Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

Was the damage at the allotment bc of storm Amy who came over from the Atlantic? No one else in Western Europe had damages? How did the tree huggers coop?

Yes, Amy hit northern Ireland and Scotland the hardest (no doubt kattabelly will have something to say about it in due course ). The tree huggers were all sheltering on the logpile under a roof on the opposite side of the house at dawn when I took breakfast out and opened up the coops. I don't know if they got blown out during the night, or decided to come down to find shelter at first light, but the conifer branches' movement at the time looked like roosting in them would have been a bit like being stuck in a ship during a storm at sea.

 

[Perris]

Glais is tidbitting Bless his little cotton socks

 

[rural mouse]

Yes, Amy hit northern Ireland and Scotland the hardest (no doubt kattabelly will have something to say about it in due course ). The tree huggers were all sheltering on the logpile under a roof on the opposite side of the house at dawn when I took breakfast out and opened up the coops. I don't know if they got blown out during the night, or decided to come down to find shelter at first light, but the conifer branches' movement at the time looked like roosting in them would have been a bit like being stuck in a ship during a storm at sea.

Good for them. My crew use the woodpile for daylight storms. They like being able to watch, I think. Close to bedtime, they retreat to the coop, though.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Tribe 2 and 3 often got fed kitchen scraps and treat food on the terrace at the front of the farmhouse. There would be some attempts by chickens in one tribe to get at the food of the other tribe. Notch would give an alarm call and everyone would scatter to cover. He just carried on eating and when he did give the all clear call it was his hens that came out to eat first. It was quite deliberate.

Mow learnt to peck at my boots for treats from Henry. It's a shame she didn't learn how to be as gentle and accurate as Henry was. Both Mow and Sylph learnt very quickly that when I show them the empty treat container there isn't going to be any more that day. They also worked out very quickly which containers were my food and which were for them. They tend not to hassle me when I eat but as soon as I pick up a container with treats in I can't get them out from under my feet.

Being allowed to eat my food in peace is I think interesting. They didn't bother Henry when he ate the supplied feed but they would bug him for treat food, sometimes snatching it out of his beak.

So, a lot of things they've learnt from watching Henry rather than Fret their mother. Some people say the male has very little to do with the upbringing of chicks but I don't believe this to be true; it's just a different type of teaching at a later age.

I may have shared this before: Peck's impulsiveness tends to get her into trouble. One day I watched her accidentally march into a pack of elder hens.

Instead of ducking and retreating while being pecked mercilessly like a junior hen should, she suddenly started preening enthusiastically.

Preening being contagious, I think the term is allelomimetic behavior, the elder hens immediately began preening as well.

As soon as the hens were sufficiently occupied, Peck stopped preening and snuck out of the gauntlet without being pecked.

What an amazingly clever tactic (one I would've completely missed if I didn't know the birds so well).

Peck doesn't always get away with all her feathers, but I've watched her do that trick to weave peacefully through mobs of older chickens many times now.

The one and only Peck/T-Pecks/Mad ResPeck:

 

[kattabelly]

(no doubt kattabelly will have something to say about it in due course )

Not really! It was stormy but that happens a lot here

 

[MrsNorthie]

Not really! It was stormy but that happens a lot here

Glad to hear you are ok.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

My favourite moment was when another rooster crowed (Stilton, I assume) Andre didn’t even look back to check if the crow came from Merle.

Astute observation! I wondered if anyone would notice that at the end. Whatever Stilton's communicating, it's different than what Merle and Andre are getting into.

Stilton also doesn't play this game with either Andre or Merle, and Andre doesn't taunt Merle this way. Instigation via crowing is exclusively Merle's tactic.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

I think some people learn from bad examples how NOT to behave, perhaps more than the number who think it's something to emulate, and I just extend that observation to chickens.

A year ago, when I shared here that Starla had flown over the electric fence and been taken by a predator, you remarked that, as a silver lining, at least the others might learn from Starla's mistake. It was true.

Our other fence flyer, Peck, didn't fly out for months afterward.

When she eventually started again (it's Peck, after all), I clipped her wings because I, too, learned from Starla. I don't want to lose anybirdy else that way.

 

[Shadrach]

Four hours of chicken and field business but Mow and Sylph only got out for an hour and a half of that.
We put the Nestera coop together at the eldests, got it in the van and took it to the field. The legs are ready but I need some planking for the frame. It's going to look a bit odd but with the base and coop combined it shouldn't blow over. It is an issue at the field. When it gusts up the Avon valley it seems to pick up speed a bit like air through a venturi tube.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venturi_effect

We're getting there. Extra work needing doing at the field, tree cutting and grass cutting is slowing progress down a bit. See what happens tomorrow.