Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fluffycrow]

Very sad.
Would the other holders understand should you put a lock on the run to prevent C. from getting to the chickens without at least first letting you know, or would that be an abuse of collective property?

I've read this more than once on BYC and I'm sorry to say it's just not true anymore, the breed has become a victim of it's great popularity. Over french forums many chicken keepers are complaining about them. They say breeders from the Marans Club de France tend to breed for egg color first and SOP second, and hardiness is totally left aside. There has been too much inbreeding and poor strains.
Then on the other side, many dishonest breeders are selling Harko or Harko x Marans as pure Marans. Harko is a RIR x Plymouth rock hybrid, belonging to and commercialized by Hungarian brand Tetra Balbona, sold as a dual hybrid in many european and african countries, and worth half the price if not less of a Marans.
While there are certainly good breeders left , and especially if you travel to Marans or it's region Charentes-Maritimes ( 1000 km away from my home) as was the case for the chickens Shadrach lived with, the chance of getting a good Marans chicken without knowing the breeder in France are low.

I got two pol pullets cross Marans/harko two months and two weeks ago, and while the breeder was terrible, she had at least the honesty of selling them as such. They have been laying like crazy, as much as the leghorns I got from the same place. They are going to be heavy birds and they really don't seem to fare well in our relative heat (34c/ 93f).

Kara. no feathered feet and has a broken beak since we got her.
View attachment 3593637
Lilly , feathered feet, lays less, seems unwell in the heat.
View attachment 3593639

That makes sense, and IMO it's one of the most unfortunate things that can happen to any breed of any animal. Popularity, in most cases, ruins breeds, at least to an extent. It's double sad when the quality of a breed lessens significantly in its home country. What's also very sad, is when the line between a breed going extinct from not enough popularity, or having terrible quality from too much popularity. Since you brought up heat resistance, I'm inclined to believe that there is in fact some connection between quality/vigor and heat resistance. But heat resistance is a very big topic, so I don't know if it's worth opening pandora's box

 

[MrsNorthie]

C's response was at one point, I'll get rid of the chickens and then he'll go away. I have copies of similar chats.

I could turn up one day and find no chickens.
The things that I do I have to be very carefull that I consult with the other plot holders so at least in theory I have their support.

That is infuriating and scary! Fret, Carbon and Henry have bonded with each other and with you, I shudder to think of what it would mean to their well being if she were to succeed at "getting rid of the chickens." This has to be immensely stressful for you.

 

[TropicalChickies]

That's interesting. Red Sussex are one of the rarest sussex varieties here.
I'll share some taxes for myself and anyone else who needs it
View attachment 3593124 View attachment 3593125 View attachment 3593126

Forgive me, I know very little about breeds... Do all of these "Sussex" chickens have the enviable figure of an overstuffed pierogi ?

 

[fluffycrow]

Forgive me, I know very little about breeds... Do all of these "Sussex" chickens have the enviable figure of an overstuffed pierogi ?

 

[Shadrach]

Very sad.
Would the other holders understand should you put a lock on the run to prevent C. from getting to the chickens without at least first letting you know, or would that be an abuse of collective property?

I've read this more than once on BYC and I'm sorry to say it's just not true anymore, the breed has become a victim of it's great popularity. Over french forums many chicken keepers are complaining about them. They say breeders from the Marans Club de France tend to breed for egg color first and SOP second, and hardiness is totally left aside. There has been too much inbreeding and poor strains.
Then on the other side, many dishonest breeders are selling Harko or Harko x Marans as pure Marans. Harko is a RIR x Plymouth rock hybrid, belonging to and commercialized by Hungarian brand Tetra Balbona, sold as a dual hybrid in many european and african countries, and worth half the price if not less of a Marans.
While there are certainly good breeders left , and especially if you travel to Marans or it's region Charentes-Maritimes ( 1000 km away from my home) as was the case for the chickens Shadrach lived with, the chance of getting a good Marans chicken without knowing the breeder in France are low.

I got two pol pullets cross Marans/harko two months and two weeks ago, and while the breeder was terrible, she had at least the honesty of selling them as such. They have been laying like crazy, as much as the leghorns I got from the same place. They are going to be heavy birds and they really don't seem to fare well in our relative heat (34c/ 93f).

Kara. no feathered feet and has a broken beak since we got her.
View attachment 3593637
Lilly , feathered feet, lays less, seems unwell in the heat.
View attachment 3593639

A topic I bang on about frequently.
What I read about the reasons for keeping chickens on this forum in many instances just don't make sense when matched to reality.
One of the recurring themes on chicken keeping I read here is to take food production away from the big corporations and improve the lot of the chicken in the process.
Then they order chicks from a major hatchery which may well supply the batteries and/or use the same large scale breeders that do so. That's all big business over which we have virtually no say in or control over.

In general the chicks they get are poor quality often not much like the original breed in anything but looks.

Then they house them in mass produced coops unfit for purpose and once again supplied by large businesses.

Then they kit out the coops with all the plastic products again supplied by big business.

Then they feed them commercially produced crap supplied form large food corporations.

Meanwhile the popularity of chicken keeping increases and the breeders churn out more substandard stock with increased egg producing genes in mind.

Apparently this is "sticking one on the man." and large corporations.
Looks much like what the batteries do but on a smaller scale to me and in all this the heritage breeds are being ruined and "the man" is making more money and getting further control on the means of food production.

 

[Shadrach]

Forgive me, I know very little about breeds... Do all of these "Sussex" chickens have the enviable figure of an overstuffed pierogi ?

What exactly are you insinuating madam?

Compared to those wild things you may be aquainted with I admit they may seem on the portly side. The Sussex breed is what gets called a dual purpose bird; ground flattening may well be something that should be included as a third purpose.
You should probably not look at the Dorking. They tend to be even heavier; four kilos plus.

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

Forgive me, I know very little about breeds... Do all of these "Sussex" chickens have the enviable figure of an overstuffed pierogi ?

This girl is also trying to figure out what you're getting at

I think I've already shared this picture on this thread, but anyway

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

@Shadrach -- You have an allotment and are you saying C the ability to get rid of things on your allotment.

Temperature is in the 80s.

Have a great day!

 

[fuzzi]

Forgive me, I know very little about breeds... Do all of these "Sussex" chickens have the enviable figure of an overstuffed pierogi ?

A Sussex breeder and judge mentioned the standard "brick" build.

Prize-winning Speckled Sussex bantam hen (not mine!)

 

[Perris]

She is very pretty. I am hopeless at breeds - is she a particular breed? I guess so if her Mum won prizes.

She's a Norfolk Grey; very rare, on the UK rare breeds survival trust list, and there just happens to be a proper breeder of them about an hour from here. He's also the source of my Welsumer Janeka, and he breeds Scots dumpies too, but I haven't supported him in that dept as I don't want the short leg mutation gene in my flock's gene pool.