Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

But an insecure coop can trap them so they can't escape.

This was her problem. She obviously thought it was fine to let her chickens free range day and night.
I don’t. Because I’m convinced my coop its safer at night.

BTW, in England (+ a couple of West European countries) there are no raccoons, bobcats and many other predators you have in the states. The nightly predators I know of are: foxes, and members of the weasels/polecat/marten family:
https://www.vwt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/MustelidLeaflet.pdf
Not sure about owls or other nightly birds of prey. The smaller owls we have hunt mainly for mice and rats.

 

[MaryJanet]

This was her problem. She obviously thought it was fine to let her chickens free range day and night.
I don’t. Because I’m convinced my coop its safer at night.

BTW, in England (+ a couple of West European countries) there are no raccoons, bobcats and many other predators you have in the states. The nightly predators I know of are: foxes, and members of the weasels/polecat/marten family:
https://www.vwt.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/MustelidLeaflet.pdf
Not sure about owls or other nightly birds of prey. The smaller owls we have hunt mainly for mice and rats.

Where I live in Australia, the nighttime predators are foxes. During the daytime, an eagle or hawk will try their luck.

So a well-fortified coop and run are important for chicken safety.

In some parts of Australia, there are no foxes at all. Kangaroo Island for example, where there's a huge free range egg farm that supplies several of the supermarket chains. I have heard the farmer and his family go out at night to kill spent hens and they bury the bodies on the farm, which is about as ethical as you can get when you're farming in the egg production industry.

 

[Shadrach]

Silver dove?

It's a duck.

 

[Perris]

But since you don’t have runs around or in front of the coops I really don’t know what you could do about this. Maybe accept they are free rangers to the max?

Acceptance may be all I can do, when it occurs. Some nights they choose to roost in coops - tonight Q is out but A is in, for example - and I think they may give it up when they start laying. At the mo I think they're getting bullied on the roosts by those hens lowest in the adult hierarchy, and it might stop if/when these pullets start standing their ground and/or peck back.

On the other hand, Q is Rhondda's daughter, and R was the one who had a hidden nest last year (R has been laying in the coops since it was predated, and she has always roosted in coop), so the feral instinct may run in Q's genes. But A's mum was Idris, who never did this. I still hope it's a temporary blip, and that they will grow out of it.

The nightly predators I know of are: foxes, and members of the weasels/polecat/marten family

Same here; a fox took my first 3 chickens, and foxes take some of a neighbour's chickens every year (they aren't ranging dawn-dusk, are production breeds and are replaced when laying falls off, and there are no roos in the flock, so there are lots of differences in keeping conditions, in essentially the same habitat). Foxes are definitely about, but they can't get into the Nestera coops, and they can't climb the holm oak, certainly not to the height the girls are now going.

I have seen a weasel in the garden, though it was many years ago, before I kept chickens. There are also apparently mink in the marsh two miles away; I hope they never find us. There are plenty of waterfowl down there for them anyway.

Not sure about owls or other nightly birds of prey. The smaller owls we have hunt mainly for mice and rats

We have owls but I don't think they would attempt to take a mature chicken. Voles and shrews are their normal prey.

 

[Shadrach]

One and a half hours today. I did the essentials and after that, just sat and watched them. It's odd watching chickens.
The better one gets to know them the more interesting they become. Why doesn't that work with people.

 

[Sally PB]

The better one gets to know them the more interesting they become. Why doesn't that work with people.

Yeah. Sigh.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

It's odd watching chickens.
The better one gets to know them the more interesting they become. Why doesn't that work with people.
View attachment 4017484View attachment 4017485View attachment 4017486

Because people tend to get upset the longer you stare at them?

I'm grateful the chickens don't think I'm creepy for watching them all the time. Not to mention the evening vent checks

 

[HiEverybirdy]

absolutely! They are also very keen on what's left behind when I sweep/ rake the leaves, which I try to leave until it's really necessary because it's getting slippery underfoot. One path seldom used was done this morning, having been skipped entirely last year, and had about an inch of beautiful dark humus beneath this year's leaves. I think the chickens scattering soil as they forage helps it all break down quickly and completely. And their poo of course! And in return they get soil that has live food hustling and bustling about in it.

I really need to get a camera with a macro lens to try to find out what exactly they're consuming while their heads are down there in the dirt.

One of my Christmas presents was The Nature of Oaks, by Doug Tallamy. I'm a fan of his approach to promoting native plants and even dragged DH to one of his lectures a while back.

Anywho, the book covers the activity around oak trees month by month, and the "March" chapter opens with a discussion of what your macro lens might pick up, @Perris.

 

[no fly zone]

One and a half hours today. I did the essentials and after that, just sat and watched them. It's odd watching chickens.
The better one gets to know them the more interesting they become. Why doesn't that work with people.
View attachment 4017484View attachment 4017485View attachment 4017486

I absolutely miss just sitting in my backyard and watching Skeksis & Chippy just do whatever they felt like.

 

[Shadrach]

I absolutely miss just sitting in my backyard and watching Skeksis & Chippy just do whatever they felt like.

I see so many traits that can be observed in humans. There really aren't many other opportunities to study other species social behaviour at such close quarters.