Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Anyway, as you can see I'm quite chatty this evening and that is partly because I haven't done the four bus journeys and the standing out in the weather for a couple of hours and partly because the person who has, my apprentice, I shall call J from now on, seems to have enjoyed themselves, got everyone fed and watered, sent me a couple of pictures locked up and went home.

 

[Molpet]

My roost are much smaller. Chickens seem to like it if they can bend their feet over the roost. Not sure if it’s just what people repeat or maybe once upon a time, someone did a test?
But a flat roost is/seems better than a round broomstick.

My roosts are made from construction wood with sanded edges. View attachment 3976253

Optimised according to a Dutch chickenforum:
View attachment 3976262

Someone did a test, I believe it's standard size USA fat chickens
Article 'The perch experiment' https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-perch-experiment.74272/

Mine like the ones closest to the open in the summer. Higher or lower doesn't matter compared to the breeze

 

[Molpet]

Anyway, as you can see I'm quite chatty this evening and that is partly because I haven't done the four bus journeys and the standing out in the weather for a couple of hours and partly because the person who has, my apprentice, I shall call J from now on, seems to have enjoyed themselves, got everyone fed and watered, sent me a couple of pictures locked up and went home.

Glad he is doing good

 

[fuzzi]

My roost are much smaller. Chickens seem to like it if they can bend their feet over the roost. Not sure if it’s just what people repeat or maybe once upon a time, someone did a test?
But a flat roost is/seems better than a round broomstick.

My roosts are made from construction wood with sanded edges. View attachment 3976253

Optimised according to a Dutch chickenforum:
View attachment 3976262

Thank you.

Zack roosted on a chair when he was a persona non grata young cockerel.

You can see the metal tubing just below, about 1" in diameter. Once the hens allowed him up on the roost he abandoned his chair roost and joined them there.

 

[Ribh]

. In general the smaller the chicken the faster and flightier they are.

This does not account for bantams ~ @ least in my experience. They tend to be laid back & easily handled. Small standards, like Campines & Fayoumis ~ yes, I would agree. Definitely flighty. Super fast. And really good fliers.

I'm pretty convinced that whatever characterstics demonstrated by a breed at the breeds establishment isn't what you'll necessarily get after all the breeding,

Perhaps looking @ breeds that have been meddled with less would help in this regard. Again I can only speak from my experience. The breed standard for Campines always puts flighty right @ the top & everyone I've ever spoken too agrees flighty is definitely a characteristic of this breed ~ so much so I've lost count of the number of times I've been warned about keeping these birds. I have found they mellow with age, & , as you know, mine have been kept with more laid back breeds.

I have always been interested in how closely birds adhere to breed characteristics because it has always been important to me to have as peaceful & stable a tribe as possible. I have got it wrong on occasion. The Vorwerks were a big mistake. I love my Wyandottes but I would never class them as a peace loving chicken. Every single one I've had has been something of a bully, though most have mellowed given time & their ability to place high in the pecking order.

My Japs & D'uccles tend to be people oriented & make really good pets ~ better than silkies imo. Sorry. I'm rambling. Here's some tax.

 

[no fly zone]

This does not account for bantams ~ @ least in my experience. They tend to be laid back & easily handled. Small standards, like Campines & Fayoumis ~ yes, I would agree. Definitely flighty. Super fast. And really good fliers.

Perhaps looking @ breeds that have been meddled with less would help in this regard. Again I can only speak from my experience. The breed standard for Campines always puts flighty right @ the top & everyone I've ever spoken too agrees flighty is definitely a characteristic of this breed ~ so much so I've lost count of the number of times I've been warned about keeping these birds. I have found they mellow with age, & , as you know, mine have been kept with more laid back breeds.

I have always been interested in how closely birds adhere to breed characteristics because it has always been important to me to have as peaceful & stable a tribe as possible. I have got it wrong on occasion. The Vorwerks were a big mistake. I love my Wyandottes but I would never class them as a peace loving chicken. Every single one I've had has been something of a bully, though most have mellowed given time & their ability to place high in the pecking order.

My Japs & D'uccles tend to be people oriented & make really good pets ~ better than silkies imo. Sorry. I'm rambling. Here's some tax.
View attachment 3976328

D'uccles are definitely the most friendly birds i had

 

[kcan2]

Anyway, as you can see I'm quite chatty this evening and that is partly because I haven't done the four bus journeys and the standing out in the weather for a couple of hours and partly because the person who has, my apprentice, I shall call J from now on, seems to have enjoyed themselves, got everyone fed and watered, sent me a couple of pictures locked up and went home.

Do we get to see the pictures?
I felt chatty earlier but instead ate some pumpkin seeds and accidently drank a dog hair in my water glass.
Not much going on with the chickens so tax picture of my hen meeting my parrotlet. Tweaky (parrotlet) was interested whereas hen seemed bored:

 

[Shadrach]

This does not account for bantams ~ @ least in my experience. They tend to be laid back & easily handled. Small standards, like Campines & Fayoumis ~ yes, I would agree. Definitely flighty. Super fast. And really good fliers.

Perhaps looking @ breeds that have been meddled with less would help in this regard. Again I can only speak from my experience. The breed standard for Campines always puts flighty right @ the top & everyone I've ever spoken too agrees flighty is definitely a characteristic of this breed ~ so much so I've lost count of the number of times I've been warned about keeping these birds. I have found they mellow with age, & , as you know, mine have been kept with more laid back breeds.

I have always been interested in how closely birds adhere to breed characteristics because it has always been important to me to have as peaceful & stable a tribe as possible. I have got it wrong on occasion. The Vorwerks were a big mistake. I love my Wyandottes but I would never class them as a peace loving chicken. Every single one I've had has been something of a bully, though most have mellowed given time & their ability to place high in the pecking order.

My Japs & D'uccles tend to be people oriented & make really good pets ~ better than silkies imo. Sorry. I'm rambling. Here's some tax.
View attachment 3976328

I agree, Bantams do seem to be different. The bantams in Catalonia were at least and I agree that it is probably because they have been messed about with less. I thought they dealt with environment changes better than the Marans and cross breeds. The Catalonian bunch were flighty and as you may recall, all went up trees at roost time and needed persuading to use their coop.
Fayoumies haven't been messed about with much either. They don't lay large enough eggs and not enough eggs it seens for breeders to be interested in trying to turn them into a higher production breed.
There are other breeds that are similar, but less well known, or less desirable for back yard keepers for similar reasons; too flighty, eggs too small and not enough of them. I have never been attacked by a bantam unless one counts broody hens and my presence seemed to have less effect on their behaviour than with the other breeds and crosses.
I imagine Campines are similar, I used to think that of all the chickens I came accross in Catalonia the bantams given a large enough starting population would possibly survive without any human direct involvement.

Rambling about chickens never needs an apology in my view.

 

[Shadrach]

Do we get to see the pictures?

Sure.

 

[BDutch]

Someone did a test, I believe it's standard size USA fat chickens
Article 'The perch experiment' https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-perch-experiment.74272/

Mine like the ones closest to the open in the summer. Higher or lower doesn't matter compared to the breeze

Thanks, now I remember I have read this perch experiment a long time ago.
There was one interesting review I think you should read about wide perches:

• Acre4Me
• 5.00 star(s)
• Feb 26, 2019

Spoiler: caution that a large and heavy chicken may not do as well on a wide perch

Nice! So many options for perches!

Based on my recent experience detailed in this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/what-is-this-scabby-enlarged-thing-on-roos-chest.1292202/
I would caution that a large and heavy chicken may not do as well on a wide perch. My Black Jersey Giant cockerel (almost 11lbs at 11 months old and not full grown yet) developed a very bad and infected breast blister from our flat side up 2x4 roost bars. Read the link for the details, however, in speaking with the breeder of the BJG (decades of experience), he indicated the wide roosts caused the problem, and given the size of this big cockerel, I would have to agree. We have since turned the roost bars to the narrow side (pics in the thread), and it is apparent that the chickens are still covering their feet just fine, and that their keel bone is not resting on the roost bar, causing irritation. Had we seen any problems with the narrow side up, we would likely look for branches to use, and we would remove the bark to reduce potential mite or bug hidey-holes.