Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

12/07.
Uncomfortably hot at 33C. Mow and Sylph headed straight for my plot as usual and only went foraging after the sun dipped below the tree line. Last day of high temperatures according to the Met Office.

 

[BDutch]

—
This site may be way better than Facebook groups, but yeah guess there is still a lot of misinformation going around...

I used the Report button a few times when I found wrong information. Unfortunately the moderators don’t delete false information or add a label that the info in the post is not correct.
They only act upon cursing, hateful, and family unfriendly posts.

 

[Perris]

I very nearly got 2 photos this morning of chickens eating a mushroom, first Visby then Maria, but both times I was just a little too slow. This is Maria after eating part of the cap that is at about 4 o'clock from her crop; she picked it up from the ground by the stem (indicated by the arrow; someone had already beheaded it) when she took a bite.

If I have identified it correctly, it's an edible Amanita (which family includes some very toxic members).

 

[Perris]

only went foraging after the sun dipped below the tree line

Most of mine spent yesterday afternoon in deep shade. The youngsters were charging around trying to catch flies and butterflies of course; they just don't feel the heat, or have tons of energy, or both.

 

[fuzzi]

A genuine chicken tractor. Finally!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I came across this article while looking for recommendations for feed forage mixes (seeds for planting) for poultry, instead of studying for a midterm, as I'm also not doing now.

It's a slightly older article (2009.) It somewhat confusingly refers to North America while using British spellings and including a few mentions of UK studies, so I'm assuming the writer is Canadian. A Greener World has several regions including US/Canada, UK, and South Africa.

I thought it had some interesting information about supporting free-ranging poultry - benefits, things to consider and plan for, specific forage plants, timing to release the Kraken allow the chickens to graze, and so forth.

I'd love to read any comments!

https://agreenerworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/TAFS-6-Range-Management-in-Poultry-v1.pdf

 

[rural mouse]

Did you know that chicks bounce?

Yep!

This lot hatched in the incubator (set up for visiting nieces to watch hatch, chicks came slightly early). Broodies had been broody 5 weeks, 4 weeks, and 2.5 weeks, no successful babies (2 tried, never made it out of the shell). Incubator hatched july 1-3 (wee hours).

This morning.

 

[rural mouse]

Cockerels trying to get the tractor going for their escape.
View attachment 4173037

Actually their turkey mum is in the tree above with their poult brother

If you haven't already, this pic would be great in the caption contest.

 

[BDutch]

Ours seem to ignore or tolerate any creatures that venture into their territory unless it is a predator or a tasty bug. They don't mind the wild geese, or birds that pop in and right now, they are hosting a mated pair of wild mallard ducks that seem to feel safe in their run.

About the same here, but the bluejays and magpies are not welcome. The bigger bird's that come in the run get heavily chased. The bigger bird’s only get in if the chickens free range and the door is open.

What one doe shave to be very careful of is crushing them;

Some typo’s are too good, not to repeat.

 

[BDutch]

Cockerels trying to get the tractor going for their escape.
View attachment 4173037

Actually their turkey mum is in the tree above with their poult brother

Great for the caption contest submission!