Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ladies-Eight]

The Behavioural Biology of Chickens

Thanks.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I can't give advice since I didn't do very well with Théo, and as Shadrach often says, you should listen to those who succeed, not those who fail . I will tell you how things went for us. I certainly sympathise for what you're going through with Lucio. Especially just after Butchie passed, I hope you are not finding it too upsetting.
I was in your very situation of trying to keep my young rooster while my partner kept saying "coq au vin" . And I really wanted to try to wait it out in case it was just a phase or it had to do with our behaviour.

First I need to say Théo is a tiny cross bantam and he was more putting off a show than really trying to hurt. The only time I got hurt was very much my fault, when I threw a water bucket at him and strained my finger . Served me right.

Anyway what helped me through that "phase" that turned out to be so long lasting I don't think calling it a phase accurate, was identifying the situations in which he systematically flew at us, and making adjustments so that they would happen as rarely as possible. For him, it was us bringing food holding buckets, passing him too close by especially in a space where he couldn't put some distance (in the run or in the co-op's entrance) and talking to or feeding the hens. So for example I changed my way of feeding and filled feeders before opening the coop, and if I needed to come in with a bucket of water or food I either tried to wait until he was busy elsewhere or was careful not to show him what I was holding.
The last thing that really triggered him was hand feeding him. Unfortunately I had to stop trying, because I had to acknowledge just seeing my hand got him upset. Maybe he associated it with being caught.
Making those changes wasn't magic but it helped a bit, and it didn't cost us much.

In the long run, it didn't solve things. He didn't grow up to suddenly become our friend. We progressively understood that he was aggressive mostly because he was afraid and stressed out, which doesn't seem to be the case for Lucio. We sort of respected his distance, and he gradually did the same, after having got sent flying several times a few meters when my partner blocked him off.
What really made things better, however, was when he strained his leg, and had to be kept in a crate. Then he had no choice but to see that our hands were bringing him food, and cleaning things up for him twenty times a day. After that he was very trusting for a while, but that did not last. Now he is still very weary of us, but he never attacks us and he will eat from our hand if we are patient, and come when we call him. We can sometimes handle him, sometimes he doesn't let himself be caught. My partner's relation with him has improved a lot and he’s convinced it's because he calls him "Théo mon copain" , "my pal Théo". Magical thinking ?

He is now around two years old.

Before that it was a lot of drama, and we kept arguing badly with my partner, especially when on top of that the two roosters started fighting. I felt responsible for the situation they were in. I wasn't ready to try to re-home before being sure that things wouldn't get better and in the end they did, but it took almost a year. Maybe I didn't do things right, but apart from sometimes loosing my temper, i’m not sure what. I’m pretty sure that growing up along six ex-batts who had never seen a rooster and kept bullying him stressed him out, and that was part of why I felt responsible. My second rooster Gaston is very different, and a lot more trusting.

I hope it goes smoother for you and Lucio so he doesn't end in your plate.

Thanks @ManueB. I really appreciate hearing your story. I just served lunch and it went smoothly.

I'm looking for a pattern -- something in my actions -- that could be doing this. And I'm pretty self-critical and open about making mistakes. But besides protecting myself in the most passive way I could, I cannot thing of anything I've done to trigger this.

I can understand why he would be out of sorts about Butchie just vanishing. And that he's chasing me around and I won't crouch. And that now every time he crows there's at least one pretty strong response. And that he's irritated from lice and new feathers coming in and obviously no one else grooms him. And that there's two broodies parading his first born kids around. And he's taking out at least some of the pressure he's feeling on me.

Besides chasing Patucha this morning, I also saw him hackle flash Frida several times, and she was just trying to get a drink of water. So something is bugging him -- more than lice. I gave him a good treatment last night. And it's ony calendar to repeat in a week.

Is all that enough understanding for me to prevail on my partner? At the end of the day, as much as I want to let it ride and work towards a solution, this is a working farm. We work with machetes, chainsaws, pruning saws, and all sorts of sharp and dangerous tools I wouldn't want to be using during a rooster attack. To my partners credit, the last time Lucio went for him, Juan was holding a five meter bamboo pole with a curved saw attached to it and on his way to prune some tree branches. And Juan refrained from using the aforementioned pole on the Mad General.

Free ranging roosters clearly has unique challenges that I'm learning about in this process.

Again, thanks for your input. I doubt there's very many "total and immediate success" stories out there when dealing with these proud, untamed creatures with a lot of responsibility and status to maintain.

--

 

[fuzzi]

I've spent the afternoon and evening catching up.

For some reason the thread does not always trip the switch that I have mail.

Same here, didn't get notified and I wound up 12 pages behind, whew.

Love all the pictures, especially the fluffy chicks, and I appreciate reading everyone's experiences.

The Sussex are six months old, two roos growing spurs but maintaining civility with three Sussex hens and four younger Dominique pullets. The head roo, Joel, sometimes does his huffy-puffy shuffle at me, which I ignore. On a couple occasions he's flown up to a roost which is at eye level, and looks at me. I ignore for the most part, as if he's not worthy of my attention. I do watch him peripherally, but he's not made any moves to attack.

(this is NOT Joel, but Samuel, roo #2)

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!

Temperature is in the 90s.

Had to go to t own this morning so here I am catching up again.

Have a great day!'

 

[Perris]

Towey disappeared this afternoon. Predated I assume . Janeka and the other 3 chicks do not appear to be in any way distressed, so I don't think they witnessed it. I heard no commotion, so I don't think any of the rest of the flock knew about it either. I wonder if Janeka is really aware that there are 3 not 4 under her tonight.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Towey disappeared this afternoon. Predated I assume . Janeka and the other 3 chicks do not appear to be in any way distressed, so I don't think they witnessed it. I heard no commotion, so I don't think any of the rest of the flock knew about it either. I wonder if Janeka is really aware that there are 3 not 4 under her tonight.

Oh what a shame. I'm not sure that hens can accurately count. It seems that they have number categories like 'a few' and 'a lot'. Or 'not enough' and 'enough'. I had a weak single chick survive a brood, there was something not right about him and he wasn't very vocal at all. His mother would forget about him because he didn't peep for her. She would remember and go back but not like normal hen behavior. This was an experienced mother who always raised her broods well. Not at all her fault, it was my fault all her babies died (it was my incubator experiment). That chick disappeared at 3 days old. I never found the body. I'm not sure if he got predated or just forgotten.
Hens definitely seem to need to hear their chicks in order to respond to them appropriately. I saw an experiment once that put chicks in little glass cups where the mother could see but not hear them and the mother didn't respond. But if she could hear but not see the chick she went full mama bear.

Sorry that was a bit of a tangent!

 

[TropicalChickies]

Towey disappeared this afternoon. Predated I assume . Janeka and the other 3 chicks do not appear to be in any way distressed, so I don't think they witnessed it. I heard no commotion, so I don't think any of the rest of the flock knew about it either. I wonder if Janeka is really aware that there are 3 not 4 under her tonight.

I'm so sorry to hear that. Do you have any holes or wells trenches a chick can fall into? That's always my bigger fear here -- we rely on a system of open trenches to move water past our structures when it rains, and when it pours, the water moving is like a river.

I just let Dusty and Tina out of their enclosures today to free range the entire day, snakes, falcons, rain, rough terrain and all. I had been letting them out for an hour or two per day, but today was their first full day out. Their chicks are eight and nine days old respectively -- big enough to just jump the distance, but in a sudden rain, I'd still worry. But their mamas want them out so now it's up to them.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Hens definitely seem to need to hear their chicks in order to respond to them appropriately. I saw an experiment once that put chicks in little glass cups where the mother could see but not hear them and the mother didn't respond. But if she could hear but not see the chick she went full mama bear.

That's really good to know. Sometimes I've gone out in a sudden hard rain shower to make sure the mama and chicks are under cover. Sometimes I'll find her crouched under a flimsy fern or or running about with the chicks. But when I scooped the chicks up to take them to shelter, if they didn't peep, the mama didn't follow, even if I kept them right in her line of sight. Only when they pio-pio did she start moving.

 

[BDutch]

Mine do the predator alert when the sparrows pop in to steal some grain..lol I have noticed that when a hawk or the vultures are over head, the predator alert is much lower, so they can tell that there is real danger, versus an annoying little scamp pinching their food.

Mine don’t care about sparrows who steal their grains. A chicken who sees a cat alerts the others in a sort of little annoyed predator alert for cats. Most of the time they try to avoid the cats and if a cat is in the run the chickens won’t go inside.

But Chef, my white pullet, doesn’t sound an alarm at all. She acts like she is a tiny dog and tries to chase the pussycat of the neighbours away.

Chef between the plants.

 

[fluffycrow]

Funny you brought up sparrows and cats. Cruella, since she was a wee pullet, would chase any sparrow away. The pen she's been in all her life has a lot of sparrow visitors. Since Cruella came, that number has become a zero. Broody Cruella was the only chance the poor sparrows got at getting any visits in. First day of motherhood and the sparrows were gone again. Such a vicious little thing she is. As for the cat, they don't give a care in the world. I've seen hens dustbathing directly next to him. The only ones who don't like the cat is me and the seramas