Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

There was food in the tray when I arrived.

I cleaned out the bedding and tool bin.

It stayed mostly dry.

I shoveled three large buckets full of accumulated poop and bedding out of the run. Lots more to go. The pools of mud have gone from in front of the coop and I'm down to a mixture of earth and small stones which were put down a few years ago.

Henry topping up before roosting.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Winter here is our best season.

My little-littles sampling some dropped starfruit.

The bigs corralled for some afternoon snack and to give the yard a rest till the eve. All under Spiders watchful eye.

 

[TropicalBabies]

There was food in the tray when I arrived.
View attachment 3372021
I cleaned out the bedding and tool bin.
View attachment 3372018
It stayed mostly dry.
View attachment 3372017View attachment 3372020
I shoveled three large buckets full of accumulated poop and bedding out of the run. Lots more to go. The pools of mud have gone from in front of the coop and I'm down to a mixture of earth and small stones which were put down a few years ago.
View attachment 3372019
Henry topping up before roosting.
View attachment 3372016
View attachment 3372015

Looking terrific ♡♡♡♡

 

[Solanacae]

Winter here is our best season.
View attachment 3372071
My little-littles sampling some dropped starfruit.View attachment 3372078The bigs corralled for some afternoon snack and to give the yard a rest till the eve. All under Spiders watchful eye.View attachment 3372084

I had to chuckle at Bettle peering in through the window.

 

[TropicalBabies]

I had to chuckle at Bettle peering in through the window.

Too funny yes? Think that is why he makes a good #2. He also gets all the young girls which Spider does not seem to mind. Just love flock dynamics

 

[no fly zone]

 

[pennyJo1960]

Winter egg laying came up in conversation. Anything that might make C look at the chickens and treat them as individuals rather than some means of making money I'll put effort into.
C doesn't really look at the chickens. Present a chicken to C and their eyes slide away and they are reluctant to touch them.

I wonder if C is packing wind?
Pay my tax better tomorrow, Have a lot done on the new coop.
Very mild day here

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

52 sunny 99% humidity feels like 49 rain 0%.

Have a great day!

 

[Marie2020]

I'm around, thanks, Marie. Just having a bit of a rough trot but nothing lasts forever.

Omg RIBH I'm ever so pleased to see you again ❤ . Get well soon lovely lady, you have really been missed

 

[Marie2020]

It's been a rough road.
I heard a story yesterday from someone who I consider to be level headed and reliable. The chickens were an issue long before I arrived.
Apparently C's plan has always been to try and make money by getting Ex Battery hens which at 18 months are still laying regulalry and selling their eggs.
As soon as they stopped laying or got sick, C would either leave them to die or kill them off if they didn't die quickly and replace them with more Ex Battery hens. I know many other people do much the same, but hopefully not by stuffing 26 chickens in a coop suitable for four. The person who told me this also told me that C refused to do anything effective about an infestaion of red mite in the coop a couple of years ago, saying all chickens have mites and their life is better than at the battery, refused to tend to some of the injuries the hens have sustained over the yearsand refused to listen to anybodies advice who knew more than C does.
This is now the third person who has told me similar stories.

C neither knows the first thing about chicken keeping nor is interested in learning. If through all this C decides, as seems to be the case, that walking a few yards from their house to the allotments to feed the chickens in the morning is too much trouble and buying the feed they require and keeping them to any reasonable interpretation of DEFRA's guidlines is too expensive, then there will be one less person in the world abusing the species.

There are just five left now and I can afford to feed, medicate and house them if C stops contributing. I could even arrange a system that would mean if C stopped feeding them altogether (I clean them out and inspect them now anyway, plus do the housing requirements) I could ensure that food was available in the mornings.

I and a couple of others believe that what has happened is C read the DEFRA guidlines I posted on the original whatsapp group while I was in it and has realised they are wide open to prosecution for some serious breaches of the guidlines. For example DEFRA will prosecute for the wrong disposal of dead chickens. They take that quite seriously. Throwing the dead bodies in the woods would not be taken lightly because of the risk of spreading disease. The keeping of medication records is also considered important. Apparently the recent attempts by C to put netting over the runs (this has been a DEFRA requirement for almost three years now as has the covering of ponds not contained in a covered run) was brought on by the link to the DEFRA guidlines I posted.

I dare not even attempt to make a comment. Except I feel really sick about that monster of a woman.
Full freaking stop.