Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

As someone who also has 'free' chickens and multiple roos, I think I'm relatively well placed to answer your questions. Of course what happens here is not necessarily applicable there, but it might help to know how it works here

1. Segundo the mascot cockerel

What do you all think? Does he just want more special attention

Yes; he's just a baby and you have shown yourself to be a friend. He'll grow out of his crush on you.

2. Lucio and his ladies

if a rooster starts mating a pullet, is this a lifetime commitment

Not in my experience. Neither hens nor roos make exclusive and permanent partnerships here.

he's barely 10 months old himself

so he's just a teenager - stress comes with the age and hormones as well as the responsibilities, and it'll all ease with time and experience.

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

the older ones are giving them a hard time, not letting them get enough to eat.

I solve this 2 ways; 1. have multiple bowls a few feet apart that all go down at the same time. No one bird can dominate more than one bowl at a time, and anyone chased off can go to another bowl.
2. check after 30 minutes; the birds that have eaten enough will typically wander off to rest and digest after 10-15 minutes. The lower order birds that were too timid to eat all they wanted before will then get to eat in peace. Top up the bowls if necessary.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

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!

Ours love the drips, too. From leaves, hardware cloth, the fence, anything. Any time they find water or food in a novel location, it's exciting.

Speaking of rain and instincts, yesterday morning I got stuck in a rainstorm with them. I knew rain was coming but was moving half-speed thanks to a 3-day Canadian-smoke headache. While cleaning the last coop, I heard the telltale airplane sound that meant rain was charging down the mountain at us, grabbed my coffee, and ducked into the run with the best seats for humans, where Stilton's crew lives.

They're a cuddly bunch, and during the countless downpours I've weathered there, there's usually a line to hop on my lap. When I realized I was drinking my coffee alone, I bent down to peer under the coop; 8x6' of the coop sit over the run with < 18" of clearance. The chickens LOVE napping in that shaded space.

Which is what they were doing: napping in the most interesting configuration. All but one hen were in a horseshoe facing Stilton, standing but totally crashed out with eyes closed and tails down. Stilton was drowsy but eyes open and facing the door to the run.

The other hen, Unquestioned Most Esteemed Head Hen Brahma Donna, was standing to the side closest the run door, facing the door as well and completely awake. On sentry duty, I'm guessing?

Didn't get a picture, so I made a diagram. As I said, they're usually on my lap during storms, or eating, preening, hanging out, but rain this month has been so torrential that they may have decided it was best to simply assemble in a predator-smart way and hibernate. It was neat to see.

 

[LTAY1946]

I've all but given up on finding a most loved pullet. This is the 4th day she has been missing. She has roosted on the porch for months with no problems. She had a wart on a toe and that was treated and all was well. She always greeted me when I would venture out expecting some conversation. I could pick her up and hold her while we could chat a bit. She literally would sing to me while I held her. I do hope she turns up but my gut tells me she is gone.

 

[TropicalChickies]

As someone who also has 'free' chickens and multiple roos, I think I'm relatively well placed to answer your questions. Of course what happens here is not necessarily applicable there, but it might help to know how it works here


Yes; he's just a baby and you have shown yourself to be a friend. He'll grow out of his crush on you.


Not in my experience. Neither hens nor roos make exclusive and permanent partnerships here.

so he's just a teenager - stress comes with the age and hormones as well as the responsibilities, and it'll all ease with time and experience.



I solve this 2 ways; 1. have multiple bowls a few feet apart that all go down at the same time. No one bird can dominate more than one bowl at a time, and anyone chased off can go to another bowl.
2. check after 30 minutes; the birds that have eaten enough will typically wander off to rest and digest after 10-15 minutes. The lower order birds that were too timid to eat all they wanted before will then get to eat in peace. Top up the bowls if necessary.

Thanks again for the helpful reply @Perris. I do use multiple food plates, but the little ones are getting chased from all of them. I'll try your suggestion to return later and feed the still hungry stragglers.

 

[Shadrach]

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?

Poor chap. He's a very junior male having a hard time of it. I've had a few like that. As Perris notes he'll grow out of it assuming he grows up and attracts some hens at some point.
This is like Treacle. Even after he "discovered" hens he stayed friendly. Fortunately his boot fetish came to a halt. He and his boot fetish are quite well known on some threads here on BYC. It seems problems arise when people think the herding shuffle and the hello darling, here I am, charge, has hostile intent and the poor cockerel gets booted, or otherwise rejected.

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?

Slightly different experience to Perris's but near enough to be explained by differing group make up and keeping circumstances.
Life time partnerships do happen. I've seen a few. Harold and Bluespot stayed together until Harold died. Harold did mate with and live with other hens. I it seemed to me that this went on with Bluespots approval. Bluespot didn't mate with other roosters.
Same for Ruffles with Ruffles and Oswald until Oswald died and then the same with Cillin and quite a few more couples.
Basically the rooster has a harem. Hens may join and leave but the roosters favourite hens tend to stick with him, whike the more junior hens are more likely to be attracted by another rooster with less or no hens.
On my uncles farm these rooster and small harem (3 to 4 hens) tended to remain fairly static unless a rooster got killed. In such cases the hens either joined another tribe or lived without a rooster until a suitable cockerel made acceptable advances.
I would expect in a larger tribe/group the who mates with who to be more fluid. he senior rooster not being overly concerend with other tribe or group members mating with his hens except perhaps his favourites.
Here's a not particularly enlightening study as to why this may be.

https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/28/3/760/3057961

3. Separating for feeding and less stress

Perris's reply is much as I would write. Lots of feed stations to help ensure the juniors get adequately fed. I used to police feeding times because I couldn't leave feed down. One dish per three chickens seemed to work. Usually the cockerels learn't to feed last and I have a few pictures of cockerels doing exactly this.

 

[MaryJanet]

Well... His boot fetish was ... Unexpected. And so funny bless him.

 

[Little Tala Bug]

As someone who also has 'free' chickens and multiple roos, I think I'm relatively well placed to answer your questions. Of course what happens here is not necessarily applicable there, but it might help to know how it works here


Yes; he's just a baby and you have shown yourself to be a friend. He'll grow out of his crush on you.


Not in my experience. Neither hens nor roos make exclusive and permanent partnerships here.

so he's just a teenager - stress comes with the age and hormones as well as the responsibilities, and it'll all ease with time and experience.



I solve this 2 ways; 1. have multiple bowls a few feet apart that all go down at the same time. No one bird can dominate more than one bowl at a time, and anyone chased off can go to another bowl.
2. check after 30 minutes; the birds that have eaten enough will typically wander off to rest and digest after 10-15 minutes. The lower order birds that were too timid to eat all they wanted before will then get to eat in peace. Top up the bowls if necessary.

I also have birds of multiple ages who are free to go wherever they want and I second Perris's response.

As far as feeding goes, we use 4 feed bowls for our 26 chickens (11 of which are seven-week-old babies and 5 of which are POL pullets). When I let the chickens out in the morn, I let the 16 juveniles, momma hen, and our deposed rooster out of their coops first and put their bowls down so they can eat their fill in peace. Then I let the mature flock and head rooster out and put down 2 bowls at once about 10 feet apart so the lower hens in their ranks can get enough. When the main flock is done eating, the pullets usually go over to pick at their scraps if they have left any.

In the afternoon I do it in reverse... put the main flock bowls down to distract them near their coop, and then walk up to the juvenile coops and put down their bowls. With scratch and snacks I throw several handfuls scattered wide as I walk, so all the chickens can spread out and take their time looking for treats. Babies get snacks when the main flock is distracted so we don't have any violence or arguments with momma hen and the other bigs. It's high summer and I leave my yard to go to meadow, so that helps a lot since the chickens don't have a good line of sight to each others' feeding areas.

Sometimes I have to feed the low ranked rooster (William) separately from everyone because he gets run off from the main flock. He refuses to eat until the girls have had their fill, so that leaves him open to attack by the main rooster (Johnny) before he can get anything. William has a special fenced off area in my personal garden that he can fly into if he is feeling harassed, and even has a perch in the house for when the weather is awful and he gets run out the favourite shelter spots. He is basically tame now as a result.

 

[Little Tala Bug]

I've all but given up on finding a most loved pullet. This is the 4th day she has been missing. She has roosted on the porch for months with no problems. She had a wart on a toe and that was treated and all was well. She always greeted me when I would venture out expecting some conversation. I could pick her up and hold her while we could chat a bit. She literally would sing to me while I held her. I do hope she turns up but my gut tells me she is gone.

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that =(

Is she too young for it to be a secret nest scenario?

 

[Shadrach]

As a general point.
Chickens like stability much the same as humans do. Left to their own devices with sufficient housing and resources they will arrange to get along as best as the circumstances permit. If one is constantly adding and subtracting from the population it's rather like have a complete strange move into your house, or having death taking established members; it's stressfull and chickens do not like stress.
Most free range and daytime ranging chicken keepers I know close their flock and make additions through having hens sit and hatch. Occasionally new blood is needed and this is very carefully managed.

 

[LTAY1946]

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that =(

Is she too young for it to be a secret nest scenario?

No that is my only holdout for any hope.