Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

Hi folks,

A frizzy Asiatic-looking all black pullet (8 mos) just joined my jungle tribe and I'm a bit curious as to what breed(s) she might be.

View attachment 3479832
^This is Dusty. Her plumage is completely black with a green/blue beetle sheen. Her feet are blue-black as well.

(I posted over in the "What Breed or Gender" forum, but given the circumstances of my flock and the many people I see on this thread with an interest in keeping chickens as chickens (as creatures of nature), I thought some folks here might have interesting input.

A little background on my chooks: We live in a very rural area of Ecuador, South America. Most people here (including us) farm sugar cane, bananas, cocoa beans and other "tropical crops." The climate is subtropical rainforest and the landscape a mix of humid jungle and farmed land. Practically everyone here keeps chickens, and while the gamecock keepers are particular about the breeding stock, no one else is, so all of the farmyard chickens running around the little villages are mixes of various domesticated breeds and interesting landrace varieties. The people call the mixtures "criollas" -- same thing people of mixed indigenous and Spanish descent are called.

The locals here call Dusty a "Chirapa" -- an indigenous Kichwa word for "tatters" or a "Rizada" -- meaning "frizzy" in Spanish.


View attachment 3479835
At home in the jungle.


For example, here's another one of Dusty with her pal Rusty. Rusty looks a lot like a Rhode Island Red, but she's very petite. Her eggs are cream colored with a bluish tint. Her feet are bluish as well.
View attachment 3479836

I looked up all the breeds of black chickens and Dusty looks most like a Cochin, but she's also very petite, so maybe a bantam Cochin? They are eating very well in our farm, fed rations 2x a day and free roam all day for forage, so I suspect they will fill out.

So I'm asking just out of curiosity -- I'm pretty certain Dusty isn't a "pure" anything, but does anyone want to guess her possible origins?

View attachment 3479837
Anyway, I think she's the most adorable ugly little hen ever.

Beautiful chickens. But your red is definitely not a bantam RIR.

They do exist in small size. I have a bantam RIR with features according to the standard single comb bantam RiR. They were established in England and not on Rhode Island like the big ones. Katrientje comes from a breeding program of someone who participates in shows.

Close up.

Here she stands next to a few smaller bantams (Dutch).

Roosting with her lookalike sister who went missing last year.

 

[janiedoe]

Beautiful chickens. But your red is definitely not a bantam RIR.

They do exist in small size. I have a bantam RIR with features according to the standard single comb bantam RiR. They were established in England and not on Rhode Island like the big ones. Katrientje comes from a breeding program of someone who participates in shows.
View attachment 3480047
Close up.

View attachment 3480039
Here she stands next to a few smaller bantams (Dutch).


View attachment 3480048
Roosting with her lookalike sister who went missing last year.

How do you find her personality in comparison to the standard size RIR?
Just curious. I had some standard rhode island hens, in the past, who didn't get along well with my more gentle hens.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good morning X Batts Drank my coffee. Smudge is not heard this morning.
I had a problem with reds here kicking the shavings from the boxes.
So DH said Smudge was clucking headed out to see if he is alright.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Beautiful chickens. But your red is definitely not a bantam RIR.

They do exist in small size. I have a bantam RIR with features according to the standard single comb bantam RiR. They were established in England and not on Rhode Island like the big ones. Katrientje comes from a breeding program of someone who participates in shows.
View attachment 3480047
Close up.

View attachment 3480039
Here she stands next to a few smaller bantams (Dutch).


View attachment 3480048
Roosting with her lookalike sister who went missing last year.

Lovely hens! What a beautiful mahogany color. Well, I suppose Rusty is just a "criolla" -- a mix of everything and everybody clucking around the village. As long as they are healthy and happy, I'm not super concerned with the breed or breeds, just more curious because I know production breeds don't live as long and it would be nice to know what to expect. Or maybe not. At any rate, I have no plans to enter them in any chicken pageants. It's enough to keep the mud off their feet...

 

[no fly zone]

Hi folks,

A frizzy Asiatic-looking all black pullet (8 mos) just joined my jungle tribe and I'm a bit curious as to what breed(s) she might be.

View attachment 3479832
^This is Dusty. Her plumage is completely black with a green/blue beetle sheen. Her feet are blue-black as well.

(I posted over in the "What Breed or Gender" forum, but given the circumstances of my flock and the many people I see on this thread with an interest in keeping chickens as chickens (as creatures of nature), I thought some folks here might have interesting input.

A little background on my chooks: We live in a very rural area of Ecuador, South America. Most people here (including us) farm sugar cane, bananas, cocoa beans and other "tropical crops." The climate is subtropical rainforest and the landscape a mix of humid jungle and farmed land. Practically everyone here keeps chickens, and while the gamecock keepers are particular about the breeding stock, no one else is, so all of the farmyard chickens running around the little villages are mixes of various domesticated breeds and interesting landrace varieties. The people call the mixtures "criollas" -- same thing people of mixed indigenous and Spanish descent are called.

The locals here call Dusty a "Chirapa" -- an indigenous Kichwa word for "tatters" or a "Rizada" -- meaning "frizzy" in Spanish.


View attachment 3479835
At home in the jungle.


For example, here's another one of Dusty with her pal Rusty. Rusty looks a lot like a Rhode Island Red, but she's very petite. Her eggs are cream colored with a bluish tint. Her feet are bluish as well.
View attachment 3479836

I looked up all the breeds of black chickens and Dusty looks most like a Cochin, but she's also very petite, so maybe a bantam Cochin? They are eating very well in our farm, fed rations 2x a day and free roam all day for forage, so I suspect they will fill out.

So I'm asking just out of curiosity -- I'm pretty certain Dusty isn't a "pure" anything, but does anyone want to guess her possible origins?

View attachment 3479837
Anyway, I think she's the most adorable ugly little hen ever.

Chippy is a frizzle bantam cochin

 

[TropicalChickies]

Chippy is a frizzle bantam cochinView attachment 3480115

Adorable! Dusty looks quite similar except she doesn't have feathers down her legs.

 

[Shadrach]

In my experience, when a bird who was nice turns nasty, they're lashing out because they are feeling rubbish and are seriously ill, even if nothing is yet showing.

This makes sense to me. Doris got very cranky before he died last summer. I'm pretty sure he had, had a heat stroke. He started pecking on the little chicks, which he had never done before. I moved him into a pen with his favorite girls so he wouldn't get beat up, for bullying.

Interesting. Not something I've put much thought into. Seems reasonable though.

 

[Shadrach]

Hi folks,

A frizzy Asiatic-looking all black pullet (8 mos) just joined my jungle tribe and I'm a bit curious as to what breed(s) she might be.

View attachment 3479832
^This is Dusty. Her plumage is completely black with a green/blue beetle sheen. Her feet are blue-black as well.

(I posted over in the "What Breed or Gender" forum, but given the circumstances of my flock and the many people I see on this thread with an interest in keeping chickens as chickens (as creatures of nature), I thought some folks here might have interesting input.

A little background on my chooks: We live in a very rural area of Ecuador, South America. Most people here (including us) farm sugar cane, bananas, cocoa beans and other "tropical crops." The climate is subtropical rainforest and the landscape a mix of humid jungle and farmed land. Practically everyone here keeps chickens, and while the gamecock keepers are particular about the breeding stock, no one else is, so all of the farmyard chickens running around the little villages are mixes of various domesticated breeds and interesting landrace varieties. The people call the mixtures "criollas" -- same thing people of mixed indigenous and Spanish descent are called.

The locals here call Dusty a "Chirapa" -- an indigenous Kichwa word for "tatters" or a "Rizada" -- meaning "frizzy" in Spanish.


View attachment 3479835
At home in the jungle.


For example, here's another one of Dusty with her pal Rusty. Rusty looks a lot like a Rhode Island Red, but she's very petite. Her eggs are cream colored with a bluish tint. Her feet are bluish as well.
View attachment 3479836

I looked up all the breeds of black chickens and Dusty looks most like a Cochin, but she's also very petite, so maybe a bantam Cochin? They are eating very well in our farm, fed rations 2x a day and free roam all day for forage, so I suspect they will fill out.

So I'm asking just out of curiosity -- I'm pretty certain Dusty isn't a "pure" anything, but does anyone want to guess her possible origins?

View attachment 3479837
Anyway, I think she's the most adorable ugly little hen ever.

I'm hopeless about most breeds. I guess I haven't looked at enough pictures.
The breeds I do know something about don't feature much on BYC and often what I do see represented as a breed are not what I have seen of that breed.

 

[Shadrach]

nice read - thanks for the link - though Shad is going to roll eyes at the first line!

It occured to me a long time ago that my perception of chickens isn't quite compatible with the cute and cuddly view.
I blame my uncle who was at pains to point out what savage bunch his free rangers were. It was true. There was nothing cute and cuddly about them.

Something went horribly wrong around Darwins time when the various species got classified as prey or predator and humans quitely slipped themselves into the predator group and chickens got labled as prey animals.

In more recent times it has been suggested that chickens are closely related to the dinosaurs, perhaps the closest living creature to dinasours. One would be hard pressed to make a case for dinosaurs being a prey animal.
Not that our species wants to face up to the fact but strip a human naked and put them in the jungle and they start looking like a prey animal to a lot of hungry creatures. The human without tools would be hard pressed to fight off a large street tabby cat.

When was the last time anyone tried catching a free range chicken that didn't want to be caught. I'm sure I still have scars from launching myself into the undergrowth in the vain hope that I might just be lucky and catch the recalcitrant bird.

 

[janiedoe]

Interesting. Not something I've put much thought into. Seems reasonable though.

Well, it's true of my old husband for a fact. Of course, he probably thinks his old wife is getting cranky too.