hen saddle

My instructable for the egg contest!
what could be more related to eggs than chicken?

Make your hens happy and get delicious eggs as thanks.

chicken owners know about the issues of the roosters favourite lady - her back is bald.
here´s how to prevent that, protect the hen from sore, and helping the feathers grow back.

let me introduce the

HEN SADDLE!

Step 1 Materials

you'll need:

scissors
pins
thread
needle
sewing machine

fabric (jeans work great)
elastic rubber band
a mid-sized button

pattern

Comments

[AluminumFoilMaster]

lol imagine if a bunch of chipmunks were riding those like horses and charging a person who abuses animals like a cavalry unit! Lol!

[Mimikry]

hahahaha - what a cool sight :o)

[Mutantflame]

Ha! Reminds me of the saddles they put on on some ostriches in South Africa so you can ride them!

Very good

[Midsummernight]

This is such a wonderful idea. Thanks for posting.

[Vyger]

Overly horny roosters can be a problem. Some of our hens actually got sunburned after their feathers got worn off. I preferred ducks to chickens. They were a lot more sociable and they didn't do damage to the garden. They just went after the bugs. But the chicken eggs were better.

[Mimikry]

yeah chicken are rude and cruel animals.
can't have ducks though - it's to cold in the winter.

[kikiorg]

How cold? Ducks do well in the winter because they have down (unlike chickens.) In fact, the down gets thicker in the winter -- if you're keeping the down, "harvest" the ducks when it's good and cold so the down has thickened up. (It takes a lot of ducks for down though -- we made a crib comforter with 7 ducks' worth and it's pretty thin! One goose made a nice fluffy crib pillow though.)

We're in the Bay Area, which doesn't even freeze hardly, but even so, the ducks played in the rain all winter long, happy as clams!

Look into it for your area, but I doubt you'd have much trouble keeping ducks in the winter.

Kiki

[fonzuzu]

Umm, how exactly do you harvest a duck, do you cut of the feathers or what?

[kikiorg]

"Harvest" is a nice way to say, "process" or "make table-ready" or, well, "behead and pluck." Harvesting doesn't mean harvesting the feathers. I pluck feathers only from no-longer-living ducks. It's less painful that way. At least the plucking part. :->

Kiki -- actually, with a very sharp, fast tool, I doubt "harvesting" is that painful at all

[Mimikry]

we have about -22°F in winter , and the winter is quite long.
snow period is from november until april.
all the wild ducks are leaving in october and all the lakes are frozen completely from december to may.

[Midsummernight]

We ive in Canada under about the same condition as your northern Sweden sounds like. My friend has kept ducks for many years. They are a happy crowd, the winters dont face them. They are very messy though and their barn gets stinky very fast. They dont mind.......lol!! Duck eggs are my personal favourite, they have a nicer taste! She raised Khaki and I think Emdens. They are really happy when it is rainy out. Very funny to watch them truck around in the puddles and creek, obviously in high spirits because of the pouring rain!

[Mimikry]

Hey there Midsummernight
But the ducks would like to have open water - i guess
I am always wondering what i would like if I were the chicken/ rabbit/ cat or whatever - and thats exactly what they get ;D

The Chicken have 4 sqm full with dry dirt that they can take their dirt-bath even in winter or when it's rainy in summer - also they have a very big coop - it's a lot easier to keep them from attacking each other, because they are less bored and can avoid ech other

the rabbits are kept in a Oversized cage with the possibility to "mow" my yard :D I couldn't keep them in these small cages with a clean conscience.

And the ducks should have some sort of open water even in winter- thats at least my "fantasy" :)

[oldanvilyoungsmith]

Ducks don't have to go through the winter. Raise them starting in spring, and they are just right when thanksgiving rolls around.


Yes I'm serious. Home grown meat is a lot healthier than the hormone stuffed meat at the store. And duck is quite good. We usually raise around 8. Still got 2 in the freezer.

[Mimikry]

we also raise for eating purpose and my husband began with hunting 2 years ago.
- i don't buy any meat in the store, it's sad to kill the animals but you know that they had a good life.

maybe i should think about ducks, but maybe is the summerperiod too short.
the snow just disappeared a week ago, also they need a pond.....

we'll see :)

[Vyger]

The biggest problem I had with my ducks was that I liked them to much. Giving them the axe was a lot harder than the chickens. They also stay together in a flock as opposed to chickens, so when their numbers start going down they notice.

I believe the wild ones migrate more because of food shortage rather than the cold. When everything freezes up they can't get food. We get super bad winters here too, it goes to 40 below sometimes. My chickens used to get frostbite wattles. Roosters that went through a winter usually lost their combs to frostbite.
And many of the barn cats are missing the tips of their ears because they get frozen off as well.

[Mimikry]

you can prevent the roosters combs from freezing with vaseline.
also there are breeds with special combs that are low and very thick - but i don't know what it's called in english.

It so much fun to have animals but when it comes to slaughtering it's only sad :(
but as i mentioned before, the conscience is fine if you know that the animals died withour pain and that they had a good life.

[Sithen]

We have a chicken JUST Like the one in the second photo! :D

[kristina]

thank you for that wonderful information

[Mimikry]

yeah it's nice to know how to help the poor ladies :)

[n_toxic_ated]

my apologies,Mimikry, for detracting from your original instructable content.

[Mimikry]

doesn't matter - it was good information so why bother :)

[dhazard]

Thank you so much for the great idea. Also for the person looking for eggs and or chickens, I ordered day old chicks from MurrayMcMurray Hatchery. The chicks are now 3 months old and doing great, they also have Australorpe and you can order chicks or eggs for hatching, they also offer a catalogue of all their breeds.

[Mirime]

Very nice but quick question. Do you think that this would work for our turkeys?
Of couse sizing up for a turkey hen but the fabric is a concern. We have Blacks and our tom is kind of hard on his ladies.

[Mimikry]

i think that's no problem - it's almost the same anatomy - you just need it much bigger.
why is the fabric a concern? - jeans should work maybe you could even fill it to make it more thick.

[Mirime]

Have you ever been kicked by a tom? If you have ever had a bad tempered rooster it is like getting attacked by a 25-35 lb rooster with good sized claws.

[Mimikry]

ok - sounds not too nice :)
but honestly i would send all bad tempered roosters to siberia - (means freeze chest)

[Mirime]

Oh he was but after that you can understand what the claws feel like.

[mmoscrop]

Thank goodness and you for this idea - I have this same problem with my huge 18 month old Rhode Island Cross Austrolorpe Rooster - I have clipped his spurs already - but they keep growing. I have separated all my Austrolorpe hens from him because of the defeathering on their backs and watched while they molted and have grown their feathers back. I was even considering disposing of him but he has a lovely gentlemanly nature with a deep crow and apart from this problem there is nothing wrong with him. The hens are much safer free ranging with him watching out for predators.

[Mimikry]

you're welcome :)
I really would like to have some australorpe chicken - they are great , maybe someday i can get my fingers on some eggs for hatching :)

[zinc72]

This is great!! My fairies all ways wanted a saddle and I could not figure out how to make one. thank you so much!

[Cluckie]

I don't know which is more entertaining - the Saddle or this comment thread! :o)

[Mimikry]

why choose :)

[Black Panther Knex]

Great ible. I'll vote for you because this is exactly what I need for my hens. Good luck!

[Mimikry]

thank you :)

[pekar]

Awesome, You could also put eyes on the back to deter hawks. There's a commercial product like that.

[Mimikry]

the eyes are in fact a pretty good idea - not really sure if it works but worth a try.
i red somewhere that the red dots over for example a rottweiler-dog are to protect the eyes from birdattack - if it's true don't know :)

my chickenyard is covered with a net - so they're safe from hawks, but it's not really easy to cover such a big space with net - but possible :)

[shilohjim]

How difficult is it to put them on the hens? I would imaging it would be like trying to give a cat a bath. :)

[Noadi]

If you've hand raised the hens and handled them frequently then they are very friendly and docile. My parents' have hens and they love to be petted just like a dog.

[Mimikry]

it's quite easy - don't be rude and the chicken remains calm :)

if they are hard to catch or almost wild it's always easiest to take care of them at dusk or dawn - they can't see very good if it's almost dark.
so simply grab them or pick them from the roost et voila :)

[numenius]

This is a neat idea - they can indeed get sunburned as a result of this "over friendly" rooster problem! Of course, you only need a rooster/cockerel if you require chicks. So it's often just as easy to borrow one for a couple of weeks in the year (and quieter too as hens don't crow!) so he can perfom his services. But it is always nice to see the rooster strutting about the place.

This is a great idea you have had here and it will make life more pleasant for some poor hens! - Makes you wonder what it is that makes one hen more attractive than the others !