Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[L-plate chicken mum]

I was talking about berrie fruits from bushes and trees we don’t eatsuch as elderberry and hawthorn.

I never gave pieces of citrus peel to eat. Citrus fruits are no problem. But when I solit an old orange or mandarin they leave the (half) peel for me to discard it.
Btw, the text in the spoiler was translated from a Dutch explainer site for teenagers.

My chickens eat apple seeds quite often. I never had problems with apples seeds from pears, grapes etc. at all.

P.s. my chickens don’t eat from the ivy. And I have no idea what Buckthorn is. Its probably not common in Europe. The very poisonous ivy doesn’t grow here either.

There are 3 species of Buckthorn native to Europe including the UK
Alder Buckthorn (Frangula alnus) which prefers damper more peaty soils & is not thorny
Purging Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathertica) prefers chaky soils & is thorny
Both the above are in the same family, have black berries & have been used medicinally but can have rather unfortunate results!
Sea Buckthorn is the thorny coastal one that likes full sun, has narrow, silvery leaves & orange berries which are full of vitamins & apparently can be used to make a rather good jelly

 

[Molpet]

Someone needs to be invited to Thanksgiving dinner. They are eating me out of house and home

 

[fluffycrow]

Someone needs to be invited to Thanksgiving dinner. They are eating me out of house and home View attachment 3685862

Pretty view to wake up to. Nice birds

 

[Sequel]

Someone needs to be invited to Thanksgiving dinner. They are eating me out of house and home View attachment 3685862

What a beautiful scene!!!

 

[townchicks]

My chickens have all loved privet berries. I have always given the apple cores to my dogs, who love them.Nevada says " I like apple cores too"

 

[fuzzi]

Rooster (cockerel) observation I would like to share.

Background: the two boys are about 9 months old, from the same hatching, raised by a brooder, no broody hen. The other cockerels in the hatch were rehomed a few months ago, so it's just been the two, plus 7 pullets. They're in a hoop coop, 16'x8', have had only a couple mild altercations. Joel is head roo, Samuel is unobtrusive, quiet, though I have seen him mate when there's an opportunity. I call him roo in the queue.

One afternoon this week I was sitting in the run, offering fresh greens from the gardens to the pullets, though both boys did grab a couple beakfuls in the melee.

Samuel grabbed a beakfuls of leaf, and Joel, who was next to him, lowered his head and stared at Samuel. Samuel dropped the leaf, kept his head where it was, a little higher than Joel's. Joel seemed to be transfixed, Samuel appeared unwilling to engage. At that point I waved the remains of the leaf between them and they broke off.

I am not as experienced as many of you here, but I thought that Joel was just expressing his dominance over Samuel, who was not interested in a confrontation.

What do you think?

 

[Perris]

Rooster (cockerel) observation I would like to share.

Background: the two boys are about 9 months old, from the same hatching, raised by a brooder, no broody hen. The other cockerels in the hatch were rehomed a few months ago, so it's just been the two, plus 7 pullets. They're in a hoop coop, 16'x8', have had only a couple mild altercations. Joel is head roo, Samuel is unobtrusive, quiet, though I have seen him mate when there's an opportunity. I call him roo in the queue.

One afternoon this week I was sitting in the run, offering fresh greens from the gardens to the pullets, though both boys did grab a couple beakfuls in the melee.

Samuel grabbed a beakfuls of leaf, and Joel, who was next to him, lowered his head and stared at Samuel. Samuel dropped the leaf, kept his head where it was, a little higher than Joel's. Joel seemed to be transfixed, Samuel appeared unwilling to engage. At that point I waved the remains of the leaf between them and they broke off.

I am not as experienced as many of you here, but I thought that Joel was just expressing his dominance over Samuel, who was not interested in a confrontation.

What do you think?

I've seen this sort of Paddington Bear-esque 'hard stare' between hens too. I think it shows a bit of spunk on the part of the subordinate; they're not going to start to fight, but they're not going to run away either. They disengage on their own, with the lower bird walking away slowly in due course.

 

[ManueB]

There are 3 species of Buckthorn native to Europe including the UK
Alder Buckthorn (Frangula alnus) which prefers damper more peaty soils & is not thorny
Purging Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathertica) prefers chaky soils & is thorny
Both the above are in the same family, have black berries & have been used medicinally but can have rather unfortunate results!
Sea Buckthorn is the thorny coastal one that likes full sun, has narrow, silvery leaves & orange berries which are full of vitamins & apparently can be used to make a rather good jelly

We have Purging buckthorn and Sea Buckthorn.
I assisted a friend making Sea Buckthorn jelly once ( we call it argousier) and it's a total pain. You have to take away the scratchy bits berry by berry. I never did it again ! But it's a thing here in the alps.

Someone needs to be invited to Thanksgiving dinner. They are eating me out of house and home View attachment 3685862

Are you planning a huge Thanksgiving dinner , or will you sell some ? Or will some remain as pets ?
How long would turkeys live if they weren't eaten and at what age would you usually harvest them ?

Rooster (cockerel) observation I would like to share.

Background: the two boys are about 9 months old, from the same hatching, raised by a brooder, no broody hen. The other cockerels in the hatch were rehomed a few months ago, so it's just been the two, plus 7 pullets. They're in a hoop coop, 16'x8', have had only a couple mild altercations. Joel is head roo, Samuel is unobtrusive, quiet, though I have seen him mate when there's an opportunity. I call him roo in the queue.

One afternoon this week I was sitting in the run, offering fresh greens from the gardens to the pullets, though both boys did grab a couple beakfuls in the melee.

Samuel grabbed a beakfuls of leaf, and Joel, who was next to him, lowered his head and stared at Samuel. Samuel dropped the leaf, kept his head where it was, a little higher than Joel's. Joel seemed to be transfixed, Samuel appeared unwilling to engage. At that point I waved the remains of the leaf between them and they broke off.

I am not as experienced as many of you here, but I thought that Joel was just expressing his dominance over Samuel, who was not interested in a confrontation.

What do you think?

I have also witnessed this sequence between hens, in fact I asked about it on my thread.
Curiously I never saw it within my first group of ex-batts, only once I I introduced new birds.
I see it very often now. My bantam Chipie especially does it all the time.
I think it is about establishing hierarchy between the two birds but it's subtle depending on the reaction and interaction. Sometimes I have the feelings the bird who starts the interaction means something like "I will be your friend if you submit". Sometimes it feels more like we are both equal but we won't fight.

I did not see this between my two cockerels of the same hatch while they were still both here, but they were younger than four months.

Pied-Beau and Petit Blanc at 16 weeks, a few days before Petit Blanc was re-homed.

 

[Perris]

Well knock me down with a feather: I've just discovered that the Clintons were staying at a nearby hotel on Thursday night! And it didn't rain Friday morning - was quite beautiful in fact - so that was a bit of luck for them. Very agreeable place in a very pretty glade, called Fairy Hill. One can imagine fairies in the garden in spring, especially. Full of daffs and other spring flowers. Autumn colours now.

 

[Molpet]

Are you planning a huge Thanksgiving dinner , or will you sell some ? Or will some remain as pets ?
How long would turkeys live if they weren't eaten and at what age would you usually harvest them ?

Actually with covid starting up again I'm not doing a thanksgiving celebration.
The jakes are for my freezer.
I usually eat half a turkey a month and 2 chickens a month. But I ended up with lots of turkey and only a couple chickens hatching this year. So I'll be eating most of the boys. I sell the extra jennies. I think there's 17 of each sex. I usually have a dominant tom and one or two subordinates. At least 9 hens.
I start harvesting at 6 months. Which is this month. 18 months actually is a very nice bird with a good fat cap that moistens the bird as it roasts. I usually part them out since it's just me. I sometimes roast a whole bird and freeze a lot.
The oldest I ate was 4 years and he wasn't tough like a rooster would be.
The toms usually start having fertility problems by 5, the hens at 8 years. Someone on here had a hen that was 20. But she lived in the house, most of mine sleep in the trees. A couple will go in the coops regularly.