Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[MrsNorthie]

I have been remiss with my tax, but I will try to get some sorted for tomorrow. With 11- 2 1/2 wk olds, 15 - wk olds, and my 12 - month olds, 3 dogs, 3 cats, husband and a full time job, I sometimes do not get to do much else until it is too dark for snaps.

I am super proud of my 5 mo old cockerel, Spud (aka Sir Spudly, aka Mr. Potato Head (when he is being naughty.) . My husband was helping with chicken servitude this evening and was rinsing and refilling waters while I was in the shed refilling feeders. When ever he helps, Spud follows him, supervising very closely. While doing the nursery run water, he didn't quite get the door closed and Spud followed him in. So we had Spud in the run with 15 very young ladies and he was the perfect gentleman. He said hi to them, but was mostly focused on telling my husband how to do things the right way. LOL What makes this extra special, is so many people told me that Spud, because Spud liked to tidbit me, he was likely going to start getting aggressive and potentially attack me. When I sit out with them, he always jumps up on the roost next to me for a quick, groom, before he resumes his patrols and he has not once, been aggressive with me. When they were just little, he was always the first one to hop up on my lap for attention. (and he has always been a ham for the camera...)

This was the first physical contact without the wire between them, but I have their feeders along the wire and also provide the treats for the 5 month old group, right by the wire, so they are getting familiar with each other. Occasionally, Spud or Goldie will tidbit the little ones through the wire and it is kind of adorable. I am taking this as a positive sign that, when they are big enough to be integrated, it is going to be lower drama.

 

[Perris]

@Shadrach someone near you is advertising grey jungle fowl hatching eggs on preloved! https://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/show/122073903/sonnerats-grey-jungle-fowl-hatching-eggs.html?

I wouldn't have thought they laid enough to warrant offering a carton of 6 except very periodically a couple of times a year (and the ad is 3 months old, updated 11 days ago), but maybe that's exactly what this person is doing?

 

[ManueB]

A decent amount of rain today. Two and a half hours. The rain stopped as I left for the allotments which was very handy. Henry, Fret and Carbon were itching to get out and hunt the bugs the rain brings to the surface. They ventured futher afield today and visited Lima's favourite forage spots.
Fret has laid another egg.View attachment 3570761View attachment 3570757View attachment 3570756
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I'm going to have to pull the spinach and see if I can rescue a few leaves. I'll try again. Under less heated conditions spinach grows well here, or at least it has for others.

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I haven't had good luck with spinach. I felt like a failure, but my step dad once told me, "Spinach grows where it wants to grow."
Tax: Button and Sunny
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I have NO problems growing lambs quarter. It may be a weed, but it's one tasty weed! And, it tastes like spinach.

I would suggest orach as the closest thing to spinach. Way easier to grow, yields ten times more, reseeds itself every year, and when the plant is very young you can eat the leaves raw in a salad like spinach.

Lamb's quarters is an amazing weed- do you know it has the ability to morph so that the leaves ressemble the other plants surrounding it for better chance of survival?

 

[TropicalChickies]

That little lady of mine from Cornwall decide due to the heavy rains she might as well go in the coop with the rest of her mates. After 2 nights of getting the water hose on her and now a pouring rain may have taught her a lesson. I've got to keep an eye or all of the Cornwall ladies as they are prone to go broody and they have access to the better part of an acre of wooded land that they seem to want to venture deeper into every day. They are foraging more every day and consuming less mill feed which doesn't hurt my feelings at all.

I feel ya. I've been doing a lot of work around the coop and the ladies here (who have never been all that great at laying their eggs in the coop area, anyway) obviously don't like it. They are going around clucking for their escort and I have no idea where the heck some of these eggs are. Tina is putting hers in the wood drying shed, Dusty is knocking over all my flowerpots trying to nest in one of them, and Patucha is sauntering around in the forest. Yesterday I took a machete and went searching, but found nada.

Even when the coop area isn't disrupted by me, they aren't good about laying there. I don't expect them to sit in hard wooden boxes. I make nice little ground-level nests with sand and soil and put leaves around so they can do their own interior decorating. I cover them with shade cloth for privacy. And just now I found Dusty in the workshop trying to wriggle behind a piece of drywall to sit. They are going to drive me mental, I swear.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Lamb's quarters is an amazing weed- do you know it has the ability to morph so that the leaves ressemble the other plants surrounding it for better chance of survival?

That reminds me, when I lived in the Northern hemisphere, I had this great perennial called "Good King Henry." Tasted like a cross of spinach and chard. Required no care and came up bigger and more productive each year. Had to divide it after just two years.

 

[ManueB]

That reminds me, when I lived in the Northern hemisphere, I had this great perennial called "Good King Henry." Tasted like a cross of spinach and chard. Required no care and came up bigger and more productive each year. Had to divide it after just two years.

That's the one I'm talking about. We call it arroche in french which translates to orach, but might have been misleading. These are all amaranths like lambs quarter.

 

[ManueB]

I feel ya. I've been doing a lot of work around the coop and the ladies here (who have never been all that great at laying their eggs in the coop area, anyway) obviously don't like it. They are going around clucking for their escort and I have no idea where the heck some of these eggs are. Tina is putting hers in the wood drying shed, Dusty is knocking over all my flowerpots trying to nest in one of them, and Patucha is sauntering around in the forest. Yesterday I took a machete and went searching, but found nada.

Even when the coop area isn't disrupted by me, they aren't good about laying there. I don't expect them to sit in hard wooden boxes. I make nice little ground-level nests with sand and soil and put leaves around so they can do their own interior decorating. I cover them with shade cloth for privacy. And just now I found Dusty in the workshop trying to wriggle behind a piece of drywall to sit. They are going to drive me mental, I swear.

Do you always leave an egg in the nest you find ?
It took me a while to figure out that if you take away all eggs the hen will almost always go lay elsewhere thinking the nest isn't safe anymore. They are more clever than me.

 

[Shadrach]

@Shadrach someone near you is advertising grey jungle fowl hatching eggs on preloved! https://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/show/122073903/sonnerats-grey-jungle-fowl-hatching-eggs.html?

I wouldn't have thought they laid enough to warrant offering a carton of 6 except very periodically a couple of times a year (and the ad is 3 months old, updated 11 days ago), but maybe that's exactly what this person is doing?

Can't keep jungle fowl at the allotments for lots of reasons.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Do you always leave an egg in the nest you find ?
It took me a while to figure out that if you take away all eggs the hen will almost always go lay elsewhere thinking the nest isn't safe anymore. They are more clever than me.

Yes, always. I think right now the problem is they are all coming back to lay after a broody spell or mothering so they are looking for new spots. Why they can't use the nice spot I provide is beyond me, but this seems to be a common problem...

 

[Shadrach]

Do you always leave an egg in the nest you find ?
It took me a while to figure out that if you take away all eggs the hen will almost always go lay elsewhere thinking the nest isn't safe anymore. They are more clever than me.

An error many people make with ranging chickens.