Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

That's shocking, if true (that a dead mouse can poison the water; I'm not doubting that it might be thought to be the case, only whether or not it is actually possible). Free ranging chickens would have been able to source alternative water supplies normally, so if true it's another case where confining chickens did not keep them safe.

These chickens had no choice.
The mouse she finally found was not fresh (rotting).

 

[kattabelly]

We have six linked IBCs - so 6000L total - set up to collect rain off a pent shed roof at the community garden, plus another 4 or 6(?) in another spot that's too far away for me to bother with. They get emptied pretty quickly because everyone uses them to water their polytunnel plots, but also they aren't actually that great at collecting water because the gutter is on the low side of the roof and the wind often makes it rain uphill.

I'm bringing tap water up from my house most days at the moment, but they prefer to drink gross slimy stagnant rainwater when given the choice

 

[no fly zone]

Pinecone is a perfect name for the first one!

What’s Skeksis’ grandson’s name?

I don't know if she's given him a name yet.

I named Pinecone when he was a baby back in summer 2022.

 

[Skyeknight]

View attachment 4188377
So the rooster chick seems to be sick. Today he has been standing like this alone. I can now easily pick him up while he should be flighty and he does call when I pick him up. He does move and does eat, his crop is full. The past 2 nights he did sleep standing up and I thought it was odd. I thought that was just a young rooster being a young rooster, since I haven't had roosters chicks since 2019 and he seems to be the only boy. Since this behaviour is pretty common for a plethora of diseases I don't really know what it could be. At the moment I am thinking impacted crop, but I will have to check in the early morning if it is empty.

He died yesterday. Wasn't impacted crop, so went with treating for coccidiosis but it was too late. Should have listened to my gut 2 nights before that it odd. Treating the whole flock for coccidiosis at the moment.

He was quite odd in his appearance since he had a single allele for barring and dermal inhibitor. So his fibro was inhibited succesfully as he had light skin colour. But for some reason his legs and comb darkened up, which shouldn't have happened in theory. Wish I could have seen him grow up, now I will have to wait for new male chicks to hatch to discover why this is happening.

On a happier note, the remaining 4 chicks now also roost with the rest of the flock.

 

[Perris]

But for some reason his legs and comb darkened up, which shouldn't have happened in theory. Wish I could have seen him grow up, now I will have to wait for new male chicks to hatch to discover why this is happening.

As I understand it (not well still), no-one really understands fully what's involved in shank colour, and different factors come into play at different times, and their effect(s) can fade over time, so one needs to take note of the colour more or less weekly until a chick has matured, e.g. 8-16 weeks for a reveal on dermal melanin.

Have you seen this https://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/gms10-skin-and-shank-color/ ?

Sorry to read you lost him.

 

[no fly zone]

He died yesterday. Wasn't impacted crop, so went with treating for coccidiosis but it was too late. Should have listened to my gut 2 nights before that it odd. Treating the whole flock for coccidiosis at the moment.

He was quite odd in his appearance since he had a single allele for barring and dermal inhibitor. So his fibro was inhibited succesfully as he had light skin colour. But for some reason his legs and comb darkened up, which shouldn't have happened in theory. Wish I could have seen him grow up, now I will have to wait for new male chicks to hatch to discover why this is happening.

On a happier note, the remaining 4 chicks now also roost with the rest of the flock.

Poor little guy.

 

[SimpleJenn]

Sorry for the loss of the little guy. He was really cute

 

[SimpleJenn]

Loose chickens update
They stay in the coop until 8 or 9 AM, door is set for 7:30 and Wild Man was out talking to my pullet with chicks. I don't feel he's happy, since none of the ranging birds are mature enough for breeding. He does a bit of wandering around by himself while the others rest inside the coop.

"You can toss another bit of bread from your sandwich this way"

They stripped the remaining bits from my blackberry vine here, just wait until they discover the field out back!

Guinea pool

I added another crate lid to their station, so there's shade for all of them underneath at the moment. I'll have to add more hawk hides as needed.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

He died yesterday. Wasn't impacted crop, so went with treating for coccidiosis but it was too late. Should have listened to my gut 2 nights before that it odd. Treating the whole flock for coccidiosis at the moment.

He was quite odd in his appearance since he had a single allele for barring and dermal inhibitor. So his fibro was inhibited succesfully as he had light skin colour. But for some reason his legs and comb darkened up, which shouldn't have happened in theory. Wish I could have seen him grow up, now I will have to wait for new male chicks to hatch to discover why this is happening.

On a happier note, the remaining 4 chicks now also roost with the rest of the flock.

Awww, I'm so sorry!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

As I understand it (not well still), no-one really understands fully what's involved in shank colour, and different factors come into play at different times, and their effect(s) can fade over time, so one needs to take note of the colour more or less weekly until a chick has matured, e.g. 8-16 weeks for a reveal on dermal melanin.

Have you seen this https://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/gms10-skin-and-shank-color/ ?

Sorry to read you lost him.

It's still not helping me understand the frequent tendency of (some) Easter Eggers to start with slate blue legs (first seen at 8 weeks, when we got her) to change to willow green (by I think aaround 12 weeks? maybe later.) Slate is dominant W and willow is recessive w, if I read that right.

The new baby EE had slate blue legs when we got her at 6 weeks (two weeks ago.) Still blue so far.