Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[MrsNorthie]

Unless one doesn't have a broody, then incubator is the only option. To begin our flock, our friend/neighbor, lent us her 2 bantam silkies and 12 eggs.

I am just saying I won't. We have 2 established flocks of Buff Orpington's and they are always broody, we added CCLs and I think they will be too. Some of the combs and wattles are turning red and one of the girls just walks around practicing her broody growl and she hasn't even laid an egg yet. She has been hanging around with the big broody girls, though.

 

[MrsNorthie]

(Hope this is an accepted currency for incubator chat tax payments)
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How ADORABLE! I love cows! (ok, I am a bit animal mad and really miss the farm life. I need more land in a cooler climate.)

 

[MrsNorthie]

That’s the real privilege of working with a broody. Or rather, she’s in charge, and you’re more like an underpaid assistant trying to make the coffee right so that you don’t piss off your boss

I work to keep the animals in comfort! Our broodzillas are fine with me, they only leave their nest to go eat, drink and poo, so when I take watermelon or fish down for my feathered masters, I always take some in to them and they will eat it out of my hand without even a growl. The poor Egg Thief, on the other hand, just steers clear of them.

 

[C Siena]

I am just saying I won't. We have 2 established flocks of Buff Orpington's and they are always broody, we added CCLs and I think they will be too. Some of the combs and wattles are turning red and one of the girls just walks around practicing her broody growl and she hasn't even laid an egg yet. She has been hanging around with the big broody girls, though.

If you didn't have broody hens, would you never have chicks again?

I understand that you don't want to use a non chicken incubator and that is your choice. We choose to have chickens and the only way we can obtain them is via incubator. The hatcheries use them, so no matter where we obtain them, it's an incubator.

Glad you have a few broody hens!

 

[MrsNorthie]

The story of the last chick to be hatched in an incubator while I was in Catalonia.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/shadrachs-stories.1263724/post-20295718

I think it is sad that the Cheepy couldn't rule the world with her little army, and Mini Minx couldn't take her babies and join any tribe. I love how Harold brought Gedit in. (Sorry, I have something in my eye.)

I guess Spud is just a really extraordinarily special boy. He immediately welcomed the CCL pullets, I let him in with them the first day after quarantine, and he inspected their feeders and waterers and the coop, coo'd at them all while they were madly mobbing him in excitement, he was so calm and imprinted on each of them, even though there was no way he could be the father. They only spent a couple of nights in their own little coop and run and then Spud went and led them all out and everyone greeted them and he and Squeak showed them where everything was. (Roosters are really special.)

Every time the turkey poults fluttered over the wire between the turkey and chicken areas, (separated because Morwenna, the Harvey Speckled turkey hen likes to lure trusting fluffy chicken hens in to then try to scalp them.) Spud showed them where the food and waterers were and rallied everyone around them to protect them until we got down there to put them back with their parents, no way could he have thought he was their father.

Maybe because he is so bonded with us, he will take in anyone we give him?

 

[MrsNorthie]

If you didn't have broody hens, would you never have chicks again?

I understand that you don't want to use a non chicken incubator and that is your choice. We choose to have chickens and the only way we can obtain them is via incubator. The hatcheries use them, so no matter where we obtain them, it's an incubator.

Glad you have a few broody hens!

We are just lucky to have broody hens and really awesome roosters. I am totally not judging anyone, I got my first chickens from a hatchery and used an incubator for a second group, but after watching the hens raise their own and the turkey hens co-brooding and parenting their own, this is just what I personally feel is right for our situation.

It is my goal to let them all live as natural a 'chicken life' as they can on 6 acres. (unless I find a bigger property somewhere with a more chicken friendly environment.. I never eat eggs more than once in a great while, but my husband and mother really like them and would eat them nearly ever day. I just love sitting with the chickens and watching them. I work from home so any break I get, I am checking on them and just seeing them running around chickening, just makes me really happy.

In the evening, after work, about an hour or two before they go to roost for the, night I go sit in the communal outdoor perch area and they all come over after they have finished eating and crops are as full as they can be and start roosting by me, including the boys, Spud always making sure that he is on the perch directly across from me so he can look me in the eye as we chatter. I have a few lap chickens that still like to roost on me, but we just sit and I tell them how pretty or handsome they are and they all coo and groom. It is zen, my happy place.

I am older, and I know chickens don't live as long as we do, but I just decided that if they brood and bring new lives in great, if they don't, then I am happy to get to spend time with them. I don't want to leave a bunch of animals behind if I pop my clogs and trust that whomever ends up taking care of them will treat them the way they are accustomed to and deserve, so I am just letting them decide, because I am learning that they know better about chickening than I do.

 

[C Siena]

We are just lucky to have broody hens and really awesome roosters. I am totally not judging anyone, I got my first chickens from a hatchery and used an incubator for a second group, but after watching the hens raise their own and the turkey hens co-brooding and parenting their own, this is just what I personally feel is right for our situation.

It is my goal to let them all live as natural a 'chicken life' as they can on 6 acres. (unless I find a bigger property somewhere with a more chicken friendly environment.. I never eat eggs more than once in a great while, but my husband and mother really like them and would eat them nearly ever day. I just love sitting with the chickens and watching them. I work from home so any break I get, I am checking on them and just seeing them running around chickening, just makes me really happy.

In the evening, after work, about an hour or two before they go to roost for the, night I go sit in the communal outdoor perch area and they all come over after they have finished eating and crops are as full as they can be and start roosting by me, including the boys, Spud always making sure that he is on the perch directly across from me so he can look me in the eye as we chatter. I have a few lap chickens that still like to roost on me, but we just sit and I tell them how pretty or handsome they are and they all coo and groom. It is zen, my happy place.

I am older, and I know chickens don't live as long as we do, but I just decided that if they brood and bring new lives in great, if they don't, then I am happy to get to spend time with them. I don't want to leave a bunch of animals behind if I pop my clogs and trust that whomever ends up taking care of them will treat them the way they are accustomed to and deserve, so I am just letting them decide, because I am learning that they know better about chickening than I do.

They are fun aren't they. Different personalities. My husband laughs as they follow me around.

If I realize I cannot care for them, in my older old age, I would make plans and interview people. I don't think my husband wants to take care of 30 something chickens but about a dozen.

Have you read this? It could bring tears to your eyes, it did mine. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/making-the-tough-calls-difficult-but-essential.73460/

 

[thistlewick]

Listening to all this talk lately of great Roosters, I am beginning to suspect my Chuck is just an average Rooster and isn't fantastic, but nor is he terrible.

I have literally a dozen Cockerels coming up behind him, zero of them are aggressive so far - but whose to say? Oscar chases the bejeezus out of any hen -- sometimes he catches them, sometimes he doesn't. But what hen *likes* being chased to all hell and back? I cannot imagine they do.

Cracker and Cream who are 17 weeks old have both tried sneak/stealth mating, with 0 chasing, and not once been successful that I have witnessed, but I am not there all the time.

Chuck overmates a few hens and is destroying their feathers on their backs. I dislike this, I dislike my girls being harassed in any manner. Don't make the mistake of thinking I must have too few hens for him. Nope, he was solo boy with 14 girls from the get go. The feather business began before any new chicks came into the mix. It's an ongoing problem.

Chuck has been around dozens of chicks now, hatched by 'his' hen Tilly and also just brooded on the hen house floor. He doesn't care about them at all, he ignores them.

hell I didn't even know a Rooster could or would imprint on chicks until reading this thread recently.

I am just trying to decide HOW to analyze a potential male. We want to keep as many as possible, but there are so many variables.


Tax; lots of pics of the boys that we have - and not all of them!

 

[MrsNorthie]

Listening to all this talk lately of great Roosters, I am beginning to suspect my Chuck is just an average Rooster and isn't fantastic, but nor is he terrible.

I have literally a dozen Cockerels coming up behind him, zero of them are aggressive so far - but whose to say? Oscar chases the bejeezus out of any hen -- sometimes he catches them, sometimes he doesn't. But what hen *likes* being chased to all hell and back? I cannot imagine they do.

Cracker and Cream who are 17 weeks old have both tried sneak/stealth mating, with 0 chasing, and not once been successful that I have witnessed, but I am not there all the time.

Chuck overmates a few hens and is destroying their feathers on their backs. I dislike this, I dislike my girls being harassed in any manner. Don't make the mistake of thinking I must have too few hens for him. Nope, he was solo boy with 14 girls from the get go. The feather business began before any new chicks came into the mix. It's an ongoing problem.

Chuck has been around dozens of chicks now, hatched by 'his' hen Tilly and also just brooded on the hen house floor. He doesn't care about them at all, he ignores them.

hell I didn't even know a Rooster could or would imprint on chicks until reading this thread recently.

I am just trying to decide HOW to analyze a potential male. We want to keep as many as possible, but there are so many variables.


Tax; lots of pics of the boys that we have - and not all of them!
View attachment 4187177View attachment 4187178View attachment 4187179View attachment 4187181View attachment 4187187

How old is Chuck? Is it possible he is still maturing? Spud wasn't always the perfect lad, but he got better as he got older, he is now 3 years old.

 

[MrsNorthie]

They are fun aren't they. Different personalities. My husband laughs as they follow me around.

If I realize I cannot care for them, in my older old age, I would make plans and interview people. I don't think my husband wants to take care of 30 something chickens but about a dozen.

Have you read this? It could bring tears to your eyes, it did mine. https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/making-the-tough-calls-difficult-but-essential.73460/

That is just hard. It is not imminent, but I figure I have about 30 - 40 years left, and if my son doesn't want to take over, I will find a young family that wants to love and care for them, and leave them the land, but set it up as trust with a stipulation that the chickens and turkeys must be cared for to my standards, as in, treated better than royalty for all their remaining days.