Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fuzzi]

He needs some sickle feathers and spurs.

They're coming...

 

[BDutch]

J did the chickens this evening. I had other commitments. J sent me a picture though.
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What did J say about Glais?

 

[Shadrach]

What did J say about Glais?

They think he's gorgeous.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

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

Is Sylph better? She looks good in J's photo. Wet poops are commonplace at the onset of molt here.

Just ask the Peck-upine.

What a wild molt she's having.

Nights have been cold, and she's showing so much skin that DH suggested we get her a little turtleneck sweater (he was kidding...I think), and also mentioned having her sleep in the house, like we did for loner hen Barbara when her feathering was thin.

However, Peck's no loner, and roost poops show she's using her BFF Lil Nugs as a heater overnight. She's her active self every morning, excited to run out and dig in the orchard, so we're sticking with giving extra mealworms and letting her manage the ordeal on her terms.

Photos are a couple days old. Feathers are starting to emerge from those quills. She should be much better this time next week.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

yes we've got them on the mostly abandoned vegetable patch in the hope they'll do some weeding for us - the previous owner planted a couple of rows of potatoes this year, but the rest seems to want to turn back into a meadow I think!

Oh, believe me, they will!

Mine have now nibbled the parts of the backyard to which they're allowed access down to bare soil. Looks like the surface of Mars. But it's incredibly fertile , if I can keep them off long enough for seeds to sprout and get established! Recent picture of just one spot:

I'm going to be scrambling with partioned-off areas and forage trays to keep them halfway-satisfied until spring returns.

The good thing is that, at least with mine, when they've been turned out among mature plants, they generally confine themselves to the ground layer and maybe the first 8"/20 cm or so. The exception would be with weeds beloved by chickens, like horseweed/ marestail (Erigeron canadensis). They leap straight up from the ground to grab the higher leaves. It's both amusing and impressive to watch their vertical leaps!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Is Sylph better? She looks good in J's photo. Wet poops are commonplace at the onset of molt here.

Just ask the Peck-upine.

View attachment 4238268

What a wild molt she's having.

View attachment 4238271

Nights have been cold, and she's showing so much skin that DH suggested we get her a little turtleneck sweater (he was kidding...I think), and also mentioned having her sleep in the house, like we did for loner hen Barbara when her feathering was thin.

However, Peck's no loner, and roost poops show she's using her BFF Lil Nugs as a heater overnight. She's her active self every morning, excited to run out and dig in the orchard, so we're sticking with giving extra mealworms and letting her manage the ordeal on her terms.

View attachment 4238510
Photos are a couple days old. Feathers are starting to emerge from those quills. She should be much better this time next week.

omg, poor baby, lol!

I've been trying to explain to Hubs what molt is like (I think we will dodge it this first year, as the Bigs were born in January and the Littles in late May/ early June), but it wasn't until I showed him these pics that he grasped it!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

The Big Book of Garden P*rn is taking pre-orders! Over 500 pages of impossibly delectable plant photos are waiting just for you!
View attachment 4237956

https://www.rareseeds.com/2026-the-whole-seed-catalog?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Whole Seed is Here&_kx=gif3sFVBDWOvn0IOYE8ADg-XwkDYQhJ-5YGFXVoEEw0.VaMbkj

(Sorry, I’ll supply new chicken pics for tax tomorrow)

OK, so I never made it outside other than to let the girls in and out, so instead I will post a pic of what I was doing all day long. It becomes less clear why I decided to go back to university to get that BSc (PS I have no faith whatsoever that any of this is correct, so don't tase me, bro):

Chicken pics tomorrow!!!!! cross my heart

 

[Perris]

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

I think that's what he's doing in the second of those photos, but from experience I'd wager that in the first one he's spotted an edible on the tall flower stem and is about to grab it.

 

[Perris]

grower's pellets (which no-one likes much)

their instincts are good

what sort of forage is available to them? often old neglected patches of land have a splendid collection of native wild plants and arthropods for chickens to feast on.

 

[Perris]

They think he's gorgeous.

and I assume he gave them no cause for concern on their personal safety front...?