Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Mother of Chaos]

I saw a discussion on here about mourning chickens and didn't have the time to reply then.

I had 7 chooks, and 2 of them have died. The first, Abigail, was a heat related death. I knew the chickens knew, I had no idea what was wrong until I saw her dead in the coop. I pulled her out, and I could tell the rest were upset. Abigail was #3 in the pecking order they had, as far as I could tell, with Felicitas being #2. For pretty much a entire week, and occasionally after that, Felicitas would sit on the perch, yelling and calling for Abigail. It made me very sad. The other chickens acted down for a while, and eventually came back to normal. Felicitas still does the yelling every so often, and she's never done that before Abigail died as far as I remember.

The second one, In Albis the Dominique, was lower. I haven't been able to sort out the pecking order since Abigail died, but I could tell she moved up after that. She was vicious about food, and that was the biggest change after she died. The first thing I noticed was that Agathae, her second-place partner in crime beside her Dominique sister Dominica was quite concerned, along with Dominica. Agathae is more used to being handled, and she was the one who came in looking for her a few times. I did notice Dominica being down as well for about a week, along with the other hens letting me get a bit closer and spending a bit more time than normal.

Since I had a whole extra year of experience, I did notice some big changes, especially in Josephine, the lead hen, and Dominica, In Ablis' sister. Josephine became bold with food. She started to smack the others to get to it. She had never acted like that up until then. Dominica also became more bold, since her sister was no longer pushing her out of the way. Agathae too became more handle-able, and I suppose it has to do with the food thing as well. In Albis essentially bullied the others away from food, so I was surprised but not. It did take them a couple weeks to start being bold with food, but I did notice by that time they were a lot less sad about her death.

My sister has one hen whose best friend died. That hen was very depressed and from what I remember would not eat until my sister gave her food and is now quite attached to her.

"In Albis" - what a lovely name for a Dominique!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Found a useful site on food forest layers (though their added 8th fungal layer is superfluous and redundant; funga are part of the underground layer already), with photos of real plants instead of the puerile AI cartoons that so many sites seem to have these days (will the infantilization of visual culture ever end?)
https://grocycle.com/food-forest-layers/

That's a good presentation of many of the tenets of permaculture.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

You've got the idea. I don't object to much as long as it's about chickens. In the last three and a half years I've only had to bomb four people off the thread. View attachment 4097430

A PM, I hope tactfuly worded in most cases, has got the message accross. Some thread drift (other topics than chickens) is inevitable but fortunately the regular contributors to the thread have been extremely supportive and have kept the thread drift to a minimum. I have no objection to reading about other peoples chickens on this thread and most contributors add intelligent and interesting information that helps the thread reach the standard where it got voted the best thread on BYC a while ago.
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It's the contributors that make the thread, not me. I just set the basic rules and rarely have to intervene. I post about chickens most days and this helps keep the thread on track.

I think this is good advice.

I read a few threads about other peoples chickens and I tend not to write about the field chickens, or give uncalled for comments in most case on those threads.
I've found that answering direct questions rather than trying to respond to every contribution helps keep the thread manageable; it's not that my intention is to be impolite, it's about not having pages of one line responses to everyones posts. A couple of pages of posts to read here is fine, when it gets to ten pages of one liners from host or contriutors I move on. So far, thanks to the regulars contributors, the tax system, and the more thoughtfull and intelligent contributions I've felt that continuing the thread even though the Ex Battery hens have gone and Fret is now the only rescue left is worth the effort. We are lucky in having a diverse selction of nationalities (something I'm keen to encourage) and a wide range of keeping conditions covered in the thread. Hopefully we all learn something from this.

I am quite sure that I have learned more from this one thread than I have from all the others I've read as well as several books.

I apologize for getting carried away with my newbie enthusiasm! Time to get my own thread started, although I don't really have much worth posting at this point. Maybe I'll start that threatened thread for users of Nestera and similar horrible, chicken-killing plastic coops.

 

[fluffycrow]

Thank you everyone. I still can’t believe he’s gone. Every time I hear a crow (the vast majority of which are from Big Red, since the Tsouloufati group is still very quiet, as mentioned) I keep expecting there to be a slight pause right in the middle of the crow, as Kolovos was know to have. There never is. The hens must be in a similar stage of grief; the head hen in particular seems to go about her day as normal. Not sure which of the two boys will step up. One is considerably larger, and has Oriental gamefowl in them. I will not dare say which of the two is a better choice; multiple experiences have taught me that I don’t know better. I’ll just let it play out.

You’re right, Shad. It’s not rare that I’m guilty of not appreciating something while it’s still here. I hope I haven’t made that mistake with Kolovos. I’d mention quite often what he’s done for the groups here, sometimes I’d even say it to him. The respect was one sided, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

@BDutch , I apologise once again for the confusion. The head hen is fine. The hen that passed recently was indeed a senior hen, but not the head hen. She’s still the boss, and looks quite healthy to me

 

[Perris]

Not sure which of the two boys will step up. One is considerably larger, and has Oriental gamefowl in them. I will not dare say which of the two is a better choice; multiple experiences have taught me that I don’t know better. I’ll just let it play out.

They both look terrific. If you are lucky, as I have been, they will both be able to look after the flock and procreate within it (as the hens see fit )

 

[Perris]

I got a weird egg with a tail today; this is a first for me. The soft shell was also weirdly tough enough to survive landing on the upstand of a poop tray beneath without splitting (hence the impact dent lines across it).

I do think something's working through the flock; I'm getting soft shelled, no shelled, a fairy egg yesterday, this today, some rough surfaces and some unusual (for the hen concerned) egg shell colouring (as @BDutch mentioned going on with her older girls too). Some are sometimes hanging about in the coops or even nest-boxes, which is very unusual here.

 

[fuzzi]

FREEEEEEEE BIIIRRRRDDD!!! Erebody flick on your cigarette lighters and wave them back and forth!

(Note: I’m not much of a fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd, although I’ll take a bullet for Allman Brothers Band.)

We let the girls out today into the area immediately adjacent to the run. The “walls” are black plastic aviary mesh, nearly invisible. No mesh on top this time. We figured three noisy adults would intimidate aerial predators this time, and indeed, even the crows didn’t fly over.

We humans were eaten up with nerves, fearing escape attempts, but they didn’t even test the netting except for Trudy (Barred Rock), who checked to see if it could be eaten. They just moseyed about, digging in the two available veg beds and sampling all the cranesbill and bedstraw and dandelions. Buffy (Buff Orpington) found the henbit and went to town. Lil (Easter Egger), who has always been the shyest and mist “on guard” was amazingly chill, coming much closer to us than she usually does, going about her chicken business.

Buffy found the open door quickly and sailed on out, which was a surprise, as she has always seemed a few ants short of a picnic. Lil, her bestie, my skyhawk who has always seemed so ferocious, panicked when on the opposite side of the run’s hardware cloth, running back and forth anxiously until accidentally finding the open door. They went in and out several times, learning how to get to their home ground in the run. A loud motorcycle just went by, and they shot to the open run door but didn’t go in.

The plant so beloved by Lil, commonly called cranesbill, is Geranium maculatum, a distant relative of the geraniums grown in pots and window boxes (Pelargoniun spp.)

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We have something similar, Carolina geranium.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

We have something similar, Carolina geranium.

I seem to have both! That's what happens when you shop at multiple wildflower nurseries...

 

[fuzzi]

I am considering some Light Sussex eggs from my friend and possibly Creasted Cream Legbar eggs from the place I got the last lot. I'm also hoping that by having one of the hens hatch these eggs some of the new male in the group problems will be avoided.

I'm not experienced as you are, but I have been pleased with how Zacchaeus went from attacked/injured chick, through awkward cockerel being put in his place by the hens, to a good rooster, tidbitting the flock and being respectful of me as I am of him.

My second coop build is done, I will be moving Silas and the hens I don't want to breed into their new digs. And Zack will have his own harem, one which was his mother, and one which was his broody mom. I'm hoping to get some pretty Sussex chicks.

New coop

Zacchaeus is the roo in the middle

He's the little chick in the front!

I think Fret and the gals would keep a young cockerel in his place, and train him well.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I'm not experienced as you are, but I have been pleased with how Zacchaeus went from attacked/injured chick, through awkward cockerel being put in his place by the hens, to a good rooster, tidbitting the flock and being respectful of me as I am of him.

My second coop build is done, I will be moving Silas and the hens I don't want to breed into their new digs. And Zack will have his own harem, one which was his mother, and one which was his broody mom. I'm hoping to get some pretty Sussex chicks.

View attachment 4097681
New coop

View attachment 4097683
Zacchaeus is the roo in the middle

View attachment 4097687
He's the little chick in the front!

I think Fret and the gals would keep a young cockerel in his place, and train him well.

So many speckles!!!!!