Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

Skipped Symphony Chorus rehearsal b/c I’m exhausted getting my mother transferred to a nursing home. We have about an hour fifteen before dusk, so I’m just enjoying the chickens and a glass or three of Pinot Grigio.

One of those sads moment in life.
I hope the nursing home is just what your mothers needs now.

 

[Perris]

But I do not think that that's what you want, so how much would you mind the Penedesencas Z chromosome getting into your flock and possibly causing defects down the line?

I think that bridge has already been crossed. The survival rate of chicks since 2022 (that roo was sexually active for the first half of that year) suggests that it's not a problem even with a few likely carriers around. In particular, his spitting image grandson turned 2 years old last month, and appears to be in great health despite a little (and perhaps irrelevant) blackening of the back of the comb occasionally.

So I think if there is a defect, it's already in the genetic soup here and there are enough other versions floating around to compensate for it most of the time. Compare humans and the cystic fibrosis gene.

 

[BDutch]

I may have my first broody on my hands. Mrs. B (Bernevelder) was not a roostin’ during nightly rounds. I was scared she got coyote’d! But she was in a nest, back behind the garage work bench, where Ozzy has chosen to lay eggs everywhere but ON the nesting material I so kindly placed in order to avoid the eggs with crack shells from being deposited on concrete. Sigh. Now Mrs. B, apparently in a broody mood, has decided that nesting material is perfect. At least chicks won’t fall from trees or potting benches. But it is a most inconvenient spot. (Imagine a painting pole with a small bucket taped to it so I can kneel, on a dirty workbench, and retrieve a deposited egg from a half inch of dirt instead of the nesting material an inch away behind the bench!) I am not 100% she is broody. Maybe just needing to lay late at night? She got some fresh water nearby and a closed garage door though. Ain’t nobody got time to crawl around back there and fish ‘er out. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

The breeds name is Barnevelder. Named after a place where the breed is developed in the Netherlands about 10 miles from where I live.

Sounds like broody. She must have thought you want her to nest right there.

Are you sure you want her to hatch chicks now, in late autumn? Don’t let her sit there if the place is a not safe at night. If its okay safety-wise for a broody but not for chicks you have a few options:
1. Move her now to a good spot with the risk you stop her broodiness doing so.
2. Move her a few days before the chicks hatch. Little chance she leaves the new nest when the chicks start to peep in the egg. Make a plan (incubator) if she stops being broody.
3. Make a safe enclosure where the broody sits , during the hatching days (panels covered with hwc). After the hatch you can move her with the chicks to a better spot.