Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

Not sure what needs to be done, but probably something. We had a cockerel or rooster, I forget which, that was feather pulling on the head like that, and I didn't think it was serious until he scalped one of my girls. I isolated her until she healed, which she did, although I wasn't sure she would, as it was a horrifying-looking wound, and we isolated him from the flock permanently! I will pay double tax if Shadrack disagrees with me.

It’s chicken related talk so I believe there is no obligation to post taxes.
Everyone has his own experiences and opinions. Im glad you told yours.

But I’d love to see more photos

 

[Shadrach]

My Dad insists on vasline since she's also getting cut up on her head from all the feather pulling.

Cockerel is almost a year old now. I still call him that.

Thank you.

(FYI CCsGarden is my sister).

If a cockerel, or rooster, is hurting the hens or making life unreasonably difficult for the hens then I don't keep them.
I don't care how they behave towards me.
If such behaviour is so bad that he needs to be removed from the group then he doesn't go back. Time out, seperate keeeping arrangements etc are not things that I believe work in the long run. In the past I've killed and eaten such males.

Feather loss from the back of the head and feather loss from the hens shoulders and back is pretty common in kept groups of chickens in just about any keeping arrangement. It's a question of degree and the behaviour of the hens.

Chicken kept confined who spend most of their lives in a coop and run arrangement are not able to behave in a natural manner and the hens no longer have in most cases a natural egg laying cycle.
A hen wants each egg she lays to produce a chick; that's why they lay eggs. They don't lay eggs to feed humans. In order to hatch chicks each egg must be fertilized and for that to happen a male and female must mate.
A hen that lays fifty eggs a year will only mate for those fifty days roughly. A hen that lays 300 or more eggs a year will mate at least once every day if a male is present. The possible levels of feather damage is going to be more, for the more productive hen and recovery time shorter.

Another point is in natural breeding circumstances; fully free range in a multi generational group the rooster is liklely to be the same breed or related to/as the hen and thus of the correct size and weight. Large different breed roosters with hens chosen like coloured candy rather than correct size and biology for the rooster is liable to give problems. Most people I've read about here on BYC do not take these things into consideration.

Starting from scratch is also likely to give problems. Any hens and cockerels that hatch won't have adults of both sexes to learn how to behave. Sometimes if the keeper is lucky a group will survive the learning process and the next generation will have a massive advantage in having elders teach the youngsters the ropes.

I don't know the keeping details of your chickens or their breeds but in most case if the keeper got chickens for eggs in the first place and is keeping a confined group then my advice is don't get a male. Therefore, given you are having problems my advice is rehome or eat the male you have and don't get another.

 

[Shadrach]

I got sent a link to this. There is series. They are supposed to be funny.
These people are university students. They can vote!

 

[Molpet]

I got sent a link to this. There is series. They are supposed to be funny.
These people are university students. They can vote!

I truly hope this is staged, otherwise we are doomed.

 

[Shadrach]

I truly hope this is staged, otherwise we are doomed.

I don't think it's staged.
A similar study was done here in the UK and the fail rate was astounding.
One question was who was the first British Prime Minister.
Another was which planet is third from the sun.
Another was what is the height of the tallest mountain on the planet.

The applogists say that the retention of facts is no longer important, they can be looked up quickly on the internet. It's the ability to reason and use these facts that's important.

 

[Sally PB]

I'm sorry, if I ask you, "Which planet is third from the sun?" and you reach for your phone to look it up, you have lost ALL credibility with me.

No, scratch that. I'm not sorry.

 

[notabitail]

I don't think it's staged.
A similar study was done here in the UK and the fail rate was astounding.
One question was who was the first British Prime Minister.
Another was which planet is third from the sun.
Another was what is the height of the tallest mountain on the planet.

The applogists say that the retention of facts is no longer important, they can be looked up quickly on the internet. It's the ability to reason and use these facts that's important.

Nowadays everyone just sits on that stupid tiktok pile of poop. Therefore facts aren't important, just whatever the phone says they believe and won't research any further.

 

[RoyalChick]

It didn't look staged to me either and it was very distressing.
However, I would personally far rather someone look something up than confidently assert the wrong answer.
I always appreciate when a doctor or vet looks up the correct dose of something rather than just going off memory for example.

 

[notabitail]

It didn't look staged to me either and it was very distressing.
However, I would personally far rather someone look something up than confidently assert the wrong answer.
I always appreciate when a doctor or vet looks up the correct dose of something rather than just going off memory for example.

I look stuff up all the time. Tech support requires knowing how to, and not just believing you're right on everything.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I just asked my 22-yo GirlChild three questions and she got two of them right. Third planet from the sun? Earth (she said, laughing at me.) How many sides to an isoscles triangle? Yeah she got that right and looked me like I was crazy for asking. The one she missed was how many feet in a meter? (Hmm, 12? she guessed.) Maybe the TikTok guy did get some right answers but they weren't funny so he edited them out. I sure hope so.