Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[ManueB]

But on the understanding side, very few people get a 100% hatch, and they just make assumptions or repeat received wisdom about why

Léa got a 100% hatch last spring with the six neighbour's eggs we gave her.
I'm sure the neighbour, who's almost 80, did not do anything fancy like turn the eggs or check at what temperature he kept them. And I know that three of the eggs were from the same hen so they were laid on three different days. I also don't have a clue why the 100% rate though.

Awoke to a sad thing this morning. Pinkie, known on this thread as our crowing hen, was dead under the roost. Her body was stiff, but otherwise, she looked perfect, as always, not a feather out of place, eyes closed. There wasn't poop on or under her, nor was she pecked, nor was anything else amiss in the coop.

She was her normal self yesterday. I happened to spend extra time with them in the afternoon and am grateful she had a chance to hop on my shoulder one last time to tell me about the day.

The others rolled out of the coop normally this morning, and it appears to be a typical day for them. I think they had ample time with her body to say goodbye. I'm more of a mess.

Since you all understand the emotion that can come with this kind of loss, I wanted to ask you to hold her in your thoughts today, wish her a peaceful journey, or your version of that.

Pinkie had just turned 4. Her nickname was "the ambassador" because she never met a chicken, human, or dog she couldn't win over. She was sort of an angel chicken who would stick close to anyone under the weather. She rarely passed up a chance to sit on my lap and nap for as long as 30 minutes at a time, until long after my leg or foot had fallen asleep. We were good friends.

It's sad any time a chicken passes, but losing Pinkie is hitting hard. I'm not sure how to make my brain accept that she won't be running down the ramp every morning. I still find myself looking for her out there. You all know the deal. Chickens

Here's to the one and only, magnificent Pinkie Bird.

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I am late, but sad for your loss of Pinkie, whose crowing I think we all remember.

For a lighter note, even though I had no internet for the past two weeks, I have been thinking of you everytime I see Merle on the March page of the BYC calendar. I happened to hang it in the toilet, as I already had calendars in every other place, so I smile at Merle's macho pose often throughout the day.

I did Mow legs and feet again this afternoon and then coated Digs with Vaseline. He's just starting to show early signs of SLM.

With the unusual amount of rain and mud we have been getting I am seeing signs of SLM for the first time on a few of my chickens. Does any semi-solid fat works or does it have to be vaseline ? I have coconut and neem oil at home but no vaseline.

Off to see a troublesome rooster tomorrow morning in the hope I can work out what this person is doing wrong. If I can't, then the rooster is going to get eaten.

Would you have any educational update to share if it's not upsetting?

The ground is so saturated I think a lot of spring prep isn't getting done across large swathes of the country. A lot of last year's root veg grown for our veg box scheme rotted in the ground because it was so wet too.

This is obviously not as dramatic or as visible as flooding, but being sodden for months on end must be having an impact on soil life, surely? I haven't had bare patches in the lawn before now, or seen the chickens working selected areas so hard, and I'm wondering if it's bringing soil organisms that normally live deeper nearer to the surface. In any case, I've got some mixed grass seed to overseed as needed when there's a break in the weather, and then hope it doesn't get washed away. Another challenge will be keeping the flock off till it's established. Anybody got any tried and tested methods? Else I'll have to get creative with the scaffolding netting

On small patches I put a stack of brambles and branches left over from pruning.
Otherwise I also use netting but it has it's limits as I have already ranted about.

80% of Léa 's 100 % hatch, 27 May 2023.

 

[Shadrach]

Léa got a 100% hatch last spring with the six neighbour's eggs we gave her.
I'm sure the neighbour, who's almost 80, did not do anything fancy like turn the eggs or check at what temperature he kept them. And I know that three of the eggs were from the same hen so they were laid on three different days. I also don't have a clue why the 100% rate though.

I am late, but sad for your loss of Pinkie, whose crowing I think we all remember.

For a lighter note, even though I had no internet for the past two weeks, I have been thinking of you everytime I see Merle on the March page of the BYC calendar. I happened to hang it in the toilet, as I already had calendars in every other place, so I smile at Merle's macho pose often throughout the day.

With the unusual amount of rain and mud we have been getting I am seeing signs of SLM for the first time on a few of my chickens. Does any semi-solid fat works or does it have to be vaseline ? I have coconut and neem oil at home but no vaseline.

Would you have any educational update to share if it's not upsetting?

On small patches I put a stack of brambles and branches left over from pruning.
Otherwise I also use netting but it has it's limits as I have already ranted about.

80% of Léa 's 100 % hatch, 27 May 2023.
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I believe the next is what determines the hatch rate. If the hen can't control the eggs then a poor hatch rate is more likely, assuming the eggs are fertile. Any oil will help. Vaseline is good because water doesn't wash it away and it's low viscosity.

 

[Perris]

On small patches I put a stack of brambles and branches left over from pruning.

thanks - I'll try that

 

[MrsNorthie]

On small patches I put a stack of brambles and branches left over from pruning.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/goto/post?id=27579763
Perris said:
The ground is so saturated I think a lot of spring prep isn't getting done across large swathes of the country.

We had quite a bit of rain to-date, I spread straw all over. We can get a bale of wheat straw for $3. It has helped quite a bit and is fully compostable.

 

[fluffycrow]

This was cute

 

[Shadrach]

My friends rooster problem.
My friends rooster is 14 months old. Until recenetly he's been okay to deal with. He's not friendly but not aggressive either.
He has six hens. He's good with the hens, although things were a bit rocky between six months and about 10 months.
Two hens went broody recently and attempted to sit on a couple of eggs. My friend removes the eggs on a regular basis as he isn't yet ready for an increase in population. He is going to build another coop this year and once completed he intends to let at least one of the hens that have shown broody tendencies sit and hatch.

The coop has egg nest boxes inside the coop rather than hanging off a wall on the outside. To get the eggs my friend has to open the coop and reach in to get the eggs. Recently the rooster has objected to my friend taking the eggs and has pecked my friend a few times drawing blood. Otherwise the rooster is fine.

My friend has been collecting the eggs during daylight hours and the rooster, when he sees my friend open the coop rushes into the coop and tries to defend the eggs. All quite normal and acceptable in my view.

The solution for the short term is to collect the eggs at night while the rooster is on his perch.

This worked last night apparently.

 

[Shadrach]

I should have mentioned my friend tried shutting the pop door to keep the rooster out and it just went around the back and tried to get in the coop through the human access door. This was more of a problem due to my friend having his head and hand in the coop with the rooster trying to get in behind him.

 

[Shadrach]

Pointless going early; raining again.
I went for two hours and spent most of it dealing with allotments matters with the treasurer to be prepared for the commitee meeting on the 26th.
The chickens got half an hour on the allotments before the rain drove them back to the coop extension.
Dig is learning and has started to let the hens go when they shout at him. Also, Henry is less aggressive about chasing Dig off.
There are two clean water supplies close by but these two went for the puddle water.

 

[fluffycrow]

Here it was sunshine half of the day, and then started raining out of nowhere, my lithops got all wet while they're shedding. Noticed something rather peculiar the other day. Well, peculiar to me. Kolovos's son made a pass at one of the grown hens. The hen squatted, and he got on. Kolovos was momentarily worried, moved literally over them, and just looked. It made his son a little scared but he finished. Then his immaturity showed when he just remained there after finishing, not knowing what to do. What was very surprising to me was the tolerance both Kolovos and his hen had for this behaviour. Any thoughts?

 

[Shadrach]

Regular readers may remember in my attempts to turn the allotment field around from the downward spiral it was on I introduced an aggreement that every group member had to sign. We needed a proper committee rather than a C says arrangement and I appointed three people to the position. We now have a new bank account, proper images of the field layout and have had a couple of productive work days where things unrelated to individual plots got dealt with such as rubbish clearance and field boundry work.
I had hoped to retire from Mr Bossy and just deal with the chickens once the basics were in place.
Instead the membership voted to make me a commitee member and sort of group chairman. Some irony in that I'm the only person who has been voted into any position.
I bought out the groups interest in the coop due to group funds being spent on part of the new coop and the coop and the run now officially belong to me as does any produce arising from it.
We have a few hundred pounds in the group account now, proper public liability insurance and all bar one plot occupied. For winter, the place looks much better than I've seen it since I've been going there.

Strangely, C has accepted the changes and for C, has behaved remarkably well.
I think C is relieved to pass over what has proven to be a rather stressfull enterprise for the last few years.

We are back in touch with The Get Growing Trail in Bristol and a couple of other community concerns. If we can make a success of this year, next year we should be in a position to apply for one of the many grants for local green spaces that are available.