Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[HiEverybirdy]

Oh yes it did, thank you for asking and he still rushes over if one of the hens shouts for him. Very protective of his family but also very good with children - he was very patient with a young disabled visitor this last week who had never had a close encounter with a live chicken before. Her grandmother said that she really enjoyed stroking him. I am always very watchful with kids around & this time had brought him in for her to see & he stayed perched on my arm chatting away throughout.
This is him in August just reminding us that the house is his. He likes these chairs &, when he comes in, he tries very hard to convince the girls that the seat pads are a tasty tidbit! They of course are not so sure

View attachment 4021311

Good update! He looks so pleased with himself in his chair.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Ground feeding. Anyone do it?
I used to do it with Tribe 3 in Catalonia when there were some disputes about who should eat first. Ground feeding resolved the issue.
My friend in the next county ground feeds his birds. He says his chickens eat more and get more exercise when they are ground fed.
I'm particulalry interested at the moment because both Fret and Mow have a habit of taking food from my hand and dropping it on the ground and then picking it up and swallowing it. They don't do well on the treat front with this behaviour because Tull and Sylph are on the dropped food like vultures.
Fret has always prefered to feed from the ground and is fussy about feed/treat size.
I'm going to give it a try with the evening feed at the field.

No ground feeding here, of pellets/crumble anyway.

I'd heard commercial feed's milled in a way that makes it susceptible to mold and to sponging up things like ringworm eggs. The less feed that ends up on our damp ground, the better.

When feed gets spilled, I might give the chickens the rest of the day to clean it up, but if I don't scrape it up after that, it'll mold within 36 hours.

We toss scratch grains on the ground for them, but they vacuum those up in a couple minutes. They do seem to enjoy that exercise.

 

[Molpet]

This year I have been throwing some pellets and corn on the frozen ground. Usually I feed FF in buckets.
I also heard feeding on the ground is a good way for them to pick up worms, bacteria and such.... but they are digging in the dirt and eating who knows what anyway.

 

[Perris]

Ground feeding. Anyone do it?

Some foods sometimes

the same result as ground feeding since bits get flung all over the place

same here; the lasagne dishes are too big and heavy to get tipped or flipped, but smaller ceramic dishes are sometimes upset. And if there's something especially desirable below the surface, the grains above it are liable to be flung aside in the bird's haste to grab the desiderata, so lower ranking birds pick them up from wherever they landed.

I also heard feeding on the ground is a good way for them to pick up worms, bacteria and such.... but they are digging in the dirt and eating who knows what anyway.

Exactly. They build up immunity to the ground-based bugs, as is widely recognized now regarding coccidia. A healthy bird's immune system (and microbiome) will fight them off, and the instincts of a bird like Fret are that she gets more benefit than harm from her food having had contact with soil. And remember that our hands are swarming with microlife (and, depending on our hygiene routines, possibly chemicals too) which is surely more alien to a chicken's gut than anything in or on the ground.

 

[fuzzi]

Speaking of a bird's instincts, here's a scientific study about natural plant sources that inhibit "bird flu":

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844023015931

 

[Perris]

Speaking of a bird's instincts, here's a scientific study about natural plant sources that inhibit "bird flu":

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844023015931

View attachment 4021585

that's encouraging; we have alchemilla mollis, geranium sanguineum and sambuca nigra growing in the garden, and garlic (allium sativum) and green tea (camellia sinensis) are easy to obtain.

 

[Sally PB]

Two of those -- quercetin and anthocyanin -- are found in blueberries. I don't have any more time to go down the rabbit hole, but maybe there's a reason chickens like them.

 

[MROO]

That's quite an age range. What's the secret to introducing new boys to an existing bachelor pad?

It helps - a LOT - that Nannies are so mellow, and that my main and bachelor runs share a wire wall, so the birds were already well acquainted with each other. The bachelor run is actually my grow-out pen. It separates from the main section by simply putting up a removable hardware cloth wall and/or barricading a small coop door.
I think the "secret" of that particular bunch though, was numbers. The five younger boys - ages 5m (3 of them,) 12m & 18(ish)m - were mostly flock-raised and added in with the established older fellows together. We had some squabbling while the roosters taught the youngsters some manners, but all-in-all, it went pretty smoothly.
I've done that several times, but never with so many at once. That was definitely the easiest!

EDIT to add overdue Picture Tax:
The bottom half becomes my bachelor quarters when needed. At the moment it just looks pretty in a rare "real" snow ... while the flock hides upstairs in the warm, dry coop ... the lightweights!

 

[MROO]

Ground feeding. Anyone do it?
I used to do it with Tribe 3 in Catalonia when there were some disputes about who should eat first. Ground feeding resolved the issue.
My friend in the next county ground feeds his birds. He says his chickens eat more and get more exercise when they are ground fed.
I'm particulalry interested at the moment because both Fret and Mow have a habit of taking food from my hand and dropping it on the ground and then picking it up and swallowing it. They don't do well on the treat front with this behaviour because Tull and Sylph are on the dropped food like vultures.
Fret has always prefered to feed from the ground and is fussy about feed/treat size.
I'm going to give it a try with the evening feed at the field.

My feeder's storage capacity far outweighs its' access space, so not everyone can get to the "fresh goods" at once. I generally toss some out on the ground when I refill. That keeps the lower rank happy while the top hens eat and also leaves tidbits around for later scratch-and-peck searching.
For the winter, my feeder is inside the main coop, so I scatter feed and scraps out in the run for the same reason. It keeps my birds happy and I get to watch them "putter!"

 

[Shadrach]

We got about an hours worth of pale sunshine then a band of freezing rain blew in and drove everyone back to the coop extension for twenty minutes.
Back out after for half an hour. As usual Henry went to roost as early as he decently could and still say he watches over his hens; I take up the slack.

Henry and Sylph hinting it's treat time.

The hens eating that broad leafed plant. Every now and then I see them taking a few bites but it isn't on the prefered list as far as I've been able to tell.