Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Skyeknight]

Are the pullets laying yet?

They are not. They were all from around March 1st. I do have an artificial light, so they have around 5 - 6 hours of darkness at night. I don't think they will start laying soon.

 

[rural mouse]

They are not. They were all from around March 1st. I do have an artificial light, so they have around 5 - 6 hours of darkness at night. I don't think they will start laying soon.

How old is the roo?

 

[Perris]

They never seemed to go through that moth-eaten stage where they are losing down but don’t have all their feathers.

that's precisely where my late Sept brood have got to

Great to see yours doing so well. And how much Tassels has enjoyed it (given she's still doing her bit with them)

 

[Molpet]

Pardon my humour, I know the smell.
I know it happens. Maybe I've been lucky.
I don't let hens sit indefinitely; six weeks I think has been the longest before I intervened.
There is something wrong with a hen that doesn't switch off when her eggs haven't hatched in the usual time. Also, I think the majority of the hens I've observed sitting, shove the non viable eggs out of the nest, or at least shove them to the nest edges. I've found post hatch quite a few eggs with chicks well formed enough to look like they'll make it but the hen has abandoned them. I'll go with the hens judgement usually.

Where I know the smell from is finding abandoned nests with eggs in and I've done a break open inspection.

Last year I have a turkey that hatched a couple cockerels but never got off the nest. She sat on the rest of the eggs for a month and another month after I took the eggs. The chicks ran under her and she tucked them in.
This year she didn't hatch anything but 2 different hatches of poults would run under her and she tucked them in. She was a good babysitter

In my experience - that is to say, the earliest I have been able to hear it - is a day before the first one breaks through the shell. I usually hear the broody cheeping very quietly to the chicks a day earlier; I guess they are replying but my hearing is not good enough to pick it up through the Nestera wall.

I've not heard that, though I have read about it too.

When I used the incubator I woke up hearing chicks a few days before pips. They were in the spare bedroom down the hall past the bathroom. But both doors were open.

That's not quite what I was suggesting; I imagine the would-be predator would be attacked while trying to gain entry (think the typical hen door bully). I can't see my lot sitting back while something was nibbling away to try to open up an access point; they would be matching every nibble with a hard peck on the nose! And because the coops are so compact, they are going to be up close and personal to it (the vents are at head height when standing with head erect), not off in some dark distant corner.

There's videos of weasels attacking geese. One has a dead goose near a nest, a weasel attacking a duck with a goose attacking the weasel. Then the weasel attacking the goose at the throat. The video cuts so don't know who won but I am better on the weasel.

 

[Perris]

When I used the incubator I woke up hearing chicks a few days before pips. They were in the spare bedroom down the hall past the bathroom.

It prompts me to wonder how much sound proofing feathers can do. I have wondered that anyway re: hens not yet awake when a roo fires up in the morning; it must be deafening being next to one in a Nestera coop.

There's videos of weasels attacking geese. One has a dead goose near a nest, a weasel attacking a duck with a goose attacking the weasel. Then the weasel attacking the goose at the throat. The video cuts so don't know who won but I am better on the weasel.

Again this is when the predator already has access. I don't think the situations are comparable when the predator still has to chew away at something in order to be able to attack, and has to expose its nose and possibly eyes in order to do so.

Also I'm not sure the rounded bills of ducks and geese can deliver the sort of stabbing wound that a chicken beak can. Chickens evolved from animals with teeth. They lost teeth in favour of that beak; it can be quite a weapon. Feathers also replaced scales. Those of us who have tried to cut the throat of a chicken know what a barrier feathers are.

 

[Molpet]

Again this is when the predator already has access. I don't think the situations are comparable when the predator still has to chew away at something in order to be able to attack, and has to expose its nose and possibly eyes in order to do so.

Most reports of coops with weasels kills, are that every animal that moved were killed.
I remember one account that the camera recorded one hen froze on the roost and survived.
These coops were thought to be secure

 

[BDutch]

it took me 20 seconds to finally spot what Raisin had seen in her sleep: a house cat slinking along the woodline 200' away.

Or… Acted the way you thought she was sleeping.

Loose analogy, but I'm sure somewhere in the back of my mind it prompted my quip on our modern deities of apps and AI.

You got me startled with the Greek mythology, but I could ignore that. Think you mean Samos if you are talking about Samothrakis
But the last paragraph??? Can you explain what you mean with quip on our modern deities?

domus aureus.

cage for feathered species will do too

If you want to unpack that one, you'll have to do it yourself I'm afraid; I don't want to get banned, from anything. Good luck with your AI!

Now you got me even more startled .
But I accept if certain politics are involved.

There is a lot of bureaucracy at this end for sending / receiving fertile eggs, and probably likewise in Greece. There is a reason why so few fertile eggs get imported / exported by backyard keepers.

Sorry I brought this up. I had no idea it isnt allowed to do so.
In the Netherlands its very common to send / receive eggs by mail to other EU countries. Didn’t know the English are much more protective.

 

[BDutch]

I did have some eggs shipped this year, from a farm about 5-6 hours away. They took almost a week to get here.

Almost a week for such a small trip is kind of ridiculous within the Netherlands.
& Sorry for all the losses you had this year. I do remember reading it before. I just thought the genes of Perris’s flock are great for you to free range future chickens. The weather (heat) in summer probably would be a minor though.

 

[Perris]

Think you mean Samos if you are talking about Samothrakis

No. Samos is a large island east of Athens in the Ionian Sea, near the Turkish coast south of Izmir. Samothrace/Samothraki is a small island north north east of Athens, and east of Thasos, in the Thracian sea. Edited to add it's probably most famous today for a sculpture in the Louvre (thieves permitting ) of a winged Victory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Victory_of_Samothrace

Can you explain what you mean with quip on our modern deities?

It was a reference to our deference to / reliance on apps, as ancients relied on prayers.

Didn’t know the English are much more protective.

We try hard to keep out any pests or diseases that aren't already here. We have a natural moat, so it's much easier to control than land borders. Of course birds and insects and air-borne pathogens get here anyway, and bugs hiding in the compost or foliage of imported pot-plants, or on the hulls of ships and boats, etc. etc., but there are strict rules about bringing anything live into the country (like 6 months quarantine for dogs without proof of vaccination against rabies, which we do not have here) and they try to make sure that we don't export our endemic issues out to other countries either.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

...but there are strict rules about bringing anything live into the country (like 6 months quarantine for dogs without proof of vaccination against rabies, which we do not have here) and they try to make sure that we don't export our endemic issues out to other countries either.

I was wondering if England still did this. When we moved to Hawai'i, there was a four-month quarantine, proof of vaccination or not. Our poor beagle mix gained half again of her body weight, was hoarse from baying, and bleached blonde by the sun (although they did have palm leaves over the run.)

(that was in 1967)