Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fluffycrow]

More tax: spot the second chicken . Not too bad for a predominantly white bird

 

[Skyeknight]

While I appreciate someone new to the thread will find wading through hundreds of pages it is important that the poster at least reads the first few pages in order to understand the nature of the thread.

My apologies for this, I read the first 2 pages a while ago. Now i have read the first 30 to jumpstart my brain a bit.

You write you keep sheep and chickens in the same area. The bad news is the sheep are likely to destroy anything planted that's even remotely edible.

Sorry for the confusion, but I don't actually keep them together for a multitude of reasons. I am busy making a new chicken run in a part that was sheep pasture. In the future it might go back to being sheep pasture, but for the next few years it's for chickens only. I might start free ranging and then my chickens can go steal all the delicious grass from the sheep.

Oh yesssss! There will be loads of tax.

I see you have been collecting tax for years. So here is the tax for the 4 messages I have sent. I realise it's not enough but sadly I only have 1 rooster.

 

[Shadrach]

My apologies for this, I read the first 2 pages a while ago. Now i have read the first 30 to jumpstart my brain a bit.

Sorry for the confusion, but I don't actually keep them together for a multitude of reasons. I am busy making a new chicken run in a part that was sheep pasture. In the future it might go back to being sheep pasture, but for the next few years it's for chickens only. I might start free ranging and then my chickens can go steal all the delicious grass from the sheep.

I see you have been collecting tax for years. So here is the tax for the 4 messages I have sent. I realise it's not enough but sadly I only have 1 rooster.
View attachment 4105366

Thank you. I really do appreciate your cooperation.

 

[Perris]

Doesn’t the “stuff at the back” help provide bank stabilization?

Not in this case. This is what it is supposed to look like (this is the continuation that runs on the south side of our beech hedge)

so it's not a big slope, and you can see perhaps the bracken coming through and a veritable wall of bramble from the ditch to the top of the concrete posts that hold the modern livestock wire fence on the other side of the ditch. During the summer this bank will be covered a few feet high in bracken, brambles and nettles.

And of course, the taller (compared to hedgerow) trees provide different habitat that might be needed to support additional niches.*

Indeed, and there are some standards within the bit that is hedge. Any tree on the bank has grown while the hedge/bank/ditch was neglected, and is at most just 20 years old. If you look back at the photo, there's a thick strong standard trunk about a quarter in from the right, and a young one has been left on left of the picture. Saplings in between at appropriate spots were cut off at about 3-4 feet, to act as living posts to hold the laid stems in place. If they are left to grow, I'm not sure if they would count as coppiced or pollarded in formal terms. At any event, I was trying to follow the tradition long since embodied in the hedge as I uncovered it. Most local traditions have a raison d'etre, even if we don't now know what it was.

 

[fuzzi]

Thank you. I really do appreciate your cooperation.

Besides, we all love the pictures!

Speaking of corn...

 

[Perris]

A quick update on that white egg that I thought may have been laid by Maria, despite it being wrong colour and shape: she is laying her normal eggs, one every 3 days now. The first one had some calcium deposits, but all good on the next 2. Not bad for an 8 year old! It'll be interesting to see how long it lasts.

 

[no fly zone]

More tax: spot the second chicken . Not too bad for a predominantly white birdView attachment 4105351

That a fig tree?

 

[no fly zone]

My apologies for this, I read the first 2 pages a while ago. Now i have read the first 30 to jumpstart my brain a bit.

Sorry for the confusion, but I don't actually keep them together for a multitude of reasons. I am busy making a new chicken run in a part that was sheep pasture. In the future it might go back to being sheep pasture, but for the next few years it's for chickens only. I might start free ranging and then my chickens can go steal all the delicious grass from the sheep.

I see you have been collecting tax for years. So here is the tax for the 4 messages I have sent. I realise it's not enough but sadly I only have 1 rooster.
View attachment 4105366

That rooster is freaking awesome.

 

[Skyeknight]

That rooster is freaking awesome.

It's an Ayam Cemani. Got it from a friend for free because it was aggressive. Even though I have had chickens for about 15 years he is the reason I fell into the chicken rabbit hole. Only now I realise how many different genetic oddities, like his fibromelanosis, are out there.

 

[ChaosMom]

Not in this case. This is what it is supposed to look like (this is the continuation that runs on the south side of our beech hedge)
View attachment 4105392
so it's not a big slope, and you can see perhaps the bracken coming through and a veritable wall of bramble from the ditch to the top of the concrete posts that hold the modern livestock wire fence on the other side of the ditch. During the summer this bank will be covered a few feet high in bracken, brambles and nettles.

Ah, so not a bank along a year-round stream, and Lord knows that the bramble roots should have a good grip on the soil!