Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[MrsNorthie]

I was cleaning out the rest of the big "shed" yesterday, and stopped to feed the chickens. 2 of the CCLs have started laying! 2 Perfect little blue/green eggs!

I have had one, very determined Buff broody, who growls and screams at any of the other girls who try to get anywhere near her, but when I was feeding them, she decided to run and grab a bite and a drink, and one of the CCL's went over and sat on her eggs and mama didn't seem to mind at all! It was like she hired a teen baby sitter! I couldn't tell which of the CCLs it was, because she had her face to the wall and I didn't want to disturb her.

I will get pictures if she does it again, but I was just amazed, first, that she had that instinct so young, and secondly, Reggi didn't seem to mind! When a couple of the other Buffs went over, Reggi ran back and shouted them down, then went back to taking care of her needs. I have noticed that 3 of the CCLs have been spending a lot of time in the coop the last 2 weeks, maybe this has been training time? The broody-raised groups also would spend a lot of time in the coop before they started laying, but they never baby-sat a clutch. I find something new to love about these chickens, everyday.

 

[Labsandchickens8]

Greater plant variety within the same space. They'll forage on something now, and circle back to something else later due to it growing differently. Mine like grass stems when they're young and fresh. If I can let the grass grow, then when it reaches @6 inches or so, they stop trying to crop it. Once it sets seeds, they come back to the grass for the seeds. Meanwhile they're in another area eating something else like the Nanking cherries or the currants..or coming back through for the grasshoppers and the flying ants. When the pea tree hedge starts popping pods, you would think they would be in that immediately, but no. They wait on that until they're moulting. I can tell which are starting to moult by which are browsing there....except when they go through for the dryer areas to get the grasshoppers. Different grasses will develop slightly offset from each other. Adding in shrubs and trees that fruit small things (chokecherries, chokeberry, currants, grapes, blueberries, crabapples etc) make for mixed ripening times, variety to forage upon, shelter from assorted predators (never Fort Knox, but it helps) and utilizes spaces so they keep shifting about.

This is very helpful.

 

[Labsandchickens8]

This is for info, not to provoke another political detour: I read this this morning
https://www.dw.com/en/serbia-pancic...tinction-due-to-global-warming/video-73642812
I am happy to report that I planted one here over 20 years ago, and it is doing very well. (Pancic spruce = Serbian spruce = Picea Omorika.) Good to discover that it does not need another one nearby in order to produce viable cones. It is just getting mature enough - or maybe it was hot enough this year - to produce cones - seen for the first time this spring. The chickens love hanging out under its skirts, btw.
View attachment 4198736

We have planted a tree that looks a lot like that called a Leyland cypress. They provide great screening but take some room

 

[Perris]

We have planted a tree that looks a lot like that called a Leyland cypress. They provide great screening but take some room

they are very popular as hedging trees here, though have a bit of a reputation for causing neighbourly disputes because they grow fast and tall. Not really ideal for small gardens to be sure. They are different from spruces in details; cf. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/12966/picea-omorika/details and
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/190606/-cuprocyparis-leylandii/details

 

[rural mouse]

Meanwhile, in Orkney...
View attachment 4198756

Looks like some of the trees around here....or an oversized bonsai... Wind does all sorts of things.

 

[rural mouse]

I was cleaning out the rest of the big "shed" yesterday, and stopped to feed the chickens. 2 of the CCLs have started laying! 2 Perfect little blue/green eggs!

I have had one, very determined Buff broody, who growls and screams at any of the other girls who try to get anywhere near her, but when I was feeding them, she decided to run and grab a bite and a drink, and one of the CCL's went over and sat on her eggs and mama didn't seem to mind at all! It was like she hired a teen baby sitter! I couldn't tell which of the CCLs it was, because she had her face to the wall and I didn't want to disturb her.

I will get pictures if she does it again, but I was just amazed, first, that she had that instinct so young, and secondly, Reggi didn't seem to mind! When a couple of the other Buffs went over, Reggi ran back and shouted them down, then went back to taking care of her needs. I have noticed that 3 of the CCLs have been spending a lot of time in the coop the last 2 weeks, maybe this has been training time? The broody-raised groups also would spend a lot of time in the coop before they started laying, but they never baby-sat a clutch. I find something new to love about these chickens, everyday.

That's how staggered hatches occur. Eggs get snuck in while broody is tending herself.

 

[MrsNorthie]

That's how staggered hatches occur. Eggs get snuck in while broody is tending herself.

she didn't lay an egg on the clutch, just sort of sat there guarding it. LOL If anyone lays an egg anywhere near Reggi, she nicks it and adds it to her clutch, nobody has to sneak, she just wants to hatch all the eggs. ;-) We have her eggs marked and nick the new ones.

 

[fuzzi]

she didn't lay an egg on the clutch, just sort of sat there guarding it. LOL If anyone lays an egg anywhere near Reggi, she nicks it and adds it to her clutch, nobody has to sneak, she just wants to hatch all the eggs. ;-) We have her eggs marked and nick the new ones.

I keep a small "golf" pencil in the main coop, write the date on the end of each egg even though I gather them for consumption. When Naomi's eggs failed to hatch I picked the best looking and most recent eggs from those in the house to place in the incubator.

After I gave Naomi some day old chicks I'd purchased it seemed to trigger Rahab, who then started sitting in the nesting box, on a faux egg. She was rewarded with half the incubator eggs, and later, the two chicks that hatched inside.

There's a 5th chick in there, somewhere!