Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[TropicalBabies]

@no fly zone really, really sorry for your losses. Be kind to yourself ♡ I hope things settle.

@Solanacae congrats on the move! Looking good!

Sorry for the spill @PJ. Hope no one else saw and you mend quick

Spent the last hour catching up on this thread. Good read all!

 

[RoyalChick]

Thanks for making that call @Shad. I'm learning lots. I have 2 RSL that DH (the man who disapproves of my chooks) brought home as chicks. I cringed with open arms and heart.
Lady Ruby and Ginger Mint
View attachment 3200898
Started laying at 20 weeks and have only taken one day off so far in the 5-6+ months they have been laying. They are machines. It scares the heck out of me and I dread their fate. They are hard working foragers and first in line for food. I do 24/7 available feed + + + and just bought the $$ stuff for my flock but still worry I may not be meeting their nutritional needs. They live in the same environment as my other girls but lay fantastically and horrifyingly better.
I don't think there is any slowing these girls down so we are going for quality of life and I will/have hatched their barnyard babies in hopes the burden stops with them. Really terrific gals, very lovable.View attachment 3200891

I feel another part of the heartache is that these breeds are ridiculously friendly and very pretty too.
Your two ladies are lovely.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Yes I struggle to agree with 'only commercial feed' opinions. It just doesn't make sense to me that a bag of processed, low quality ingredients plus added low quality nutrients and synthetic amino acids can provide an 'optimal' diet for my birds. I DO feed a commercial feed as the basis of my flock diet, and I feed chick starter or gamebird to my chicks and broodies, and keep a coccidiostat on hand. However when I was semi making my own feed with crushed whole grains/legumes/meat meal and kelp, I think everyone including the chicks did better and was healthier. I liked that I could grab a handful of grain and see and smell for myself that it was indeed good and not mouldy or otherwise sub standard.

On a flock update, I've just finished fencing in a run around my gardens where in theory Squeaky and the pullets will be contained over night and for the morning. Squeaky has decided the best place to crow in the early morning is right next to the fence of the one neighbor who has complained about crowing, and he FACES that direction to do it . And added bonus (again, in theory) is that my gardens will be fenced off ready for spring if I move them out of it.
It remains to be seen if my plan turns into their plan however. I attempted to move them into the main run, which went fairly well, until my bedtime bully left the main coop, stormed over to their coop and threw them all out of it, just to make a point. She then went back to bed in the main coop. If she wasn't my only laying barred rock hen she would be finding herself moved along to a new flock quick smart.

The bedtime bully:

 

[Windrider]

The bedtime bully:
View attachment 3200977

Oh my, that expression says it all. She looks like she's telling those youngsters "Don't make me come over there and give you something to cry about!"

 

[Shadrach]

The sick hen was acting more normally this evening. She ate some fish and rice and some of the commercial feed. Getting her into the new coop and roosting on a bar might be making a difference. The old coop is mite ridden and damp in places.
Nobody is roosting in the old coop now and I can't see them going back. It's been a slower process than I anticipated.
Two of the Legbars went in this evening of their own volition which is a first. They came back out and on their way got pecked by doorway sitter.

I can't help but notice that I have now in effect three coops.
The old coop run where Henry, Matilda and the Legbars roost plus Lima.
Young Lima is a smart hen. She gets on well with Matilda, Henry likes her and she has a Legbar friend from the time she was a very sick hen.
The small coop at the back where three of the relative newcomers roost.
The new coop now housing all the original Ex Battery hens.

I've got to be honest and write I may have inadvertently made/allowed this to happen. But, the first two to take up residence in the new coop were Ex Battery hens. I did nothing to encourage this bar make the coop available. Number three and four were also volunteers. I think I've helped most of the rest at some point bar the last one tonight who just followed the rest.

Lima managed to knock Henry off the perch this evening in her dermination to choose her spot. Henry was completely nerfed. He couldn't see a gap on the perch to jump up to. He even went up the ramp of the new coop and peered in.
He stood under the perch pecking Matilda on her wing to get her to budge up; Matilda moves along all the Legbars do to, like it or not. She's a big hen is Matilda in this lot. Henry got a place eventually but they're like sardines up there.

 

[no fly zone]

Sky's babies are up on the roosting bars for bedtime for the first time ever. Since the day they hatched, they had been sleeping with her in the nesting box. I remarked to my wife last night that all 3 were trying to snuggle under her, but there wasn't enough room.

There was a Sky sized space between them and the adult birds though.

 

[TropicalBabies]

I feel another part of the heartache is that these breeds are ridiculously friendly and very pretty too.
Your two ladies are lovely.

That part surprised me as I find RIR's a bit bossy and did not want bossy RSL in my flock of very docile Brahmas. The RSLs have been very passive and accommodating to my flock. They are absolutely perfect, they just don't take any time off and well, like @Sally PB explained prefectly, these are my petstock. I'm not just in this thing for the eggs. The eggs are bonus. I just want them healthy.

 

[microchick]

Pssssttt. Post some pictures of you Fayoumies please. One of my favourite breeds,

I'll have to get some current ones, Shad, getting ready to go out now. I'll take my camera with me.

 

[TropicalBabies]

The sick hen was acting more normally this evening. She ate some fish and rice and some of the commercial feed. Getting her into the new coop and roosting on a bar might be making a difference. The old coop is mite ridden and damp in places.
Nobody is roosting in the old coop now and I can't see them going back. It's been a slower process than I anticipated.
Two of the Legbars went in this evening of their own volition which is a first. They came back out and on their way got pecked by doorway sitter.

I can't help but notice that I have now in effect three coops.
The old coop run where Henry, Matilda and the Legbars roost plus Lima.
Young Lima is a smart hen. She gets on well with Matilda, Henry likes her and she has a Legbar friend from the time she was a very sick hen.
The small coop at the back where three of the relative newcomers roost.
The new coop now housing all the original Ex Battery hens.

I've got to be honest and write I may have inadvertently made/allowed this to happen. But, the first two to take up residence in the new coop were Ex Battery hens. I did nothing to encourage this bar make the coop available. Number three and four were also volunteers. I think I've helped most of the rest at some point bar the last one tonight who just followed the rest.

Lima managed to knock Henry off the perch this evening in her dermination to choose her spot. Henry was completely nerfed. He couldn't see a gap on the perch to jump up to. He even went up the ramp of the new coop and peered in.
He stood under the perch pecking Matilda on her wing to get her to budge up; Matilda moves along all the Legbars do to, like it or not. She's a big hen is Matilda in this lot. Henry got a place eventually but they're like sardines up there.

View attachment 3200954View attachment 3200955

@Shad, I know I was capping on plastic but I really like your coop. I think you did a terrific job of the whole thing (in process I understand).
And your adopted flock is day and night from when I first peeked in on this thread. 50,00000000 pages ago. I love the calm ♡♡♡♡♡ and the chickens getting to be chickens. Absolutely lovely. Hope they get some allotment fruit.

 

[bruceha2000]

At the allotments there are now 20 chickens of mixed ages and breeds, plus one male and they get through 3x20kg bags a month.

Wow. I guess that is the difference between the Catalonia birds free ranging and the current birds only out a few hours a day?

They live in the same environment as my other girls but lay fantastically and horrifyingly better.

What I don't understand is what makes the sex linked girls lay so well and why does it shorten their lives? Get worn out I suppose. I have 2 Austra Whites (*) and wow did they start out strong. Still lay very well. Relatively small birds, more Leghorn shape than Australorp and lay big, always 60g+, often closing in on 70g. I kinda fear for their longevity as well. Gretel goes broody so she gets a break from laying that Aurora does not.

* Black Australorp X White Leghorn - a Meyer Hatchery cross.