Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[notabitail]

I think our Christmas meal maps fairly well with your Thanksgiving, minus anything pumpkin. Turkey and all the trimmings etc. Since you indulge in late November it seems entirely natural not to do it all again a month later I usually can't wait to get back to some not-rich food by the time we get through all the leftovers

Thanksgiving is very variable here. Sometimes we just eat pizza.

Usually for Christmas it's just another meal our family really likes. It could be hamburgers, spaghetti, anything. With egg nog. Homemade, of course.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!


Tea is ready.

Temperature is in the 70s mostly sunny.

Have a great day!

For Thanksgiving we always have a turkey with the sides.

For Christmas we usually have ham with the sides.

Christmas is where we like to change things up:
Steaks
Low Country Boil
Prime rib
Bar-B-Que Meats

It is fun to change the menu.

 

[fluffycrow]

Finally caught up with this thread. Given the discussion a couple of pages back, I'd like to thank Perris (once more) for writing an amazing article on broodies.

Things here have been peaceful. The bantam hens just come back into lay. They hadn't laid a single egg since Lady Gaga was taken (whereas the LFs laid almost within the week of the attack). The tribes juveniles are growing. Foureira's chick is a cockerel, and the youngest pure serama I have here. Ocean and Ursula's chick (Ubon) is a pullet. What is really surprising is that in both cases, the moms have not abandoned the chicks. Foureira's chick (still not sure if the remaining chick is Fig or Fern) is over three months old, and Ubon just turned three months old. Not exactly sure why they are still 'mothering' them. I use the term mothering loosely, but both chicks are very welcomed by their mothers, and follow them closely.

I do not know much about the way Foureira was raised (though highly suspect it was not by a broody), so this might just be her normal age. Ocean however was driven away from her biological mum Cruella and co-mother Ursula quite forcefully at 5-6 weeks old. Even more surprising is that Ursula herself (being a co-mother to Ubon) hasn't driven her away. Not sure what to make of this. Ocean is young, just turned one this month. Ursula however was already a year old when she helped raise Ocean, so this new behaviour is something I can't exactly place. I guess this comes off as me complaining a bit, which I far from am. I love that the hens have decided to keep their chicks around for longer, though I suspect it is a direct correlation to Lady Gaga passing which does make me sad for them.

The LF tribe is doing good. Kolovos and the two cockerels seem to work out alright. I haven't seen a crazy amount of sexual drive from either boy like I had with the previous male, so that's a plus. The pullets have definitely started laying. As shown in the photo below, there seems to be a mini split, with the pullets choosing to spend time with males their age. Come spring, it should be clear if the split will be permanent or not

 

[Shadrach]

One and half hours today. Below freezing with some bright sunshine.
It took Henry half an hour of standing in the sun before he felt like taking Tull and Sylph foraging. Mow's comb is taking on some colour now.

 

[Shadrach]

When I was thinking about building the coop extension and have looked at Molpets article and a few others I just couldn't find a British equivelant of a cattle panel such as I had seen in the hoop coop builds on BYC.
I think these might do the job. The large heavy guage sheets are pretty expensive but this for example which at 4mm is bendable but still strong enough to keep anything we have in the UK except a charging bull out. With hardware cloth covering the cost could start approaching reasonable

https://www.wirefence.co.uk/75mm-x-75mm-galfan-mesh-panel-l202-5cm-x-h202-5cm-8g/

https://www.wirefence.co.uk/fencing/stock/cattle/cattle-panels/

 

[Shadrach]

I just happened on this while browsing. I think it's great.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mabels-world-cartoons.1645125/

 

[Sally PB]

So do I.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Here's some tax for all the Christmas food irrelevance; Fforest
View attachment 3992919

Glorious.

 

[notabitail]

I just happened on this while browsing. I think it's great.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mabels-world-cartoons.1645125/

She's got books too:
https://www.mabelsworld.com/

 

[fuzzi]

One and half hours today. Below freezing with some bright sunshine.
It took Henry half an hour of standing in the sun before he felt like taking Tull and Sylph foraging. Mow's comb is taking on some colour now.
View attachment 3993276View attachment 3993277View attachment 3993278

Henry's feeling the cold more? The hens need to cuddle up to him.