Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

…In NL we have several so called clearings almost every week. Sometimes even > 200.000 in one large factory farm.

Some info on contaminations in the last month /2 months.
1 found contaminated wild birds:

2 BYC chickens and other poultry up to 50.

3 contaminated factory poultry farms with numbers.

https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/vogelgriep/besmettingen-vogelgriep-bij-bedrijven

 

[Shadrach]

Shad are these dry chips?
Fresh chips can cause a mold if they haven't composted a bit.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/dying-chickens.1129854/page-9

I don't really know.
They are advertised as suitable for a chicken run.

I read most of the thread. A sad thing to happen. I think the instances of chickens getting poisoned by bedding is low and hopefully for the rest of us doesn't happen. Until there is further evidence that the problem is common one and the conditions one kept the chickens in were similar to the OP's, I don't think it's something I should worry about.
I hope I'm right.

As Beekissed has pointed out in a manner, something is going to take advantage of weaknesses in the flock and rather more interestingly their keeping arrangements. I don't think her view made her popular in some quarters but that doesn't make her wrong.

 

[Shadrach]

More seriously, there is lots of scope for interpretation. The animal welfare act of 2016 is not trumped by defra temporary measures to try to prevent the spread of ai - which as a disease is only one of the things we should try to protect our birds from. Freedom from stress, unsuitable housing, overcrowding etc have the same weighting in law, as does the freedom to express natural behaviours.

Lockdowns are panic measures. They often cause more problems that they solve. As I've written before we could learn from our experiences with Covid and the passage of time. Covid is still here. We are better able to medically deal with it, but the cost of the lockdowns will never be properly quantified.

 

[Shadrach]

This is what I'm getting.

https://www.cpa-horticulture.co.uk/woodchip/chicken-hardwood-chip.

 

[Shadrach]

About 4C when I left.
Found another hen with mites. I got some help from Matilda. Now I've been a bit dense on this one and while I've noticed a few times in the past, I didn't watch for long enough to make me look and think more.
Matilda checks the hens rear ends. Harold and a few other roosters I've known did it. On first sight it just looks like they are trying to peck a feather out but if you watch carefully the roosters are checking for and picking off mites/lice. I saw Matilda inspect 7 hens this evening; some got an almost immediate pass but two Matilda kept pecking at. I grabbed those two. One was the hen I already knew about. They both have mild mite problems.
Throughouut the afternoon I grabbed a couple of the others who got an immediate pass; clean.

This is the hen that has decided I should put her to bed at roost time. She comes and looks for me and if I walk to the back of the coop, she trots over and when I put my hands down palms up, she walks straight into them.

This is the hen that looked quite sick for a few weeks. She's still not 100% but she's much better than she was. I can't help wondering exactly what's wrong with her.

 

[Solanacae]

I read today that 50% of the UK's freerange turkeys were destroyed because of AI. 50%? That is astonishingly high. Can that possibly be true?

That sounds like a large percentage, but how many birds does that actually translate into? I would assume that if they specify free range, then that would be a portion of the overall domesticated turkey population.

The two places I have kept chickens is part of a large migratory bird flyway. I spoke to a person who was in charge of AI testing for the county extension service and he basically said there’s not a lot that you can do to prevent transmission here short of putting your birds in a clean room and never visiting. Birds will fly overhead, droppings will fall where they will, and even intense biosecurity will likely fail. There was never a mandatory lockdown, and so I just let my birds go about their lives as usual and hoped for the best. A major industrial chicken operation in the same valley where I used to live had a massive outbreak (despite very strict biosecurity measures) and ended up culling 200,000 birds. A local zoo there had to cull several of their birds as well. It made me sick at heart. Egg prices have also gone up substantially around here, because that commercial farm supplies eggs to many local grocery chains both under the store label and their own.

About 4C when I left.
Found another hen with mites. I got some help from Matilda. Now I've been a bit dense on this one and while I've noticed a few times in the past, I didn't watch for long enough to make me look and think more.
Matilda checks the hens rear ends. Harold and a few other roosters I've known did it. On first sight it just looks like they are trying to peck a feather out but if you watch carefully the roosters are checking for and picking off mites/lice. I saw Matilda inspect 7 hens this evening; some got an almost immediate pass but two Matilda kept pecking at. I grabbed those two. One was the hen I already knew about. They both have mild mite problems.
Throughouut the afternoon I grabbed a couple of the others who got an immediate pass; clean.

This is the hen that has decided I should put her to bed at roost time. She comes and looks for me and if I walk to the back of the coop, she trots over and when I put my hands down palms up, she walks straight into them.
View attachment 3338614
This is the hen that looked quite sick for a few weeks. She's still not 100% but she's much better than she was. I can't help wondering exactly what's wrong with her.
View attachment 3338616
View attachment 3338612View attachment 3338611View attachment 3338610

Fascinating! What an excellent skill. Matilda must consider herself the matron or something!

 

[BDutch]

I

I don't really know.
They are advertised as suitable for a chicken run.

I read most of the thread. A sad thing to happen. I think the instances of chickens getting poisoned by bedding is low and hopefully for the rest of us doesn't happen. Until there is further evidence that the problem is common one and the conditions one kept the chickens in were similar to the OP's, I don't think it's something I should worry about.
I hope I'm right.

As Beekissed has pointed out in a manner, something is going to take advantage of weaknesses in the flock and rather more interestingly their keeping arrangements. I don't think her view made her popular in some quarters but that doesn't make her wrong.

I think that you are less at risk if you use a thin layer that will compost eventually. Here it was used on top of a thick layer with deep litter (in a coop?).

Something else to keep in mind. The risk of bumble foot increases with large and sharp wood chips. I would check the chickens feet regularly/ often to avoid serious problems if the chips are sharp.

About 7 years ago I thought it would be a good solutions to add a lot of wood chips to the run bc the water stagnated and the soil wasn’t healthy anymore (smelly).
I did read about flocks with several cases of bumble foot. The owners (2 similar cases) thought it was probably triggered by the sharp chips. I decided to make another plan bc of this (+ the costs). Simple drainage , replacing some of the top soil and adding lots of brown leaves every autumn made the soil healthy again. We don’t need to replace any of the soil anymore because it has a good structure with organic materials and is full of live. No smell and contains a lot of rainworms.

This year is the first time we added our own homemade woodchips to the run. The chips are mainly from pruning fruitrees. So its soft. The machine made very small chips. Max 2 cm. I expect the chips to disappear quickly l.

 

[Perris]

I copy this from the UK govt website for anyone who wants to use it
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bird-flu-avian-influenza-housing-your-birds-safely
Note the recognition here in the official documents that it may be the case, for welfare reasons, that you cannot house your birds. And you do not need to engage a vet - this is if you have one. The rules do not require you to get one, as they do not require you to build housing big enough to hold your flock indoors 24/7. They recognize that people have to work with what they've got, and if you are really doing your best for the welfare of your flock, no one in officialdom is going to argue that you're breaking the law. I can't speak for random members of the public who may know sweet FA about anything except the headlines in the mass media.

"If you cannot house or net your birds because of unavoidable welfare concerns, you must:

• feed and water them undercover
• move them away from large bodies of water that attract wildfowl
• take steps to discourage wild birds - check the National Farmers’ Union code of practice before you use a bird scarer

You must also speak to your private vet and put in writing:

• why you cannot house your birds
• the steps you are taking to protect them from bird flu"

 

[Perris]

And if you want to have fun with someone annoyingly persistent on the topic, try the rules for gamebirds
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bird-flu-rules-if-you-keep-game-birds
(when is a pheasant a wild bird? when isn't it?)

or pigeons, and birds of prey, including what to do if (when) the latter return with a wild bird in their talons
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/bird-fl...pigeons-birds-of-prey-and-other-captive-birds

These rules are ridiculous, and wouldn't stand up in the court of public opinion if only they were known.

 

[Perris]

On a different topic, this is quite useful
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/poultry-health
you can do it for free, though you'll need to pay if you want to participate in discussions and get a certificate at the end.

The main website has a lot of other short MOOCs on all sorts of topics you can browse and take for free.