Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

I very much doubt the tomatoes will fruit properly this year if the weather people are write in predicting six weeks of unsettled weather; that means rain in the UK.

Janeka's inbuilt weather forecaster says our cool drizzly 'summer' is going to improve at the end of the first week of August. (She's gone broody )

 

[MrsNorthie]

I'm always guilty of too much intervention.

I am trying really hard to let them sort things out for themselves, unless it starts to get vicious. It is just hard, but I feel like it is inevitable that there will be minor skirmishes, that it is only natural, you shouldn't interfere except when necessary. It was like when my boys were little, you learned to recognize when you needed to intervene, so they would learn how to work things out.

 

[Shadrach]

I don't bother looking for a Cornwall pullet in the log pile now at closing time. I just spray it down and run her out and back to the coop she goes. If I don't move those logs out she and other will start nests in them. Have a friend with a backhoe that I should hear from soon about moving them to where I can keep them sprayed with urea and they will compost down in a year or two. The excessive heat has the new coop building at a standstill. Neither I or my helper can take it like we are spring chickens anymore. I do have to hurry every chance I get as those Cornwall boys are getting more hormonal by the day. They will soon be 6 months old.

A penalty of growing older I've found; events pass more quickly than my ability to adjust for them. I've got a long list of things I should be doing but the list grows faster than achievments.

 

[Shadrach]

I feel that. Mine were eating some kind of wild berries in season for the past month. I found some of the berries and tasted them. They were mild tasting, a little gritty/fibrous, and not overly sweet so I figured they were ok -- wouldn't cause a crop problem anyway. No one came down with sour crop but they were pooping dark purple pudding everywhere. Glad that's over for now.

More solid poop is something I've been looking forward to. Carbon is the worst mainly because she eats so much of the laxative type foods. I end up having to wipe out the coop rather than just scrape up the poop.

 

[Shadrach]

Mine are an odd lot. Maybe because they stay as one flock, and because multiple coops are near one another the sleeping arrangements vary, both in the roosting sense and in the mating game. Head hen = oldest plus annual and reliable broody, respected by all and popular with most; I have never got the impression she stops other hens sitting. And I have seen her several times play aunty to other hens' youngsters needing reassurance or protection. 2nd = almost as old, but never gone broody, almost never falls out with anyone, but status never challenged; 3rd = next in age, most frequent broody, and unpopular with everybody; 4th = a year younger, has been a broody but didn't retain the attitude once the hormones subsided (she's the most timid hen in the flock) and gets bullied by some younger hens who haven't been broodies. So I'd be inclined to go with the 'it's a personality thing' rather than 'a natural order' thing.

It's not that multiple males in a group can't work; it just doesn't work for very long in my experience.
These three and a bantam rooster lived together for a bit over a year and then it all went wrong and I was faced with one of those very rare situations where it was quite apparent that one of them was going to get killed in the fighting.

I've had five cockerels all live together (siblings) for a while. At six months or so that all unraveled and one did get killed by the others.
Tribe 2 (Bantams) managed very well with three males, two roosters and one cockerel. Their advantage was they had very strong leadership from the most senior rooster (Harold) and his partner (Bluespot) so there are always the exceptions.

 

[fuzzi]

It's not that multiple males in a group can't work; it just doesn't work for very long in my experience.
These three and a bantam rooster lived together for a bit over a year and then it all went wrong and I was faced with one of those very rare situations where it was quite apparent that one of them was going to get killed in the fighting.
View attachment 3580702

I've had five cockerels all live together (siblings) for a while. At six months or so that all unraveled and one did get killed by the others.
Tribe 2 (Bantams) managed very well with three males, two roosters and one cockerel. Their advantage was they had very strong leadership from the most senior rooster (Harold) and his partner (Bluespot) so there are always the exceptions.

Strong leadership...

"Y'all quit that fighting or I'm gonna start busting your heads!"

 

[fuzzi]

I don't think I owe tax, but just in case:

Tamar, one of the lower ranked Dominiques. She's been camera shy, so this is the first decent photo I've been able to get. She's 14 weeks old.

 

[Perris]

she eats so much of the laxative type foods

what are they where you are?

 

[Shadrach]

Strong leadership...

"Y'all quit that fighting or I'm gonna start busting your heads!"

Not at all; that would be Harolds other half, Bluespot. Bluespot was prone to Italian style mothering; slap them first and then find out what the problem was.
Harold was a gentleman in every respect.

 

[Shadrach]

what are they where you are?

Rhubarb leaves, some Peruvian plant I don't know the name of that one of the allotment holders grows. Raspberries, Blackberries and red currants.
In general soft fruit.