Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[TropicalChickies]

They look like the roosts in two of my Nestera coops and if so I think they are fine; none of my flock has ever had bumblefoot.

Thanks, I'm paranoid about bumblefoot given that I've had birds who suffered from it, but they all came that way to our farm. It was the keeping circumstances they were in before. None of the chickens who hatched here or that I acquired from a different neighbor have gotten it. I did just check all of the ecoplastic beams the chickens are roosting on and the edges are nicely rounded off and smooth.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Two hours today. It was raining this morning but this afternoon stayed dry at around 18C.
As those who read this thread will know, I've been looking for some hens to bring the tribe up to five or six hens. I've not had a lot of joy in this venture. Granted I haven't been addressing the problem flat out, but I've been looking and making phone calls.
You may also recall that Fret went broody a couple of months ago, sat, but didn't hatch because the eggs were infertile bar one which didn't develope.
It seems Fret has given up on my attempts to provide suitable company and has decided she'll have another go.

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She was out as normal but at roost time headed straight for the nest box. She's got four eggs. Apart from the ragged tail feathers you that can be seen in the picture above she's in the best condition I've seen her. She's feels a good weight and her confidence is high and while not a major struggle with only Carbon to compete with, she's the top hen.

Add to this that I had some concerns that if she sat and hatched while Lima and Ella were alive she may have had problems with them both should she have hatched.

Even stranger is while Carbon isn't obviously broody she's behaving in a pre broody manner. It's difficult to describe but I know it when I see it.

It seems to me the sensible thing to do is try to get Fret some fertile eggs, preferably Crested Cream Legbar eggs. Should she hatch any I supply and any of her own I think the chicks should fit in without problems.
I don't have much faith in Henry getting the job done. It's not his fault. He's getting on in years and I imagine his sperm count is pretty low and Fret and he are not the ideal mating match with regard to size and therefor accuracy.

In theory at least and in my experience and my preference, having a broody hen hatch and rear chicks is a far better option than trying to introduce outsiders.
Needless to write I'll be on the phone tomorrow trying to get some CCl fertile eggs.

Meanwhile.
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Sounds like a plan. The ladies look plump and lovely with their new feathers.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Letting Fret sit again is an interesting choice. Is it ok health wise for a hen to sit twice with so short a break,

I'm not sure, but I think it depends on the hen. I'm letting Tina sit on eggs even though she just hatched the three hooligans exactly 12 weeks ago. It seems to be what she wants to -- she's a very stubborn broody, almost impossible to break, and she got depressed last year when she was going broody with no fertile eggs to hatch. Health wise, she seemed ok, but I could see the despondency in her eyes. Anyway, these will be the last hatches I can allow before the rainy season starts in earnest. With the El Niño this year, I don't want any poor mama trying to keep little ones safe in the massive rains, electrical storms and flooding we are bound to get.

Dusty, the little black chirapa (frizzle) had been getting pre-broody and yesterday when I found her sitting, she puffed up and squawked big time. She's too sweet to peck me, but I can tell she wanted to. But she was in her silly spot behind the drywall in the workshop. So I took a gamble and moved her over to a broody spot I made in the Hooligan Coop and gave her 3 eggs I'd been saving for her.

She's been inspecting and hanging out a bit in the Hooligan Coop so I hoped it would be ok/familiar for her. As soon as she saw the eggs, she settled down on them and zonked out in a broody trance.

In the early evening, I went to take her off for a bit to to give her food, let her poop, etc. She had laid her last egg on the 23rd, so I figured her egg laying had shut down, but when I moved her off the nest, there was a 4th egg! Sneaky little devil. So I marked it. If she lays any more, I'll take them out to avoid a staggered hatch.

This morning she ate and went back to her nest. This is her first sit and she's only 11 mos old, so I hope it goes well for her.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I didn’t say you should dump the batteries on your neighbours land.

Here we have a battery collection box in the shops were you buy new batteries. The metals in the batteries are truly mostly recycled. But saving in the use if batteries is even better.

From https://www.legebatterijen.nl/vragen/hoe-worden-lege-batterijen-gerecycled/
Batteries contain many materials that can be recycled. For example, about 95% of the nickel, cobalt and copper in batteries can be recovered. This in turn saves new raw materials from countries where extraction is not always good for people and the environment.

More off topic taxes:
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Hakuna matata.

One of the reasons I try very hard to use up trash in some way is because we live in a pretty remote place and do not have a trash pick up service, or even a place nearby to throw things "away". The nearest trash receptacle is a forty minute drive away and the nearest recycling center is almost two hours away -- not a trip I can make very often. So if I throw things like batteries "away", they are going to end up in a dump or landfill, where some people -- probably poor people who can't afford to live far away from such an undesirable location -- actually have to live. Maybe they aren't my neighbors in the immediate sense, but to me we're all neighbors on this little blue green planet.

^not even mapped by Google Earth. Our farm is located somewhere in that unmapped green blur.

 

[Shadrach]

Letting Fret sit again is an interesting choice. Is it ok health wise for a hen to sit twice with so short a break, or are you taking this option only because of the specific situation of Henry and his hens ?

I would prefer Fret to have taken a longer break but she's up for it and as I've mentioned, she looks better than I've ever seen her.
The circumstances are about as good as they can be currently to hatch chicks.

If it all goes wrong I have a recent option of a couple of Light Sussex pullets which I know are healthy.

I've contacted 14 breeders/people I know who have kept chickens. Out of those 14, 9 have stopped breeding, or keeping anything except Red Sex Links, or other production breeds, Lohmans, Stars, Red rocks, Comets, Rhode Island Reds (wtf are American oversized production birds doing here!). Some have stopped keeping chickens altogether.
Bird flu, Covid and people just wanting eggs rather than wanting to keep chickens has wiped out many of the small scale hobby keepers.

There are still the breed club breeders but their stock is limited and often not what I think I can slip into the current circumstances.

As an example. I contacted three or four breeders who keep Light Sussex and British Marans. I ask how many eggs a year they lay and how they were hatched. All stated their hens lay over 250 eggs a year.They've turned a breed that did lay say 180 eggs a year into a production bird, because most people want eggs and don't care about the breed bar the looks. I spoke to one breeder who proudly stated her Light Sussex hens laid around 300 eggs a year.

I did find some other heritage breeds that seem to have been bred properly but the waitng time can be months and of course they are broody hatched free rangers and I wont keep such birds in the conditions I have at the allotments.

 

[Perris]

Bird flu, Covid and people just wanting eggs rather than wanting to keep chickens has wiped out many of the small scale hobby keepers.

it's perhaps more accurate to say 'the regulations put in place because of bird flu, and covid'...

I contacted three or four breeders who keep Light Sussex and British Marans. I ask how many eggs a year they lay and how they were hatched. All stated their hens lay over 250 eggs a year.

perhaps these people are exaggerating the production capacity because of the 'people just wanting eggs' bit of the previous quote. What are touted as production figures for given breeds are of course based on best case, not average, and I don't know many people who actually keep records on each bird - assuming they can tell them apart.

 

[lightm]

It is called Agridime. https://agridimestore.com/pages/about-us We would like to find something local, but it means talking to people..lol

Thank you!!

 

[Shadrach]

Yes to both your points.
I'm not having a good morning.

 

[Perris]

Yes to both your points.
I'm not having a good morning.

I'm just nit-picking Hope your day improves

 

[TropicalChickies]

This is a really interesting question. I've had some personal experience that makes me think there's something to it. Could be a theory related to females and child bearing more generally...

Do they know the tribe/group is in danger of dying out? Before I started looking after them neither had shown any inclinations towards broodiness I'm told