Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

A couple of hours today. I had planned on being there most of the afternoon until I saw the weather. 8C, damp with almost constant drizzle.
They hadn't been fed and they had eaten what I left for breakfast. 300grams seems to be about right with a second long feed oppertunity in the afternoons.

Got the chores done and out we went.
I didn't get much more digging done. I've done enough working in the rain in my life now I think. I just turned over and weeded another couple of feet to encourage the chickens. They didn't need a lot.

Lima got went off to her bush after a while. Henry went to check where she was and came back to the rest. I could see her from my plot.

The rain got worse, so I put feed in the feed tray under the coop extension and we all moved in there.

Fret came and sat next to me on the roost bar maily so she could check my pocket it seems.

Henry went to roost early and the rest followed about ten minutes later.

 

[RoyalChick]

It's the behavioural changes that I find fascinating.
Ella for example wants out as soon as I arrive. She was very unsure in the first few days. She dug a lot this afternoon. She found stuff as well. As I keep writing, I beleive all that digging is really good for chickens. It requires a lot of effort. It's like heavy leg work in a gym, it raises the heart rate, extends and contracts muscles that on day to day wandering about don't get put to use.

Yes I still have contact with C but only face to face now if possible. Currently C seems to have left the chickens to me which is fine by me. C has mostly stopped feeding them so they aren't costing them anything. I do the chores and the meds and get them out under supervision daily.
My new plot will mean I'm likely to spend more time there. Nobody else apart from C and one other couple are making use of the place.
Treat the chickens well and enjoy myself at the same time for as long as I want for £30 a month is better than any club I can think of.

I am with you on the digging - it is a good work out. And they get seriously into it which I just love.
I have put them to work a few times tilling my raised beds but I had to deal with a strike when they found a more interesting place to dig so now I do it myself. I am faster than they are but the quality of the work is far inferior and I don’t deal with the bugs the way they do.

Tax: Chickens at work.

 

[Shadrach]

I am with you on the digging - it is a good work out. And they get seriously into it which I just love.
I have put them to work a few times tilling my raised beds but I had to deal with a strike when they found a more interesting place to dig so now I do it myself. I am faster than they are but the quality of the work is far inferior and I don’t deal with the bugs the way they do.

Tax: Chickens at work.
View attachment 3393754

I plan to get some temporary fencing to act as a boundry at some point. I just herd them back to the plot if they all wander off. They do complain about slavery and suchlike.

 

[RoyalChick]

I plan to get some temporary fencing to act as a boundry at some point. I just herd them back to the plot if they all wander off. They do complain about slavery and suchlike.

Yeah. Mine have quite a hike to get to my raised beds. They found a lovely bush about two thirds of the way there and decided that is where they would dig. Which is fine, except it did nothing to help me prepare the beds for sowing the next season’s crop.
I could try again with some herding, but last time they were pretty entrenched in their views.

 

[MaryJanet]

Easiest to provide a link to the video.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/HsBpDxEYr2KV/

Now type the line below into your browser and have a look at the sites that are pushing this. Pay particular attention to the comments on these sites and the nature of the other content they promote.

feed producers adding chemicals to feed to prevent hens laying

View attachment 3393258

I won't if it's all the same.

I am *so tired* of conspiracy theories.

 

[MaryJanet]

OK, but idiots are best ignored not given air time imo.

Hear, hear

 

[MaryJanet]

Ok. Laying is not a priority for me. Their overall health and happiness is.

Me too.

All this focus on laying productively means people are viewing hens as egg-making machines.

I think most of us appreciate that each hen is a unique personality *in her own right* and therefore deserves our respectful support and care.

 

[Perris]

I always check the mill date

I'm sure you will be fine then

Seriously don’t. Just don’t. I mean don’t waste your time or sanity reading the threads on how feed is affecting laying.

the only take-aways I've got from some very mind-bending reading therein is (1) that it is essential to check the best before/production date on the label (which I do always anyway) and (2) that what's called the Julian calendar is used by some commercial companies as a way to indicate said date for the puzzle-loving fraction of their customer base. Oh, and apparently some firms' bags get an easily findable and readable date, but that is the date the bag was made, not the contents. Believe that if you will.

Their overall health and happiness is.

Feed serves both; this is not just about egg laying, even if most of the discussion has been prompted by that. We can't see what's not working properly in our chickens' viscera; we can see eggs and notice if that system's not working. Very old feed lacks whatever nutritive value it claims on the bag. The smaller the bits have been milled/ heated treated/ pressed etc. the shorter the life. Whole grain should be good for at least one year, and much of it will be fine for more - a whole grain is nature's way of preserving nutrients. Really ancient grains can sprout in the right circumstances.

 

[Shadrach]

All this focus on laying productively means people are viewing hens as egg-making machines.

This is how the majority of people view hens, even here on BYC.
Some come to like the chicken through experience but the majority of these initially got them for the eggs they lay.

 

[ManueB]

This is how the majority of people view hens, even here on BYC.
Some come to like the chicken through experience but the majority of these initially got them for the eggs they lay.

This has been exactly how I got my hens and it was a very enlightening experience.
A lot of neighbors and family members are telling us to get rabbits and fatten a pig for winter but I bet it would go exactly the same way as it did with the hens. I'm sure if I, or most human beings, pay sufficient attention to any animal and spend time observing it, I will begin to find it interesting, discover it has abilities I did not imagine, wonder about it's behaviour and start to interact with it... And then slaughtering it for food will become difficult. For me it becomes impossible. And it also becomes difficult to support the commercial meat production.

So, I don't think getting chickens for eggs as an initial motive is always a bad thing. I think the key thing is taking some time with the chickens, and not only a few minutes morning and evening to feed and clean them.