Chickens - mine are immortal!

Lovely photos Trisha - they make me miss mine but no room in our tiny back garden.
I suppose our cockerels did make a noise but the neighbours were quite far away and they had cockerels too.

Sorry to hear about Joanne Trisha57, but I bet you gave her the best life.

Our neighbour 2 doors down keeps 4 chickens, and they often escape through the gate and wander up and down the street. We have people at least once a week knock on the door to say "Your chickens are out". I sometimes go out and herd them back - herding chickens is really difficult!

mine loved wotsits and quavers, they used to pinch them off the kids (when they were little)

Our chickens always loved spaghetti too, Witzend. I would chop up any leftovers with scissors and the GDs would feed it to them with much enthusiasm! Today we are dismantling the coop to give to the lady who adopted Sage. It is only a couple of years old and in good condition, so after a power wash and a dose of poultry sanitiser it should do her a good turn. There will be a bare patch in the garden to think about, but I know it will have plenty of good fertiliser on it! We dismantled our previous walk-in run two years ago when we only had 2 chickens left, and the grass that was laid over the site always grows much greener and quicker than the rest of the lawn! DGS calls it "the swishy swashy grass"!!!

So sorry to hear about Joanne, Trisha57, but pleased to hear that Sage is happy in her new home.

My dd1 and SiL acquired 3 ex battery hens last November - the poor things were in a dire state when they arrived, but settled well and regrew most of their feathers fairly quickly. They have a lovely coop which automatically locks their ‘bedroom’ on a timer, and SiL has attached a really good big run.

They are all very fond of them and the baby (16 months) loves watching them. The chooks are very fond of ‘white worms’, i.e. any leftover spaghetti, and on the odd occasion when we’ve eaten in the garden with them lately, they’re very good at hoovering up scraps dropped by 3 Gdcs.

They’re allowed out in the garden as long as dd or SiL is there to watch in case of Mr Fox.
I do worry though that dd can be a bit complacent about foxes, since it’s not too unusual around here (different area but I dare say much the same there) to see them in the daytime, and a fox could grab one so quickly. But ?.

Lovely pics Trishsa she does look happy in her new home.

Sorry Trisha!

Oh Trisher she is beautiful!
I've never seen a black chicken before (I don't have much / any experience of chickens).
I'm so glad that you are both happy.

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Just an update: This morning I received photos of Sage with her new friends and thought I would share them with you. She is the very dark feathered one. She looks very "involved", and the new owner says that she is getting on very well with all the others. Phew, what a relief! I'm so pleased that she will have a happy life there and I now know I did the right thing by her.

We have one remaining chicken from a flock of six or so, we think she is about 6 or 7 and of course no longer laying, she seems ok on her own and as a PP says could not be put in with others as she would suffer.
She does like human company, though and will get under DH's feet when he's in the garden. (Looking for treats, mostly).

Fanny and Jane - thank you. I'm almost 100% sure I've done the right thing, and your comments were reassuring. Fennel aren't cockerels very noisy? I don't think our neighbours would have been very happy if they were woken at the crack of dawn by crowing cockerels!

I could be wrong but it seems that most of you only have females, no males. Adding a cockerel or 2 to the flock probably changes the behaviour of the hens-less nastiness among themselves. Then of course you get the chicks.
We used to buy cockerels 'for the pot'. They lived a happy life for some time before that. They do tend to fight each other but survive. We usually had a "boss" cockerel, more colourful than the others.
Their behaviour often made me laugh -so like humans in many ways.

Aww Trisha I am sure she will be fine

Oh well done Trisha
It sounds like you have done the right thing for Sage. Hope you are ok

I've enjoyed reading all these chicken stories.

So sorry to hear you lost your old chicken Joanna Trisha

I was thinking of getting a few chickens when I move, garden not that big, thought to get rescues, to give them a taste of the 'good life'. Only problem is I have a little dog and don't know how he will be with them.

Well, I bit the bullet after Sage spent the day pacing back and forth at the front of her run, rather like the poor bears in the zoo back in the days when they were kept in solitary confinement in too small cages. She just seemed agitated even when I was giving her lots of attention and stroking her to calm her down. I really couldn't bear to see her like that. I got in touch with a local lady who takes in rescue chickens, guinea pigs and rabbits. She has lots of experience of introducing new chickens to the flock, and after meeting her and having lots of discussion, she has taken Sage with her this evening. She has promised that she will take special care to make sure that she is not bullied and will keep in touch with photos etc. I do feel sad, but have had to weigh up what I think is best for Sage.

It's lovely to read all your stories about your chickens. They do all have their individual quirks and personalities. I had one who snatched the little brush that I used to clean out the cracks and crevices in the coop (like a mini bottle-brush) and wouldn't let me have it back. She took it into a corner of the run and sat on it! Eventually she lost interest in it and I managed to sneak it back. Who knows what was going on there!!

Friend of mine had 4 chickens and one night a fox got 3 of them. She was terribly upset because she'd forgotten to make them safe for the night.

So she got 3 more and is now stuck with 4 chickens who hate each other in equal measures

Every time she tries to get them on a play date they peck and pull each other's feathers out.

So she now has 4 chickens living in solitary confinement runs. They glare at each other now and then.

Friend intends on trying 2 together to see how they get on but she's not optimistic.

Beautiful pics Merlotgran

I kept hens for a number of years and eventually when I was down to my last girl asked a breeder if he had an older lady who wasn't too feisty to join her. They lived happily for a few years but inevitably one died and I decided not to get any more. My last girl was very happy by herself and just scratched about as before. As said by Bluecat they aren't very bright and certainly there was no indication she was 'looking' for the other one. I have to say my brown Warren girls were smart (and I use that term very, very loosely) in comparison to my Silkies who were totally confused by everything.

Our DD kept 4 chickens when she lived at home and we took over their care when she moved out. Emmeline, the last one, died a fortnight ago. She must have been 4 or 5 years old. I believe that 7 is the average age, but a lot only live to be 3 or 4.

Emmeline spent her last year alone and was perfectly happy. We thought she might pine but not at all. Chickens aren't the sharpest tools in the box and I suspect that she had forgotten the other chickens had ever existed.

It’s sad that chickens are the most abused animals on the planet - male chicks are gassed or crushed at birth , hens are bred so they lay as much as possible, are debeaked, have broken limbs , are depleted of calcium, most live short miserable lives. It’s good to hear that some folks look after their chickens and grow to appreciate their individual personalities. They are cognitively as , if not more, intelligent than dogs, can be taught to count and distinguish colours.

so sad to hear of the loss of your poor hen. What a long happy life she has had. A friend of mine had one hen that lived to be 11. Rescue hens do not seem to live anything like that long, they arrive worn out and in a dreadful state. Might a couple of rescue hens be an idea?
Some people allow their solo hens into the house sometimes, so they get human company at least. Another friend has just the one at the moment and she sometimes comes in and has a bit of a rest and cleans up any crumbs in the kitchen

We used to have a Maran cockerel [Charles 1st] who lived for 10 years 8 months from hatching. His son Charles 2nd only made it to 9 years. Most of the hens departed at around 8 years old. So well done. You must be giving them lots of care and attention. Keep up the good work.

We started off with 4 rescue hens about 11yrs ago and at one time had a total of 12 hens, some rescues, a few hybrids and a few pure breeds. The pure breeds do seem to live longer, we lost our last hen at the age of 10 to a fox last year. She was a beautiful Welsummer hen and was still laying at that age. She had been on her own for about a year and she seemed quite happy

I read a lovely story recently about a woman who rescued some battery hens. One was on its last legs, pecked cruelly and almost without feathers. This chicken realised instantly that if it stuck close to her, it wouldn't get attacked, and eventually developed into a lovely fat hen with shiny feathers. The woman set up a rescue organisation and has now rehomed thousands of these poor, ill used creatures and given them happy lives.