Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

I have a rooster question that I can't find an answer to by using search, figured this might be a good place to ask since there's so much experience here.

When a hen is broody, or immediately afterwards when she's caring for her chicks, is it "normal" for a rooster to mate with her despite her strident resistance and objections? She was screaming like she's never done before, her chicks around her. She's not laying.

I haven't seen that here.

 

[RoyalChick]

Update on Coed: his condition has recovered significantly (he was ready to rumble with the rest for his share of breakfast this morning ), and I managed to get this photo yesterday. Note the outside toe left foot, raised. Is this just an artefact of how his movement looked when the shutter happened to open, or might he have broken that toe? Or higher up, at the ankle joint?
View attachment 3802664

Glad to see he is back!

 

[Molpet]

I have a rooster question that I can't find an answer to by using search, figured this might be a good place to ask since there's so much experience here.

When a hen is broody, or immediately afterwards when she's caring for her chicks, is it "normal" for a rooster to mate with her despite her strident resistance and objections? She was screaming like she's never done before, her chicks around her. She's not laying.

I have only had cockerels that rude. How old are chicks and rooster?

 

[ManueB]

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


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.


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.

Thank you for taking the time to explain. I may not like some of it, but I understand the reasoning.

It's obviously not your case, and I feel not that of most people who comment on this thread, but I can't help being shaken by how quick some BYC members will be to take the freezer camp solution for young troublesome males while they see the females as beloved pets.

I hope you will be able to go on caring for the allotment chickens for as long as you wish or as long as you feel it's right. And maybe there is somewhere in Bristol someone like @no fly zone, and like you were coming back from Spain, wishing to care for chickens again in a inadequate urban environment.

Update on Coed: his condition has recovered significantly (he was ready to rumble with the rest for his share of breakfast this morning ), and I managed to get this photo yesterday. Note the outside toe left foot, raised. Is this just an artefact of how his movement looked when the shutter happened to open, or might he have broken that toe? Or higher up, at the ankle joint?
View attachment 3802664

The toe's posture does look strange. You could try to get another look and picture tomorrow morning, or make a specific post about it ? There are a few wild bird rescuers on BYC, I think

I have a rooster question that I can't find an answer to by using search, figured this might be a good place to ask since there's so much experience here.

When a hen is broody, or immediately afterwards when she's caring for her chicks, is it "normal" for a rooster to mate with her despite her strident resistance and objections? She was screaming like she's never done before, her chicks around her. She's not laying.

My bantam rooster,who had and still sometimes has a very inadequate behaviour with hens, tried to mate with my bantam broody when he was ten months old, but she did not let him. He was also quite aggressive with her chicks, and would possibly have hurt them in a closed run.

My other rooster who is far more balanced never insisted when a broody refused, even at the same age.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

Tea is ready.

@Shadrach --May Dig RIP and the rest of the tribe have harmony.

Temperature is in the 50s and sunny.

Have a great day!

 

[Shadrach]

RIP Dig. Hope it isn't hurting you too much Shad

I'm not delighted about any of it I must admit.

 

[Shadrach]

I have a rooster question that I can't find an answer to by using search, figured this might be a good place to ask since there's so much experience here.

When a hen is broody, or immediately afterwards when she's caring for her chicks, is it "normal" for a rooster to mate with her despite her strident resistance and objections? She was screaming like she's never done before, her chicks around her. She's not laying.

No, not normal in my experience.

 

[Shadrach]

Thank you for taking the time to explain. I may not like some of it, but I understand the reasoning.

It's obviously not your case, and I feel not that of most people who comment on this thread, but I can't help being shaken by how quick some BYC members will be to take the freezer camp solution for young troublesome males while they see the females as beloved pets.

I hope you will be able to go on caring for the allotment chickens for as long as you wish or as long as you feel it's right. And maybe there is somewhere in Bristol someone like @no fly zone, and like you were coming back from Spain, wishing to care for chickens again in a inadequate urban environment.


The toe's posture does look strange. You could try to get another look and picture tomorrow morning, or make a specific post about it ? There are a few wild bird rescuers on BYC, I think

My bantam rooster,who had and still sometimes has a very inadequate behaviour with hens, tried to mate with my bantam broody when he was ten months old, but she did not let him. He was also quite aggressive with her chicks, and would possibly have hurt them in a closed run.

My other rooster who is far more balanced never insisted when a broody refused, even at the same age.

It's a pity you weren't on BYC while I was still in Catalonia and writing about the tribes. You would understand my views better.

 

[fluffycrow]

I haven't seen that here.

×2

 

[Molpet]

I'm not delighted about any of it I must admit.

Yes it's not pleasant. If it was I would be worried