Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[pennyJo1960]

Morning X Batts from USA.
Dry here but cold that is fine as long as it is dry.
Tax dry oatmeal time

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[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

57 mostly cloudy 70% humidity feels like 56 rain 0%.

Have a great day!

 

[lightm]

My sweeties enjoying their wood chip pile. The best gift I have ever given to them. It's been probably half a year and they still have plenty to enjoy.

 

[Shadrach]

Day off yesterday.
Sunny and cold today. Between the wind and the bleak winter sun the run has dried out a lot.
C said thay fed them yesterday. I know they got something in the morning because I left plenty in the tray on Saturday evening.
What they didn't get is cleaned out or water changed. Not the end of the world but they like clean bedding. This is what two nights worth of poop looks like.

All the poop looks okay. It's too cold for much in the way of mites or lice and on casual inspection (vent and neck check) they looked clean this afternoon.
C was at the field when I arrived having just fed the geese and chickens. The tray was empty when I looked so just fed wasn't very much. They ate a further 350 grams in the next couple of hours.
There isn't much in the way of forage; the occasional spider and the few lavae they can find at the edges of the allotment run. Not even much grass growing at this time of year. They got half an hour supervised out in the allotments. As usaul Lima was the last to be herded back through the gate. She was digging a particularly productive hole under a rosemary bush when I interupted her.

They will all eat from my hand now, even Fret. What's more they all understand they will all get something so hand feeding is pleasant now for all concerned.
Henry has tacitly agreed to feeding his hens by hand. I still feed him first but he only gets a single piece; not eat and then decide to drop for his hens. There is hardly any barging and snatching. Fret comes around the other side of me, Lima gets in close both of which help in making sure the right chicken get that turn.
Taking food from a hand is a big deal in chicken culture. Only roosters and mother hens feed other chickens in general. Taking food from a rooster is an implicit agreement to mate and usually, follow. Senior experienced hens do not respond to junior cockerels I've found food calls for this reason.

 

[Iluveggers]

Some back tax. Although I did open the door to the run to let them range, we got over a foot of snow last night so no one was keen on leaving their dry & roofed playground.

Miss Nosy:

 

[Solanacae]

Your Miss Nosy made me smile!

 

[micstrachan]

View attachment 3380915I was not so bright today.

Locked the chickens in the run/coop I thought and went away for some shoppings. When I returned the chickens were free ranging .

Forgot to close the run-door. They were lucky. I bought a bag of wild songbird seeds (hemp, sunflower and some other seeds) . Nice treat.

Yikes!

 

[Solanacae]

Nice sunny day here. Most everyone decided to enjoy the sunshine and sunbathe. Saoirse, Fuzzy and Caramel somehow managed to dust bathe all at the same time, though it was plenty crowded.

My brother stopped by this afternoon for a bit of chicken therapy, apparently today was a tough one and needed to spend some time with animals. Depression is rough for him this time of year, and I was more than happy to pick out a couple of the girls who tolerate being held better to help him out. He also got dog snuggles, a good chat, a nice meal and hugs from everyone before leaving in a much better state of mind.

I’ve seen some slow improvement on Cordelia’s crop. I’ve been using the crop bra to support her pendulous crop and taking it off periodically to allow for better dust bathing. The last couple weeks, her crop hasn’t ballooned as much by the end of the day, which seems to indicate that her crop is regaining some of its muscle tone. It’s been slow going for sure, this has been an issue for at least 6 months now, but she’s gaining weight and her comb is erect. I was looking back at pictures from fall of 2021 and realized that her comb was floppy back then. It was about time she started to lay sporadically (and then stopped altogether) though it wouldn’t become apparent to me that she was having troubles until the next spring. Would her poor nutrition (due to a pendulous crop) have an effect on her comb like that? I’ve noticed that Fuzzy’s comb, which is large, flopped over when she started molting last fall, in addition to getting pale. These are the only two of my girls who have had changes like that, though a good number of the hens here have smaller or different types of combs. Last picture is of Cordelia from fall 2021.

 

[ManueB]

She was digging a particularly productive hole under a rosemary bush when I interupted her.

One would not expect less from Lima .
It's impressive how much strength chickens have in their feet. I have only four truly free ranging chickens in my huge garden, three of which are small or bantams, and they have dug up almost everywhere. I'm also amazed at all the old lost stuff they have discovered from us or former inhabitants. Just yesterday they found a garden knife and some pliers we lost two summers ago.

Would her poor nutrition (due to a pendulous crop) have an effect on her comb like that?

I'm interested to hear more experienced chicken keepers view points on comb- colours and flappiness.
From what I've seen many factors can change the comb's color : temperatures, hormones( laying/not laying/broody and male hormones for the rooster), heart conditions, and yes also denutrition.
It seems to me that a pale or dark comb isn't always a cause for concern but all the very sick chickens I have seen did have pale or/and dark and floppy combs.
Good job on Cordelia, I hope she keeps getting better.
Chicken therapy is a thing ! So is eating good food with people you love.

 

[Perris]

I'm also amazed at all the old lost stuff they have discovered from us or former inhabitants. Just yesterday they found a garden knife and some pliers we lost two summers ago.

absolutely! I think that's also why foot injuries are not uncommon. They dig with real gusto, and if there's something sharp lurking under detritus or earth, it can be nasty. Sven had an injury to the top of his central toe years ago, and while it healed fine, that claw didn't grow back quite normally; it's looked like this ever since