Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[ManueB]

I've given up that idea. What I'm reading about acquired and inherited immunity puts a premium on old birds and their offspring, so the erstwhile candidates for culling will be staying and I'll stop buying in hatching eggs; if they don't make it to adulthood, they're not adding to the flock gene pool anyway. I think Phoenix sired Dyffryn and Killay , at least, so some Penedesenca genes should be incorporated already; those two just need to make it to maturity and reproduction!

There seem to be quite a few people on BYC aware of having one of those virus or bacteria you mentioned, and who manage to keep a closed flock successfully. And I've also read on a french forum that most backyard chicken keepers if they have been at it for sometime will get Marek's and / or some form of mycoplasma at one point in their environment.
I still hope it was a coincidence, but it's responsible to act as if not .

Zone 5. We have to get it in before the ground freezes which doesn’t usually happen until November but I always play it safe and do it a few weeks earlier. What zone are you?

Zone 8, guess that explains the difference ! The ground does freeze here for maybe two weeks in January and usually that's it.

This is a very philosophical discussion. What do you all mean by intelligence? Not IQ as that was developed to test people.
No question that chickens are more intelligent than humans when it comes to a host of things around plant and insect identification and location, about subtle changes in weather and light, about flock members’ illnesses and a host of other things.
And they are certainly more intelligent about chicken flock social dynamics than we are!
But they don’t hold a candle to (some) people in solving simultaneous equations for example.
I think discussion of differences in intelligence between species is not a helpful frame of reference.
It is clear that chickens are intelligent beings with their own social structure and community, their own individuality, likes and dislikes. Surely that is enough to treat them with the respect they deserve.

Like you I have difficulty to understand what intelligence means as an abstract concept, without applying to some specific notion : emotional, social, rational intelligence are all different.
I would personally like to think an important component of intelligence is the faculty to adapt to the environment, which would rank the human specie pretty low.
I have struggled for sometimes with the idea of keeping animals that are not meant to be eaten, but I can't imagine the alternative. Where would they live ? One could say we have taken for ourselves a big part of the place and made it unsuitable for others to live in.

 

[ppruitt]

Unless people are doing a winter garden it should stay so for several months. Are you glad not to see all those noisy obnoxious gardeners anymore, or does it feel too quiet ?

But wouldn't it be better to have a tarp on the door that you can take off in the summer when heat is the issue ?

Also, I think the wind bothers the chicken even if it's warm. We often have warm winds in the afternoon between 3pm to 6, it is the case now with temperatures between 20 to 24 (68 to 75) and the chickens take shelter and huddle together.

Remind me never to come over for coffee at your place .

Funny face ! You're planting garlic already, what zone are you in ? We plant at the beginning of December !

Congratulations on getting caught up and interesting to hear how your chicken keeping is coming along. Will you be keeping just this one rooster for the ten hens ? And, I've forgotten, how old are they now ?

Yes, just the one rooster for 11 hens. At least 5 are laying now and egg size is variable. I get quail size eggs and one hen is laying XL. They will be 22 weeks old Wednesday.

 

[Shadrach]

Why is it frustrating?

Because the screen and keypad are too small.

 

[ppruitt]

Great to have you back here again. And what a great story and experience.

What were you’re damages of the hurricane ? Hope it wasn’t too bad.

And what are you’re plans with the rest of the flock now? How many roosters do you want to keep? Have you already taken out some of the unwanted bad guys?

We had no major damages. I have been thru a few hurricanes, the worst being Hugo in 1989. I watched my walls move. We did have a lot of limbs down and my 10 foot tall bean trellises had to be repaired. My coop came thru with minimal damage, the tarp was already shabby. The chickens weren't too happy being penned in the coop for the day, but I didn't think they would do well in the wind. They already like to fly a little too much. At the moment, just keeping one rooster. Hopefully that will cut down on the fighting. At some point I may add a different breed, and I would need another coop/run for them. We have just over an acre, but I can't free range because of neighbors who let their dogs run loose.
I did take out some of the bad guys. One a week ago to see if I could still do it. It's been almost 40 years since I fully processed a chicken. I took out 3 more yesterday and will probably take the last 3 tomorrow.

 

[RoyalChick]

I would personally like to think an important component of intelligence is the faculty to adapt to the environment, which would rank the human specie pretty low.
I have struggled for sometimes with the idea of keeping animals that are not meant to be eaten, but I can't imagine the alternative. Where would they live ? One could say we have taken for ourselves a big part of the place and made it unsuitable for others to live in.

I don't struggle with keeping the cats. They were rescued in some cases from clearly very nasty situations (judging by their state of nutrition and fear of certain things). It is also clear who is using whom in our relationship, and cats as a species chose to move in with people many thousands of years ago.
I am less clear how I think about the chickens.

 

[MaryJanet]

There seem to be quite a few people on BYC aware of having one of those virus or bacteria you mentioned, and who manage to keep a closed flock successfully. And I've also read on a french forum that most backyard chicken keepers if they have been at it for sometime will get Marek's and / or some form of mycoplasma at one point in their environment.
I still hope it was a coincidence, but it's responsible to act as if not .

Zone 8, guess that explains the difference ! The ground does freeze here for maybe two weeks in January and usually that's it.

Like you I have difficulty to understand what intelligence means as an abstract concept, without applying to some specific notion : emotional, social, rational intelligence are all different.
I would personally like to think an important component of intelligence is the faculty to adapt to the environment, which would rank the human specie pretty low.
I have struggled for sometimes with the idea of keeping animals that are not meant to be eaten, but I can't imagine the alternative. Where would they live ? One could say we have taken for ourselves a big part of the place and made it unsuitable for others to live in.

It's important to consider affordances too. What types of intelligence and learning does the immediate environment, including the actor, afford/facilitate?

As far as I or anyone else can tell, chickens do a great job with what they've got to work with. And that's clever.

 

[ppruitt]

I’m pleased you’ve been able to observe the behaviour but mostly I’m pleased you’ve written about it.

Reporting you’ve seen it is worth more than any thanks.

There’s a lot going on there. It doesn’t seem like the behaviour of a stupid creature and the further one considers what is happening the more complex and more intelligent the behaviour seems.

This is what I want people to understand. Chickens are extraordinarily intelligent social creatures.

I had an interesting conversation with someone who keeps chickens and has done for many years. This person is what most would describe as an attentive, knowledgeable, caring keeper and we’ve had some discussions about the similarities in the behaviours we’ve observed.

I’ve written about “the last step” a number of times on this forum that humans find almost impossible to take and that is to consider the chicken as an equally intelligent species with a different set of skills. This friend and I usually get to this point in our conversations and to this persons credit, they readily admit they cannot take this final step because the moment they truly acknowledge this, they could no longer keep chickens.

I do see that they are very intelligent. Don't think I would go so far to say as intelligent as a human but given the downward spiral human intelligence seems to be taking, it could be possible. They have such an intricate social system and I look forward to deciphering as much as possible.

 

[Shadrach]

Are you glad not to see all those noisy obnoxious gardeners anymore, or does it feel too quiet ?

They are not all obnoxious.
I prefer quiet.

But wouldn't it be better to have a tarp on the door that you can take off in the summer when heat is the issue ?

I intend to keep it on during the summer months but with both sides rolled up and the top adapted to provide shade.

I think that's a very good question. Getting the balance right between good ventilation and bad draughts seems to be the trickiest element in coop design. Is there space to reorient the whole kit and caboodle against the prevailing wind?

Re the second point, I agree. I have a sheltered corner, actually the one pointing towards the prevailing winds here, so in the eye of the storm so to speak, but it has lots of dense vegetation at low and mid storey, and a couple of trees at mid and top level (most of that growing around and beyond our boundaries in agriculturally dead space), and I early planted it with my favourite large leaved plants (as the only place they had a chance of surviving) and broke it up further with yew hedges, and it provides the chickens' preferred place of refuge here when it's windy.

Tax: most of the flock in the same photo, who'd come running after me thinking dinner was to be delivered to the feeding station, dispersing as they realized their mistake View attachment 3292851

I do like your shade shed.

 

[Shadrach]

What I'm reading about acquired and inherited immunity puts a premium on old birds and their offspring

 

[Perris]

I do like your shade shed.

Thanks; that was an IKEA bunk bed once upon a time.