Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fuzzi]

The Perris & Shad collab just keeps getting better!

Stay tuned!

 

[no fly zone]

I'm jealous of all the people getting lovely @Perris chickens now!


I have something slightly similar that the previous plot tennant made using a small chest freezer. Needs fixing up and a good clean but it might actually work well for chicks, or if I have a chicken ill or injured enough to need separating from the others.

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Chicken wire though?

 

[fluffycrow]

I'd love to, but I don't think they'd let him through airport security

Yeah that might be a bit of a problem.
“Oh that, that’s just taxidermy”
“Cockadoodledoo”
“VERY lifelike”.

Pigeons are rather common in the entrance and exit points of our airport. I was quite surprised to see a pigeon shopping around the duty free section in Heathrow airport last time I was in the UK. Hope he enjoyed his shopping

 

[BDutch]

If I had known you wanted to rehome some hens I would have taken one or two with Glais.

I understood you only wanted to adopt ex-bats. But Im glad to hear Perris’s hens are serious competition.

 

[kattabelly]

Chicken wire though?

Very few predators here.

 

[Shadrach]

Two and a half hours this afternoon.
Sylph has got stomach problems as if she had been at the blueberries. This may account for her looking off yesterday. Today she was looking better but not right yet. The droppings closest are Mow's and Glais's, the runny stuff is Sylph's.

Glais on the other hand is a bundle of energy. Not content with running he's half flying all over the place. Also, judging by what he's prepared to eat, has the constitution of an Ox. He's obviously overcome any reservations he may have had about me and got on to the chair next to the one I sit on and investigated my rucksack. He's also stood on my boots a couple of times and took particular interest in my cigars. No, I didn't give him a stroke.
Currently they spend most of their time out on the field as a group. It's usually Mow who heads off on her own for a bit and Glais looks a bit lost about who he should be with.
When I venture out on the field he often follows me and Mow and Sylph stand around my field chair. They know I'll go back there and unless I'm digging, I'm not doing much of interest for chickens. It's also a safe zone because they can get under the chairs. All of this really does show that the field is woefully short of cover.

I'm going to have to get some new heavier feeding trays, something like the terracotta lasagna dishes I used in Catalonia because Glais has tipped over one of the plastic trays twice now; Henry used to do it as well just by placing one foot on the edge. At 4.something kilos it's hardly surprising.

Glais off adventuring.

Like most cockerels I've known he gives a warning call for just about anything that flies close by. This is him wondering what he should do about the jackdaws eating the feed he spilt out of the tray when he stood in it.
Sylph went round shortly after this picture and ran at the jackdaws who of course scattered. Not sure if Glais was impressed or not.

Slightly less fuss at roosting time. Mow got on the same bar as the other two shortly after throwing some food around.

 

[Shadrach]

I understood you only wanted to adopt ex-bats. But Im glad to hear Perris’s hens are serious competition.

It would be my preference but I'm sick of trying to deal with the rescue people who are in some cases well intentioned but hopeless to deal with. I could get a couple of Ex Battery hens tomorrow but they have been kept at one of the rescue centers for an undisclosed length of time and having seen a couple of these places and how they are run, particularly with regard to bio security I would rather not risk it. In fact I know of a person that did take 4 Ex Battery rescues from one of these centers and they all died within a couple of months.
Being battery hens, they have no resistance to anything found in a natural environment. One needs to get them the day they are rescued and these rescue days seem to be organised at extremely short notice.

 

[Shadrach]

 

[no fly zone]

Very few predators here.

few is not zero

 

[Mother of Chaos]

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Love how he's got his head up and neck stretched out, looking around while the girls are foraging!