Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Mother of Chaos]

Not just the girls!
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[kattabelly]

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That's a great picture

My Rocks are gorgeous and they know it! Caught red-beaked stealing rose hips from the plot they really aren't allowed to go in and she still couldn't resist striking a pose for the camera.

Some of the others though...

 

[Mother of Chaos]

It’s really sort of a shame that their mouths have that permanent grimace. It makes them look always ranging from grumpy to homicidal!

Trudy’s a hatchery Rock, and some of her should-be black feathers are more of a deep charcoal brown. She’s definitely a character. She has really grown on me during the last few months though, as the younger two have been integrating. She’s always seemed several ants short of a picnic, but somehow she has weathered her unexpected molt well, much calmer than usual, and even laying.

Sometimes I have to remind myself to be open to surprise!

 

[kattabelly]

And then there's Donald

 

[Mother of Chaos]

That's a great picture

My Rocks are gorgeous and they know it! Caught red-beaked stealing rose hips from the plot they really aren't allowed to go in and she still couldn't resist striking a pose for the camera.
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Some of the others though...
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I keep going back to this one.

It reminds me of one of those “Soon” GIFs that were all over the place 5-6 years ago.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Poor Lil. All her lovely feathers, including her magnificent sail tail.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I’ll have to show how Sylph’s pic to show that feathers do come back again.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Meanwhile, Trudy is sporting one jaunty new tail feather:

 

[HiEverybirdy]

For very small areas like specific beds on other people's or the community plots, I think actually having them inside a moveable mini run is going to work better and be much less stressful for all of us than trying to constantly herd them back to where I want them. There's a few that I think would take to it happily enough. It would only be for short periods and I wouldn't leave the field but it would mean I shouldn't need to watch them quite as closely.

I can't really get anything done when they're loose on the field, other than during the short window very early or late when they stick close to the chicken plot.
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Poultry netting has worked great for this kind of thing.

I use it without electricity to create a suggestion for a foraging area, but it's easy to electrify with a solar charger on a portable stand. You can enclose a big or small area, and tie strings or prayer flags across it to help with raptor safety.

Without the net fence, the chickens will head straight into the bobcat-and-fox-filled forest, every time! With the net, usually only the most restless chickens (the Adventure Speckles) ignore the boundary. Clever Peck taught everybirdy this trick

The others follow the Speckles through the net if there's something they want on the other side, but that only happens a few times a year.

I put at least one moveable shelter out there, which they nap in but also use for safety (like when Stilton dove under there to divert a hawk's attention).

This lets me leave the main gate open for hours while doing chores. I put a dog in the yard to bark at predators and still might check on them every 5-10 minutes. If I don't have the bandwidth to keep an eye and ear out, they go back behind the main gate to the area with the electrified 6' fence.

 

[kattabelly]

Poultry netting has worked great for this kind of thing.

I've used it plenty before, and I'm using something similar now for the larger areas of field I rotate them through at the back of the plot (old fishing net on electric fence posts - left my poultry net with other people who've probably trashed it by now, and I can't buy the good stuff any more due to Brexit nonsense). I need something more solid for putting them on individual beds down at the end of the field that often has dog walkers passing through, though.