Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

I've never cared how/where my chickens sleep and was a little surprised when I found out there were so many people who did.
Now I try to offer at least a roosting option but don't actually expect them all to use them.

I wonder if there is any correlation between incubator hatched and human raised to nest box roosting or late to use a bar.

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

I wonder if there is any correlation between incubator hatched and human raised to nest box roosting or late to use a bar.

I don't have nest boxes as mine always choose a nice corner to use instead (Or certain ones now who wait till their out and jump the fence to lay in the bushes...), but I do have incubator babies and broody babies at the moment. I should offer them all roosting options and see who does first.
Some tax.

 

[fluffycrow]

I wonder if there is any correlation between incubator hatched and human raised to nest box roosting or late to use a bar.

I can only give my personal experience, but I haven't seen any correlation.both the latest batch, and the first aseel brothers were incubator, brooder babies. This batch roosted on day six. The brothers on day nine. I have also raised many chicks aging 1 to 1.5 months old (they were in a brooder up to that point), all roosted within the first week of being here

 

[BDutch]

We seem to believe that chickens should roost off the ground on whatever we can faishon as a substitute for a branch.

I do. I don’t like it if the chickens sleep in a nest with poop or the chickens laying eggs in poop. Sleeping on a roost is more hygienic.

 

[fluffycrow]

I do. I don’t like it if the chickens sleep in a nest with poop or the chickens laying eggs in poop. Sleeping on a roost is more hygienic.

Not if one spot cleans the nests each day. I have also found that, given the chance, my nest sleeping girls have selected egg laying nests, and sleeping nests, which rarely have eggs in them

 

[Perris]

I've given them all sorts of stuff in all sorts of combinations. The list is quite long.
Some foods they like better than others

I've discovered with the new mix I'm trying here that, surprisingly, it can take as long as a couple of weeks for them to decide x, y, or z is OK/good. There was quite a bit being left initially, and the red maize in particular was very easy to spot as a reject, with only a few birds selecting it by choice initially. But none is left now. And something in the mix was disintegrating during fermentation, imparting quite an odour and green colour (the hemp seed I think), which may have been putting them off. At any rate, once I started rinsing the ferment liquor away before serving, they've been scoffing down everything with gusto.

it's your fault I have two 2 litre Kilner jars sitting on the storage heater in my living room

I imagine that's a good conversation starter! Or are all your visitors already familiar with your chicken habit? I hope your housing association is providing some other means of heating though. Night storage heaters are very 1970s and though mornings were toasty, I still remember perishing cold early evenings with them.

 

[TropicalChickies]

It's interesting; not the chicken roosting part, but the human reaction to it.
We seem to believe that chickens should roost off the ground on whatever we can faishon as a substitute for a branch. That's fair enough given the evidence.

But, we still can't fully grasp that chickens need a lot less help from humans at least, than we are comfortable in believing.

The two 11 week old cockerels Dusty hatched slept on the floor of the maternity coop until about a week ago. There's a roost in there, and Dusty took them up to try it at 6 weeks, but after two nights, the chicks and their mum were sleeping on the floor again. When Dusty went broody again when the cockerels were 8 weeks, they slept together on the floor a few feet away from her nest. But they didn't bother her or try to get under her once she had eggs under her and hissed them away. They just wanted to be close. As Day 21 approached and I wanted the coop available for new chicks, I took them over to the main coop in the evening and put them on the extension roost.

The next night, I took the pair over a little earlier and put them on the ground next to the roost. The other chickens were starting to roost as well and of course were giving the two newcomer cockerels a hard time. I guess it's tough for young juvies when their mum goes broody again so quickly and they don't really get a proper introduction to the flock. But the two cockerels just hopped up on a low wall and waited it out. I left them to sort it out. When I went back to check as dark was falling, the two cockerels had gotten on the roost bar themselves, as close as they could to the other chickens.

The next evening they waited until dusk and then made their way over to the main coop themselves and got on the roost.

It made me recall what @Molpet said about proximity -- it seems like the two young cockerels just wanted to be closer to other chickens, either on a floor or a roost.

Tax. You might remember Segundo, the little cockerel who used to follow me around after losing a fight to his brother Tobias. I found him a new home up the road from our farm, with neighbors who recently moved to Ecuador from the US and want to do "all the homesteading things." We made a coop and brought in two POL pullets for him to court.

I was a bit worried because down here, there were three 5 month cockerels and they had basically formed a gang and were marauding around like the Peaky Blinders on a whisky binge wreaking general havoc. But I broke up the gang, their personalities changed for the better.

Segundo, now a confident in charge soon to be rooster.

Tobias, now comfortable in his role as Lucio's junior and main protector of young Prima, who just started laying very pretty little green eggs.

I hear that the third cockerel Han Solo, is doing well in his new home at another neighbors farm as well, with two hens who have accepted him. He will likely get eaten when he's 10-11 months old, but at least he is getting a chance to mate and further his genes with willing hens.

 

[BDutch]

The two 11 week old cockerels Dusty hatched slept on the floor of the maternity coop until about a week ago. There's a roost in there, and Dusty took them up to try it at 6 weeks, but after two nights, the chicks and their mum were sleeping on the floor again. When Dusty went broody again when the cockerels were 8 weeks, they slept together on the floor a few feet away from her nest. But they didn't bother her or try to get under her once she had eggs under her and hissed them away. They just wanted to be close. As Day 21 approached and I wanted the coop available for new chicks, I took them over to the main coop in the evening and put them on the extension roost.

The next night, I took the pair over a little earlier and put them on the ground next to the roost. The other chickens we're starting to roost as well and of course we're giving the two newcomer cockerels a hard time. I guess it's tough for young juvies when their mum goes broody again so quickly and they don't really get a proper introduction to the flock. But the two cockerels just hopped up on a low wall and waited it out. I left them to sort it out. When I went back to check as dark was falling, the two cockerels had gotten on the roost bar themselves, as close as they could to the other chickens.

The next evening they waited until dusk and then made their way over to the main coop themselves and got on the roost.

Interesting experience. Thanks for sharing.

I was a bit worried because down here, there were three 5 month cockerels and they had basically formed a gang and were marauding around like the Peaky Blinders on a whisky binge wreaking general havoc. But I broke up the gang, their personalities changed for the better.

View attachment 3676822
Segundo, now a confident in charge soon to be rooster.

View attachment 3676823
Tobias, now comfortable in his role as Lucio's junior and main protector of young Prima, who just started laying very pretty little green

Great pics (again).

 

[fluffycrow]

Cruella one week away from having her chicks, and now Ursula has gone broody. Lady Gaga has been putting his girls to work

 

[Ladies-Eight]

very little. Your chickens need some oil (look on a commercial feed bag label and typically it lists around 10% veg oil - and that'll usually be a lower quality oil than any that fish for human consumption are packed in).

The type of fish is much more important than what it's packed in. The ZOE team top 7 are, in order, farmed rainbow trout, oysters, sardines, anchovies, herring, wild Alaskan pollock, and mussels. They would avoid farmed salmon and large, long-lived species like tuna and halibut.
https://zoe.com/learn/fish-for-health-7-best-to-eat-and-what-to-avoid

@Perris

Thank you for the information about the fish products.