Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[notabitail]

Mugs Monday.
If I posted this already tell me so I can find another.

 

[Ponypoor]

Mine are on 20% year round and still try to raid the cat food.

I was going through my feed and noted this last batch of chick starter that have was only 18%!!!!! I have never had starter less than 20%, but this was a brand starter grabbed when I picked up the Noirans.

When I get back to work tomorrow I’ll look up the 20% Game feed and see what the calcium level is. If it’s around 3% I will try it out. With winter coming on these guys won’t have opportunities that get bugs and such for protein and I don’t have enough left overs here to supplement them with meat.

 

[Ponypoor]

Zebra duck mug for Monday. Just collected these two pullets in exchange for my two slightly older cockerels. They've gone back to the breeder because he didn't have any males from that line and had to retire the cock. There were some Polish hens there with haircuts that matched @Ponypoor 's two. And Pavlovskayas and Appenzellers and a trio of feather dusters.
View attachment 4231684

Oh she’s lovely, I so love a nice cuckoo/barred pattern. It looks so nice.

 

[Ponypoor]

Will someone please tell my roo Gizmo, that the front yard beyond the gate is OFF LIMITS!!
Little brat loves to explore, until I catch him. Then it’s run for your life, here comes daddy!! Then he’ll perch as high as he can, and crow at me in defiance.

Yep I feel your pain - those game birds are cheeky so and so’s. Mrs LC scared to crap out of all of us earlier, she came flying in and had everyone scrambling for cover and me thinking it was a small hawk attacking!

 

[Ponypoor]

So thinking about Bob’s Niamh’s roosting I was reminded of the Roovolution podcast episode I just listened to. Have you heard these theories or research? I have heard only some.

What do you think of this information?

First claim, that one eye is nearsighted and the other farsighted. You will see a chicken consistently looking at the ground things with the nearsighted eye and further things, like the sky, with the farsighted eye. They can do both at once. Seems to me we would be seeing a consistent tilt of the head.

Second claim, that in roosting, because they can do this unispheric sleeping, sleeping with just one half of their brain, they keep one eye relatively active, which will be the outside eye, the one facing away from the main group roosting, to be able to see a predator as soon as possible.

Third claim, in order to give the other half of the brain a sleep time, they’ll turn around while on the roost so that the first eye is now facing in and the other out. (If this is true, maybe this accounts for falling off the roost?)

Third +1/2 claim, this is one reason there is competition for the inner roosting spots, the coveted safer places, because there’s less urgency to keep a lookout, and - I’m not sure I remember this right - I think they said that in the inner roosting spots they can then have periods where they let both sides of their brain sleep at the same time.

Yes I have seen/read studies regarding the eyesight of poultry. And yes the one eye is used for distance sight and the other for close up. Yes they have hemispheric sleeping also, though not to the extent that geese and ducks do. Poultry have the ability to sleep completely or with half their brain.

I have read varying reports on night vision, some suggest it isn’t as good as ours, others suggest it’s as good or better.

This all stemmed from my observing Marty leap into the abyss a few yrs ago when I was working in Alberta. Nothing like checking your camera at 2am from 4,000km away and seeing your silkie hen leap 4’ to the ground!!!!!

You ok Marty?!

I think we all had a really nice discussion about this.

Oh and don’t worry she was fine! And she’s still with us

 

[featherhead007]

I have heard/read most of this in the past. I do notice my geese always look at the sky with their right eye. Chickens move around too much, I don't really know that I have confirmed that it is consistent.

I definitely have read in multiple places about the 'sleep with one half the brain/eye closed, the other half alert.' Might have been why @RoyalChick 's Bernie liked the wall spot on the prime roost!

This explains half of my High School class!

 

[featherhead007]

I was going through my feed and noted this last batch of chick starter that have was only 18%!!!!! I have never had starter less than 20%, but this was a brand starter grabbed when I picked up the Noirans.

When I get back to work tomorrow I’ll look up the 20% Game feed and see what the calcium level is. If it’s around 3% I will try it out. With winter coming on these guys won’t have opportunities that get bugs and such for protein and I don’t have enough left overs here to supplement them with meat.

Buy them steak like I do!

 

[featherhead007]

Yep I feel your pain - those game birds are cheeky so and so’s. Mrs LC scared to crap out of all of us earlier, she came flying in and had everyone scrambling for cover and me thinking it was a small hawk attacking!

I’m quickly becoming a game bird expert

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Thank you so much for the reassurance

I’ll second @RoyalChick. I started looking at higher protein levels than ordinary feed in preparations for my first chickens, Buckeyes, which are supposedly a “heritage” breed. (They are, but what you actually get in day old chicks from hatcheries is another story). Conservancy groups and Buckeye organizations said heritage breeds should have higher levels of protein for starter similar to game birds, recommending generally 22-24% and leveling off to 20-22% or thereabouts when grown. I have a chart somewhere….the protein is what is needed especially during molt. But companies also are catching on to the backyard keeper. Kalmbach has a “full plume feathering feed” which is a layer and is 20%, Nutrena has a “feather fixer” that also is 20% (or is it 22%?) with decent calcium levels for layers.

There’s a margin for error here, remember we give mealworms and sardines (and steak @featherhead007) as treats….Do you agree RC - excess protein will be metabolized, and unless you’re really cranking on the protein, or you’ve got a bird with kidney issues, they can handle the variations in levels?

Anyway I’m very comfortable with 20% for everybody. I’d be comfortable with even 24% for younger and active birds, especially young dual-purpose birds like Buckeyes and Orpingtons who have lots of muscle to grow and maintain. Now I’ve got an older hen Hazel, who is small and thin, not laying much either. But I want her to maintain her muscles too. And young pullets just under 20 weeks. So 20% for everybody.

 

[kattabelly]

I think that @kattabelly wouldn’t be permitted to make changes to the allotment, as it isn’t private property.

With allotments here there are very strict by-laws as to what can be grown, fencing, use of growing tunnels…. I have never heard of being allowed poultry here on allotments though.

Technically we haven't got round to finalising the wording of the rule about planting new trees and shrubs and voting it into the site rules and regs, but as a trustee and board member I really shouldn't. We're set up as a charitable organisation that runs a community garden, so we do get to make our own rules to some extent although the land is still leased and not owned by us. I'm also at the top of the site, on better drained (but still not well drained) but much thinner ground in places. There's big lumps of rock sticking out from the earth just metres away in the fields to both sides. The willows further down the hill would be unsafe closer to a coop or any structure because despite being well established in deeper soil, they still suffer from such extreme windrock that they can be leaning a few metres further in one direction or the other, depending on where the wind last came from. Even if the site rules allowed, it's not like I could start planting rows of shelter for future trees on other folk's plots next to mine or the adjacent fields that aren't part of our site. There's also no chance I could get away with pretending something like oak or beech had magically self-seeded itself there from miles away

The wind isn't even a problem anyway. It's something we're used to living with and working around.

Being allowed to keep chickens has historically been pretty standard on UK allotments, although it's less widespread now.