Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

One of my favourite puddings was a hot fig chutney in a meringue

have you got a recipe for that? It flummoxed my browser's AI

 

[MrsNorthie]

This year I have enough chickens (8), enough eggs (4/day) and not enough (run) space for more chickens.

Luckily, we still have room for expansion and the extra eggs go to good use, we provide some to people near by, we scramble some to add to the dog's homemade dinners and we give some scramble back to the chickens and turkeys.

Interestingly, (or maybe not..) quite a few of our girls go broody, but for whatever reason, most don't seem to really commit to sitting and only one has actually hatched chicks. I just feel that it would be wrong or selfish of me to interfere if one of the other girls commits to sitting and I prevent them from fulfilling their genetic drive to produce offspring. I will deal with the fall out, if we get to the point where we do not have the resources to provide them with the optimal space to thrive, which to me, includes happiness and health.

It may mean finding good homes for ready made tribes after they have been raised by the broody and educated by an amazing rooster, but I also think that once I open up the entire property to them, we will be increasing the risk of loss to predators, therefor, the ability for them to reproduce to keep the tribe at optimal numbers, is important. I am afraid, that if I we constantly interfere with their broody instinct, we may be causing them to sort of give up on the idea of sitting and hatching, so I am determined to just let the chickens do chickening as naturally as possible and we will only intervene when we have to. I know that the increased risk of predator access will lead to heartbreak, but every living thing dies and my heart will ache for the loss no matter what and I would rather they have the best life possible for as long as they live.

I am lucky to have some really fantastic roosters that have everything managed internally, so they only need us for supplemental feed, special treats, water delivery and coop cleaning.