Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Two and a half hours today. It stayed dry until I left then pissed down at around 8pm on my way home.
Looks like we are due a few cold nghts according to the weather people.

 

[Shadrach]

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Though I have seen one or two stagger occasionally, and they might have found some psilocybin

This reminds me of a funny story about Unquestioned Esteemed Head Hen Brahma Donna.

Back when young Stilton was working to win over Donna and her crew, he enthusiastically tidbitted everything he scratched up...without inspecting it first.

As head hen, Donna takes first crack at whatever Stilton finds. One morning, I happened to see Donna pushing past the others to snap up something wiggly Stilton had just found.

Ten minutes later, the others were out in the orchard, but Donna was standing quietly near the gate. I quickly knelt down to see what was wrong. Donna stayed perfectly still and looked right through me. Her expression was surprised yet serene. She was tripping!

Who knows what Stilton dug up, but it must've been mildly toxic. Fortunately, Donna was back to her bossy self in about 20 minutes.

Throwback tax from those salad days: young Stilty wooing the older gals (they're 3 months older).

Styrofoam is the only thing I have seen them eat that they shouldn't.

I posted a while back about the "sea glass" our Speckled Sussex pullets are making in their crops gizzards. Finally got a photo of that. The fragments on the right are the ones that were ingested and pooped out.

After finding a chunk of broken fruit jar this color near the chickenyard, I now think they're finding old crushed moonshine jars rather than windshield glass from the heavy machinery that helped us clear kudzu.

Either way, the Speckled Sussex have bad habit of eating everything. Hopefully they'll grow out of that before eating something worse than glass

One of our little garbage compactors foraging dried bits of who knows what on the front patio:

 

[fluffycrow]

This reminds me of a funny story about Unquestioned Esteemed Head Hen Brahma Donna.

Back when young Stilton was working to win over Donna and her crew, he enthusiastically tidbitted everything he scratched up...without inspecting it first.

As head hen, Donna takes first crack at whatever Stilton finds. One morning, I happened to see Donna pushing past the others to snap up something wiggly Stilton had just found.

Ten minutes later, the others were out in the orchard, but Donna was standing quietly near the gate. I quickly knelt down to see what was wrong. Donna stayed perfectly still and looked right through me. Her expression was surprised yet serene. She was tripping!

Who knows what Stilton dug up, but it must've been mildly toxic. Fortunately, Donna was back to her bossy self in about 20 minutes.

Throwback tax from those salad days: young Stilty wooing the older gals (they're 3 months older).

View attachment 3779108


I posted a while back about the "sea glass" our Speckled Sussex pullets are making in their crops. Finally got a photo of that. The fragments on the right are the ones that were ingested and pooped out.

View attachment 3779120

After finding a chunk of broken fruit jar this color near the chickenyard, I now think they're finding old crushed moonshine jars rather than windshield glass from the heavy machinery that helped us clear kudzu.

Either way, the Speckled Sussex have bad habit of eating everything. Hopefully they'll grow out of that before eating something worse than glass

One of our little garbage compactors foraging dried bits of who knows what on the front patio:

View attachment 3779156

Big Red tidbitted on anything when he was young as well. I've caught him with a piece of wire in his mouth.

Slightly unrelated, but WOW those photos are nice! Even my eyes have way worse resolution than that first image

 

[Perris]

This reminds me of a funny story about Unquestioned Esteemed Head Hen Brahma Donna.

Back when young Stilton was working to win over Donna and her crew, he enthusiastically tidbitted everything he scratched up...without inspecting it first.

As head hen, Donna takes first crack at whatever Stilton finds. One morning, I happened to see Donna pushing past the others to snap up something wiggly Stilton had just found.

Ten minutes later, the others were out in the orchard, but Donna was standing quietly near the gate. I quickly knelt down to see what was wrong. Donna stayed perfectly still and looked right through me. Her expression was surprised yet serene. She was tripping!

Who knows what Stilton dug up, but it must've been mildly toxic. Fortunately, Donna was back to her bossy self in about 20 minutes.

Throwback tax from those salad days: young Stilty wooing the older gals (they're 3 months older).

View attachment 3779108


I posted a while back about the "sea glass" our Speckled Sussex pullets are making in their crops. Finally got a photo of that. The fragments on the right are the ones that were ingested and pooped out.

View attachment 3779120

After finding a chunk of broken fruit jar this color near the chickenyard, I now think they're finding old crushed moonshine jars rather than windshield glass from the heavy machinery that helped us clear kudzu.

Either way, the Speckled Sussex have bad habit of eating everything. Hopefully they'll grow out of that before eating something worse than glass

One of our little garbage compactors foraging dried bits of who knows what on the front patio:

View attachment 3779156

great story, and fab photo of Stilton and the ladies - you should definitely enter that for one of the compos - next year's calendar maybe? Also great obs on before and after glass. I guess if the gizzard already contains littles stones, it works like a pebble polisher on anything dropped in it, including glass! A source of silica! (As long as it doesn't lacerate the gullet on the way down of course)

 

[Perris]

A point often overlooked. Legislating and observing are relatively easy; enforcing is another matter.

classic example here
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...abed-trawling-revealed-in-protected-uk-waters

 

[MaryJanet]

A.mazing.

 

[BDutch]

until I left then pissed down at around 8pm on my way home.

What a peculiar expression.

Loved the video of the dance to look at. Not so much to listen to.

 

[RoyalChick]

This reminds me of a funny story about Unquestioned Esteemed Head Hen Brahma Donna.

Back when young Stilton was working to win over Donna and her crew, he enthusiastically tidbitted everything he scratched up...without inspecting it first.

As head hen, Donna takes first crack at whatever Stilton finds. One morning, I happened to see Donna pushing past the others to snap up something wiggly Stilton had just found.

Ten minutes later, the others were out in the orchard, but Donna was standing quietly near the gate. I quickly knelt down to see what was wrong. Donna stayed perfectly still and looked right through me. Her expression was surprised yet serene. She was tripping!

Who knows what Stilton dug up, but it must've been mildly toxic. Fortunately, Donna was back to her bossy self in about 20 minutes.

Throwback tax from those salad days: young Stilty wooing the older gals (they're 3 months older).

View attachment 3779108


I posted a while back about the "sea glass" our Speckled Sussex pullets are making in their crops. Finally got a photo of that. The fragments on the right are the ones that were ingested and pooped out.

View attachment 3779120

After finding a chunk of broken fruit jar this color near the chickenyard, I now think they're finding old crushed moonshine jars rather than windshield glass from the heavy machinery that helped us clear kudzu.

Either way, the Speckled Sussex have bad habit of eating everything. Hopefully they'll grow out of that before eating something worse than glass

One of our little garbage compactors foraging dried bits of who knows what on the front patio:

View attachment 3779156

Wonderful story, love the picture of Stilton and the ladies, and the sea glass is amazing.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Big Red tidbitted on anything when he was young as well. I've caught him with a piece of wire in his mouth.

I hope the hens realized Big Red didn't know what he was doing before they ran by and grabbed the wire

Slightly unrelated, but WOW those photos are nice! Even my eyes have way worse resolution than that first image

Thank you! My eyes also seem to have much less resolution these days than the camera that the first photo was taken on, sigh.

I guess if the gizzard already contains littles stones, it works like a pebble polisher on anything dropped in it, including glass!

Ah, so it's the gizzard, not the crop, creating the sea glass? I'm still getting mixed up around the functions of crop v. gizzard. Is the crop more of a storage pouch, and the gizzard the food grinder?

Edited: After thinking about it for a minute, I realized I do know the difference between these 2 parts of chicken anatomy but had a brain fart. Corrected in the original post to spread less misinformation.