Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Chilly, grey and bleak. Two hours today.
Mow had a more inclusive day today and most of the time stayed with the rest. Ground feeding has made some difference. Mow is like her mum Fret who much prefers eating off the ground and foraging. Regulars may remember Fret and Lima foraging together. I often see Fret and Mow sort of together on one plot foraging while Tull and Sylph are elsewhere with Henry.
Henry is in fact teaching Tull and Sylph a thing or two about foraging I've noticed. It's interesting to watch.

Mow.

Fret.

Fret is carefully going over the ground where I've thrown a handfull of the small seeds that got left in the overnight trays as usual. At least now the small stuff is getting eaten by the chickens.

 

[MrsNorthie]

I always thought that ex-broodies didn’t care about their hatched sons and daughters anymore after they stopped caring. But after this last hatch, Ini mini still goes to sleep with the 2 pullets. It’s not that the flock hierarchy has changed.

Black’s comb is red and big again. And she squatted for me today. Her first egg since she got broody in June is on his way!
Sorry for the quality.
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I believe that there can be a bond. Our broody mama has still been watching over the "hatchlings", 7 months in. She corrects what she thinks is naughty behaviour by both the pullets and the cockerels, even though they are all at least twice her size. Also, 2 y/o roosters are are less tolerant of each other than they are of their sons, and their sons are much better behaved little cockerels, than they were at the same age.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Dogs often get mental issues bc people don’t give the right upbringing.

Last week the police took away 70 dogs and pups out of someone’s basement in the Netherlands. Many pups where to young to be parted from their mother and the whole place was gross and stinky (urine).

And people often don’t realise dogs can be as dangerous as wolfs.

One week earlier a catastrophic event with huskies was on our news (from Belgium). A mother was feeding the huskies with her young son. The huskies attacked the child and the mother had a hard time to free him. The child died in hospital. And the dogs got killed, bc they can never be trusted anymore.

I realize by my lack of surprise that I'm terribly desensitized to stories of animal mistreatment. East Tennessee has cornered the market on dog hoarding and neglect. It's shameful. The only redemption is the number of kind, responsible people here who step up for neglected dogs. Almost every neighbor has 1 or more rescues. One family has 7!

We have the 2 brown dogs, Clover and Sarah Lee. Both are gun shy and terrified of thunder, whereas the dogs DH and I raised from puppies are unafraid of anything. Score one for nurture in that case.

Clover was a year-ish when she was dumped by our house. She's quirky but nowhere near as anxious as Sarah, who was 7-ish when we adopted her. Sarah used to freak out about being outside if it was under 50F/10C and is still perennially nervous about food. We suspect she spent far too much of life cold and hungry.

That article made me think a lot about Sarah Lee's behavior.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

You’re not asking me, but I have a hen who got mental problems after her brothers left and she was a lonely pullet.

Janice was harassed by het aunties after her brothers left. She slept on a roost in the extension, with the other hens before her brothers left. The mother abandoned her a couple of weeks earlier and didn’t protect her. Janice started to sleep in the nest-box again, and later alone on a roost in the small coop.
She still prefers her own ‘bedroom’. Which is rather strange behaviour for a chicken.

Janice's coop. At this time the nestboxes where occupied by 2 broodies. Ini mini visited them ( being curious or wanting to steal the chick feed).
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Thank you for sharing about Miss Janice. It's always interesting to hear about healthy chickens seeking solitude. We've had a few birds who liked time to themselves but only one solo-cooper, Cream Legbar Miss Barbara.

She was a strange hen, but her issues seemed related to her physical problems. She couldn't keep weight and lost sight in an eye.

She's the one we let roost indoors on cool nights because her feathers got so thin. If it was chilly at dusk, she'd fly to us to be carried to the house.

She was a cool bird. Bossy thing. Here she was in her healthy days:

 

[notabitail]

Thank you for sharing about Miss Janice. It's always interesting to hear about healthy chickens seeking solitude. We've had a few birds who liked time to themselves but only one solo-cooper, Cream Legbar Miss Barbara.

She was a strange hen, but her issues seemed related to her physical problems. She couldn't keep weight and lost sight in an eye.

She's the one we let roost indoors on cool nights because her feathers got so thin. If it was chilly at dusk, she'd fly to us to be carried to the house.

She was a cool bird. Bossy thing. Here she was in her healthy days:

View attachment 4031331

She had no tuft either? My Felicitas has no tuft, and her rear has always hung pretty low. Was yours the same?

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Maybe. Dink was the only surviving chick and the only white hen in her tribe. She was very odd and undeniably extraordinary. None of her chicks washed up white. Her mother died before Dink reached adulthood.
A young Dink.
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Grown up Dink.
View attachment 4031100

On the other hand Moon who was mostly white fitted in very well but had a sister and mother.
Moon.
View attachment 4031099

Mow is clearly channeling Dink! She definitely favors her.

Lovely photos.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

She had no tuft either?

Yeah, 2 of our Legbars have been crestless. They came from a breeder who said she was working on upright combs, and the birds with good combs didn't carry enough of the crest gene, or something like that.

I was bummed because I love head poofs and don't mind a floppy comb if the chicken doesn't.

 

[notabitail]

Yeah, 2 of our Legbars have been crestless. They came from a breeder who said she was working on upright combs, and the birds with good combs didn't carry enough of the crest gene, or something like that.

I was bummed because I love head poofs and don't mind a floppy comb if the chicken doesn't.

Interesting.

My Felicitas gets a floppy comb too.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Nature, for sure. I was adopted at the age of 4 months. Had an older brother and younger sister. My personality was completely different from the rest of the family.

In my mid 20s, I met my birth mother and many aunts, uncles, and cousins. I fit in perfectly!

My sister and brother were adopted as infants (in 1957 and 1960, when it wasn't very common). We were all brought up in the same house with the same parents.

We are/were NOTHING alike. Our views of many "big" things are/were totally different. Money, work, relationships, people... even the way we talk. There are words we never pronounced the same.

This is fascinating!! Our identities are so amazingly complex.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

I have a white pullet that spends her time alone. Her black sister and 2 brothers have fitted in. Another coop has a white pullet that was an only and she mostly fits in.

Miss Hazel is our only remaining Legbar. She lives with a group of much larger, more dramatic Marans, but she's never appeared to feel out of place. She's a particularly level soul, though.