Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fluffycrow]

He usually waits until six months to nine months.

Does your friend have any problems with juvenile cockerel gangs, or are they kept in such a way that no serious problems arise, if you don’t mind me asking?

Since you mentioned that he isn’t much of a fan of rooster flocks, I assume that all the boys range with the rest of the birds.

 

[Shadrach]

Three hours today. Warm and sunny. One and a half hours in the extended run and the same out on the field.
@Perris This is a very comprehensive work on the topic. A bit more than I need but I'll read it.

I think I know where I'm going with the extended run project. I made a start today. I'm stuck with the fence waiting for gate posts.
This is an old picture. What it shows is the gap between the old fence and the vegitation that has grown up around it.

This is the other side, oicture taken today.

My plan is to extract the old fence doing minimum damage to the stuff that's grown around it. This is going to be the start of a section of hedge. I planted eight hawthorn plants that survived the winter here sat on the ground in the compost they arrived in. If they can survive that they should manage in the hedge if I make them a little space to start with.
I'm going to make patches in the area up to the tall post. The patches aren't going to be large, perhaps a metre in diameter and I'm going to clear those and plant a couple of variaties of clover. I've also got some herbs to plant in there (small patch chosen at random for each herb) which the chickens haven't destroyed while they been in my herb plot.
I'll let them compete with the weeds to some extent but they'll get watered and fed while the weeds won't.
The gap between the hedge and the fence I'm going to try to manage because the thin grass that the chickens like is established there and grows well. I'm hoping the chickens will push through the hedge as it grows to get to the grass on the other side. Hedge to dense, chickens won't battle through it and wont shelter in it.
I'm putting a growing frame in the section past the post where the two old coops were. It's sort of a raised bed that's been sitting between plots on the field since I've been there with nothing growing in it.
I may not be able to make a forest garden but I can improve the diversity and interest with some management.
So, the plan is to have a managed area inside the hedge and on the other side of the hedge leaving the hedge section to do as it has for the last few years with the addition of hawthorn and perhaps other similar hedge plants. I'm considering a metre wide hedge at the front. Not quite sure yet what to do with the back.

I forgot to clean Sylph's arse. I looked her over yesterday and her rear end had large lumps of sticky shite on it,

 

[Shadrach]

Does your friend have any problems with juvenile cockerel gangs, or are they kept in such a way that no serious problems arise, if you don’t mind me asking?

He has in the past. I think most keepers get a group of cockerels that just rampage around the place pissing everyone off at some point. It can all look okay until they're ready to mate, after which it isn't oaky by any stretch of the imagination for the chickens. It doesn't always go West but when it does the boys have got to go. It's one of those things one just has to accept if one has limited resources. I think the art of it is to limit the number of eggs a broody sits on.

 

[Perris]

This is a very comprehensive work on the topic. A bit more than I need but I'll read it.

I found it most useful for expanding my horizons as to what is edible and/ or medicinal and/or attracts pollinators and/or accumulates minerals.

Having sampled some, I understand why most of the novelties I've tried are not on the grocer's shelves And some the chickens eat long before I get there (e.g. primrose flowers). But there's a lot more perennial veg than I realized (the tradition of starting seeds at the beginning of the year and clearing beds at the end, in short, cultivating annuals, is really ingrained in our gardening culture I think), and I find it's a quick and easy reference work for the low down on anything I'm entertaining adding to the garden. Growing well here as perennials and you might entertain for your gaps are e.g. mallows (inc marsh) - and the chickens are very fond of their fruits btw -, angelica, perennial rocket, good king henry, sweet woodruff, ground ivy, lovage, sweet cicely, sorrels, plantains, solomon's seal (yet to try this; need to move fast if I'm not going to miss it, as the shoots have started breaking into flower), day lilies etc.

 

[BDutch]

Sorry about the paywall chaps. Nothing I can do about it.

Copy and paste the most interesting part? (if its a long story - behind a button)

 

[Perris]

I think most keepers get a group of cockerels that just rampage around the place pissing everyone off at some point. It can all look okay until they're ready to mate, after which it isn't oaky by any stretch of the imagination for the chickens.

I'm revising my view on this, having had quite a bit of experience with it now.

All I'll say at this point it that none of my hens or pullets has had a bare back or head for a couple of years now. There may be lots of squawking, but most hens are happy to squat and to shake the sperm in afterwards, from however many supplied it, and the fertility rates here are, whenever tested, 100%.

 

[Molpet]

I'm very envious in a friendly manner.

So am I, except for the not being able to bend or walk far

 

[Perris]

those looking to improve their yard forage might find this useful
https://modernfarmer.com/2025/04/mushrooms-improve-soil/

 

[ChaosMom]

those looking to improve their yard forage might find this useful
https://modernfarmer.com/2025/04/mushrooms-improve-soil/

I built two pollinator gardens at my church last summer, one on the dry and sun-blasted south side. The soil wasn’t even soil, just dirt, and it was the only time in my life of digging holes here and there that I never came across a mycelium network. Or a single invertebrate, worm or insect. Like planting on Mars or something.

 

[Altairsky]

I have plenty of mushrooms growing on my property, many grow on the manure piles. I've seen the chickens eat them here and there.