Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[kattabelly]

I think Shad and a few other thread regulars have had ongoing issues with scaly leg mites, if I remember correctly. Would one of you mind sharing your preferred treatment protocol, please? (Not for my birds - it's something I've rarely had to deal with and not at all recently, which is why I can't remember what works best)

 

[BDutch]

SLM treatment and precaution in another thread :
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...natural-chicken-keeping.1192774/post-29055654

 

[Shadrach]

06/03.
A couple of grey, chilly hours with a bit of drizzle.

 

[Shadrach]

My very limited experience with Brahmas agrees. They are gentle and friendly, in addition to being enormous. I've also never seen a Brahma with nice looking legs, save for show birds kept cooped up. It's the same with Faverolles, which I have much more experience with (and absolutely adore despite the challenges).

At least Brahmas do the job properly on the leg feather front.
Had Marans in Spain. They just had feathers coming out at all angles and they would tread on them, partially pull out those that grew between their toes. It all seemed more off a liability than an asset.
Mow's got a few feathers on her feet. She got that from her mum who was a Marans/Crested Cream Legbar cross. Combined with her SLM inheritance from her dad, trying to keep her legs in reasonable condition is a mission.

Still, you get what you get and learn how to like it, as the saying goes.

 

[Shadrach]

I have a couple light Brahmas that were given to me. If the rooster isn’t around, they are in charge. One of them spent her first night here in a tree, which surprised me. She did not get eaten by the resident bobcat, which also surprised me I don’t know if I’d call them docile so much as savvy.

The dominant Leghorn rooster seems to favor them so I’m hatching one of their eggs to see what kind of survival chick pops out. Here they are on their first day out, boldly going…somewhere.

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I must admit, I would rather have the heavy Light Sussex you can get here in the West Country. Lovely though they are I find the Brahmas too big and too stately.

 

[Shadrach]

I'm a big fan of the look of the Brahmas. They're our most remarked-upon chickens by guests (right before they ooo and ahhh about the Speckled Sussex). Even with hatchery genes, there's something fetching about the Brahma shape.

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However, I'll probably also avoid feathered legs in the future.

It's not the moisture: this photo shows what happens in wet grass, but the feathers dry quickly.

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My biggest concerns are a) irritation to the bird, and b) mites.

Feather shafts don't fit well on dinosaur legs. The feather-leggeds often go briefly lame, look generally uncomfortable, and peck at their feet when new feathers come in. It's common to find drops of blood under the roost from wonky foot feathers.

And the upturned scales seem to make good hiding spots for mites, especially on roosters, who suffer more severe foot-feathering issues because the feather shafts are bigger.

It's a shame because nothing would make me happier than a field full of Langshans. Gorgeous, tall, contemplative chickens.

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Our bearded lady Carrots does get her beard messy daily, but her friends are happy to fix it. I watched Raisin gently clean watermelon juice out of Carrots' beard yesterday.

I've wondered if the beard is why Carrots has the fewest issues with frigid weather. She's the first out in the snow. Chicken beards are neat.

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I gather you've had similar leg problems to those I've struggled with.

 

[Shadrach]

Maybe @Shadrach can explain this one to me:

A simple test should narrow down the possibilities. Next time it happens lift the rooster out of the nest he's in and in front of the nest of the hen he's talking to. If the calls stop then it could be the wrong roosters are with the wrong hen.
What happens if you take both roosters out and away from the nests, do the hens still call? If you let one rooster go, which nest does he go to?

I've mentioned and tried to describe the answering call from a rooster whose been called by his hen. It's this word (psychosis) used to describe the sound that makes me think it's what I have described as hysterical.
I've only heard this in one set of circumstances that I've been able to observe and that is when the hen calls for her rooster, the escort call. I have heard the call thousands of times but one can only observe at the time of the event a fraction of the opportunities, so maybe the roosters call gets used for something else but that call is "Im coming dear, or I'm right here dear ," in chicken language.

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[BlindLemonChicken]

If the calls stop then it could be the wrong roosters are with the wrong hen.
What happens if you take both roosters out and away from the nests, do the hens still call? If you let one rooster go, which nest does he go to?

I don’t handle my roosters so I’m pretty sure if I tried it would just make them more crazy. I know they were with “their” hens because they roost separately and the Leghorn was with the Brahma who he has never allowed to mate with the other rooster. The Leghorn is dominant. The other hen is actually fairly new so maybe the subordinate was making a claim on her? The hens weren’t making any noise but the roosters appeared to be displaying (for lack of a better word) to each other through the wall. I’ve never heard a rooster make an egg song but I’ve also only had roosters for about a year. If it happens again I will try to get a video because chicken flock dynamics fascinate me.

 

[Shadrach]

One and a half hours. On and off drizzle, grey and chilly.

Glais will let me stroke him while he's on the roost bar now.

He's grown up a lot since Mow and Sylph started laying again. He seems confident in his position now, a lot less clumsy with the hens who both crouch for him, but now if they move away Glais doesn't bother them. Herding is still a problem for him. Luckily both will follow him most of the time but Mow in particular goes where she goes and one has to be fairly insistent in redirecting her.

Down side to the day (?), the door opener has packed up. I've got another on order but it won't be here until Wednesday so I've got a few days of double trips, morning and evening so they get let out and closed up.
The Chicken Guard unit has done pretty well.
I'll have a look to see if it's repairable but I think it's a circuit problem rather than mechanical. Nothing lights up under power and the power is getting to the board. Certainly not a fix at the field job.

Three winters with faultless performance within reasonable expectations, rat damage isn't something one can expect the unit to cope with. I prefer a string system for bird safety (many of the cog driven doors jam) and I've not heard good reports on reliability.