Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Everose]

We Texans are super friendly folk!

Agreed.

Unless you're trespassing

 

[Shewstock]

100% truth!! Thieves could get gutted! Be more afraid of an angry female Texan!

 

[janiedoe]

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.

I have this problem, but I don't want to give this boy up. He is such a great rooster, and so handsome. The girls love him, and he isn't aggressive to them, but they do have some broken feathers. It seems to bother me, more than the hens. His father is big also, but he prefers the big brahma hens. Goliath, the one pictured, loves the naked necks most of all.

My tax, by the way.

 

[Everose]

100% truth!! Thieves could get gutted! Be more afraid of an angry female Texan!

You gotta have some major loss of brain cells to commit a crime out here, especially when someone's home. But we're also the safest people to run to if something's wrong.

 

[Everose]

Tax for rambling, not sure if he counts tho since he identifies as a duck.

 

[Shadrach]

We Texans are super friendly folk!

Agreed.

Unless you're trespassing

100% truth!! Thieves could get gutted! Be more afraid of an angry female Texan!

You gotta have some major loss of brain cells to commit a crime out here, especially when someone's home. But we're also the safest people to run to if something's wrong.

Not here please. Tax or no tax.
Please respect the fact that there are people from all over the world who read and post on this thread. If you want to wave the Texas flag I believe there are threads for exactly that.

 

[Shadrach]

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

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

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

I must confess circumnavigating some of the less pleasant hens at roost time does give me some very childish sense of pleasure.
The transition from the old coop to the new has gone surprisingly easy. I had expected more resistance from the Ex Battery hens at having the Legbars move in. Similie has a special relationship with everyone which I haven't worked out yet. She's the hen that stays close to the sick notes. She's the one who stuck by Lima as we got her well.
Fret! Everyone knows Fret frets and everyone puts up with it, including me. It's just the way she is. She was in about the same time as Similie.
There are two Ex Battery hens that get pushed around a bit by the others. I've put them in manually in the past. The Golden Comet now goes in on her own but leaves it late. The other rushes in and gets on a perch where she is less likely to get pecked.

 

[Shadrach]

Last week my partner sent Théo flying off as he had been attacking his ankle repeatedly. It was a very delicate shove with his foot, but he is so light that he did find himself back on his feet several meters away. He wasn't hurt, but he was really offended.

I sweep them away with my hand, even those intent on a scrap. I've had a few flying backwards and looking most put out about it. They come around in time if you're fair.

 

[Solanacae]

Thank you, this seems a very likely explanation as we also get blossom end rot, though only in the green house and only on that Specie which I can't find the english name for. I'll try to look up into this. I also got chlorosis this year on my strawberry plant before the roe deers gobbled it up, and I assumed it was because the calcium stopped it from assimilating iron. I usually cover it with pine needles to make the ground more acidic for it, but didn't do it this year.

It probably isn’t the same variety, but here is a similar one I’ve planted. It was very productive in my old garden, it doesn’t seem to be as well suited to the clay soil here and hasn’t grown particularly well. It’s a variation on a paste tomato, though much larger, curved, and pointy on the end than the more common “Roma” type paste tomatoes available here. The Roma type tomatoes are more prone to blossom end rot than this one, which is why I liked growing it.

I also agree that covering up is best for you but unfortunately I didn't have the good sense to do this before coming here. I'm thinking of tuaregs. Then again there are other very warm regions in the world where traditional ways imply being almost naked.

I think a key difference is here is melanin levels in the skin. People with light skin cannot handle as much sun exposure without negative effects.

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.

Cordelia had an impacted crop which took a few days to resolve once I realized what the problem was. Her crop was slow to clear for a while after that, so I used a “crop bra” to support the muscles in the crop while they regained their tone after being stretched out. For a few days, I kept it on constantly until I could feel that her crop was emptying overnight. She hated it, but even more that I was handling her so much when I would take it off during the day and on at night so she could dust bathe better. We were both relieved when she had several mornings in a row of an empty crop with no support. I would imagine that some chickens would have similar feelings regarding aprons.

 

[Shadrach]

I have this problem, but I don't want to give this boy up. He is such a great rooster, and so handsome. The girls love him, and he isn't aggressive to them, but they do have some broken feathers. It seems to bother me, more than the hens. His father is big also, but he prefers the big brahma hens. Goliath, the one pictured, loves the naked necks most of all.
View attachment 3217963
My tax, by the way.

That is some serious size difference. Can he stand on the smaller hens shoulders during mating?
I agree that the feather damage tends to upset the keeper more than the hens. Some hens are a lot better at saying no than others. The problem I have with a few of the Ex Battery hens is they always say yes! Now I can quite understand the desire to get a bit of action in while they can and Henry is a handsome chap and all that. I have told them to run. Henry won't bother chasing them from what I've seen.
When I started in Catalonia most of the Marans hens had feather loss problems but then there were more roosters than hens. My main concern at the time was sunburn. Once they got their tribes sorted out and the hens had a moult they were fine after.