Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fluffycrow]

They probably don't. Although they'll get a bunch of congratulations from me

 

[Shadrach]

I tried quite a few varieties of peas before I found some they liked, and still haven't sourced a sack of peas where they like everything in the mix; most of them really don't like maples, at least without skinning them first (they do the skinning, not me!). I've noticed some of the chickens eat peas of any variety only after they've skinned them and separated the halves, and then eat the halves, and wondered if it's something to do with the hardness, even after 24 hrs+ soaking in the ferment liquor. Grain is significantly softened by the soaking. Anyway, I'll give cooking them a go, as you're all having success with that. Did you try cooking them Shad?

No, I haven't tried cooking them. I don't think peas are the answer I'm looking for. The chickens like the grains and the seeds. I've tried a few options from bird seed and grain mix, pigeon feed, commercial mash with various additions.
I'm going to have to sit down and do a proper feed analysis. The things being suggested would mean I spend more time cooking for the chickens than I do for myself. The whole grain feed foundation may be cheaply sourced but currently I can't get it passed around 12% protein. That may be enough with what they forage on the allotments but as winter gets a grip the forage quality deteriorates and recent sightings of the allotement fox an hour or so before dusk is going to limit foraging time.
I don't have enough home time to make any complicated diets work. Cooking may be fine when the chickens are just outside but in my case they are not and time spent in preperation pushes the feed cost into silly numbers, something that isn't often accounted for in the various alternative feed ideas. I could buy them a couple of hundred grams of cheap white fish a day and it would work out cheaper than an hour of my time and the energy and storage costs involved in cooking and feezing and I would have full confidence that they were getting a complete protein in the right proportions.

 

[Perris]

when the chickens are just outside but in my case they are not

This is indeed a real overhead. I think there are few people who would look after chickens in the circumstances you're currently operating in. The time you must spend waiting around for transport alone would be enough to put off most people I know. And it is indeed very hard to get the protein values even adequate on an exclusively plant-based diet. But it doesn't have to be meat or fish. Don't forget the dairy products; they are relatively easy and cheap!

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

@Somewhere_In_The_Clouds also snoops through the thread, so I'd like to extend the congratulations, as they achieved some serious wins as well!

Wow - I had not seen that. Congratulations @fluffycrow, @Perris, and @Somewhere_In_The_Clouds
Such beautiful birds!

Thank you! I actually hadn't realised they all placed, I only saw Bucky. But I must've seen when they were still posting the announcements.
Find it interesting that Bucky was the only ABA/APA recognized colour.

 

[MaryJanet]

I know that. But the author was observing a natural correlation in 1868: no sitting --> harder molting. What I'm wondering is -- since that time -- by modifying hens to make them not sit people may have unintentionally made their molting more severe as well.

After all, a bird that molts hard (loses most of its feathers, weakens in condition, and takes a long time to regrow them) would not be favored in nature. Nature would favor the birds who had a more gradual and mild molting process, did not suffer from losing so many feathers at once, and did not lose condition dramatically. Brooding *seems* to encourage these "mini" or more gradual molts, at least as I've witnessed, in accordance with Mrs. Arthunbott. I don't have a big enough hen population to do a proper study, which is why I inquired about other experiences.

None of my hens who go broody often and are over 1.5 years old went through the "first big molt" at 18 months. But if you Search the internet on *chicken molt", every article on the first page tells the reader that this is the "normal" process. In contrast, all of my hens had a mini molt at about 9 - 12 months (or when they started exhibiting some broody behavior) and have continued with these gradual molts since).

I doubt there's enough -- or any --long term studies on this. The only real takeaway for me is that, once again, what the most-circulated resources tell us is the "normal" or "standard" way chickens molt -- or do anything! -- probably isn't "standard" at all and in reality there's a much wider variation.

Tax
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Junior cockerel Tobias standing back while Prima eats a papaya treat.

Many breeds other than laying hens are not broody. I have a Barnevelder who's never been broody that I recall. She has had both hard and gentle moults.

 

[MaryJanet]

Thank you so much @Perris ! Congratulations on your amazing wins as well, very well deserved, gorgeous birds. I'm glad that even though Amadeo is not with you anymore, you have some of his offspring to remind you of him

Congratulations both of you!

 

[Shadrach]

Four hours today with a break for lunch/tea at the eldests. Lovely day really although less wind would have been nice.
The main news is the resident fox was out and about an hour before dusk. This is unusual and when I saw the fox it didn't seem perturbed until I threw rocks at it. It was less than ten metres from me. Good looking vixen is what I saw. This means exra vigilance at the crucial foraging time before the chickens go to roost. I have seen what I believe to be the vixens mate slink accross the field in daylight before but given the recent attack and deaths of the two female geese I'm not happy about this turn of events, especially now the chicks are far more adventurous.

Anyway, nobody died while I was there and the chickens are safely tucked up in their fox proof coop until 8.30am.

Carbon still suffering with her moult and spending a lot of time under my chair.

Herny is getting noticably stricter with the suspected cockerel. He is pretty cheeky and tried stealing food from under Hery's beak. He got a peck and a short chase for his troubles. My hope is Henry won't be too heavy handed.
Without feeding order they all get along fine.

It's quite obvious that Henry cuts the pullet more slack and the cockerel sticks by mum. They're horribly like humans.

These are pictures of my current mission; the clearing and organisation of the fruit bush patch next to the chicken run. Some halfwit has laid geo textile cloth over the plot and it's just been lft there making digging almost impossible. I'm ripping it out bit by bit. Of course the chickens are helping.

 

[BDutch]

I don't have a big enough hen population to do a proper study, which is why I inquired about other experiences.

Thanks for the explanation.

Neither have I. But my chickens rarely go to a severe molt. And they never lost practically all their feathers. My chickens all go broody, 2-4 times a year. But I try to break them asap if I can’t/won’t give them hatching eggs.
I can’t recall what happened with broodiness prior to 2 times I had a hen moulting quite badly..

 

[BDutch]

Many breeds other than laying hens are not broody. I have a Barnevelder who's never been broody that I recall. She has had both hard and gentle moults.

They started to develop the Barnevelder around 1850-1875 and ‘improved’ the laying capacity over the years. Broodiness and laying throughout the year are not a good combination and somehow they managed to breed chickens that stopped being broody.

The Barnevelder breed as we know nowadays and all other breeds that lay over 200 eggs a year are developed after 1900. As far as I know all the high production breeds are not the best broodies.

 

[BDutch]

The main news is the resident fox was out and about an hour before dusk. This is unusual and when I saw the fox it didn't seem perturbed until I threw rocks at it. It was less than ten metres from me. Good looking vixen is what I saw. This means exra vigilance at the crucial foraging time before the chickens go to roost.

Do be careful as much as possible. As you know foxes are one of the nastiest enemies for our chickens.