Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[TropicalChickies]

And in general, roos are not interested in hens that don’t lay?

The phrase "in general" is key. For example, Rusty is somewhere in between broody and not, she hasn't laid an egg in six days. (She's an almost daily layer). Lucio, while interested in Tina, is still quite interested in Rusty. He goes behind her and bumps her with his chest several times per day. It seems like SHE is not interested in HIM at the moment.

Same generalities are often repeated about molting. Consult the internet and every mainstream article tells you that "a hen goes through her first molt at 16-18 months." As though it were an absolute. But here on BYC, it appears that a juvenile mini-molt like Rusty is doing is quite common at 9-10 months. I think it depends on how much the keeper is paying attention.

Tax. A beautiful sunny morning. 6 mo old Frida (left) is accepted by still very shy with the tribe. Looks like she wants to hang out with the three amigos (or at least have someone to boss around!)

 

[TropicalChickies]

As in all these behaviour/biology matters, there are always exceptions. What one hopes to avoid is people clinging to the exceptions to make it the rule.
For high production breeds one also has to consider all the other biological functions that are involved in staying alive and producing eggs. High production breeds eat more and that puts some strain on their digestive system for example. Their are many factors involved. Does laying an egg every day have mental health consequences? If a human female had a baby every year from puberty to menopause how do you think that might effect her? I can imagine a lot of consequences that may impact on her health both physical and mental.

Given that hens are the only other female animal besides women who get ovarian cancers, I'd say the comparison is just.

As far as mental health... Weeelll, just look at that Dugger family with the how many kids now? I think it was 17 ... Or more now. That woman is obviously bat$&#$ bonkers, in my humble opinion.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Yes it is possible to select for broodiness. A few breeders interested in land race breeds do exactly this.
What I used to do and will do should I care for broody hens in the future is when they go broody I let them sit for around three days. This switches their egg laying cycle off. The more broody hens might go broody two or three times a year. Say it takes two weeks for their egg laying cycle to switch back on. That may give them a six week break from laying at the height of their laying season.
Does it actually work to extend their life? I don't know and I doubt anyone else does either. One would need to let quite a few generations of managed broodies live to full life span which may be 10 to 12 years. 5 generations of that is a 50 year study.

This is all very educational and interesting to me. Appreciate your responses.

This group of hens who are more disposed to broodiness seem to have a fairly predictable 5-6 weeks on lay/10 days to month off lay cycle (depending on whether or not they broke brooding and when). The last ten days of laying they display broody behaviors -- sitting longer, being mean, puffing up, etc. Then they want to sit. And so on.

It seems like they have their own built in "break" mechanism going on. And I figure if that at that rate, they are still laying around 200-240 eggs per year. Even with declines into their 2nd and 3rd seasons, this feels fine to me. Certainly paying their rent, so to speak. And if it helps them live less stressful and fuller lives, wonderful.

Plus they are doing something absolutely valuable: brooding their offspring. There's a lot of things in life I don't have, but one thing I have out here is space and nature for chickens. So if I keep more healthy hens who brood their own young and lay a reasonable amount of eggs, even from a self interested perspective, I think I'm doing pretty well.

Plus all the other benefits. Eating the grasshoppers, fertilizer for the garden and trees, etc.

(if I don't count all the poop scraping, flea killing, butt cleaning hours. That's the love part).

 

[TropicalChickies]

Ok, good to know. Thank you for responding.

Most of our different tribes originally started as chicks that grew up together. Viajito, our Silky rooster was acquired from a friend of mine. He was lowest in the pecking order and was constantly harassed. We tried forcing hens to join him but they'd run back to their established tribes first chance that arose. We finally put two young pullets with him and they clicked. The girls pick their rooster and if they already made that choice it's hard to get them to change roosters. Thanks to that combination we have Silky/BR offspring and Silky/BO offspring and they are beautiful birds. The Rooster from last night is ok but instead of putting him back with his tribe my wife is rehoming him. There's still 3 roosters and 4 hens in that group I believe. Probably too much testosterone for one tribe. 2 roosters per tribe is a good thing.

 

[bruceha2000]

It looks like I'm going to be moving. I don't know when, it depends on when the next flat becomes available but I'm on the list with a priority application.

I'll be walking distance, 1.1 miles by road and a bit less along the river, from the flat to the allotments, A 1.1 mile walk takes me about 20 minutes on reasonably flat terrain.
I'll also be walking distance form the eldest which she is pleased about and an easy bus ride to the youngest.

Sounds like your life will be much easier!!

He would've called my setup "pastured": there's significantly more freedom than a coop run (8K sq ft) but with fences.

Pastured often means birds that are kept in "tractors" out on pasture.

I asked DH not to mow this area until the baby bunnies are big enough to hop away

That wouldn't work well here, seems to be a new baby bunny every few weeks.

she's crowed a few times in the afternoon, so I finally got a video.

One would be hard pressed to prove she isn't a rooster!

and while I was used to it when living in Catalonia I wasn't sad to leave it and a couple of years on, I wonder how I coped with it at all.

It would appear, from your profile, that you still live in Catalonia

I did get him this morning. Live chipmunk as bait.

Nasty little beast!!! DD2's cat came running out of the next room over where he was napping looking for whatever was screaming. He was very alert and searching. Fortunately the video ended soon after or he might have been in my lap.

At first I thought it was going to be about a chicken killing a mink...

So did I!!

 

[bruceha2000]

Do barn swallows a day after fledging count for tax?

the parents were all in a tizzy when I went to close up last night, they weren’t the night before as they had led the little ones out of the barn earlier in the day. Took me a minute to figure out why. They are about 10 feet from the nest where they hatched.

There has been a nest on that beam every year and the chicks always fledge around July 4th.

 

[MrsNorthie]

Do barn swallows a day after fledging count for tax?
View attachment 3566875
the parents were all in a tizzy when I went to close up last night, they weren’t the night before as they had led the little ones out of the barn earlier in the day. Took me a minute to figure out why. They are about 10 feet from the nest where they hatched.
View attachment 3566880
There has been a nest on that beam every year and the chicks always fledge around July 4th.

I love them, we have a multi-generational family of barn swallows that nest in our shed, we ended up putting an old couch with extra cushioning under the nest because we had some babies fall out, too early to be learning to fly and we have managed to save a few and return them to their nest using a really tall ladder and gloves or a net so they don't smell like they have had too much human interference. Since we have brought in the chickens, all the area wild birds seem to be friendlier with us. Elvis Duck was practically knocking on the front door this morning, requesting breakfast. LOL

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hey We had a huge limb ride across the drive.

2 days no internet..
Well golly back online now.

Young man and his Son came and removed it. The ones that bring us wood
every year. Said once he gets it all bucked we have close to year worth of wood
2 days no internet..
Well golly back online now.

 

[Molpet]

Hey We had a huge limb ride across the drive.

2 days no internet..
Well golly back online now.

Young man and his Son came and removed it. The ones that bring us wood
every year. Said once he gets it all bucked we have close to year worth of wood
2 days no internet..
Well golly back online now.

Glad you had someone to cut it up and got the internet back

 

[Shadrach]

The girls pick their rooster and if they already made that choice it's hard to get them to change

Yet another reality that can be hard to convince people of. Further, the reasons a hen picks a particular rooster are complicated from what I've seen.