Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fluffycrow]

What does this mean? It's late at night, and acronyms don't like me...(pretty sure it's an acronym, can't be bothered to look into it more)

 

[TropicalChickies]

It seems very few people trust a hen to keep herself adequately fed during brooding.

I let broody hens sit for three weeks then I start putting them on the roost at night. Sitting hens don't need as much food because they're not doing as much. One huge meal a day, a poop, a dust bath, a huge drink, and all's good.

I know of one person whose hen died through a failure of self-care during brooding but that cause of death was assumed rather than confirmed. I know of dozens of hens who sit through brooding without any bad outcomes.

I totally agree. My problem isn't that I don't want the hen to sit through brooding. It's that my rooster Lucio absolutely loses his mind when all or most of the hens are broody at the same time. Fact is, my flock needs more hens... There's only five mature hens and one pullet between Lucio and junior cockerel Toby -- so if three hens are broody (Iike right now), it's a. Too hard on the non broodies to get mounted all the time and b. Lucio gets frustrated when he doesn't have enough hens to guard and herd around and be the boss of and becomes pretty insufferable towards the Food Lady (me).
In hatches so far this year, cockerels have numbered pullets 8 to 2. My neighbors call our farm "La Finca de Gallos Locos" because so many roosters hatch here

This handsome happy fella is a very different rooster when all his ladies are broody.

 

[BDutch]

Indeed. You can add all of mine to that tally too.

Of course sick birds often retire to a nest box, where, if they're hens, it is easily assumed they've gone broody instead of that they're ill.

Astonishing isn't it? As if chickens can't survive or reproduce without human intervention

Most people who keep backyard chickens don’t or can’t keep them in a natural situation like you have Perris.
Many can’t let their chickens free range because of predators, can’t have roosters because of neighbours, etc.

Imho, there is nothing wrong with birth control. We humans do so too for very good reasons.

Reasons for chicken birth control are often the coop and run size. They all have a max capacity. Or we don’t want to spend more money and receive more eggs than we can eat. Or we just don’t want to clean a load of poop. Or…

If my chickens get broody, I break their broodiness asap unless I have room for more chickens and can buy hatching eggs to give them. I don’t see the benefits of letting a broody sit for three weeks. Cons:
- It’s not healthy for the hen to sit the whole day, for many days,
- they stop laying eggs for quite a period, - there is a higher risk of parasites on the nestbox.

 

[Shadrach]

What does this mean? It's late at night, and acronyms don't like me...(pretty sure it's an acronym, can't be bothered to look into it more)

Should have read ahead. Sorry.

 

[fluffycrow]

Should have read ahead. Sorry.

Ah, thanks! Like I said, hard day, plus me and acronyms have a very strained relationship

 

[TropicalChickies]

SHRA.

And I'm giving the specific example of the equatorial zone.

 

[BDutch]

I don't think you are taking into account location. Depending on where one is on the planet makes a major difference to both moulting and laying cycles.

Very true.

SHRA.

I asked Google, because I didn’t read ahead.
Google said: Seismic Hazard and Risk Analysis (SHRA)

Groninger gulls:

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

I feel your pain. Out of my 26 pullets, that I got to balance things out for my 3 cockerels.. 1 is definitely a cockerel and I suspect another. :-( This has delayed our full integration and I feel like 4-5 cockerels with 33 pullets is still going to be out of balance and result in more battles.

The New Obvious cockerel is a confident young lad at 18 weeks old. So far, he is calm, but I fear that we are just weeks away from chaos. Goldie seems to be wooing some of the girls away from Blue and poor Spud is still Georgie-Porgy, he gets anywhere near the girls and they squeal and run away. I am considering options on how best to deal with it. :-(

The struggle is real. Yours makes mine seem nill! Good luck, keep trying your best! You got this

 

[My Very First 6 Chickens]

Hi folks, I could use a little help to try and understand some chicken behavior that seems a little strange to me. If anyone has a similar story to relate, I'd love to hear it.

1. I have a completely free range keep and two coops.
--Senior male Lucio roosts in one with 2 junior hens and 2 senior hens (and two chicks). Another cockerel was roosting there too but I rehomed him.
--Junior male Tobias (5 mos old) was roosting in the second coop with his brother Segundo and his sister Prima. A junior hen named Dusty and her two chicks are also using this coop but nesting on the floor.

One week ago, I removed and moved Tobias' brother Segundo to a neighbors new keep up the road. I did it at night, but Tobias saw me do it.

Tobias stayed roosting in his coop with his brother gone for 3 nights.

2 nights ago, he saw me moving a large basket I used to take Segundo out. He totally lost his mind, ran away to the senior coop where he tried to claim a spot on the roost. His sister Prima ran after him. I could hear the seniors throwing them out, a lot of squawking and tussling. It was getting dark so I went over, caught them both and put them in their own coop.

The next night, Tobias went back to the senior coop. This time they let him in. Prima went over there too, but I think she got pecked, so she came back to her own coop and stayed with Dusty and her chicks.

Last night, Tobias went to the senior coop and Prima was outside the junior coop getting ready to go inside and Tobias came over and escorted her to the senior coop. They both spent the night there.

I checked on them at dusk and they were crammed into a the far corner, obviously the lowest in the order.

What the heck is going on here? Why on earth would Tobias leave his coop where he's been roosting for 3 months and can be lord and master to try to join the senior coop where he would be the low man? And why take Prima with him?

I also was serving breakfast to the juniors early by their coop so they could eat in peace and get enough food. Now they have to be on the outskirts of the senior group at breakfast and go back for "leftovers."

Did Tobias get scared I was going to take him away? Or does he just want access to more females --even if he has to be junior to the senior male Lucio?

It just doesn't make sense to me that Tobias would choose to be low man in a senior tribe when he was set up to have his own tribe? He was already mating with Dusty and Prima, the two females in the junior coop.

(I'm bemoaning this to my dear partner and he's like, "Maybe because they're chickens...)

Does anyone have a clue why they would leave their plushy arrangement to be outskirters?

View attachment 3650266
Tobias tidbiting for Prima

View attachment 3650272
Standing guard for Prima and junior hen Frida.

At times like this, take a deep breath and be greatful if everyone is healthy! Sometimes these gals have strange behaviors that make me throw my hands up! good luck

 

[Iluveggers]

Thanks for sharing the resource and the thread. But...hmmm, I don't think the two states would be biologically equivalent.

A hen who only lays 2 -3x times per week but does not go broody would lay about 120 - 140 eggs in a year. Most people would probably consider that "poor" by today's standards.

My broody prone hens lay 5-6x per week. For the past several months, they've been laying as many as 12-15 eggs in a row, before taking a day or two off, then laying another 12 to 15 eggs, then going broody. Then it takes them at least 3 weeks to start up again. At this rate they are laying about 26 eggs per month, but only for 7-8 months out of the year. Still, that's 220 eggs -- not bad, and more than the hen who lays 2-3 times per week all year. The rest of the year the broody prone hens are either acting broody or not laying after going broody. (If they actually hatch a clutch, that's more time off of course).

It just doesn't seem that laying a couple eggs per week over a long stretch of time versus laying a lot of eggs in concentrated bursts and taking longer breaks would be biologically the same. It's kind of like comparing a long distance runner to a sprinter.

I don't count the number of eggs each hen lays. I have a rough idea but nothing that counts as meaningful data.
Fret had a mini molt after the sit before last but it was a very minor affair. She's not moulting now, but she's still mothering the chicks.

My flock of “older” ladies are about 17 months old (the young ones are only 4 months…lucky the ordered pullets plus 3 hatchlings from my broody ended up being all pullets so they all got to stay!)

I have an app that keeps track of laying, and will have much more to weigh in on with this topic in the years to come. My two notorious broodys barely molted, one resumed laying and the other just stopped about a week ago. Both lay about 4 eggs per week in the summer. My Sussex is molting the hardest, she lays about 5 eggs/week and had been broody twice but broke in one night. My olive egger (part Welsummer), and pure Welsummer are molting but not heavy. Welsummer lays an egg almost every day (until the molt), and olive egger was about 5 per week before molting. Neither has been broody. The Orpington just started her molt, has been broody once but broke in just a few days. The Easter Egger must be mixed with leghorn…she is the most consistent layer, has barely lost a feather, and is still giving me an egg almost every day with daylight between 11-12 hours.

I did not go with any production breeds, but my 4 girls who have not gone broody were from online hatcheries and the 4 broody girls were from a local small hatchery.

The new group is from two online hatcheries, minus the 3 barnyard mix Easter Eggers whose eggs came from the family farm and were hatched by one of the broodys. Will be interesting to see this through their lives. I prefer less eggs and a longer life…we shall see…

At max capacity unless I decide to utilize the small coop and add some bantams next year. I really wish I could have a rooster. Town says no. Husband says after my son graduates we can look for something somewhere that allows roosters (and maybe goats). Just need some patience until then.