Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Molpet]

Apparently not.View attachment 3583883
Allow me to show exactly what the completely unfounded belief in the superiority of the human species for whatever reasons leads to. No other creature on this planet has ever reached this level of depravity and cruelty.
View attachment 3583892

Let me make myself absolutely clear. I do not want passages from any religious writings on my thread. I find it deeply offensive in itself and unbelievably ignorant as justification for the treatment of the other creatures that inhabit this planet.

I had hoped that it would be obvious to those who post here that this is an agnostic thread

Agnostic.
"The belief that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God."

and this would include his/her/its intention of how we treat the other creatures on this planet.

Please bear this in mind and the BYC guidance that discussions about religion are discouraged.

Now I am wondering about your username

 

[Little Tala Bug]

I hope the Light Sussex ladies work out for your situation... they are such lovely birds.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Phew! I know I've been absent from this thread for awhile. I've been popping in and reading (lurking) from time to time, but I was absent from the entire site for a few months. Anyhow, I'd love to be back and I hope you'll have me again! I have written some updates on my own flock thread if anyone wants to see what's been happening in my flock and gardens (link in my coop in signature).

I will pay tax! It's an older photo but I thought Shad would appreciate it. This is Wendell who is no longer with us, but has left his genetics with the 7 hens I've kept from last seasons hatching. He had 21 children in total, and one of his sons found a home with a flock of hens.

He was an excellent father, here he is with his daughter 'Little Buddy' after her mum weened her, she is now called Red Hen and is a great layer.

 

[ManueB]

I've got a lot of things that need my attention during the next week so I may not get to post daily.
I'm going to see a couple of Light Sussex hens tomorrow who need a new home.
Dry and warmish yesterday. Three hours at the allotments.
One of the allotment holders is a trustee at one of the local city farms. There are apparently some grants available for projects like the allotments where the chickens are kept. The city farm that the above person is a trustee of has just received a grant of £90,000. A few of us at the allotments would like to make an application for some money from these grants. There is a problem though. The group/community needs 3 trustees and transparent accounts. C can't/wont supply any account details nor it seems are there the three required trustees.
We are looking at options.

Henry, Fret and Carbon doing their bit on the compost heap.
View attachment 3584957

Hoping to squeeze a row of chard in this gap.
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Both Fret and Carbon have settled down to laying every other day.
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I'm surprised that the allotment aren't required to send yearly financial accounts to the city council, since you are on their land.
Here it is an obligation to hold accounts for any association that is recognized legally.

I can only say I wish I had a garden.

Sometimes a garden can be just a raised bed, or cherry tomatoes in a pot ! Maybe you have house plants ?

I had a lot of house plants as a teen and though it's not the same as a garden I used to find it very calming to tend to them.

Phew! I know I've been absent from this thread for awhile. I've been popping in and reading (lurking) from time to time, but I was absent from the entire site for a few months. Anyhow, I'd love to be back and I hope you'll have me again! I have written some updates on my own flock thread if anyone wants to see what's been happening in my flock and gardens (link in my coop in signature).

I will pay tax! It's an older photo but I thought Shad would appreciate it. This is Wendell who is no longer with us, but has left his genetics with the 7 hens I've kept from last seasons hatching. He had 21 children in total, and one of his sons found a home with a flock of hens.
View attachment 3585915

He was an excellent father, here he is with his daughter 'Little Buddy' after her mum weened her, she is now called Red Hen and is a great layer.
View attachment 3585916

Nice to see you back from the other side of the world. Wendell was a beautiful roo !

Tax : if you're really committed, you can sit on a tile (or even on a wire panel).

 

[BDutch]

whatever is causing the broodiness, a third one's gone down with it now
Between that and moulting I shall be getting very few eggs for a while

That’s one of the reasons why I break a broody.
The other is that I don’t want /can’t have more chicks. I keep my chickens in unnatural circumstances with very limited space. Because its so utterly useless to let them sit for nothing I prefer to break a broody. Personally I cant believe it’s better (more natural) to leave her sitting when its useless.
Do you let your broodies hatch for more chicks?

My Dutch stop their broody attempts from fall till the middle/end of march. That is around the end of september if I remember correctly. I never had a broody in winter. I can imagine that different breeds will act different in this. Dutch are an old heritage breed and might be more into living with the seasons than many other breeds.

In the meantime I’m hoping Shad’s bringing the 2 Sussexes to the allotment.

Holliday tax: a picture of a herb garden in a monastery (Orval tourist info) with a chessboard tiled pattern to make it easy to maintain.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

That’s one of the reasons why I break a broody.
The other is that I don’t want /can’t have more chicks. I keep my chickens in unnatural circumstances with very limited space. Because its so utterly useless to let them sit for nothing I prefer to break a broody. Personally I cant believe it’s better (more natural) to leave her sitting when its useless.
Do you let your broodies hatch for more chicks?

My Dutch stop their broody attempts from fall till the middle/end of march. That is around the end of september if I remember correctly. I never had a broody in winter. I can imagine that different breeds will act different in this. Dutch are an old heritage breed and might be more into living with the seasons than many other breeds.

In the meantime I’m hoping Shad’s bringing the 2 Sussexes to the allotment.

Holliday tax: a picture of a herb garden in a monastery (Orval tourist info) with a chessboard tiled pattern to make it easy to maintain.

View attachment 3585985

I know your question wasn't directed at me, but on the topic of broody breaking, I do break mine when required/when I don't want chicks/when it's summer or winter. Now I have a broody coop (and more coops planned), I can easily break them. If I want to let them sit I give them a 'choice' - they can either break their broodiness or they can choose to sit in the nest with fake eggs I give them in the coop. I have so many hens that go broody it doesn't matter if they choose not to sit, somebody else will!

I have pullets that go broody in winter but my adult hens who have done a laying season do not. I haven't let them hatch in the winter so far, although I'm toying with it as the humidity is lower than the summer.

 

[lightm]

They're a bit of a mess. grammar, spelling, pictures in the wrong place etc. Just haven't got around to sorting them out.

Oh I so hope you get your new flat near the allotment soon! Surely you will get around to sort it out then, with all the time saved from unreliable busses!

Or perhaps bring your laptop to the allotment and do some writing with them sitting by your side.

Patiently waiting for Major's story.

 

[Perris]

That’s one of the reasons why I break a broody.
The other is that I don’t want /can’t have more chicks. I keep my chickens in unnatural circumstances with very limited space. Because its so utterly useless to let them sit for nothing I prefer to break a broody. Personally I cant believe it’s better (more natural) to leave her sitting when its useless.
Do you let your broodies hatch for more chicks?

In keeping with the as-naturalistic-as-I-can-manage keeping arrangements here, I like to let a hen that goes broody have chicks, and I'm aiming for a self-sustaining flock so want some chicks to replace losses, but I have constraints too.

So coop constraints mean I have a 'sequential but not synchronous' rule, and since Janeka went first, both Eve and Zimmet are being discouraged/broken right now, by the keep driving them out method Shad used in Spain; I'll resort to the dog crate if it fails here. Eve has had many goes at broody-hood over 4 years, none really successful (she's overprotective to the point of breaking eggs and injuring chicks, and overexerts those that hatch from day 1), so she's back of the queue. Zimmet is only just 1 so I expect her to have other opportunities.

Then there's the issue of garden space acting as a constraint on clutch size (though it's impossible to predict losses of course). I'd rather be dealing with too many than too few; I can solve the problem of too many more easily than I can of too few, being dependent as I am on broodies for replacements.

Then there's the issue of fitness; older hens have proved their immunity/resistance to whatever pathogens and their strains live in the environment here, so their eggs are preferred if numbers must be limited.

Then there's the issue of breeding for resistance, so if possible I try to include at least one egg from each home-bred hybrid, otherwise we're not getting the potential improvements.

And that sort of reasoning leads to Janeka sitting on 1 egg from herself, 2 from her granddaughter Ystrad (who is 25% Welsummer, 25% SFH, and 50% Penedesenca), 1 from Venka (old SFH), 1 from Puffin (the best of the 2 yr old Penedesencas in terms of laying and egg colour, and who alone of the 3 has shown no sign of going broody herself), 1 of Dyffryn's (50% SFH, 50% Penedesenca), and 2 of Zimmet's (also 50% SFH, 50% Penedesenca; both of them fit as a fiddle and the best layers from last year's hatches).

a picture of a herb garden in a monastery (Orval tourist info) with a chessboard tiled pattern to make it easy to maintain.

that's a great idea. I may copy that.

 

[MrsNorthie]

I've got one trying to be broody.

When I was picking up my eggs she was setting on 5.

When I reached under her to take an egg she pecked me.

I don't have a rooster.

Awe, the poor baby! She is really just feeling the call to motherhood.

 

[lightm]

My grandfather used to treat sheep for diarrhea using water that rice was boiled in (maybe also the rice itself I am not sure). It is the starch that helps.
As a kid if I was sick that was the treatment I got too.
Anecdotally it seems pretty effective.

Rice boiled water with a bit sugar was nice dessert for me as a kid. Yum Yum Yum.