Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

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.

In the past I had hens who build nests outside the coop, on the neighbours compost pile, under blackberry bushes, behind the trash cans,etc. One hen (Pino) tried every year. Leaving an egg in the nestboxes helps , but was not enough to keep them from doing so.

I got the advice to lock them up for a week after noticing. And I did. Sometimes the whole group, sometimes only the one hen.
I had no problems with them laying elsewhere after that for the rest of the season.

If you don’t want to get crazy that much, building a coop with a run to lock the chickens up, is imho a good solution.

 

[BDutch]

I sold 6 pullets to a guy with a 5x6ft coop and 6x12ft run. Mine were raised by a broody and running around a large poultry yard. He called after a week saying they were still freaking out. Said it would take a while. So after a month I said I would refund.
No other chickens, he just moved in and new coop so I went to get them. They were running up and down yelling. He said they did that all day and weren't laying. A few days after I got them home they started laying again.

I’ve been thinking about this issue .
You do have a good point that it is too hard to for chickens to adjust from free ranging to being cooped up in a very small coop/run.
Being cooped up in a run of at least 3 times that space (not 6x12ft / about 4.5 m2 but 12x18ft / 16 m2 ) might have worked.

IMO a small coop + such a small run space is never okay. Many poultry and coop sellers say 1m2 run space for each is a bare minimum to keep backyard chickens. Others say you need 4m2 / per chicken for happy and healthy chickens.

Mine have 15m2 run space with 6 small bantams and 9 chicks and its getting too crowded. I advertised to sell some chicks asap because they can’t free range every day (a no go without supervision).

 

[TropicalBabies]

My chooks took about 5 days to adjust to run only time, which surprised me.
Then they figured out where they could hop the fence, which did not surprise me...

 

[TropicalBabies]

Got my crew up b4 the my neighbors blew up the hood on the 4th. It was a serious push. We finished the roost around 2pm, then had to drive down and wrangle 34 chickens into cages and then drive them up the mountain 30 minutes.

These are all hand placed chickens lol. Locks got installed via flashlight.

The next morning momma and chicks were first out of the coop to explore.

I have continued to work on their set up- today I cut and installed the ridge for the broody coop for mom and littles to have their own space for eating and recharging. Plus ramps, proper hooks, knobs, buttoning up, spreading mulch etc.

The work, and the wait, was worth it.

A little drama with the locals more than a few times, but nothing terrible yet. I am keeping eyes and ears open.
My Spider and dominant feral roo discussing personal boundaries.

There are also very harmonious moments too. Here is Shad blending in... for a few minutes lol.

Drama, drama, drama.

 

[Perris]

that looks idyllic lucky chooks

 

[TropicalBabies]

that looks idyllic lucky chooks

They are loved and admired ♡ deservedly so. I have to figure out nesting boxes, hopefully tomorrow. I need to get my cat carriers back from them.
I am ready to breakdown the chicken construction zone and get back to sewing feed bags. I am way behind. This summertime escapade has taken up some time.

 

[TropicalChickies]

In the past I had hens who build nests outside the coop, on the neighbours compost pile, under blackberry bushes, behind the trash cans,etc. One hen (Pino) tried every year. Leaving an egg in the nestboxes helps , but was not enough to keep them from doing so.

I got the advice to lock them up for a week after noticing. And I did. Sometimes the whole group, sometimes only the one hen.
I had no problems with them laying elsewhere after that for the rest of the season.

If you don’t want to get crazy that much, building a coop with a run to lock the chickens up, is imho a good solution.

No way, no how, not now, not ever, amen.

If these birds had a motto it would be Live Free or Die. Give me Liberty or Give me Death. All that good schmaltzy revolutionary libertarian Top Gun American cheese. Topped off with a little pseudo-Celtic blue painted Braveheart shouting "Freeedoommm!!!!"

I just can't see how this motley barbarian horde with free access to acres of jungle would sit in a run all day without inciting riot and rebellion. Or at least screaming their heads off all day.

(Ok, so they barely use two acres of it and mostly hang about wherever I'm at all day, but never mind that. It's, er, the thought of freedom that counts.)

Anyway. I wasn't complaining. I love their unruly ways. They can put their eggs wherever their pretty prehistoric feathered butts please.

If I lose my marbles, that's on me.

"You can finish fixing this wall when we feel like moving, food lady."

 

[HiEverybirdy]

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

Very true, like the Joel Salatin/Polyface model.

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

Ours only seem to be born in late spring/early summer. Which is surprising for rabbits, now that you mention it. But every year, a few stash their babies in the safety of the chicken area.

This is the one I was worried about with the mower, Tiny Randy. Less than 4" long in this picture, could barely hop yet. No way to get out of the way of a mower even if it ignored its instinct to freeze.

Here's Tiny Randy living the good life as a chicken a few weeks later, and we were able to mow.

I meant to comment a few weeks ago about how encouraging it is to see so many in favor of no-mow. We keep this area mowed because of the venomous snakes (there's a creek at the back edge of the photo with copperheads, and the long grass hides them too well). But our biggest field stays a pocket prairie.

It was mowed for hay for decades but took only a couple years to rehab. New types of native wildflowers emerge every year, bees and moths and butterflies and other flies and reptiles and amphibians and birds and many kinds of mammals eat and play and shelter here, and I'm just really happy about it. Working on our neighbors with fields to do the same.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Very true, like the Joel Salatin/Polyface model.


Ours only seem to be born in late spring/early summer. Which is surprising for rabbits, now that you mention it. But every year, a few stash their babies in the safety of the chicken area.

This is the one I was worried about with the mower, Tiny Randy. Less than 4" long in this picture, could barely hop yet. No way to get out of the way of a mower even if it ignored its instinct to freeze.
View attachment 3572287

Here's Tiny Randy living the good life as a chicken a few weeks later, and we were able to mow.
View attachment 3572288

I meant to comment a few weeks ago about how encouraging it is to see so many in favor of no-mow. We keep this area mowed because of the venomous snakes (there's a creek at the back edge of the photo with copperheads, and the long grass hides them too well). But our biggest field stays a pocket prairie.

It was mowed for hay for decades but took only a couple years to rehab. New types of native wildflowers emerge every year, bees and moths and butterflies and other flies and reptiles and amphibians and birds and many kinds of mammals eat and play and shelter here, and I'm just really happy about it. Working on our neighbors with fields to do the same.

View attachment 3572293
View attachment 3572294
View attachment 3572295

It always encourages me to see how nature can still come back if given just a bit of space and time. Lovely photos, thank you for sharing.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

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

Her feathering is still very henny, and she has the daintiest feet and no sign of spurs. But yes, I imagine most people, at first or even second glance, would see her crowing with those wattles and say, "Nice rooster."

Tax is the diva in question, stretched out in the sun after a dustbath.