Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Little Tala Bug]

This is my plan from now on.

Should I try to encourage the 3 juveniles to move to the new coop without moving them at night? If so, how? I'm hoping after a few nights of moving them and giving them breakfast in their own area to enjoy, they'll catch on that it's a safe place for them. I don't think the adults would be sorry to see the juveniles off their preferred roost bar. The younger adults usually harass the little ones in the evening quite a bit until they all settle down.

I had to move my juveniles into their new coop for the first couple nights after they passed their quarantine period and they caught on very fast that it was their space. I sweetened the deal by chucking some corn in there periodically during the day when they were nearby so they would see it as a good and desirable place to go.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Great, thanks. Will do.

 

[MrsNorthie]

So according to the prevailing thought on BYC, he is not "friendly", he is "bold" and "disrespectful." His will probably turn out to be aggressive to people, dogs, cats, unicorns, and especially innocent babies.

I say bollocks to the anti-rooster crew, you were kind and treated his wounds. There is only really one person that I take rooster advice from. I would think that he is feeling a bit fragile and he knows he can trust you. As he regains his confidence, he will return his focus to the things little cockerels do. He may always greet you and pay you attention, but it probably won't always be clingy.

I have a cockerel that has always been super friendly towards me, since he was a little fluff ball of unknown sex, and 6 months later he is still my pal, he follows me around and supervises the feeding, clean up and water changes. When he was tiny, he would jump up on my lap and get pats, now, he will sit next to me to get his pats, before going back on patrol.

 

[MrsNorthie]

Lesson one for all cockerels hoping to impress the hens is find them food and let them eat first.

When I go out to serve breakfast and dinner, all three boys stand around the girls, encouraging them to eat, and wait until they are done and heading to the roost before they eat. They are going to be perfect gentlemen when they get over the hormonal pubescent stage..

 

[Shadrach]

Despite the gloomy forcast yesterday for today, it turned out to be a very pleasant and warm afternoon. Three and a half hours today.
Henry found some berries.

I took out the last of the bolted spinach. I put down a 80% compost and 20% chicken shit slurry and mixed it in.

Henry being very mindfull of where he treads while Fret checks for bugs and grubs.

I keep finding plastic and other crap in the compost heap. This was the second dig over this week.

Waiting for me to get up and give them their supper treat.

Henry.

One of the friendlies plots.

The plot next to mine the chickens have permission to go on.

 

[Nomadicus]

I went out expecting the Cornish girls to be playing on the logpile. No such luck. They read my mind. I had to come back in within 20 minutes for dry clothes. They must still be in the shade of the woods.

 

[RoyalChick]

Despite the gloomy forcast yesterday for today, it turned out to be a very pleasant and warm afternoon. Three and a half hours today.
Henry found some berries.
View attachment 3582574

I took out the last of the bolted spinach. I put down a 80% compost and 20% chicken shit slurry and mixed it in.
View attachment 3582568
Henry being very mindfull of where he treads while Fret checks for bugs and grubs.
View attachment 3582570

I keep finding plastic and other crap in the compost heap. This was the second dig over this week.
View attachment 3582569

Waiting for me to get up and give them their supper treat.
View attachment 3582572
Henry.
View attachment 3582567
One of the friendlies plots.
View attachment 3582571

The plot next to mine the chickens have permission to go on.
View attachment 3582573

Love that third picture of Henry picking his way down the row.

 

[Nomadicus]

Love that third picture of Henry picking his way down the row.

I've never seen a rooster with more class than Henry

 

[Iluveggers]

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that =(

Is she too young for it to be a secret nest scenario?

This is what I was thinking also.

No that is my only holdout for any hope.

I will keep fingers crossed for her…

 

[Perris]

Here's a not particularly enlightening study

Thanks for the link; some interesting comments and refs (especially https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2013.1296 , which we might want to discuss with the 'birds of a feather flock together' notion in mind...?), but I wish they'd been in less of a hurry. The methods used leave a lot to be desired, and I don't think I'll be logging the results.

Do you have links to any papers where differentiating between biological relatedness and social familiarity is the aim, or where those two things are clearly separated and there is no possibility of confusion (unlike with that paper; 14 days of separation is not enough imo). It is not clear to me how a roo can know his own offspring among the young of a single mixed clutch fertilized, incubated, and raised within a flock in which several males are present. (I haven't finished the RoyalSoc paper yet; maybe it's answered there.)