Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

More sunshine with a cold night ahead. Three hours today. I saw some people at the field. The weather must have improved.
Fret is having a behaviour shift. She's far more insistant that she gets and keeps any treats. She is also heading back to being a mjor forager. It's lovely to see. I've been worried that her leg injury would in effect retire her from her past highly active self. It looks like her confidence is returning.
I know I've mention all this before but it's high on my list of what I hope for.

Mow has jettisoned her broken rear toe. She's looking a lot more comfortable. I've had a look and the cut has healed over well and this evening I was able to give her legs a thorough coating of Vaseline and iodine without causing her any pain and getting under herfoot feathers. I did Tull and Sylph while I was at it.

This is Mow this evening in a nest box throwing bits of shredded paper over her shoulder.

 

[Shadrach]

Maybe you are right about free ranging chickens for England. But from what I have seen , is free ranging not common practice in the Netherlands, Germany and France.

I was thinking rather further afield than a few insignificant overly regulated states in Europe. It's a big world out there where freedom to do as one pleases is more than a state deception.

 

[Shadrach]

Spoilsport.

Yeah I know, it's not my house so I don't piss in the larder.

 

[Molpet]

I don't think this is true. Reading BYC one might be tempted to believe this.
Much of the rest of the world still keep chickens free ranging, or at least ranging. In many countries, chickens are put to full use, even in the villages with no individual gardens.
Don't be misled by the prefered model here on BYC. Not only is it not a good model, over half of what people keep chicken for is wasted. Bear in mind that most of the world can't afford the look what daddy/hubby/I made, it only cost a few grand coops.

Most of the worlds population lives on $5 Dollars a day or less they say..... somehow I don't think those people are on byc

 

[notabitail]

Yeah I know, it's not my house so I don't piss in the larder.

I hope you don't do that in yours!

 

[notabitail]

Ideally speaking, if there were no limits to what I could do, what would be the ideal way to keep chickens?

 

[Perris]

Most people keep chickens in a coop with a run on bare dirt bc chickens turn grass into bare dirt within a few months. The size of the run is rarely big enough to give grasses and herbs a chance. Free ranging is not standard. Maybe even forbidden until spring bc of the bird flu.

Info from government site: From 20 November 2024, a national shielding obligation will apply to hobbyists. This obligation is in place because the risk of infection is greater than in previous months.

I'm not so sure 'most people' keep them confined all the time, even here on BYC. If you look at the photo competitions, for example, there are lots of photos from many different members in many different places where the birds appear to be out and about; see e.g. one of the recent ones that focussed on the birds rather than people, pets, eggs, food, art or whatnot, https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-contest-series.1650790/page-19#post-28422915

People with permanently cooped birds perhaps post more threads looking for answers to problems, in the health or behaviour of their birds. Which figures, but also gives a false impression. The usual silent majority problem.

 

[L-plate chicken mum]

This is Mow this evening in a nest box throwing bits of shredded paper over her shoulder.
View attachment 4064760

Millie the Pekin bantam aka Mrs Fluffy drawers does that when broody after she gets off the nest for her eat, drink, poop break. I wondered if that was a behaviour that comes from the jungle fowl as a ‘concealing the nest until I return’ behaviour but haven’t come across any description of it either in wild chickens or their domestic relatives until now.
Millie only throws a few bits over her shoulder & after she gets off the nest & is out & about so it doesn’t work well as nest camouflage in her case but maybe jungle fowl make a better job of it?
Any thoughts?

 

[fuzzi]

Millie the Pekin bantam aka Mrs Fluffy drawers does that when broody after she gets off the nest for her eat, drink, poop break. I wondered if that was a behaviour that comes from the jungle fowl as a ‘concealing the nest until I return’ behaviour but haven’t come across any description of it either in wild chickens or their domestic relatives until now.
Millie only throws a few bits over her shoulder & after she gets off the nest & is out & about so it doesn’t work well as nest camouflage in her case but maybe jungle fowl make a better job of it?
Any thoughts?

I've seen my hens throw straw or grass clippings over their back as you have described.

 

[Shadrach]

Ideally speaking, if there were no limits to what I could do, what would be the ideal way to keep chickens?

That depends on why someone wants to keep chickens.
All I've done in some 20 plus years of caring for chickens has been to try to look after chickens that others have got and found that it wasn't all quite as simple as they were led to believe. It's been a job for me, or in more recent circumstances, a commitment out of concern for the poor creatures.


One of the things I've found interesting about BYC is from what I've been able to gather, most of the educators on the site, who one assumes are at least experienced in chicken keeping and most, reasonably knowledgeable about the species, keep their chickens free range/ranging. Kind of odd considering the chicken keeping model promoted by the site.

I think many people start off with mainly wanting the chicken's eggs. After some time during which some observe and get to understand a bit more about the complexities of chicken keeping and discover that the chicken is a highly intelligent creature with a social structure and individual personalities, their view of how chickens should be kept changes.

So, my view of what makes ideal chicken keeping conditions will be biased towards the chicken. I'm not interested in the human/keepers point of view.