Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

I did get to the allotments and took some pictures. At the moment, I don't have a spare USB socket to plug the camera into because I'm cloning a 1TB drive and it's taking a while.

 

[no fly zone]

I did get to the allotments and took some pictures. At the moment, I don't have a spare USB socket to plug the camera into because I'm cloning a 1TB drive and it's taking a while.

sounds high tech.

 

[Shadrach]

sounds high tech.

I keep all my chicken stuff and my music album collection on remote hard drives with backup. Over time the drives don't match because I've added something to one but not the other, or had a delete unwanted albums spate.
I clone the drives from time to time so they ahve exactly the same content. It takes a long time on the fanless low power computers I have.

 

[ManueB]

It's been a rough road.
I heard a story yesterday from someone who I consider to be level headed and reliable. The chickens were an issue long before I arrived.
Apparently C's plan has always been to try and make money by getting Ex Battery hens which at 18 months are still laying regulalry and selling their eggs.
As soon as they stopped laying or got sick, C would either leave them to die or kill them off if they didn't die quickly and replace them with more Ex Battery hens. I know many other people do much the same, but hopefully not by stuffing 26 chickens in a coop suitable for four. The person who told me this also told me that C refused to do anything effective about an infestaion of red mite in the coop a couple of years ago, saying all chickens have mites and their life is better than at the battery, refused to tend to some of the injuries the hens have sustained over the yearsand refused to listen to anybodies advice who knew more than C does.
This is now the third person who has told me similar stories.

C neither knows the first thing about chicken keeping nor is interested in learning. If through all this C decides, as seems to be the case, that walking a few yards from their house to the allotments to feed the chickens in the morning is too much trouble and buying the feed they require and keeping them to any reasonable interpretation of DEFRA's guidlines is too expensive, then there will be one less person in the world abusing the species.

There are just five left now and I can afford to feed, medicate and house them if C stops contributing. I could even arrange a system that would mean if C stopped feeding them altogether (I clean them out and inspect them now anyway, plus do the housing requirements) I could ensure that food was available in the mornings.

I and a couple of others believe that what has happened is C read the DEFRA guidlines I posted on the original whatsapp group while I was in it and has realised they are wide open to prosecution for some serious breaches of the guidlines. For example DEFRA will prosecute for the wrong disposal of dead chickens. They take that quite seriously. Throwing the dead bodies in the woods would not be taken lightly because of the risk of spreading disease. The keeping of medication records is also considered important. Apparently the recent attempts by C to put netting over the runs (this has been a DEFRA requirement for almost three years now as has the covering of ponds not contained in a covered run) was brought on by the link to the DEFRA guidlines I posted.

I never wanted to believe the worse from C. but I suppose I was wrong. Though the money explanation doesn't completely make sense- why keep the geese then, and take so little trouble to actually sell the egg ?
Anyway I suppose that's not really important because what matters it the outcome. If Henry can actually stay at the allotment with four hens and you can take care of them I will be mostly happy. It's nice in a way that Lima stayed because you always found her special.

It's odd, but I had far fewer problems when it came to Bantam males than I had with full sized heritage and crosses. Interestingly many game fowl keeps seem to have less human aggression problems.
All the bantam males I've had anything to do with were very independant.

Well as I've mentioned several times Théo my cross bantam is much less cool than my big cockerel. I won't make any generalization based on his specific case though.

I keep all my chicken stuff and my music album collection on remote hard drives with backup. Over time the drives don't match because I've added something to one but not the other, or had a delete unwanted albums spate.
I clone the drives from time to time so they ahve exactly the same content. It takes a long time on the fanless low power computers I have.

We bought a new laptop two months ago and we still haven't gotten to using it, although we keep complaining that our old 12 years old one is so slow .
I've done all the back ups but I can't get Tor to run on it for some reason and I wouldn't want any official agency to probe on all my chicken posts .

 

[Shadrach]

Yesterdays pictures.
I got lucky again and got there in time for a gap in the rainy weather fronts. Not cold, but some stiff wind gusts at 40mph.
Everybody came out.

Henry retired early.

They all settled on the one roost bar eventually.

 

[Perris]

They seem to be bonding well now. But poor Lima seems to demonstrate dramatically the efforts of the poultry industry to breed birds that put almost all of the nutrition they eat into egg production and as little as possible into body maintenance (which is why they are also susceptible to internal health issues and short lives).

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

59 cloudy 94% humidity feels like 60 rain 66%.

Have a great day!

 

[Solanacae]

They seem to be bonding well now. But poor Lima seems to demonstrate dramatically the efforts of the poultry industry to breed birds that put almost all of the nutrition they eat into egg production and as little as possible into body maintenance (which is why they are also susceptible to internal health issues and short lives).

My two ISA Browns, Ginger and Goldilocks, are growing new feathers here and there rather than taking a break from laying and getting them all at once. Their tail feathers are ragged, body feathers are all shredded, and if they get rained or snowed on, the feathers don’t repel water well. Goldilocks is always out foraging, she reminds me of Lima in terms of personality a little.

 

[Solanacae]

Tax:
1. Curie checking out my dog, Sisko.
2. Curie checking out the camera - she’s very close to laying and has been going in and out of the nesting boxes.
3. Einstein, Estella, and Genevieve enjoying some mash. This is notable because it’s one of the first times the Wyandotte’s came out of the coop on their own. I have no idea why, but I wonder if the hoarding situation they came from had something to do with it. I pushed them out the chicken door a couple times when the weather was nice last week, because it never seemed to occur to them before then that they could go through the door like the other chickens. They were nervous but seemed to enjoy everything except walking on the cold snow patches.

 

[Perris]

Curie is just too cute