Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[notabitail]

You should make the effort to find one and go. Even a quartet playing playing chamber music will help you understand why classical music isn't for me on a two channel stereo.
Unless you live somewhere very remote there is bound to be a venue that is within travelling distance.

I've been to Pergolesi's Stabat Mater when I was a lot smaller.
I've also heard a group of people singing polyphony before. No way could my stereo emulate that.
If I find one and can go I'll go (and tell you lot). Maybe they have one for humans and their chooks chooks and their humans.
I'd bet there are some performances about four hours (close to the chook feed place).

 

[BDutch]

It's a baby rooster. Did I forget to mention that?

With 17 weeks he is more like a teenager. Starting to crow is like having the beard in his throat.

Here's our head roo, Johnny Cashew, for tax.

View attachment 3599028

he’s a beautiful pile rooster

 

[Shadrach]

Three hours today and it stayed dry.
I got Fret of her nest and the stayed off for around twenty minutes this time; even ventured onto the allotments for a bit.
Henry and Fret both prefer the mixed grains I take to the mash now. Fret will only eat a little of the mash, hungry or not. If mixed grains don't appear she either go foraging or back to her nest with not a lot in her crop. This is good in some respects but not very convenient at the moment.
I'm losing a lot of feed to the doves, pigeons, crows and rats so getting the extension run door on and the anti dig skirt has become a priority. I had hoped to get the coop moved first but with Fret sitting it's probably not a good idea.
I've been cutting the skirt with small bolt cutters today and its a pita.

 

[Shadrach]

I've been to Pergolesi's Stabat Mater when I was a lot smaller.
I've also heard a group of people singing polyphony before. No way could my stereo emulate that.
If I find one and can go I'll go (and tell you lot). Maybe they have one for humans and their chooks chooks and their humans.
I'd bet there are some performances about four hours (close to the chook feed place).

I see you're using CDs. Being a bit of a computer person I thought you might have moved onto file based audio. If you are a headphone user you can make most headphones sound much much better with a parametric equalizer assuming you use a computer for playback.

 

[notabitail]

I see you're using CDs. Being a bit of a computer person I thought you might have moved onto file based audio. If you are a headphone user you can make most headphones sound much much better with a parametric equalizer assuming you use a computer for playback.

I've actually converted all my CDs into FLAC files. I have them on a NAS that then sends them over to a TV box hooked up to my DAC which is hooked up to my amplifier. It sounds great.
My phone has some kind of audio thing on it that sound decent as well.
The TV box was a $30 device. I saw that it was compatible with LineageOS (Android custom ROM) so I bought it and flashed it for the fun of it.
I'm going to have to pay tax in the form of my rooster cockerel.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I hate those.

I Googled and still don't know what they are.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Taxes and update on homemade feed transition. It's been exactly two months since I switched the chickens here to a totally non-commercial feeding routine. Their diet now consists of one meal of fermented grain and flax seed mix in the morning and one meal of a cooked rice, barley, peas, and vegetable mix in the afternoon. I add sunflower oil, turmeric, black pepper, and a small pinch of salt to the afternoon meal. Plus all they can forage free ranging all day. At least once but mostly twice per week, they get some sardines or beef with grains soaked in bone broth. Lime chips and crushed eggshells are available for the hens. Also, anytime I'm around when one of the hens lays, I give her a "calcium treat" when she comes off the nest -- a piece of cheese rolled in a crushed calcium tablet.

No other vitamins or supplements have been given.

So far, so good. No illness, lameness, or lethargy. The 13 week old chicks are growing and putting on weight. All combs and wattles are healthy red. Eyes look clear and bright. All are active, foraging, digging, dust bathing, and ranging quite a bit farther out now that the tribes are separating.

In July, I recorded 74 eggs laid by my four laying hens.
Rusty: 20
Tina: 19
Patucha: 18
Dusty: 17

All eggs were well-formed with good hard shells, dark yellow to orange yolks, no runny albumens. No change in hardness or shape from when they ate layer feed, and I think the yolks are actually richer.

Yesterday, the 7.5 month old pullets Frida laid her first egg. Small, naturally, but well formed and normal. She has filled out nicely too over the past two months. She was pretty scrawny when I got her.

I'm thinking that if the transition was having any ill effects, something would have showed up by now. But their health really seems quite good.

When I do nightly mite/flea checks, I've noticed they all have very healthy new feathers coming in at regular intervals. The 13 week olds are feathering out beautifully. I read that deficiencies in diet often show up first as feathering problems so I've really been paying attention to that. But looking at them and these pictures, their feathers all look fabulous. Even Butchie, my special needs hen, has a fresh crop of shiny soft plumage.

All in all, I'm pleased to report that at 10 weeks in, the transition to homemade feed is going well.

Cost wise, I'm spending pretty much the same. I was paying .36 per lb for commercial layer or grower feed. Now I'm paying .37 per lb for my homemade mixes, but I also just found a bulk supplier of oats and barley which will reduce my cost to .34 per lb. Beef bones are $1/lb.

Here's the junior tribe -- and Butchie -- in their shiny new duds

Prima.

Tobias and Segundo. Gangsta style.

Captain Solo.

Now all three cockerels are "crowing" at just 13 weeks. It sounds like a chorus of kazoos played by chimpanzees

Butchie

 

[notabitail]

I Googled and still don't know what they are.

I will explain them in the simplest form possible: Stupid memes based off of a stupid multiplayer video game that never needed to exist in the first place.
Now I owe more tax I'm sure, or else Shad might go after me.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I will explain them in the simplest form possible: Stupid memes based off of a stupid multiplayer video game that never needed to exist in the first place.
Now I owe more tax I'm sure, or else Shad might go after me.

Just paid mine

 

[notabitail]

Just paid mine

I'll have to pay up tomorrow! Did I explain it well?
(Sits waiting in chair to see if anyone else on BYC goes after me for my statement.).