Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

did you ever identify what the problem was there? I'm beginning to wonder if a viral arthritis is working through my flock.

Not really. I know what made the problem worse because saw her catch her leg on the netting.

 

[Shadrach]

Five hours today. Mainly dry with sunny spells.
Fret and Sylph are broody now.

 

[fuzzi]

My Martha is broody...

 

[Perris]

Five hours today. Mainly dry with sunny spells.
Fret and Sylph are broody now.View attachment 4096590View attachment 4096591View attachment 4096592View attachment 4096593View attachment 4096594View attachment 4096595

I imagine you are pleased with that progress on the fence; how many more posts to set?

 

[Perris]

we have a rash of broodies too; Oxwich and Polka are sitting in neighbouring nest boxes in one of the coops. Broody swearing in stereo when anyone appears at the door seems to be enough to put absolutely everyone - dominant roo included - off entering. Dear Sully waits patiently outside the door for an hour or so before abandoning the idea of using her favourite box, and choosing another coop to lay in, again

 

[Shadrach]

I imagine you are pleased with that progress on the fence; how many more posts to set?

Three on that side of the gate. Not sure yet what to do on the other side of the gate and then there is the fence at the back of the run to do.

 

[ChaosMom]

All these broodies... it's spring!!!

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Contemplative Stilty, perhaps pondering whether he'll know the joys of fatherhood one day, as yet another spring whizzes by with no broodies.

 

[BDutch]

Contemplative Stilty, perhaps pondering whether he'll know the joys of fatherhood one day, as yet another spring whizzes by with no broodies.
View attachment 4096857

Chicken philosophy.

 

[ChaosMom]

FREEEEEEEE BIIIRRRRDDD!!! Erebody flick on your cigarette lighters and wave them back and forth!

(Note: I’m not much of a fan of Lynyrd Skynyrd, although I’ll take a bullet for Allman Brothers Band.)

We let the girls out today into the area immediately adjacent to the run. The “walls” are black plastic aviary mesh, nearly invisible. No mesh on top this time. We figured three noisy adults would intimidate aerial predators this time, and indeed, even the crows didn’t fly over.

We humans were eaten up with nerves, fearing escape attempts, but they didn’t even test the netting except for Trudy (Barred Rock), who checked to see if it could be eaten. They just moseyed about, digging in the two available veg beds and sampling all the cranesbill and bedstraw and dandelions. Buffy (Buff Orpington) found the henbit and went to town. Lil (Easter Egger), who has always been the shyest and mist “on guard” was amazingly chill, coming much closer to us than she usually does, going about her chicken business.

Buffy found the open door quickly and sailed on out, which was a surprise, as she has always seemed a few ants short of a picnic. Lil, her bestie, my skyhawk who has always seemed so ferocious, panicked when on the opposite side of the run’s hardware cloth, running back and forth anxiously until accidentally finding the open door. They went in and out several times, learning how to get to their home ground in the run. A loud motorcycle just went by, and they shot to the open run door but didn’t go in.

The plant so beloved by Lil, commonly called cranesbill, is Geranium maculatum, a distant relative of the geraniums grown in pots and window boxes (Pelargoniun spp.)