Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fuzzi]

One and a half hours. Got lucky with the rain and frog marched them out on to the field. Got around three quarters of an hour out on the field.
View attachment 4294246View attachment 4294247View attachment 4294248View attachment 4294249View attachment 4294250View attachment 4294251
More rat blocking.
View attachment 4294252View attachment 4294253

Ooh, lovely dirt! (photo #4)

 

[Fluffy_Butt_Hutt]

Yours sound significantly more polite than mine. Once I had a piece of meat stolen from my sandwich.

Mine are this way too! The chickens only have interest in the food in my hand
Plenty of times have I rationed out some of my food, but they ignore it. Instead, my lap, back, arm I'm eating my food with, or any place they can perch and extend their deceptively short looking necks my way to try and steal a piece.
Additionally, they're picky! They usually won't try "new foods" until I take a bite of it in front of them and then hold it out for them. I have mounted skewers that I will stab food to peck at, but with "new foods" they often won't take a determined peck at it for hours without an introduction. New foods being food they haven't had for two months or more. Every time they don't recognize the occasional cucumber it's both frustrating and hilarious!

 

[BDutch]

Lost two more pullets in the past 24 hours. the last two silver Leghorns make it through whatever took the other three.

Sorry for the losses.
No intention for necropsy to be sure?

More rat blocking.

Maybe try a live rat trap? And if you ever catch her, try some 18th century punishments to deal with her. Like deporting her to Australia.

 

[BDutch]

but with "new foods" they often won't take a determined peck at it for hours without an introduction. New foods being food they haven't had for two months or more.

I don’t recognise this. My chickens don’t forget what is eatable that quickly.

 

[MaryJanet]

Sorry for the losses.
No intention for necropsy to be sure?

Maybe try a live rat trap? And if you ever catch her, try some 18th century punishments to deal with her. Like deporting her to Australia.

We have enough rats already!

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

No intention for necropsy to be sure?

Now that I am home to observe I can see the symptoms. They are mild but I’m sure combined with the cold and their age it’s just too much. If that last sickly Maran dies I might do a little investigating. It would be easier than working with a smaller bird.

 

[ksbkeys]

One and a half hours. Got lucky with the rain and frog marched them out on to the field. Got around three quarters of an hour out on the field.
View attachment 4294246View attachment 4294247View attachment 4294248View attachment 4294249View attachment 4294250View attachment 4294251
More rat blocking.
View attachment 4294252View attachment 4294253

Your rat problem brings to mind a funny chapter in my chicken keeping history. One year, I noticed several chipmunks parading past all 12 chickens, up the ramp and into the coop. A minute later, each would come out, cheeks bulging with chicken feed. They are cute, but this was getting costly. (I was a little surprised the chickens didn't grab them as they will grab and run with a toad.) I set up a small Hava Hart trap. Someone told me, "Oh they will just come back." Soon I had a chipmunk, I used a paintbrush and put a small red dot of fingernail polish on its head through the cage wire, then walked half a mile away into the woods and released it. I figured I had 3 to 5 chipmunks to catch in total. THIRTY FIVE chipmunks later, all released with a red dot and not one ever came back. Problem solved! I chuckle when I walk in the woods in the area I released them knowing every chipmunk I see is likely a descendant of one of my relocated coop raiders.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

One more cold weekend here before a glorious thaw next week It's been an epically unpleasant stretch of frigidness. We don't usually have this much winter.

The chickens have been great sports, but I do believe the allotment chickens have been foraging more in the past 2 weeks than these chickens (same with the humans because roads were a sheet of ice for a solid week).

On the rare moments they're out, I've joined with the camera. The snow may have given us Shining-level cabin fever and perpetually cold toes, but it's beautiful.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

One and a half hours. Got lucky with the rain and frog marched them out on to the field. Got around three quarters of an hour out on the field.
View attachment 4294246View attachment 4294247View attachment 4294248View attachment 4294249View attachment 4294250View attachment 4294251
More rat blocking.
View attachment 4294252View attachment 4294253

The water dish looks like just what you needed. Are you happy with your innovation?