Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

I wonder what happened. First I get eggs early January this year from my two younger hens Katrientje and Janice. Then Katrientje and Kraai get broody halfway February. Now they stopped being stupid, but I get no eggs anymore. .

 

[Perris]

No, this is the % on the food. It's actually listed as 6 g protein for 100 g drained cooked lentils.

so this is for lentils cooked in water without salt
https://tools.myfooddata.com/nutrition-facts/172421/100g/1
note the actual grams of protein are given immediately after the word 'protein' and the % DV is given on the right margin.
And this is for raw lentils
https://tools.myfooddata.com/nutrition-facts/172420/100g/1
again actual grams/100 grams and percents DV are given separately.
There are a lot of other lentil entries (and over 200,000 other foods apparently!) on that website for anyone who wants to pursue it further.

 

[ManueB]

10C with occasional sunshine. Three hours there today. Had the geese out as well once the chickens had eaten and were waiting by the gate.
One of the other allotment holders came by. They hadn't seen the chickens since November or ever seen them out on the allotments before. They commented that they looked really well and were even more amazed when they saw Henry run.

C came by to feed and water the geese. Even C commented on how well Carbon looked. C had thought Carbon wouldn't live for long a couple of months ago.

Three eggs again today.
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Henry is a lot more relaxed. I dig a bit, then he digs a bit. The most noticable difference is he eats what he finds unless it's something really special. This is good for Henry. He needs his greens and bugs to. We got through the berry bushes together without killing off the healthy stems I hope. He and Lima got stuck in from the other side once I had pulled the geo textile cloth out. I spoke to C and said I was going to go the full width of the plot; there's another metre and half on the other side of the bushes that hasn't had anything done to it for 3 or 4 years.

This is going to make a rather larger plot than I had initally wanted. The fact that the resized plot is large enough to put a decent chicken run on has absolutly no relevance.
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Glad to see you got yourself a wheelbarrow!
I'm sure Henry is feeling more relaxed : having about 20 hens to watch over must have been exhausting and stressful. Now he can take some time for himself and enjoy life. And maybe he feels safe knowing you are around.

Hi everyone! My husband & i spent the last few days caring for the farm flocks. I have only been helping with projects recently (fencing, installation of nest boxes, barn cleaning), so I haven’t much had time to observe, and the feeding is usually done before I get there. When I went into the feed barn, I noticed one of the roosters who has moved in with the older ladies (they didn’t have a male there), calling them with a chuck chuck deep sound when I went into the barn. I dropped some feed & scratch for him, and watched about 5 of the older girls circle round with him to get their share. My son commented that one of the girls was following him everywhere last time, and I noticed she was right with him again today. The boys in the other barn made a similar noise when we filled the feeders in there, but it wasn’t as obvious as it was when I first got out there. I am actually incubating some eggs, so it will be interesting to see how many fertile eggs are in the bunch. Both flocks can intermingle, but aside from an ISA, a legbar, and the Ancona, the new flock tends to stay on their side of the field, and the old flock plus their new man hang on the other side. Very interesting dynamic to watch indeed. I had no time to take pictures as I was muddy after working, but thought I’d share a story instead. Hopefully the story counts as tax!

So now there's a flock with only one roo, and the other males have stayed together? Wise guy!
That also has me wondering how does it go when you have growing chicks of different breeds that reach maturity at different ages , would it be a problem between the cockerels and hens or do they adapt to their hatch mate ?

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I wonder what happened. First I get eggs early January this year from my two younger hens Katrientje and Janice. Then Katrientje and Kraai get broody halfway February. Now they stopped being stupid, but I get no eggs anymore. .

.
Is broodyness sensitive to climate change ?
Two of my pullets, Merle and Léa, were in and out broody from Christmas through January and stopped laying for ten days when they came out of it.
Yesterday when Merle was on her roost I noticed she had plucked her belly bare again so I'm expecting round 2 soon .

 

[ManueB]

I'm surprised you don't get dried beans where you live.

Off course we do ! White beans and potatoes have been the basis of winter survival here for decades . People used to put some bacon in there , we cook them with homemade tomato sauce, garlic and onions.

Fun stupid mistake : last year we planted the beans in the garden in front of the hives as they don't require a lot of intervention when growing. For the first year we had lots of hornets hanging out near the hives. I discovered I was allergic so I had to harvest the beans wearing a bee suit .

 

[Perris]

White beans and potatoes have been the basis of winter survival here for decades . People used to put some bacon in there , we cook them with homemade tomato sauce, garlic and onions.

are you in/near cassoulet country?

 

[RoyalChick]

You guys are talking food again and I am hungry again. Dried beans aren't that hard to cook - just remember to leave some to soak overnight when you go to bed and they cook up quickly in the morning.
I made my own falafel (baked in the oven) starting from dried chickpeas - it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and was awesome. You put so many herbs in that the whole mixture turns green and the house smelled fabulous for days with the herbs and spices. I need to do that again. So yummy!

Tax: Drama leading up to first egg. Babs with her bodyguard, Eli.

 

[Perris]

I made my own falafel (baked in the oven) starting from dried chickpeas - it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and was awesome. You put so many herbs in that the whole mixture turns green and the house smelled fabulous for days with the herbs and spices. I need to do that again. So yummy!

recipe please! sounds scrumptious!

 

[RoyalChick]

recipe please! sounds scrumptious!

I will dig it up and post - just be prepared to get more herbs than you can possibly imagine being needed!

 

[Iluveggers]

So now there's a flock with only one roo, and the other males have stayed together? Wise guy!
That also has me wondering how does it go when you have growing chicks of different breeds that reach maturity at different ages , would it be a problem between the cockerels and hens or do they adapt to their hatch mate ?

Yes that is exactly what happened! He was hanging out near them for a few days, then actually hanging out with them, until one night he was up on the roost with them and had been ever since! He is an EE, and surprisingly, the hen that follows him everywhere is also an EE! We haven’t had to integrate any groups yet, the small barn was our original group of about 20 females going on 2 years old, and we added the new group of 4 week olds to a separate barn. There were a little over 30 chicks in that group. At the time, 25 were female chicks from hatcheries, and the rest were unknown chicks from a hatch I did (except for 2 female legbars who I knew were girls from hatch). Ended up with 4 boys and 3 girls. We were expecting to have to rehome or cull at least 2 boys, but surprisingly the alpha emerged, one deflected to the older girls barn, and the other two are content with our alpha being in charge. And (hopefully) the flock is big enough that there’s enough females to keep everyone happy. They are almost a year old now.

 

[bruceha2000]

and a herb we call ketoembar or dried koriander

Here Coriander is the seed of the Cilantro plant, Cilantro is the leaves and stems. I love it but to some people it tastes like soap. One has to wonder what they were doing as children that they know what soap tastes like

I wonder what happened. First I get eggs early January this year from my two younger hens Katrientje and Janice. Then Katrientje and Kraai get broody halfway February. Now they stopped being stupid, but I get no eggs anymore. .

Generally speaking once I've broken a broody she won't lay for about 5 days. Of course she wasn't laying while broody either. Give the girls time and see if they don't start back up.