Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!

Weather is in the 80s.

Have a great day!

 

[Shadrach]

I don’t have experience of chicken doors, but the Solway boards look interesting.
Here you can get recycled plastic lumber - it is good stuff and can be used for construction framing.
I used it in some parts of the Chicken Palace build - I would have used it more if it weren’t so expensive.

Tax

View attachment 3444359

Recycled plastic would seem to have a lot of advantages.
You can bend many of them.
You can tap a thread in them and the pull out resistance is pretty good.
You can glue them.
They are easy to cut either by hand or with a jig and machine. I used a hacksaw/padsaw on the coop alterations I made.
It doesn't rot.
Full sheets don't leak.

But, what I don't know is can the recycled plastic be recycled.

 

[Shadrach]

My experience is that you can rely on the chicken guard. My old chickenguard can be set on time to open and close on lumen, when its almost dark.

There is an Omlet auto opener without the need of pulling up by a cord.

I'm going to have to make some alterations to the coop to make it fit.

 

[Shadrach]

Morning X Batts opened the coop found a membrane egg no shell.
I have oyster put but hard to get them to it every now and then.
Moving to the new coop in 2 days.

Watermelon wiped in a tub Calcium Citrate worked for me and my sister when she was having weak shelled eggs but the hens wouldn't eat enough Calcium.

 

[Shadrach]

I think I am doing this wrong. I tried and got thoroughly beaten up by Bernadette who seemed to think it was a way of preventing her from getting at the seed in my hand.
I can’t feed her open handed because she regards my fingers as snacks ‘on the hoof’ as it were, and it is quite painful. So I let her eat out of the treat cup directly.
I would love to be able to hand feed her. Is the idea that they insert their head right into your fist? What (apart from Henry’s obviously impeccable manners) stops them just grabbing hold of the web of skin between your thumb and forefinger and twisting?
That is what Bernie did.

Madam, your hen is a mannerless savage!

Those are sunflower seeds in the pictures I posted. I think you've probably got the right idea. I have never had any chicken grab that web of skin. I have been the recipient of the missjudged peck on occasions.

Oh yes, I want to eat at source, is a common problem and strangely the closed fist feeding is supposed to address this issue.
Henry likes to eat from the cup. This is in part because I show him and let him sample what I have before the hens get a look in.

 

[Perris]

Watermelon wiped in a tub Calcium Citrate worked for me and my sister when she was having weak shelled eggs but the hens wouldn't eat enough Calcium.

milk is a good source of calcium, and yogurt, and most chickens I know love both.

 

[Perris]

Henry likes to eat from the cup

doesn't his comb get in the way? My roos struggle with anything like a cup.
My tax must be due, so here's Fforest, 8 months old now, and filling out nicely. He's not fey, btw, he was just finishing a wing and leg stretch when I snapped this.

 

[RoyalChick]

Recycled plastic would seem to have a lot of advantages.
You can bend many of them.
You can tap a thread in them and the pull out resistance is pretty good.
You can glue them.
They are easy to cut either by hand or with a jig and machine. I used a hacksaw/padsaw on the coop alterations I made.
It doesn't rot.
Full sheets don't leak.

But, what I don't know is can the recycled plastic be recycled.

For the stuff I used I did explore that and the answer is yes.

 

[RoyalChick]

Madam, your hen is a mannerless savage!

Those are sunflower seeds in the pictures I posted. I think you've probably got the right idea. I have never had any chicken grab that web of skin. I have been the recipient of the missjudged peck on occasions.

Oh yes, I want to eat at source, is a common problem and strangely the closed fist feeding is supposed to address this issue.
Henry likes to eat from the cup. This is in part because I show him and let him sample what I have before the hens get a look in.

I think you are right - Bernadette is indeed a mannerless savage! I am very fond of her nonetheless, so I may need to stick with the cup.
I tried the fist on Eli and it worked just fine, but she climbs up on me to burrow under my jacket to get into my inside pockets to get her sunflower seeds. I rather enjoy that process so will stick with that method for her.

 

[Shadrach]

I set off when I felt it was about time to go and of course my body clock didn't go forward so I was there for three and a half hours.
There were people there! Chickens had to stay in the allotment run. They wandered in and out of the coop run while I worked on getting the bottom of the fence more secure. I'm fixing the mesh you can see on the floor to the existing fence on the inside of the fence. There isn't really any need for a mesh skirt on the outside because of the roots the stuff on the other side has put down. It was hard enough digging some of them out on the inside just a few inches deep. Having growing stuff on the outside would seem to have it's advantages.

C said they let the chickens out in the morning and didn't have any trouble with the pop door.

Then there is this.

Now I don't know if C has kicked the spoil into the run when opening up, or perhaps the chickens have spread it about, or someone thinks they're funny and I'm stupid.
If a creature is digging into the run one would expect the spoil to be on the outside. Looks like this one was trying to get out. Anyway, they stopped at the mesh.

Last check. Stroke Henry. Tell Ella to stop fidgetting. Stroke Fret because it seems to make her less nervous overall. Shut back and slide pop door down.

Days wages.