Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fuzzi]

Not part of the breeding program, but welcome just the same...Naomi's reward chicks:

 

[Perris]

Do you have an opinion as to why the Araucanas fell out of the South American group, landing halfway between that and the European group?

Yes I do. The German Araucanas used in the survey and that fall into "6-7" on their lonesome are all a rumpless type of Araucana (like the US, and unlike the UK/Aus/NZ and elsewhere standards). As I understand it (imperfectly), there was a mistake in the identification of ancestry early on in the specification of the standard for this breed (late 1800s / early 1900s period iirc), and what was thought to be a pure breed bird was in fact a hybrid.

Given the German breeders' talent for keeping their lines pure (ie. inbred), to which you refer in your 2nd para, I think they've been perpetuating a particularly diminished gene pool, whose bottleneck occurred at that time.

 

[Perris]

I haven't read the article, yet, but I am trying to breed my Speckled Sussex bantam flock closer to the standard, removing undesirable traits. I have acquired eggs from another breeder's flock to add outside DNA to mine. Joanna and Priscilla are now in my breeding program, and I am looking forward to seeing how the latest hatch develops.

I don't anticipate breeding any prizewinners, but if I can help remove yellow shanks from my flocks that would be one step of improvement.

you may or may not want to hear this, but the paper shows how the bantams as a whole have diminished gene pools.

 

[fluffycrow]

It's fine if you want to post here.

Thank you very much, Shad. Your many posts and articles have made me love the roosters here that much more, so I try to do right by them, but also by the hens. Sometimes an outside perspective is nice, as my decisions are not always as just I hope they are.

I’ll start from when Kolovos passed, when his two sons became co-heads of the free range group. About two months after his passing, a time that passed with relative peace (both boys were accepted by the hens, and ruled very fairly and maturely for their age), Big Red’s (Oriental Gamefowl) hens passed. As not to leave him by himself, he was added to the free range group. As one could imagine, he became head very quickly.

Big Red is a dream when it comes to humans, but he is very intense when it comes to other chickens, very territorial (as is the nature of his breed), and worst of all, incredibly immature and rough with his matings. As a result, the hens were not very fond of Big Red, but they accepted him regardless. Due to Big Red taking the top position in the group, and aggressively driving away the other two, both of those very mature (in temperament, not age) males have returned to a cockerel-like state, of forcefully grabbing any hen that comes near them. On top of that, Big Red is still very aggressive with his matings, a fact that I have stopped believing could change at 3 years old.

This has left every single hen in the group with some sort of feather damage. The best cases are barely noticeable, while the worst look worse than some rescued ex batts that I have seen. The hens don’t seem particularly pleased with this arrangement. In the afternoon, when they should be more active, they all huddle together in the most hard to get to parts of the property, to avoid any mating grabs.

It all came to a head three days ago, when I thought one of the senior hens went broody on a wild nest (slight parenthesis here: all senior hens started clucking a week after Kolovos’s passing, which i interpret as mourning). Turns out that she was not broody, she was just hiding in the bushes all day to avoid being seen by Big Red. The reason was that she has a big wound on her side, under her wing, from forceful mating, which I only found out when I was forced to grab her to get her bag in the coop for bed time. What was really heartbreaking was seeing her behaviour the next day, when I also had to guide her towards the coop at sundown. I had closed the coop door, and Big Red was frantically pacing back and forth. As soon as she saw him, from the other side of the wire, she crouched. Same thing happened today, when I was (once again) guiding her towards the coop. She crouched, for me this time. I interpret this as her trying to make sure her wound doesn’t get any worse, which would likely be the case if she were to run away, and be forcefully grabbed.

Please educate me if this is not what you think is happening. I was definitely giving Big Red the benefit of the doubt before seeing the wound, as I know that feather damage is rather insignificant. I really love him, I have raised him from a chick, he flies on my wrist when we he sees me, and loves wattle scratches and hugs. But I will also not sacrifice the health of the group for my sake, if you think that it comes to that.
I would really appreciate the help, even if that is a huge shouting at, for missing something very clear, and/or misinterpreting their behaviour.

Here is some tax for what I’m sure is a massive post

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Not part of the breeding program, but welcome just the same...Naomi's reward chicks:

All that cheeping!

 

[Molpet]

Thank you very much, Shad. Your many posts and articles have made me love the roosters here that much more, so I try to do right by them, but also by the hens. Sometimes an outside perspective is nice, as my decisions are not always as just I hope they are.

I’ll start from when Kolovos passed, when his two sons became co-heads of the free range group. About two months after his passing, a time that passed with relative peace (both boys were accepted by the hens, and ruled very fairly and maturely for their age), Big Red’s (Oriental Gamefowl) hens passed. As not to leave him by himself, he was added to the free range group. As one could imagine, he became head very quickly.

Big Red is a dream when it comes to humans, but he is very intense when it comes to other chickens, very territorial (as is the nature of his breed), and worst of all, incredibly immature and rough with his matings. As a result, the hens were not very fond of Big Red, but they accepted him regardless. Due to Big Red taking the top position in the group, and aggressively driving away the other two, both of those very mature (in temperament, not age) males have returned to a cockerel-like state, of forcefully grabbing any hen that comes near them. On top of that, Big Red is still very aggressive with his matings, a fact that I have stopped believing could change at 3 years old.

This has left every single hen in the group with some sort of feather damage. The best cases are barely noticeable, while the worst look worse than some rescued ex batts that I have seen. The hens don’t seem particularly pleased with this arrangement. In the afternoon, when they should be more active, they all huddle together in the most hard to get to parts of the property, to avoid any mating grabs.

It all came to a head three days ago, when I thought one of the senior hens went broody on a wild nest (slight parenthesis here: all senior hens started clucking a week after Kolovos’s passing, which i interpret as mourning). Turns out that she was not broody, she was just hiding in the bushes all day to avoid being seen by Big Red. The reason was that she has a big wound on her side, under her wing, from forceful mating, which I only found out when I was forced to grab her to get her bag in the coop for bed time. What was really heartbreaking was seeing her behaviour the next day, when I also had to guide her towards the coop at sundown. I had closed the coop door, and Big Red was frantically pacing back and forth. As soon as she saw him, from the other side of the wire, she crouched. Same thing happened today, when I was (once again) guiding her towards the coop. She crouched, for me this time. I interpret this as her trying to make sure her wound doesn’t get any worse, which would likely be the case if she were to run away, and be forcefully grabbed.

Please educate me if this is not what you think is happening. I was definitely giving Big Red the benefit of the doubt before seeing the wound, as I know that feather damage is rather insignificant. I really love him, I have raised him from a chick, he flies on my wrist when we he sees me, and loves wattle scratches and hugs. But I will also not sacrifice the health of the group for my sake, if you think that it comes to that.
I would really appreciate the help, even if that is a huge shouting at, for missing something very clear, and/or misinterpreting their behaviour.

Here is some tax for what I’m sure is a massive postView attachment 4183241

Definitely mating injury. Hen saddle recommended before culling.

 

[Molpet]

Any UK people heard of this BT study? mentioned in the following FB post.
"There was some studies done in the UK about some farms where the neighboring farms had high loads of internal parasites but there were some which had very low load or none... turns out that they were using Bt for veggie gardening and the chickens were getting it that way... then they did a real study and found that it acts as both a treatment and a preventative. BUT, like most non chemical killing materials it takes longer to work. I would like to add to that list of materials. We use the following in different ways and for different reasons. Well into our 10th season husbanding chickens and no insect pest, disease nor internal parasite infestations. We use: Barn Yard Lime, wood ashes with added bio-char, Granite Dust/quarry dust/screenings, Carolina Brick Red Clay (Kaolin Clay might be the best), DE, Sulfur, powdered Permethrin, Bt, and still considering how best to use/obtain Chinese Skull Cap. We also use a lot of different herbs/spices when available. Since our successes preventing problems are from a holistic approach it should be mentioned that we offer pumpkin in the fall, wet meat a couple of times a week(mostly from wild game in season and preds year 'round), and what we believe to be the feed rations for the different ages and times of the year. Right now our biggest problem is that our Bred to Standard/Heritage/SOP RIR have an excessively thick inner egg shell membrane and it is causing difficulties for the chicks to pip and hatch. We are having to assist 3-5 out of 20. We are guessing it is weather related??? There are others who have commented that they too are seeing thicker than usual membranes. Forgot to include that we follow the whole milk/plain yogurt protocol for chicks with NO MEDICATED FEED!!! "

 

[Perris]

Any UK people heard of this BT study? mentioned in the following FB post.
"There was some studies done in the UK about some farms where the neighboring farms had high loads of internal parasites but there were some which had very low load or none... turns out that they were using Bt for veggie gardening and the chickens were getting it that way... then they did a real study and found that it acts as both a treatment and a preventative. BUT, like most non chemical killing materials it takes longer to work. I would like to add to that list of materials. We use the following in different ways and for different reasons. Well into our 10th season husbanding chickens and no insect pest, disease nor internal parasite infestations. We use: Barn Yard Lime, wood ashes with added bio-char, Granite Dust/quarry dust/screenings, Carolina Brick Red Clay (Kaolin Clay might be the best), DE, Sulfur, powdered Permethrin, Bt, and still considering how best to use/obtain Chinese Skull Cap. We also use a lot of different herbs/spices when available. Since our successes preventing problems are from a holistic approach it should be mentioned that we offer pumpkin in the fall, wet meat a couple of times a week(mostly from wild game in season and preds year 'round), and what we believe to be the feed rations for the different ages and times of the year. Right now our biggest problem is that our Bred to Standard/Heritage/SOP RIR have an excessively thick inner egg shell membrane and it is causing difficulties for the chicks to pip and hatch. We are having to assist 3-5 out of 20. We are guessing it is weather related??? There are others who have commented that they too are seeing thicker than usual membranes. Forgot to include that we follow the whole milk/plain yogurt protocol for chicks with NO MEDICATED FEED!!! "

what does BT stand for here?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

what does BT stand for here?

Bacillus thuringiensis, I’m guessing

 

[Molpet]

what does BT stand for here?

Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt): What Is It and How to Use it? https://www.planetnatural.com/bacillus-thuringiensis/