Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Loads of space in the new coop!

It's okay for ten. Assuming they all live until winter there will be twenty in there. Get Henry and Matilda in there and it will suddenly get much smaller.
It's a about a third bigger floor area than the old coop and I've counted twenty three in that. The main things are it's solid and I can keep it clean.

 

[no fly zone]

That is smart. Most chickens don't do that.

 

[Shadrach]

The train back to the city. This is the station nearest the allotments.

 

[Sally PB]

What are these?

Here's a link to the kind of towel I have. I forgot the brand name when I wrote that post. I've seen other things that work well; what I like about this one is that it covers the back of my neck.
https://www.mission.com/products/original-cooling-towel

This is one of the hens who has lost a lot of feathers through mating. In order for the feathers to fully regrow she would need to be isolated from Henry and therefor the group and the stress would be enormous. I don't have anywhere suitable to put her even if I did think it was a good idea. Not cuts so far thankfully.

Two of my hens have bare backs, one more so than the other, from my late rooster. The other 4 hens don't have this issue, so I'm thinking those two have brittle feathers. They are (supposedly) Blue Australorps, but the feathers look more like lavender to me, especially the more naked one. My Black Australorps look fine.

What's your feeling about hen saddles?

 

[Shadrach]

What's your feeling about hen saddles?

They are something I would use in extreme circumstances for as shorter time as possible.
They are a hinderance and possible trap for ranging hens.
A hen can't dust bath properly wearing one.
The are generally unhygienic imo.
They wont do anything to protect the neck feathers
Some people put them on in the morning at take them off at roost time which is marginally better.

 

[Sally PB]

A hen can't dust bath properly wearing one.
The are generally unhygienic imo.

I had the same thoughts. Is there anything I can do to "help" the feathers once they grow back? Are these ladies doomed to have their feathers break off from mating? I do plan to have a rooster again.

Darl (my rooster) was gentle enough, I thought. I didn't see anything I would have considered too rough. His spurs were blunt on the ends, his claws (like all my chickens' claws) are sanded down naturally through their scratching in the dirt in the run.

I am considering incubating eggs next spring with my broody, should she get in the mood then (I'm betting she will). But I probably will not set any eggs from these two ladies. Which is a shame, as one of them is my favorite.

 

[Shadrach]

I don't know of any way to accelerate feather growth. In theory a high protien feed should help given feathers contain a lot of protein. But protein will only get used where and when there is growth.
Having a rooster a similar weight to the hens helps to prevent it happening. Ideally one of the same breed then you get proper dimension match. Henry end up standing a foot either side of some of the smaller hens.

 

[Iluveggers]

I have generally stuck with breeds with reputations for being docile & sweet tempered & it seems to work with a very mixed flock.

Thanks for the info! I also picked “gentle” breeds to hopefully avoid bullying in a mixed flock. Fingers crossed!

Tonight all 10 roosted on the same bar. Lol

 

[Perris]

By patrolling and marshalling the bedtime bullies, and personally putting Teifi in a coop before shutting the door, I think I got everybody in last night; will know for sure in half an hour or so I have to admit to a certain satisfaction in directing the two worst bedtime bullies into the same coop

It's a about a third bigger floor area than the old coop and I've counted twenty three in that.

One night not long ago I found 12 adults and 7 chicks piled into a coop designed for 8, while 2 other coops were almost empty. Sometimes they value togetherness more than personal space it seems

They are (supposedly) Blue Australorps, but the feathers look more like lavender to me, especially the more naked one

I'm sure I read somewhere that the lavender gene is associated with brittle feathers, and that's been my experience too.

 

[ManueB]

Sounds like me and purslane! I bag it in plastic as I pull it, and it goes into the trash. Definitely don’t want to compost it, and it might fly away and regrow before DH gets to burning it!

What ? Purslane is precious !!! It's packed with nutrients . We eat it in salads and Purslane fritters are a traditional recipe. It's even sold on local producers markets.

Tribe/breed question for everyone. We have 10 chicks, of different breeds. Primarily because we wanted a colorful flock and also to experiment and see what breeds we like raising best in our climate and neighborhood. In the future, if we were to add more chicks, after they were fully integrated, would they tend to stick together as a group, or would they gravitate toward an older hen that is the same breed? We are in love with our Welsummer (who I almost didn’t order), and our Faverolles is the smartest in the bunch (if not a bit aloof which is the opposite of what I have read about them). So if our new group included Welsummer & Faverolles, would they split with their older counterpart or stick together? Just curious if any of you have ever experienced that.

I'm also really curious to see how mine will integrate /evolve. For now, the only chick that finds grace in our bantam Chipie's eye is Merle, who is also a bantam and we were hoping they become friends. However she looks nothing like her color wise.

Scrolling through articles yesterday I saw mentioned exactly what you and Ribh said : if you go for a mixed flock chose "gentle" breeds. I'm still sceptical about the genetic vs environment aspect, I have to say-if the chicks grow up in a mixed flock and are used to diversity, I wonder if they will be as breed /color aware as for exemple were my six ex-batts who never saw a different looking chicken until they reached two years old.

And by the way, in our garden the chicks/teenage chickens evolving freely didn't touch the baby carrots plants. They pecked and ate a bit of salads, kale, and what they really gobbled up is the chard and the beet leaves. I've been covering those up otherwise there would be none left.
I'm lucky they haven't understood yet that tomatoes are a food

It does indeed bring back some memories, one being I can't find any grapes here like those in Catalonia which while wine grapes were really tasty. The chickens thought so to.

Not to be pushing where it hurts but grapes need sunshine to be tasty. Hopefully with climate change you may live to eat the like of the grapes you had in Catalonia in Bristol .