Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[lightm]

I hope that you are feeling better soon. I read that making a tea out of ginger and lemon can help boost the immune system, I don't know how true it is, but it doesn't hurt. I also think ginger is beneficial for settling a dodgy stomach.

I started having some a couple of times a week. I boil it for 15 minutes then let it soak/steep for an hour. You can mix it with something else for taste, I have added it to hot tea, but it is tasty on on its own, maybe a little spicy from the ginger, but I like that.

I remember, as a young child, if I had nausea, my great grandmother would give me ginger-ale and always Canada Dry, which I found out, is actually still made with real ginger-extract.(still too much sugar to be healthy as an every day drink.)

I boil ginger a lot for tea. Do you boil the Lemon too, or just squeeze out some lemon juice?

Tax

 

[lightm]

My wife got some of the pork fat.
View attachment 4021272

Pork fat is the best! I usually make it myself from frying the fat part of pork belly.

 

[MrsNorthie]

I think it's very difficult to keep multiple males in even partial confinement. Dawn till dusk ranging on a large enough property can work and so can full free ranging. I read quite a few posts where they've said they haven't had any problems keeping multiple rooster and then you find out the age of the roosters.
The roughly six month stage when they work out they're going to be roosters is often enough for many people. One may get a few months of peace if they get past the above stage and a senior is established. The next stage is the stage I've found most difficult to deal with and that seems to happen around eighteen monthhs to two years old, when they start to seriously challenge the senior rooster. There are some very hard choices to made here. You've watched the male grow up and he's survived. The hens quite like him but the senior rooster won't share and the fights start.
When there have been more than one junior rooster I've had them gang up on the senior, one rooster called Major fought three fully grown roosters in a single fight to keep his place. One rooster, despite being beaten by Major wouldn't let the matter go. He got eaten. Sad, because he wasn't a bad rooster. What do you do.

I need more land, far from neighbors and roads. LOL

I love them all as individuals, but nobody is happy if there is fighting going on. The girls are nervous, boys are battered, the egg thief has huge holes in his leg. Their comfort and happiness is more important than my sentimentality.

Spud is doing a brilliant job, he just walks by and the girls crouch, he doesn't always take advantage, he is gentle, he is definitely charming, if I had known what a perfect rooster he was going to turn out to be, I would have given him a name that matched his nobility. He doesn't bully the other boys, but is teaching the younger ones how to be good roosters.

We are going to fence off the rest of the property and let them have at it, with multiple shelters scattered around for cover, and protected watering stations. We have a larger drainage culvert that will need to be secured with hardware cloth and we are debating a fence around the pond, to prevent accidental entry.

 

[MrsNorthie]

I boil ginger a lot for tea. Do you boil the Lemon too, or just squeeze out some lemon juice?

Tax
View attachment 4022135

I boil the shaved ginger root and unpeeled lemon, sliced and pipped. I usually just drink a cup of that straight.

 

[MrsNorthie]

Good suggestion. Ginger is awesome. Have you tried growing it? It's easy to grow and a nice looking plant. Very tasty right out of the garden.

Tax: Stilton and Raisin on selfie mode. They're watching themselves on the phone screen here Stilton looks like Sam Eagle from the Muppets.
View attachment 4021205

We are going to grow some this year. I like to grow most of what we consume, I don't use any chemicals, so, in my mind it is healthier. LOL

 

[MrsNorthie]

The respnse was, "not very friendly your chickens are they."

I would have said, "Not to bright, are you?"

 

[MrsNorthie]

I bought a very small jar of goose fat this Christmas to give it a try. We had it when I was a child and used to make bubble and squeak with the Christmas leftovers.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/bubble-squeak

Bubble and Squeak is a huge favourite in our house, not always with leftovers either. LOL

 

[MrsNorthie]

Ground feeding. Anyone do it?
I used to do it with Tribe 3 in Catalonia when there were some disputes about who should eat first. Ground feeding resolved the issue.
My friend in the next county ground feeds his birds. He says his chickens eat more and get more exercise when they are ground fed.
I'm particulalry interested at the moment because both Fret and Mow have a habit of taking food from my hand and dropping it on the ground and then picking it up and swallowing it. They don't do well on the treat front with this behaviour because Tull and Sylph are on the dropped food like vultures.
Fret has always prefered to feed from the ground and is fussy about feed/treat size.
I'm going to give it a try with the evening feed at the field.

The boys are really great and making sure all the girls eat, to the point of rounding them up and herding them back to the feeders. When we open the coop in the morning, a few of the girls immediate run past the feeders and out the the field. We scatter some feed, scratch and meal worms around the field specially right now that there isn't much in the way of insects and fresh grasses to forage for. I don't like to leave too much food on the ground because I don't want to encourage rats.

 

[BDutch]

and we are debating a fence around the pond, to prevent accidental entry.

Behind our garden on municipality ground there is a little stream. The chickens have free access to that area when they are free ranging. They never go to the waterfront.
If your chickens behave like my chickens, and if they can avoid the pond, you don’t need a fence.

 

[Perris]

My experience is like BDutch's; there is a seasonal stream through our property and no chicken or chick has ever drowned in it, despite having free access at all times. A chick did drown in a deep straight-sided trug in the garden, however, so the sides of the pond matter.