Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ribh]

Interesting. I’m ‘planning’ for new babies next spring. I need to buy fertilised eggs , having no rooster either.

The small dUccles crossed my mind too. They seem to be great company. But there are cons too (as always). The description says they get broody quit often, don’t lay much and not in winter. I love the characters of my Dutch too. Same pros, same cons.
But there are many more to choose from , even under 800 grams. The bantam Araucana crossed my mind too (green eggs) but they look strange having no tail.

With the HPAI troubles we have with chickens in the Netherlands, I prefer not to buy eggs anymore (no organic or free range available anymore) . For fresh eggs in winter was looking for a few bantams that are capable to lay all year. I tried that with my bantam RIR. But they are not such good layers as I hoped . And to my surprise I had a broody RIR that never seemed to stop. They are not very sociable either . These big ladies only come running to me for food. Besides I find them everything but elegant. They still wobble like chicks.

So maybe I just go for the friendly and intelligent character, buy more of these characters to compensate the egg quantities and light up the coop a few hours during the short winter nights. Dutch are easier to obtain over here. So chances are bigger to get Dutch.

All my bantams go broody in summer. I have Japs, Wyandottes & D'Uccles. They are all chronic. The bonus is while none of them lay a lot I am still getting eggs from my broodies in the middle of winter while everyone else is still moulting. IME, Japs are worse than D'Uccles for broodiness. All mine are super friendly ~ even broody they are not really people aggressive. Olivia, 1 of my D'Uccle frizzles is laying now, in the middle of our winter. Her sister isn't. Our Aracaunas are different & do have tails. I will see if I can get a snap of mine. She is not the easiest girl to photograph. I love my Campines but they are pretty wild & they are not the easiest hens to obtain here.

Here she is!
This is Beatha, an Australian Aracauna. She lays a very pale blue egg. I get 3, or sometimes 4, eggs from her a week during her laying season.

 

[Ribh]

Not to rub salt in your egg wounds @BDutch but this is my black Jap Chavi who decided to go broody this week, in the middle of winter!

This is what I found under her.
No, not all the eggs are hers. She had help.

 

[ManueB]

Not to rub salt in your egg wounds @BDutch but this is my black Jap Chavi who decided to go broody this week, in the middle of winter!
View attachment 3170245
This is what I found under her.
No, not all the eggs are hers. She had help.
View attachment 3170246​

But she's so cute !

 

[Ribh]

But she's so cute !

She's a lovely hen, really sweet. She popped her head up when she heard me calling for her & she never fusses @ being picked up & carted round. She's wonderful with children. But she will go broody!

 

[Perris]

I read that broodies could start sending their chicks away from that time and just did not think "from" meant they could keep them longer . Of course you're right! She loves caring for them, it's obvious she is way more happy now than before she had them so there's no reason to believe she would put an early end to their bond! Thank you so much !

I looked up my records for last year, and Maria stayed with the Pennies until 21 October, after hatching on June 30th, so that was almost 4 months!

 

[RoyalChick]

I'm beginning to think the smallest chick is going to have special needs. It's about the size the other two were ten days ago, and smaller than the bantam chick. What worries me is that when the other two had wings of it's actual size, they were flying pretty well already. This one really seems to be avoiding to fly as much as possible. It's always running the long way round. It doesn't act sick, but it gets tired more often than the other bigger chicks.
The chicks will be a month old this weekend so I suppose Chipie will be weaning them in a week or so, and there is no way it will be able to survive on it's own.
You can see on the picture the difference of size with it's sibling and on the video that it is the only one that doesn't fly on the chair when Chipie has them training to.
Would it be any use putting some vitamin in their water? I'm afraid I may need to keep it apart when Chipie stops caring for them.
View attachment 3170225

What a lovely family. I am no expert but that little one looks quite healthy to me.

 

[ManueB]

What a lovely family. I am no expert but that little one looks quite healthy to me.

That's why I wasn't worried up to now, I just thought it was slower to grow and it would catch up as it was pretty active. It's the fact that it refuses to fly that worries me. Maybe it has Peter pan syndrome, doesn't want to become an adult !

 

[Ladies-Eight]

I don't think that is a real word but I LIKE IT!!!!

Yester-morn probably comes from the old folk lore.

I don't really know.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all

77 sunny with 95 % humidity.

Have a great day!

 

[Iluveggers]

Iluveggers:​

This is Olivia, a D'Uccle frizzle.
She got absolutely drenched in today's rain but as you can see, her foot feathers are fine, just very, very wet.

View attachment 3170214

Her feet feathers are bedraggled & somewhat matted but are not causing any issues.
She is a lovely little hen. Very easy to handle.​

View attachment 3170215,

You have a beautiful flock! And Olivia is beautiful!