Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

I would love to say they are pets but pets they are not.

I had a couple out of the first eight chickens I bought that I would have called pets.

We could call them pets if you don't make a profit from them if you like.

 

[Shadrach]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!

89 partly sunny 61 % humidity feels like 100 with thunderstorms moving through today.

Have a great day!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The birthday dinner was a huge success.

We had crawfish, snow crabs, steamed oysters, scallops, blue crabs, giant fish sandwich, seafood mac, and shrimp with sides of potatoes, corn on the cob, sausage, boiled eggs, fries, and fried corn.

The oldest granddaughter didn't make as she was working.

She ask several of her co-workers to trade shifts with her and even offered to pay them to work for her with no takers.

We sent some take-out for her to enjoy.

We took very little food home with us.

Did you save me any?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Only if man could take a lesson from chickens I agree.
tax

 

[Shadrach]

Hey everyone, been gone for a while trying to get settled after moving. Still plenty to do, but not feeling quite so overwhelmed as before. I had a lot of reading to catch up on! Congrats to @Shadrach for all the views, my condolences to @no fly zone and @ManueB for the passing of their birds.

There’s plenty I wanted to chime in on, but I managed to refrain except for one thing - the baggy pants. I’ll pay tax for reverting to an old off topic tax at the end.

I’ve been a teacher for over a decade now and have seen the baggy pants come and go, and most actually do wear a belt, surprisingly enough. Suspenders would be very, very uncool. If one needs to run, they’ll either hold onto their pants with one or both hands so as not to trip themselves. The swiveling way one has to walk to keep the pants up can lead to hip problems, but trust someone doing something ridiculous to look cool to ignore future health problems at all costs.

What I wanted to share was that in the US, anyway, the low baggy pants are a carryover from prison culture. Inmates have sexual urges and satisfy them in different ways - the lower your pants in a prison, the more an ‘invitation’ it is to other inmates. Most teenagers have no idea what it is that they are copying, they just see older, “cooler” people wearing clothes a certain way and mimic it.

My new house has precious little shade, which I am working to remedy, but it will take time for the trees and shrubs to provide adequate shade for my girls. For now, they have access to the underside of half my deck so they have ample shade in our mid-90 (~35 C) degree weather we have all summer. They love having more space to roam, and the grass has held up pretty well since they have the added space to spread out their scratching. My end goal is to have the chicken area planted with fruit trees with shrubs and herbs in their understory - a permaculture approach to an orchard. I also plan to seed a forage mix to compete with/replace the grass so they have better quality forage available also. I’m also planning to plant an area of the yard as a pollinator garden, as a lot of people have grass and non-flowering shrubs, so my bees have fewer options than the old place.

My neighbors thought the chicken coop was a shed, and we’re surprised to find out that such a large structure was for chickens. Lots of people have chickens here, and the extent to which they let their chickens out to forage varies a lot. My husband calls it the chicken palace, and while he isn’t much of a chicken person, he does understand that it’s important to give these hardworking girls a good space to live, and also that it’s important to me that these ladies have as much freedom as I can give them. He and my father in law did most of the building, while I was busily getting grass ripped up and planted into a garden.

Cordelia is recovering from an impacted crop, which I have never dealt with before but finally caught in to what was wrong when she kept in doing a funny head bob trying to readjust her crop. She hates being touched but I told her this morning that I’ll stop bothering her in a couple days when I know for sure that things aren’t backing up. The funny thing is she’ll come and hang out next to me if I’m just sitting in the grass, so at least she doesn’t view me as a complete enemy.

Tax:
1. Cordelia, the day I treated her impacted crop
2. Sophia, currently broody in this heat!
3-7. Everyone enjoying the cooler evening temperatures
8. Garden is mostly thriving. Lots of composted manure from a local boarding stable to amend the heavy clay soil here.

Lovely update. I hope the move turns out well for you.

 

[Shadrach]

Vets for chickens is a very personal decision I think. I don't take mine, but I could see me giving in if it was my rooster and I thought there might be some hope.

Speaking of roosters, I am so pleased with my cockerel. He is my first I've been able to raise up with a fully mature flock rooster. Little dude Squeaky (temporary name while he might still end up as lunch) is very keen on crowing, and big dude Kowalski doesn't give two hoots about it. No crow battles here yet. But Squeaky is taking excellent care of his hatch mate pullets. He makes sure they are all in their coop before he goes in to join them, and will hunt them down if they're missing. He isn't showing any aggression or signs of mating with them (they're obviously too immature). I know it's early days yet but I am cautiously having high hopes for him. In the past big dude Kowalski hasn't had issues with cockerels 'practicing' their mating skills on the neighbor's hens, and the neighbor's hens seem to just appreciate the masculine attention, however inept. Kowalski certainly won't tolerate any ovatures towards his own hens, it will be interesting to see how he feels about the pullets as they get older.
I raised Kowalski with older hens, and he has turned out a fabulous rooster, but Squeaky so far is even better. Learning from older birds really seems to make a big difference.

View attachment 3198982

You may still have problems with Squeaky and Kowalski. If it happens it's often around 1 year to 18 months old. Space makes it tolerable. Cooped together, possibly not.
Yup, seniors are worth their weight in gold, but I would say that wouldn't I at my age.

 

[Shadrach]

When I got to the allotments I found one of those super rounded edge plastic baby baths in the run. It did I have a large stone in the bottom I should mention.
There was also a wooden step next to the baby bath. I forgot to take a picture.
C arrived later and I explained that I had removed the baby bath, mentioning that it was dangerous for the chickens. I went through the whole chickens go into thermal shock and it's shock and exhaustion that usually kills them. C seems to have taken this on board.

So this is the sick hen. I'm giving her a coccidiosis trearment just on the off chance and an a small amount of Ibuprofen.
I tool the picture because I've seen this before with sick hens. I think there are some similar pictures far back in the thread. Since she's been sick there is almost always one of the Legbars next to her. I put her in the new coop tonight on one of the perches and when I looked last she had worked her way down the perch to be next to two others.

10 in the new coop tonight. I put three in and they stayed.

 

[Shadrach]

I must admit, I don't understand the allotment people. C and I have been collecting the plums. Nobody else is. They are small but have a good taste and texture.
I'm giving away potatoes.
In a couple of weeks it's going to be non stop blackberries and apples. I asked C if anyone picked those and C said not usually.
Seems like an awful waste to me.
Tonights plum haul.

 

[RoyalChick]

I must admit, I don't understand the allotment people. C and I have been collecting the plums. Nobody else is. They are small but have a good taste and texture.
I'm giving away potatoes.
In a couple of weeks it's going to be non stop blackberries and apples. I asked C if anyone picked those and C said not usually.
Seems like an awful waste to me.
Tonights plum haul.
View attachment 3199722

Those look great. What a waste to just leave them.

 

[Sally PB]

We could call them pets

I think of my chickens as "petstock." A cross between pets and livestock.

Our dogs (we've only had dogs as pets) are members of the family, and we have spent thousands of dollars on veterinary care over the years. The chickens won't get that level of vet care; they may never see a vet.

Will I cry when any of my girls pass? Oh, yeah. Some more than others, but they are all near and dear to my heart.

 

[Perris]

I must admit, I don't understand the allotment people. C and I have been collecting the plums. Nobody else is. They are small but have a good taste and texture.
I'm giving away potatoes.
In a couple of weeks it's going to be non stop blackberries and apples. I asked C if anyone picked those and C said not usually.
Seems like an awful waste to me.
Tonights plum haul.
View attachment 3199722

There may be organised volunteers around who will come and harvest fruit trees and distribute the proceeds to local food banks and soup kitchens. You would need the permission of the owner of the tree of course, but it's worth a shot don't you think?