Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ladies-Eight]

Three hours today. It got quite chilly towards dusk.
Dig has got to go. I almost killed him this evening after he knocked Fret over then tried to rake her with his feet. He attacked Mow today as well. He wasn't trying to mate. Mow was eating and he just flew at her. He'll be gone tomorrow. It's all rather sad but this can't go on.
View attachment 3801360View attachment 3801361View attachment 3801359View attachment 3801358View attachment 3801357View attachment 3801355

So sorry to hear about Dig's actions and his demise.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

Tea is ready.

Temperature is in the 70s.

Have a great day!

 

[16 and me]

Three hours today. It got quite chilly towards dusk.
Dig has got to go. I almost killed him this evening after he knocked Fret over then tried to rake her with his feet. He attacked Mow today as well. He wasn't trying to mate. Mow was eating and he just flew at her. He'll be gone tomorrow. It's all rather sad but this can't go on.
View attachment 3801360View attachment 3801361View attachment 3801359View attachment 3801358View attachment 3801357View attachment 3801355

I'm sorry about Dig, @Shadrach
I actually came on here this morning hoping to hear good news, as I am dealing with my own Dig, Sammy.
Sammy is still young, at 7 1/2 months old & he has become a nuisance. I have him separated from the others in a pen of his own, attached to the big pen. At first he was good with the pullets his age that I would allow in with him, disregarding them for the most part while he prowled the fence line trying to get to Pedro's mature hens, charging them from inside his fence. Now when I allow the young hens in with him they scream as he jumps on them the second they enter the pen.
I'm afraid the more frustrated he gets the worse he will get, but meanwhile I've been holding out hope that he will change with maturity. But that's a long way off & I feel like he doesn't have much quality of life watching Pedro live it up with 14 hens while he paces the fenceline in isolation.

 

[no fly zone]

A few more pics of the Skeksis Jr baby

 

[MrsNorthie]

I'm sorry about Dig, @Shadrach
I actually came on here this morning hoping to hear good news, as I am dealing with my own Dig, Sammy.
Sammy is still young, at 7 1/2 months old & he has become a nuisance. I have him separated from the others in a pen of his own, attached to the big pen. At first he was good with the pullets his age that I would allow in with him, disregarding them for the most part while he prowled the fence line trying to get to Pedro's mature hens, charging them from inside his fence. Now when I allow the young hens in with him they scream as he jumps on them the second they enter the pen.
I'm afraid the more frustrated he gets the worse he will get, but meanwhile I've been holding out hope that he will change with maturity. But that's a long way off & I feel like he doesn't have much quality of life watching Pedro live it up with 14 hens while he paces the fenceline in isolation.

The only way the isolation might work would be to move him to where he can't even see the others, for a while, but honestly, that would probably make him depressed if it were longer much longer than a week or 2. :-( They are so complex.

 

[Shadrach]

I don't agree with the "it's not fair not to let them hatch" if that means certain death for the males.

Death is certain for us all. For some it comes sooner than for others.

That is why I asked several days ago if you thought it was due to his personality, to the settings, or both.

It's both and both can be adjusted in some circumstances. I don't have those circumstances at the field.
I could have built a coop and run at the other end of the field and got Dig a couple of hens. Dig and Henry once out of their runs would no doubt fight. However, I've done this split (Father and Son) a few times in the past and given the space they work it out. It's not just about the hens. Chickens are territorial.
I wouldn't get an agreement to build another coop and run.

ou could eventually question whether it's possible to have a cockerel coexist with his aging father in the circumstances you have to deal with, before letting another hen hatch.

I have questioned this a few times in this thread.
I don't have any fundamental objection to eating the females or the males. I haven't since childhood. Keeping a closed flock and letting them breed has always seemed preferable and in the long run more successful than getting new hens or roosters in as required. Those one cannot keep, one eats. I've kept chickens like this until I took on the chickens at the field.

I have rehomed in the past, usually a pair or trio and I've known where they were going and the conditions they would live in. They mostly went to farms who kept chickens in much the same way as I did.
It's not like that here in Bristol.


Even in the best of keeping circumstances unless one is going to confine the males the ratio that I've found works best is three hens to one rooster.
The hens seem to prefer this ratio as well as the roosters. A good rooster can do all the things good roosters do when able to do it with three hens and, in the event one dies and the other is sitting for example, he is not left with no hens to boss about. and won't pester another roosters hens.

To keep a closed flock going one needs to hatch chicks and 50%, over time, are going to be male.

Whether I'm right in wishing to keep the tribe going rather than calling it a day when Henry dies is debatable. It's important to me partly because the field has a history of chickens and to the best of my knowledge always with roosters. The field has the right by the terms of the lease to keep livestock. I have mentioned before that the field is leased as an agricultural holding/farm. That is almost unheard of in what is an urban area. Some members do not appreciate the worth of such a lease. I imagine, when I can no longer take care of the geese and the chickens the members will stop keeping them.

I don't know if I'm doing the right thing or the wrong thing; I'm doing what I know.

 

[MrsNorthie]

Dig might settle down in another six months or so but fights between Dig and Henry would continue and meanwhile the hens would have to live in constant fear of either attacks, or mating attempts from Dig.

It is unfortunate that circumstances are what they are, but we all know that you are not making this decision lightly and if there was a better answer, you would find it.

 

[Shadrach]

I'm sorry about Dig, @Shadrach
I actually came on here this morning hoping to hear good news, as I am dealing with my own Dig, Sammy.
Sammy is still young, at 7 1/2 months old & he has become a nuisance. I have him separated from the others in a pen of his own, attached to the big pen. At first he was good with the pullets his age that I would allow in with him, disregarding them for the most part while he prowled the fence line trying to get to Pedro's mature hens, charging them from inside his fence. Now when I allow the young hens in with him they scream as he jumps on them the second they enter the pen.
I'm afraid the more frustrated he gets the worse he will get, but meanwhile I've been holding out hope that he will change with maturity. But that's a long way off & I feel like he doesn't have much quality of life watching Pedro live it up with 14 hens while he paces the fenceline in isolation.

I empathise. There are some very hard choices to make.
If I have to take a chicken out of a group due excessive disruption within the group, then they don't go back. I'm tolerant of most chicken behaviour. In general I prefer to let them sort it out. Dig had a similar problem with the hens, they're just not interested. His quality of life from now until some unforseen major change takes place would have been poor in my opinion.

 

[Molpet]

A few more pics of the Skeksis Jr baby

View attachment 3802067
View attachment 3802069
View attachment 3802070

Such a cutie pie

 

[Molpet]

In different circumstances...
I have to deal with the circumstances I have.

Over the last few days the hens behaviour has changed and they cluster around Henry or me when out of the run. This picture sums things up, Henry trying to protect his hens with Dig hanging around the outskirts waitng to make a dive at either Carbon or Fret. Mow gets as far away as possible and recently she's been reluctant to go into the coop at roosting time.
View attachment 3801878
Carbon already has a bald patch on her back and now Fret has a small wound on her back from Dig's attempt to mate with her. Nobody is happy with the current situation.
Fret would like to sit and hatch again. Yesterday when she went into the coop to have a trial sit as she does, Dig went in after her and dragged her out of the nest box.
More hens might help the situation but Dig would need his own coop if he could entice any new comers to live with him. In such confined conditions even if I bought another coop for Dig, I very much doubt things would improve and I do not want to import hens. I want Fret or Carbon or Mow to sit and hatch and while Dig is there this looks unlikely.
Dig isn't happy. He's not getting much of a life in these circumstances. Trying to fight Henry has proven to be a non option and non of the hens will crouch for Dig. Dig is driven away from the food which is normal and that means I have to ensure he gets properly fed after the others have eaten.
It's possible that Dig might settle down in another six months or so but fights between Dig and Henry would continue and meanwhile the hens would have to live in constant fear of either attacks, or mating attempts from Dig.

My primary commitment is to provide Henry, Fret, Carbon and now Mow with an acceptable quality of life and currently that is not what they're getting. It's a shame about Dig and it will be a shame for any future cockerels that may hatch and behave in a similar manner.
It wouldn't be fair to Fret and any other hen that went broody to prevent them from sitting and hatching because dealing with the cockerels is always likely to be a difficult decision.

He had a good life. Much better than a grocery store chicken.