Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

☝X2!!! just absolutely stunning. ♡♡♡

X3. Awful storm. ⛈
Great cares.
Beautiful chickens, landscape & pictures.

 

[ManueB]

another one of those posts of yours that need a wow as well as a love! sorry to hear about the storm; sounds dreadful.

☝X2!!! just absolutely stunning. ♡♡♡

X3. Awful storm. ⛈
Great cares.
Beautiful chickens, landscape & pictures.

Thank you for the kind words! Good news the damage isn't as bad as we thought. Many vegetables and branches were folded over with the wind but didn't break and the hail didn't last long enough to destroy much. The potato had the worse of it but I won't mind if we don't have to eat potato every day .

 

[Shadrach]

What breed are they, Shad? If you've said, I've missed it. And can you say what you think of their keeping arrangements. Just curious as it's yet another backyard keeping arrangement that is probably different to what I'm used to.

They are Ex Battery hens. There are just two of them. Their owner had never kept chickens before and took them on under pressure. It seems that the chickens spend most of their day roaming around a back garden. The person who keeps them put a lot of work into learning something about them, so as chicken lives go these two have a good life including vet care.

 

[Shadrach]

The hen in the bin looks so funny! They must be happy the rainy days are over. Was it not a pain working in the mud ?

It looks very good. Maybe when you're finished you could send the picture to the company you bought it from as suggestions to make a better version of the coop, especially regarding the roost height! Still planning on making a window ?

You're not a morning person, or not a long walk person? Or is it the dog ? You managed to pull off a nice bit of work during that time though. Always nice coming home.

If I've only learned one lesson from this it is never, ever, place an animal enclosure somewhere where you can't supply electricity!
Mud isn't really the problem. Mud, even on poorly drained ground dries out. The problem is that out of laziness the bedding and chicken shite has just been thrown in the floor and is up to a foot thick in places. So not only is the ground slippery it's got hills!

I intend to do exactly this. Not sure how the company will receive my comments on their coop though.

I'm not a dog or cat person but I'm good with them apparently. Quite a few of the people I've lived with ot know well kept dogs. As one might expect, I have views about where cats and dogs should live and be allowed to go. I would never allow either in a bedroom, upstairs, lie in the middle of a hallway, etc. The few dogs I've really liked have been outside dogs that did a job. I'm not a fan of pet keeping in general.

 

[Shadrach]

We had an unforeseen storm yesterday. It didn't last for more than 30 minutes but with awful gush of wind, thunder and hail all of a sudden. Luckily Chipie had already brought the chicks in the coop. We had to pull away the hens from under the laurel tree under the hail and carry them one by one to the coop as there were branches falling everywhere, they were in a total panic.
We have lots of damage in the garden and on the property.
This morning I didn't wake up which is exceptional for me so I didn't open the coop at 5.30 but at 6. It was havoc between the hens and the little family. I noticed after they got out Chipie was bleeding in her face, she got pecked very close to her eye. I can't catch her, but it doesn't seem too bad and in the past she has always healed very well from pecks.

Rant tax :
Théo is now best friends with Nougat, who had been chasing and bullying him and Chipie since their arrival. He won her over by tidbitting!
View attachment 3174700
Bye people
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Ex-batts hen can lay in funny places too
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He monitors every move in the village below for morning gossip
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We used to get storms like this in Catalonia. Wake up to find the track had been washed away and trees down all over the place. Chainsaw mornings.

 

[Perris]

I have views about where cats and dogs should live and be allowed to go. I would never allow either in a bedroom, upstairs, lie in the middle of a hallway, etc.

so opposite to how you view chickens then!

 

[Perris]

the bedding and chicken shite has just been thrown in the floor and is up to a foot thick in places

 

[ManueB]

so opposite to how you view chickens then!

I was also going to comment on a man who slept with chickens in his room .

If I had my way the cats would never, ever, have been allowed in the house .

We used to get storms like this in Catalonia. Wake up to find the track had been washed away and trees down all over the place. Chainsaw mornings.

Exactly, we've been making and hearing chainsaw noise from all around all morning! I'm only allowed the electrical chainsaw so it's not very useful in these cases! The sheeps went up to stay in the mountain for summer yesterday I hope they got them there before the storm .

 

[Shadrach]

so opposite to how you view chickens then!

No, not really.
It is I grant you easy to assume a number of things looking at some of the pictures I've posted of chickens in my home in Catalonia.
You will find perhaps one picture of a chicken on my bed and she was on a towel, suprervised and dying, too sick to walk, let alone be outside.
None of the chickens went in my bedroom, apart from Fat Bird who came in to check I was still alive when I fell asleep on my bed one day. Worried about the contined supply of food no doubt.
When the chickens first made their way into my home I laid a current carrying wire accross the doorway; There were no intenal doors in that house. The chickens sensed the current and didn't cross in general. On those few occasions they did they got promptly evicted.
I have never owned, bought or sold a live creature in my life, so while I may feel great affection for the chicken species, they have never been my pets.

I will say however that in my entire time of having chickens in my house I had one breakage (a glass on a low shelf in the kitchen part) nothng chewed, nothing stolen and appart form the occasional fight, they were better behaved than any other creature I've lived with.

Yes, I show them affection when they let me, but I would with any creature. I like the other species on this planet.

One further point is when I designed the house, I designed it with the assumption there would be chickens in it at some point. Solid concrete floors throughout with a floor drain. Easy to sweep and mop which I did most evenings.

 

[Perris]

No, not really.
It is I grant you easy to assume a number of things looking at some of the pictures I've posted of chickens in my home in Catalonia.
You will find perhaps one picture of a chicken on my bed and she was on a towel, suprervised and dying, too sick to walk, let alone be outside.
None of the chickens went in my bedroom, apart from Fat Bird who came in to check I was still alive when I fell asleep on my bed one day. Worried about the contined supply of food no doubt.
When the chickens first made their way into my home I laid a current carrying wire accross the doorway; There were no intenal doors in that house. The chickens sensed the current and didn't cross in general. On those few occasions they did they got promptly evicted.
I have never owned, bought or sold a live creature in my life, so while I may feel great affection for the chicken species, they have never been my pets.

I will say however that in my entire time of having chickens in my house I had one breakage (a glass on a low shelf in the kitchen part) nothng chewed, nothing stolen and appart form the occasional fight, they were better behaved than any other creature I've lived with.

Yes, I show them affection when they let me, but I would with any creature. I like the other species on this planet.

One further point is when I designed the house, I designed it with the assumption there would be chickens in it at some point. Solid concrete floors throughout with a floor drain. Easy to sweep and mop which I did most evenings.

hang on a minute - it's not just pictures! I'm sure I've read you extolling letting them in to wander round your main room at least, and of course there's the nest box conveniently placed inside the window at coffee table height, and I'm sure I could find more if I had a good ol' rummage in the back issues of your threads...!