Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[notabitail]

Two and a half hours. Warm and mostly sunny.View attachment 4150906View attachment 4150907View attachment 4150908View attachment 4150909View attachment 4150910View attachment 4150911View attachment 4150912View attachment 4150913

Agathae says she is planning to go broody as Fret has convinced her via BeakBook to go broody.

Agathae screamed and growled and yelled after being removed from the nest. She also smashed her egg in the process of trying to be broody.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Agathae says she is planning to go broody as Fret has convinced her via BeakBook to go broody.

Agathae screamed and growled and yelled after being removed from the nest. She also smashed her egg in the process of trying to be broody.

“unclear on the process”

 

[BDutch]

The old next door neighbor moved away, and the new ones have a blazing bright cold LED porch light that auto-dims depending on motion, and it goes on and off CONSTANTLY.

I have 2 bright LED solar run lights that auto-dim depending on motion, they start to shine if a cat or another creature walks by.
I hung them at a height of 1.20 meters. My neighbors shouldn't be bothered by this, because the hedge is over 2 meters high.

The lights are handy for checking on the chickens in the evening and I hope that predators will be scared and flee if they suddenly come into full light.

Where I live there is a lot of light pollution. Especially from street lights that are on all night for safety reasons.

 

[Perris]

There must be a market for chicken shit fertilizer. It's all I use. I've seen it for sale but I can't remember where.

it is in principle. It is the scale that is the problem. Fresh water is good, essential to life. But if in excessive quantity, it drowns us. The Wye valley has been drowned in chicken shit over the last 15 years and the Severn is going the same way.

 

[Perris]

Polka and her brood were sitting on the back of the bench near the back door this morning, with Cadle, when I went to open up and deliver breakfast

Cadle has been roosting in the beech hedge for about a week, bar one night after it rained hard and she decided to roost in a coop. But that was the first time for Polka and her brood (ignoring her whole 'let's incubate for 3 weeks and brood out for 6 weeks' with Fez 2 years ago). Anyway, they all made it through the night, and seem none the worse for wear. I wish she wouldn't do it though. Two of her chicks have a lot of white and must stand out against most backgrounds here.

 

[BDutch]

I wish she wouldn't do it though. Two of her chicks have a lot of white and must stand out against most backgrounds here.

If you want to stop her to roost outside with the chicks, grab them when it’s getting dark and put them inside one of your coops. Probably need to do so for a couple of weeks.

I had similar ‘problems’. I really dont like it when they roost outside bc of all the predators. But with some management it worked for me to get them inside the run/coop.

A run attached to the coops to gather the chickens in the evening before roost time makes it much easier. Giving scratch and a few mealworms makes them want to go inside the run with pleasure.

 

[Perris]

A run attached to the coops to gather the chickens in the evening before roost time makes it much easier

the theory is fine if one has fixed coops, but not mobile ones, and if the chickens are used to be rounded up (which mine are not).

Catching any of the chickens here is a challenge - and that's how I like it; that's how they evade predators, including potential human ones. And in this specific instance, I'd rather the 5 chicks stayed together with their nearly-4 year old broody, who has proven competence roosting out, than them being frightened and scattered just before dark by my cack-handed attempts to 'save' them.

 

[Molpet]

frightened and scattered just before dark by my cack-handed attempts to 'save' them.

Yes this has been my experience.

 

[Perris]

Yes this has been my experience.

stress central for all concerned. Better they're with mum, calm and quiet, hidden somewhere.

 

[fuzzi]

We are looking into leaving our acreage to a nature conservancy. It's something we've wanted to do to make sure our land doesn't end up with a bunch of houses on it.

About 25 years ago, one of the farm fields on our road was for sale, 60 acres. We didn't have the money to buy it. Who usually buys that much land? Farmers and developers. Fortunately, a farmer bought it. As much as I don't like him using herbicides/pesticides, at least he rotates his crops and plants about half of it in alfalfa for 2-3 seasons. It's hay for his cows, but it also helps the soil.

And he didn't put 20-30 houses out there. Hopefully he/his children don't do that before hubby and I shuffle off this mortal coil. We are never moving. As I've said, I'll leave here horizontally.

The farm land here is being sold, and the houses don't even have a quarter acre. Some look as if their backyard could barely contain one car. It's sad because once site work is done (water, sewer, electricity/utility lines) the land will never go back to farming.

We're in an older development, have just under a third acre.