Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

Amazing how you all care so much for your chickens that you give them special treatment, supplements etc. to give them a longer life.

All 9 chicks and 2 mama’s in one Photo. One is mostly hidden behind another chick.

 

[TropicalChickies]

That is a lovely piece of writing. I think you should enter it for the BYC short story competition. I know you already posted it, but this is a different audience.

Thank you! I'm still pretty new to this platform (joined Sept 2022 after keeping a small flock for 3 years) and exploring all of the threads. I'll look for the short story one.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Amazing how you all care so much for your chickens that you give them special treatment, supplements etc. to give them a longer life.

All 9 chicks and 2 mama’s in one Photo. One is mostly hidden behind another chick.
View attachment 3503626

Amazing how you all care so much for your chickens that you give them special treatment, supplements etc. to give them a longer life.

All 9 chicks and 2 mama’s in one Photo. One is mostly hidden behind another chick.
View attachment 3503626

My two new mamas act like they want to kill each other. I have to keep them on opposite sides of our land. Every chicken situation is different!

 

[RoyalChick]

Thank you! I'm still pretty new to this platform (joined Sept 2022 after keeping a small flock for 3 years) and exploring all of the threads. I'll look for the short story one.

I am not very skilled at copying links on my phone so in case this fails look for it in the active competitions forum.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/byc-writing-prompts-a-short-story-contest.1574800/

 

[TropicalChickies]

I am not very skilled at copying links on my phone so in case this fails look for it in the active competitions forum.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/byc-writing-prompts-a-short-story-contest.1574800/

Thank you! I just found it and uploaded my story.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Amazing how you all care so much for your chickens that you give them special treatment, supplements etc. to give them a longer life.

All 9 chicks and 2 mama’s in one Photo. One is mostly hidden behind another chick.
View attachment 3503626

I really respect people who dispatch and eat their own birds. Once I get to know them, I just can't bring myself to it. Now I won't eat chicken at all. For sure, I could never have a pig because I'd probably feel the same way and wouldn't want to eat pork chops or sausage. And then life just wouldn't be as good.

 

[BDutch]

I really respect people who dispatch and eat their own birds. Once I get to know them, I just can't bring myself to it. Now I won't eat chicken at all. For sure, I could never have a pig because I'd probably feel the same way and wouldn't want to eat pork chops or sausage. And then life just wouldn't be as good.

My neighbours have a mini pig as pet. Not for dinner.

I don’t eat my chickens or any other chickens. But I have learned to deal with losing chickens over the years. Most of the losses where from predators. If a chicken gets sick I don’t go to a vet (until now). Because the vets in my town are ridiculously expensive, and most vets tend to give antibiotics for almost everything from what I have been reading on a Dutch chicken-forum. So I rather loose a chicken doing nothing, then treat the poor chicken with too much medicines.
Just try to keep them healthy with organic feed and letting them free range for several hours a day if possible (when someone is at home). And I do like my Dutch for being a though breed.

 

[Shadrach]

Lurking tax as well. Been very busy with farm work and helping the two new mamas with the little ones, making sure they get time outside but don't get lost in the bush. It's a jungle out here (literally). Yesterday I fashioned some larger mobile enclosures so I can move them around and keep the two mama hens out of each other's sights -- now that they each have kids (or a kid in Patucha's case), they suddenly hate each other. This morning is pissing down rain, so hopefully it clears up so I can give them outdoor time. They aren't "cooped" up. Each mama and chicks has its own enclosure on the ground with their nest, but with the big wide world to explore, they want out!

View attachment 3503408
Tina and her three little ones are going great. The early hatchling (Primo) is healthy and integrated.

View attachment 3503409
Meet little Solo. Only one of Patucha's eggs hatched early on day 21. By early morning on Day 23 the three other eggs were smelly, one was sweating brown goo, I got them out of there, very glad none exploded on Solo. It took Patucha two days to accept that the eggs were gone and Solo was solo. But she kept Solo warm and half heartedly showed him how to eat. She was pale and thin and I was worried. Solo was amazing, calm like a little Buddha, he wobbled right up to me on day 2 to eat from my hand. But I really wanted mama to snap out of her depressed daze.

2 days ago I took them out together and put them under a big basket in the dust bathing area, which did her a world of good. I cleaned out and put fresh sand and grass clippings in her nest. I also managed to examine her and found some lice which I drowned with mild sulfur soap solution and gave her some vitamins. As long as I kept her and Solo close together and in direct sight of each other, she stayed calm. When I put them back together, she finally made those contented cooing mama hen sounds. Yesterday she was calm, motherly, and invested in Solo's upbringing. It was good to see.

Meanwhile Tina's crew are starting to roughhouse a bit and find little sticks to practice roosting. Fun to watch.

Two different hens, two totally different brooding and hatching experiences happening side by side, six days apart. Really interesting.
View attachment 3503412
Patucha and Solo, yesterday.

View attachment 3503413
Garden and jungle.

One doesn't really understand competition until one has two broodies with chicks in the same area. Blue Spot and Dink hated each other the moment they became their tribes senior and most broody hens. Dink took on Blue Spot, Blue Spots son and Harold Blue Spots rooster in a scrap one day.I had to break the fight up even though Dink was holding her own. Dink, she was one extraordinary hen and I think about her often.

 

[Shadrach]

I really respect people who dispatch and eat their own birds. Once I get to know them, I just can't bring myself to it. Now I won't eat chicken at all. For sure, I could never have a pig because I'd probably feel the same way and wouldn't want to eat pork chops or sausage. And then life just wouldn't be as good.

I used to eat chickens I had looked after in Catalonia and I would here as well in the right circumstances. I didn't eat many and from what I've read here I doubt many would think there was a decent meal for one on them. Even Fat Bird, contrary to her name was solid muscle.
If you are like me and believe that hens should sit and hatch and it's such a major part of being a chicken for both males and females, and given the hens in the tribes all went broody at least once a year. Even with predation and old age there were still more chickens each year than I could house and feed. I was left with either rehoming, which I did when I could find suitable people, or eating a few each year.
I also believe that having multi generation tribes is the way to keep chickens and this can only be properly achieved by letting broodies sit and hatch. I've had broody mums lose half their offspring when juveniles and from what I could see they accepted this as the way of nature for want of a better term.

 

[Shadrach]

Another dry sunny day.
Started on the shade structure for the run. I think it's going to do what I'm after. Probably need some experimentation to get it right.
They all settled down on the extension roost bar again. Looks like this is going to be the norm until the coop gets moved and I get the door on the extension. Never mind, it gives me a chance to handle Henry which he seems quite happy about and any of the hens who don't take the hint.

I was trying to explain to someone at the allotments today about what gets called the overmating problem; something almost inevitably gets blamed on the rooster. It's not his fault, it's our fault.
If a hen only lays say 50 eggs a year then she doesn't invite or accept a roosters attention for the period she isn't laying. Reasonably enough a hen wants each egg she lays to be fertile. The more eggs she lays, the more she mates with the rooster. Carbon for example isn't laying at the moment. Henry doesn't bother her. The odd thing is Lima isn't laying and I don't think she ever has but she still crouches for Henry and it seems as far as Henry is concerend, Lima is a laying hen.
The roosters in Catalonia didn't bother non layers either. Also, they knew when a pullet was about to strat laying and started courting before the pullet had laid her first egg. The pullets also knew when they were about to lay and many would crouch for their rooster before they laid their first egg. They seem to have all this worked out. The main problem seems to be the more eggs they lay the harder the rooster works to ensure the eggs are fertile.
It's us humans that are responsible for hens laying more and more eggs. It's not the hens fault and it's not the roosters fault for trying to ensure all the hens eggs are fertile.