Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Molpet]

You know that they have tricked you, you water the woodpile, more bugs hang out there and they feast... I think it is a plot!

Aren't we all well trained

 

[Nomadicus]

I was ahead of them tonight. Tonight it was a White Jersey Giant 6 month old rooster that got his fat rear in big trouble. He wandered down to the CornishxRock hens coop and slipped in when I went in to fill the water fountain for the night and tried to hitch a ride on the back of an 18 lb or so pullet and she threw him off like a rag doll then turned around and chased him down and pulled big wad of those pearly white feathers out of his hind side. He's gonna have nightmares over that one. I got my laugh for the day at his expense.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

Temperature is in the 70s.

Have a great day!

 

[Nomadicus]

Temperature is 77° and rising fast. I better get chores done fast and back into my coop. I hear 20 or more roosters calling up the sun now or are they trying to sweet talk the pullets?

 

[Shadrach]

Mine all do that. When it is raining they all line up under the hardware cloth to catch the drips.
Same with snow.
It must taste better when dripping off wire!

I wonder if it's behaviour established from their ancestors who would have caught drops of water from leaves.

 

[RoyalChick]

I wonder if it's behaviour established from their ancestors who would have caught drops of water from leaves.

Now that is an interesting thought.
Hard to prove, but sufficiently romantic that I am running with that idea.

 

[Shadrach]

Now that is an interesting thought.
Hard to prove, but sufficiently romantic that I am running with that idea.

Well, the jungle doesn't get much in the way of plasic nipple feed waterers or puddles and what large areas of water there may be are likely to be used by predators. Lots of birds get their water from leaves.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I wonder if it's behaviour established from their ancestors who would have caught drops of water from leaves.

That's what I was thinking. In a humid jungle, that's how most water reaches the ground. The tree canopy catches most of the rainfall, and the droplets filter their way down more gradually.

I see the chickens drinking water off the leaves here often.

 

[Perris]

I see the chickens drinking water off the leaves here often.

here too, particularly from the alchemilla mollis (lady's mantle) on the terrace; the shape of its leaves are particularly conducive to it

 

[TropicalChickies]

Hi folks,

I have a few questions about behaviors and I'd rather ask here than in the threads where breed-obsession and rooster-killing seem to prevail.

1. Segundo the mascot cockerel

Since I took Segundo in (for just a few hours!) the other day to treat him for scuffle wounds after his fight with Tobias, now he follows me everywhere. He waits outside the kitchen door, talking to me in his croaking little voice. He does interact with his siblings, but when I'm around, he's around. I talk to him nicely, but I'm not picking him up or petting him. He's like glue on my shoe. So according to the prevailing thought on BYC, he is not "friendly", he is "bold" and "disrespectful." His will probably turn out to be aggressive to people, dogs, cats, unicorns, and especially innocent babies.

What do you all think? Does he just want more special attention or is this 11 week old baby secretly plotting like Stewie on Family Guy to murder me?

2. Lucio and his ladies

So, this might be a dumb question, so please pardon me if it is -- but if a rooster starts mating a pullet, is this a lifetime commitment, or at some point can she leave his tribe to join another?

Yesterday, Lucio mated Frida, the timid 6 mo old pullet for the first time. She's showing signs of coming in to lay, so he's just doing the propogate his genes thing. In one way, this is good -- she's been such an outlier, it's hard to give her enough feed, and this will help her status. Lucio's attitude towards Frida has gone from "to hell with you" to "I'm here to protect you" in one day, which is interesting to observe.

But for Lucio, now he is responsible for 5 females -- two hens and three pullets and I can tell he's on edge.

He's doing well overall, I think, especially since he didn't have a father, only older hens, to school him. But he's barely 10 months old himself.

^This is Lucio's posture most of the time. It probably doesn't help that the hens are laying in two, sometimes three, different spots and he's getting pulled this way and that.

I'm hoping this is a temporary situation (aren't they all?) and at least one of the pullets he's mating will ally with a junior rooster in time... Can that even happen?

Is there anything I can do to ease Lucio's growing pains? Probably not, but he's got a lot on his plate for such a youngun' in the jungle.

3. Separating for feeding and less stress

Getting everyone in this bigger group (11 chickens, all mixed ages and sexes) fed is getting difficult. This might not seem like a lot of birds, but bear in mind I have a totally open, fenceless, run-less scenario here. So the usual situation is the chickens freely exit their sleeping quarters at 6am and wander around where they know I'll be (the kitchen building) until I come out with their food. They walk with me to the feeding area about 50 meters away where I distribute their food.

Up until now, this has been fine. The older chickens tolerated the little ones, but now that they are getting bigger, and eating more, the older ones are giving them a hard time, not letting them get enough to eat. Frida, also, struggles, but is getting braver now that she's coming into lay.

Interestingly, Solo, the big white chick who looks like Lucio, is much more tolerated than the other 3 juveniles, Prima, Toby, and Segundo. I can see Solo potentially becoming Lucio's junior in the tribe.

The past few days have been chaotic trying to feed everyone. Lucio is trying to herd everyone over to the feeding spot, but the little ones in particular are straggling or out of line. I'm waiting for them, the pullets are getting under my feet, and Lucio is losing his patience. Yesterday he jumped at my legs from behind (first time ever). I promptly turned and admonished him, backed him off, and then tossed some feed down in front of him to let him "find it". But I can see the overall disorganization and size of the group is getting to him.

Relative to most keeping circumstances, I think these chickens have a great deal of freedom. But I'm thinking I need to make it easier for everyone to eat in a way that is less chaos and they actually get enough food.

So last night, I moved those 3 juveniles to the new coop, which I made so it can actually be closed with plastic mesh. The space is large, 3m x 4m x3m, with a sand floor. I fed them there early this morning, then circled around to the feeding spot and called the other chickens when I got there. Let Lucio have his peck, and they ate in peace.

I went over to the other coop and let the 3 juveniles out to peck and raid the compost. Everyone got enough to eat and finally there was some tranquility.

^ that's Lucio in the back, with an eye on everyone, but finally looking less puffed up and more relaxed

I was hoping to leave the second coop option more open and just let whomever wanted to use it, use it. But now it seems like intervention I took is helpful for everyone.

I guess my question here is more philosophical. A "When does so much freedom become its own burden?" kind of question...

Chickens are deep, man.