Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fluffycrow]

Do your the large comb roosters have frostbite issues?

Right now it's 16f with 87% humidity and freezing fog. Difficult to prevent frostbite on big combs here. They lose the points.
I have been trying to breed for small wattles and pea combs. But still get a few blade combs.

not here, it doesn't get that cold.

Ditto. If it doesn’t get cold enough in Wales, it definitely doesn’t get cold enough here.
The contest I remember it being the last five years is around -4C (~28f, I think?) during the night. Those temps lasted for two nights, during February. We usually get one or two really cold weeks during that time (sometimes even snow), but it’s nothing compared to what some of you deal with.

Certainly not cold enough for frost bitten combs

 

[Skyeknight]

Time for some education. Point out on the harmless birds , for whom he can stay put. With lots of reassuring sounds.

And its okay for him call the alarm and to run if he sees one of these:

I will be sure to also lecture my rooster on this. I mean you never know when a turkey vulture might show up in the Netherlands!

On a more serious note I do have a common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), tawny owl (Strix aluco), western barn owl (Tyto alba) and a pair of common buzzards (Buteo buteo) flying around. At least if I managed to correctly identify them based on sounds and sight.

 

[BDutch]

I will be sure to also lecture my rooster on this. I mean you never know when a turkey vulture might show up in the Netherlands!

I remember there was one a few years ago. Probably lost. He didn’t settle. Our ‘mountains’ were probably not impressive enough.

On a more serious note I do have a common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), tawny owl (Strix aluco), western barn owl (Tyto alba) and a pair of common buzzards (Buteo buteo) flying around. At least if I managed to correctly identify them based on sounds and sight.

One of my first chickens was taken by a buzzard. I didn’t see it happening but after she was lost , I did see a buzzard circling in the sky above our house for several days. I locked the flock inside the netted run. After a week he didn’t return anymore. Buzzards are very common in the Netherlands. Most are real scavengers and don’t hunt. But unfortunately some do hunt birds up to the size of pigeons and bantams. Im not sure about larger fowl.

Other birds of pray I have seen in our garden are a sparrow-hawk (small type of hawk that hunts pigeons and small bantams too) and a red kite (very rare here).

 

[BDutch]

A large article in our newspaper today that a lot of chicken farmers have stopped, because the get paid well by the government if they do (amongst other reasons).

We have a problem in our country with air pollution (NOx) and we also have too much dung (water quality) from all the cattle kept in our country.

10% of the industrial chicken farms (244) stopped or are stopping at the moment. Besides the payment they often have no children who want to take over the company. And the bird flu (stress) is another important reason.

PS maybe i should have added this is good news bc its necessary for the health of the people in our country that we stop being an export country for eggs, meat and other animal products from factory farming.

Another fact: people within a range of 500 meters from goat stables, have twice as often pneumonia than people who live more than 1 km from a goat stables (factory farming).