Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[RoyalChick]

4 of the Ex Battery hens are eating very little of the commerical feed.
1 Legbar has just started to eat more than she was.
Matilda is eating less.
Apart from the Legbar none are giving me cause for real concern.

The crops I've felt were not bulging, but far from empty. They had scrambled egg yesterday, 14 eggs between 19.
Two tins of Mackerel with chopped cabbage today in addition to the 17.5 protein commercial feed.

Thanks. Maggie is eating, just not commercial feed and not a lot. It seems to be mainly grass seeds and some plantain leaves. Last year all she would eat were earthworms, but it has been so dry this year that they are not so easy to find. She hangs out where I pile the leaves and my guess is there are worms under there.

 

[Shadrach]

Maybe the screen is just perfect for me after I went to bed. bc I’m shortsighted. I read perfectly at a distance of 20 cm after I took out my contact-lenses. And my fingers are probably a bit smallers than yours.

When you give it one more try you can use a special pen 🖊 to typ on a mobile phone.

That will not be happening. What will the chickens think of my intelligence if I'm squinting at a bit of plastic as I prod it with a short stick. I have two proper computers at home and there is no urgency post.

 

[Shadrach]

Thanks. Maggie is eating, just not commercial feed and not a lot. It seems to be mainly grass seeds and some plantain leaves. Last year all she would eat were earthworms, but it has been so dry this year that they are not so easy to find. She hangs out where I pile the leaves and my guess is there are worms under there.

Does she eat treats if you offer them?
Tan, a hen who just wouldn't eat anything she hadn't dug up when she moulted, fell for prawns.

 

[BDutch]

I don't struggle with keeping the cats. They were rescued in some cases from clearly very nasty situations (judging by their state of nutrition and fear of certain things). It is also clear who is using whom in our relationship, and cats as a species chose to move in with people many thousands of years ago.
I am less clear how I think about the chickens.

The cats I know (have known) go wherever they please. But after their usual round the block, they prefer to come home.

My chickens can get away easily too. But prefer to come back home, not just for food or to sleep. They go inside the coop and run again after finishing the usual round in the garden.

 

[RoyalChick]

Does she eat treats if you offer them?
Tan, a hen who just wouldn't eat anything she hadn't dug up when she moulted, fell for prawns.

Some.
She likes: shrimp, corn on the cob, hot dog bun, apple cores, and one time she liked ground beef
She rejected: tuna, scrambled egg, chopped hazelnuts, and ground beef after the first try.
Today she went for dried venison cat food - meaning the scrapings off the cats plates after they have finished their canned food.

She really likes corn on the cob. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I offered lobster and caviar she would be quite content. But we aren't going there if I can avoid it!

 

[RoyalChick]

The cats I know (have known) go wherever they please. But after their usual round the block, they prefer to come home.

My chickens can get away easily too. But prefer to come back home, not just for food or to sleep. They go inside the coop and run again after finishing the usual round in the garden.

Seems to me that you are more of a friendly inn-keeper than a gaoler.

 

[ppruitt]

Do you eat them and do they taste different to store bought chicken to you?
I don't know exactly when it happened but a long time ago I decided that I didn't like the taste of store bought chicken and much prefered the taste and texture of fully free range chicken.

I haven't eaten any of these yet. I did precook them in an Instant Pot with broth and have frozen some. I plan to try one this week. I will let you know how it is. Honestly, in the US, the store bought chicken are all Cornish Crosses and have little to no taste. I am hoping these are more tasty. I do know what you mean about free range tasting better. In the early 80s I lived on a farm and raised Flemish Giant rabbits for meat. They were good tasting and produced a large rabbit, but the taste of wild or game rabbit was much better.

 

[Perris]

I find the lack of a known cause, or even a strongly hypothesized cause, makes me quite anxious.

What I dislike most about it, I think, is the feeling of helplessness it induces. @ManueB asked about getting a PCR test, and I imagine that is possible, but I don't think lab testing gives a complete answer unless you ask for and provide samples for all the tests they can do, and even then it may provide only one part of the answer. Given I'm a hobby keeper, and my birds are continually interacting with the uncontrolled environment of my garden (some of it even saucy! yes, I'm looking at you Paprika ), I think I just have to let Darwin take the driving seat. I see my role in these cases as palliative nurse rather than someone required or entitled to play god.

 

[Perris]

I may just make some kind of copy.

I built it to be a covered feeding station, so I can put food and water out and about safely, and like the coops it's mobile (needs 2 people) so I can move it onto fresh ground as required. It's turned out to be more robust than I thought it would be - only made of IKEA pine and a couple of sheets of onduline - and the chickens use it as a shelter as well as feeding station.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

67 mostly sunny 92% humidity feels like 66 thunderstorms 56%.

Have a great day!