Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Molpet]

I pretty much go by chicken time year round

 

[Shadrach]

On the mites, the Solway has more joins and hiding places than the Nestera, and I think you've made it worse with your modifications. That is very obvious at the vent: it is covered with mite eggs (those white dots).

I haven't counted the number of joins in either coop, but I will.
There are no mite eggs on the vent. Those white dots are not mite eggs. If they were, they would hatch and be gone a week or so later. That mess around the adjustable vent has been there for months.
What is there is a combination of dust, dander and some sulfur dust. I check the coop for mites on a regular basis, roost bar ends, white tissue along the underside and of course the chickens although I haven't checked Glais yet.
The coop at the moment at least is mite free.

Only the design that BDutch was recommending would solve that problem, and yes, that wouldn't work with a Nestera.

Not so. The stainless steel mesh I fitted that cover the string right down to where it attaches to the door has worked very well at protecting the string and that could have been done on the coops in Catalonia. If there is enough height above the pop door such a system would work for any door and string provide the door pulls open vertically.
I think Nestera are now aware of the problems with the swing pop door. Their latest coop design doesn't have it. Unfortunately things haven't improved much for a motor driven string opener because the door slides open horizontally. While getting it open with a motor wound string isn't a problem, getting it close again is.

https://nestera.co.uk/products/the-...MI-tKqppLDkAMVvJJQBh2L-yJkEAYYAiABEgIAvvD_BwE

It looks to me as if Nestera have identified a number of problems that I pointed out in my criticism of the old style coops. Notice the roof now fits snugly to the top of the walls. The rotary vents are gone. The protrusions that lock the side walls to the ends look to be a much better fit. The roosting bars now sit in sockets, much like the ones in my Catalonian coops.
They've done away with their string pull pop door system altogether and chosen what looks to be a cog driven system like the ones BDutch has.

 

[Shadrach]

I need to catch up later because I have discovered the hard way how smart @Shadrach is Just found my feral game hen sitting on a clutch on the ground. I’ve had a rooster for a month. I have no idea how long she’s been there but she did kick a rotten one out which is how I found her. I have never candled eggs before but not sure if I should bother but maybe just let her do her thing?

Edit: had to look at a calendar to check how long I’ve actually had this rooster.

I try not to touch the eggs at all. I don't understand why anyone would want to candle eggs that a broody hen is sitting on. They may explode in an incubator; I wouldn't know, I don't use them. In 25 years of chicken tending I've never had an egg explode under a broody hen.

 

[Shadrach]

I did read that chickens are capable of unihemispheric slow wave sleep (USWS) where they basically sleep deeply with one half of their brain while keeping the other hemisphere awake. So literally half conscious. They'll also take naps with one eye open and alert during the daytime. I (and I'm sure most here) have seen them do it but I had no idea they were actually sleeping while they were looking at me

Yes indeed. This is my understanding from reading various studies. I'm still waiting for the study that properly explains the broody trance.

 

[Shadrach]

Interesting bit of information! Makes a lot of sense my chickens are always awake when I visit them in the evening. Also interesting that when I went to sit with my CX during the day and they decided to sleep next to me, they did close both their eyes. So maybe they decided that I was alert so they didn't have to? To them I am filling the rooster role part-time atm, so it wouldn't surprise if if trust in other flock members plays a role.

Do they close their eyes or just the second eyelid? Chickens have three eyelids; a transparent one that moves from side to side (a wiper lid that keeps the eyeball clean and moist) a second lid that closes from the bottom of the eye upwards and the main lid that closes from the top of the eye. When the top lid is closed they can't see and when roosting are properly asleep.

 

[Shadrach]

Chickens can also go into normal slow wave sleep like we do, they just have the ability to rest one half at a time in case they feel the need to stay alert. They also enter REM sleep like we do, which implies that they have their own chickeny dreams

When it was first suggested that chickens enter REM sleep and may dream there was some very stiff resistance to the idea. After all, we wouldn't want chickens demonstrating such things now would we. We might have to reconsider how we've been treating them for thousands of years.

 

[BDutch]

I would never, ever, rely on an app to properly identify mushroom types. To do so, is, not just in my opinion but in the opinion of expert mushroom foragers, an invitation for a potentially life threatening disaster.
Where I lived in Catalonia, mushroom foraging was extremely popular. Every year one could see people with little baskets scouring the woodlands and pastures for mushrooms; whole families often involved. Every year while I was there, someone died from eating the wrong type and many more got sick.

I've been out in the woods with an elderly women many at the local village describe as a witch; the good type I should add. She was highly regarded and local people would go to her for remedies for various complaints for which this witch would make up a potion. Judging by her reputation many of these potions worked. The knowledge she had acquired over the years of walking the mountains looking for herbs, roots, flowers and mushrooms was absolutely staggering.

The one single bit of advice I got given by this women when walking in the mountains with her is don't consume anything without getting an expert opinion on the type of whatever it is one found, especially mushrooms.

No need to worry, I have no intentions to forage for mushrooms to eat them anymore.

I did in the past, with friends and a mushrooms book with info about eatable mushrooms and safety . ‍ ? no.

If the book said resembles .,., and the look-a-like is poisonous, we wouldn’t eat them. Only the common mushrooms who were super clear and described with a good taste went into a pot. Never got sick. No-one died.

My guts tell me our determination capabilities were probably way worse than the app I use know.

 

[Shadrach]

My guts tell me our determination capabilities were probably way worse than the app I use know.

Oh absolutely. I have enough trouble identifying the vegetables I grow.

 

[no fly zone]

I did read that chickens are capable of unihemispheric slow wave sleep (USWS) where they basically sleep deeply with one half of their brain while keeping the other hemisphere awake. So literally half conscious. They'll also take naps with one eye open and alert during the daytime. I (and I'm sure most here) have seen them do it but I had no idea they were actually sleeping while they were looking at me

Skeksis was completely racked out here.

 

[Perris]

Glais is full of surprises.

His behaviour, as you describe it in that post, is what I am used to from the roos here. I'm glad he's adjusted to his new circumstances so well.