain about my roosters, turkeys and butchering (not allowed either).

It's a shame about the enforcement by complaint system. I would prefer a yes you can, or, no you can't kind of rule. After that rules about tresspassing animals, cases of neglect and abuse etc could be dealt with through existing law.

 

[Shadrach]

Good morning X Batts. All I can say is life will go on here.
Seems lack of immune I pulled through out the other side.
@Shadrach I guess your still going build a coop for these x batts.

Yeah. You're right. The alterations to the new coop I half expected. I know what to do and how to do it. Building the run part I was hoping wouldn't be necessary.

 

[Shadrach]

Sorry but I have to disagree. We have just had the winter solstice & 1/2 my nutty lot are roosting outside. It is not pleasant out. However, the roosts they are choosing are higher than the one inside, which I think has some bearing on their choice. Most of those choosing to roost outside are bantams & fliers & younger birds. The older girls prefer inside on the lower roost.

I put Henry in the coop last year the first night I thought it might reach zero degrees centigrade. Most nights he went in the coop after that for much of the winter and his favourites that would be beside him on the outside perch went in with him.
He's a big chap and he generates quite a lot of wamth especially if a hen gets under his wing a little which they do.
It may just be they want to roost where he does.
Chickens, they get stranger the longer you watch them.