Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Two hours today; buses acting up again.
Mostly grey, slightly damp feeling at 7C.

I couldn't stand it any longer and made a portable fence from a large broken dog cage, set it up about halfway in the allotment run and let the geese out. I cleared the pieces of wood from the plastic pond, got the rubbish out and some pieces of netting and the geese made straight for it.
I'll be able to let them out most days now. They're very good with me I must say. Easier to move from place to place than the chickens. The white one still swears at me a lot.

Yeah I know, I said I wasn't going to get involved with the geese.

The tribe seems fine. Henry and Dig are still alive and Dig hasn't got any new peck marks on his comb.
Everybody got out for the duration.

 

[notabitail]

Two hours today; buses acting up again.
Mostly grey, slightly damp feeling at 7C.

I couldn't stand it any longer and made a portable fence from a large broken dog cage, set it up about halfway in the allotment run and let the geese out. I cleared the pieces of wood from the plastic pond, got the rubbish out and some pieces of netting and the geese made straight for it.
I'll be able to let them out most days now. They're very good with me I must say. Easier to move from place to place than the chickens. The white one still swears at me a lot.

Yeah I know, I said I wasn't going to get involved with the geese.View attachment 3745233

View attachment 3745156
View attachment 3745155

The tribe seems fine. Henry and Dig are still alive and Dig hasn't got any new peck marks on his comb.
Everybody got out for the duration.
View attachment 3745151View attachment 3745152View attachment 3745153
View attachment 3745154View attachment 3745157View attachment 3745158

Much like cats, you have no choice when it comes to birds. You do it or else you face the wrath of a beak.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

They are pretty typical here. My birds probably have very well developed gizzards, as they're on forage from day 1 and get no UPF so have to do all the food processing themselves. The stones they acquire during foraging resemble the constituents of a local conglomerate stone, which makes sense. I'm sure I read in old handbooks about this periodic purging and recycling of gizzard stones. Most of them are dropped as the birds go about their daily business and they are then washed clean by the rain, to be consumed again by the next bird passing and looking to top up their gizzard.

Here as well. Not daily but maybe every few weeks. I didn't realize the stones were purged from the gizzard.

It's typically from the Sussex. They have extremely adventurous palates, so I suspect they ingest extra grit after eating something particularly bony or thorny.

When we first acquired our land, part of it was under kudzu. While clearing the vines, the windshields of a trackhoe and a skidsteer were shattered a few weeks apart. Clearly the work of the ghost of an old mountain moonshiner peeved at the invasion of privacy

Glass bits still appear every so often. When the adventurous Sussex find it, of course they eat it. After bopping around in their digestive systems, the result is sea glass! Similar to the smallest balls in this photo (not my picture):

Can't be good for them, but next time I find a piece, maybe I'll use it to make "hen's tooth" jewelry, ha.

 

[MrsNorthie]

No worries. I probably won't bother posting the other articles I've written of a similar nature here on BYC.

I enjoy the articles, the experience and views on raising chickens, that you, Perris and others have shared is extremely beneficial to those of us who are trying to learn everything we can to make the lives of our chickens, better. (I am not trying to pressurize you into publishing articles, just saying, I have learned something valuable from the shared experiences.)

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Two hours today; buses acting up again.
Mostly grey, slightly damp feeling at 7C.

I couldn't stand it any longer and made a portable fence from a large broken dog cage, set it up about halfway in the allotment run and let the geese out. I cleared the pieces of wood from the plastic pond, got the rubbish out and some pieces of netting and the geese made straight for it.
I'll be able to let them out most days now. They're very good with me I must say. Easier to move from place to place than the chickens. The white one still swears at me a lot.

Yeah I know, I said I wasn't going to get involved with the geese.View attachment 3745233

View attachment 3745156
View attachment 3745155

The tribe seems fine. Henry and Dig are still alive and Dig hasn't got any new peck marks on his comb.
Everybody got out for the duration.
View attachment 3745151View attachment 3745152View attachment 3745153
View attachment 3745154View attachment 3745157View attachment 3745158

Over the holidays, some of our neighbors fell ill. They're private and would never ask for help, but firewood needed hauling and animals needed feeding, so a few of us called to offer help, and it was accepted.

I ended up point person for animal care and have learned a bit about animals new to me, like geese. Yeesh, they're messy. They spend days soiling every water vessel on the acreage. Also, Chinese Geese are LOUD. Fantastic guard animals, though. They even intimidate their yeti of a Great Pyrenees.

They were docile enough to me until last week. The ladies started laying and the males started hissing and herding me away from the nesting area by beating my feet with their beaks.

These neighbors used to have dozens of chickens. For my sake, I'm glad they don't anymore, but they speak wistfully about the days when hens would brood chicks in the woods and parade them to the front door to visit. A couple years ago, the chickens started getting picked off by predators until every last one was gone. Not in the mood to upgrade predator protections or confine birds, they decided it was best to just keep geese. They've only lost 2 of the Chinese geese in 6 years.

Tax: Longnecked honking chickens and short-snouted wire-haired chicken.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Real tax before the tax man comes for my knees with a bag of nickels.

Rainy season is here. Normal chickens pop out during the dry spells. Handsome Merle and the girls:

Speckled Sussex, on the other hand, go puddle jumping. These photos are at dusk. They'll stay out past dark as long as the motion-sensor lights pop on so they can see.

Per usual, rooster AGC watched from under cover until finally uttering a catalog of chicken swear words and heading up to roost.

Well after dark, Lil Nugs wandered up the ramp to join the others. Soggiest chickens ever.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

Tea is ready.

Temperature is in the 70s.

Have a great day!

 

[fluffycrow]

Nice to see the geese enjoying some time outside in their new enclosure. While I don't have any waterfowl of my own to share, I have a plethora of chickens. In the first photo, you can see some of Cruella's biological children. On the ground is one of my keeper pullets. Second photo, Cruella's much older Tsouloufati pullet, doing what mum would be very proud to see; being a tree hugger

. And although I don't have a photo to share of that, it is also interesting to see that Kolovos's son roosts with the adult group, but always below his father

 

[Perris]

I must be in tax arrears big time So here's something new here: Idris laid her first egg yesterday and Betws laid her first today

They'll be 27 weeks old tomorrow, so were not quick out of the blocks, but they've opened with good eggs in good shells, which is nice.

 

[MrsNorthie]

I must be in tax arrears big time So here's something new here: Idris laid her first egg yesterday and Betws laid her first today

They'll be 27 weeks old tomorrow, so were not quick out of the blocks, but they've opened with good eggs in good shells, which is nice.

You can't rush perfection.