Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

Imho, there is nothing wrong with birth control. We humans do so too for very good reasons.

I thought the point was not about birth control but about lifting broodies off the nest to ensure that they ate and drank while broody.

 

[Perris]

Groninger gull

I had not heard of these before; thanks for drawing attention to them. Lots of info in English here https://www.rarepoultrysociety.com/groninger.html

I suspect we all have different ideas about what constitutes a good or a poor layer. Current commercial management guides appear to be repeating the same sort of criteria used by the Victorians (see e.g. https://www.livestocking.net/identify-good-poor-layer-chickens-physical-features ), so I guess there's no agreed definition on it yet. But most only consider the one thing that's easy to assess - quantity. And hardly anyone traps, so their flock average is masking the issue. The Victorian discussions of how many eggs were laid - and the US agricultural pamphlets of the 1930s bewailing averages of about 100 per hen for that matter - were adamant about how not trapping lets poor layers avoid detection and depress averages, while great layers were going unrecognized and so not selected for breeding programs.

 

[MaryJanet]

I had not heard of these before; thanks for drawing attention to them. Lots of info in English here https://www.rarepoultrysociety.com/groninger.html

I suspect we all have different ideas about what constitutes a good or a poor layer. Current commercial management guides appear to be repeating the same sort of criteria used by the Victorians (see e.g. https://www.livestocking.net/identify-good-poor-layer-chickens-physical-features ), so I guess there's no agreed definition on it yet. But most only consider the one thing that's easy to assess - quantity. And hardly anyone traps, so their flock average is masking the issue. The Victorian discussions of how many eggs were laid - and the US agricultural pamphlets of the 1930s bewailing averages of about 100 per hen for that matter - were adamant about how not trapping lets poor layers avoid detection and depress averages, while great layers were going unrecognized and so not selected for breeding programs.

I'm not sure what you mean by trapping in this context Perris. I guess people used to trap hens in nests until eggs were laid? Is that a correct guess or did you mean something else?

 

[Perris]

I'm not sure what you mean by trapping in this context Perris. I guess people used to trap hens in nests until eggs were laid? Is that a correct guess or did you mean something else?

Yes that's right. Page on it by Ussery here
https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/poultry-breeding-zm0z17amzsor/

 

[MaryJanet]

Yes that's right. Page on it by Ussery here
https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/poultry-breeding-zm0z17amzsor/

Blimey

 

[BDutch]

I thought the point was not about birth control but about lifting broodies off the nest to ensure that they ate and drank while broody.

Everything is connected.

I lift my broodies mainly to stop breeding on a fake egg or even on nothing.
In general I don’t lift my broodies if I want them to hatch. They know what to do in the proces of hatching better than I do. I do make sure the broody has acces to food, water, a dust bath and exercise room.

Only if I don’t see her coming of the nest and can’t spot a huge poop from a broody in two days, I lift her of the nest. Then I put her in front of the food, to be sure she eats and drinks enough. They tend to poop nearby. The broodies poop is a lot bigger as the normal chickens poop, and therefore easy to recognise.

 

[BDutch]

Yes that's right. Page on it by Ussery here
https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/poultry-breeding-zm0z17amzsor/

Fyi?: I knew a show breeder (bantam Brakel and Naine de Tournaisis) who tried to enhance the looks of his chickens and who tried to manage other qualities as behaviour, egg laying and fertility as well.
All chickens were marked with coloured rings. And he kept a administration of family relations and everything noticeable.

He separated his flock in many cages each late winter, with runs next too each other. Each run was was no more than 1x 8 meters. Every coop/run had one rooster and two hens.
This way he could see and control the behaviour and outcomes. The ones that didn’t perform well were culled. He was not into natural breeding, only incubated in March and April for his breeding program.

Longevity was probably not on his list of qualities. The Tournaisis hatching eggs I bought gave me one cockerel (made another breeder very happy) and two beautiful and good laying hens who both died at a young age (4yo). These two hens never got broody.

Photo from the past with Pino, my Lavender Dutch and the 3 Tournaisis chicks.

 

[Molpet]

Everything is connected.

I lift my broodies mainly to stop breeding on a fake egg or even on nothing.
In general I don’t lift my broodies if I want them to hatch. They know what to do in the proces of hatching better than I do. I do make sure the broody has acces to food, water, a dust bath and exercise room.

Only if I don’t see her coming of the nest and can’t spot a huge poop from a broody in two days, I lift her of the nest. Then I put her in front of the food, to be sure she eats and drinks enough. They tend to poop nearby. The broodies poop is a lot bigger as the normal chickens poop, and therefore easy to recognise.

My birds are broody raised and most yell and attack if I try to check for new eggs. They break eggs in the
(I raise for cockerels for dinner. If I play with my food it's too emotionally difficult to harvest.)
I haven't had any problems with chickens except one who abandoned her nest and a week later I found her dead. So I think something was wrong with her. I put the eggs in the incubator and they hatched.
I usually have about 18 broodies most years. They are big girls so they break eggs easily. Before covid I would put eggs in the incubator and give everyone a couple to raise. I would like about 24 cockerels and 6 jakes a year. Didn't incubate any and only had 8 chicks hatch, 2 pullets were gotten by predators.

 

[Perris]

Further to the peas question, I came across this this morning and post it as pertinent, as it includes other things that can sub for maize and soy (though may not be particularly palatable to a lot of chickens, like barley):

"NOTE:
1. Homemade or custom milled feed rations can be supplemented with alfalfa meal or fish meal to achieve higher protein content.
2. Field peas, sunflower seed, oats, barley, and milo all make good scratch grains or alternative feed grains to corn and soy."
https://livestockconservancy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Heritage_Chicken_Feed_Guidelines.pdf

I'm just about to start feeding a new base mix consisting of French maize, red maize, safflower, wheat, red dari, white dari, naked oats, paddy rice, tares, blue peas, white peas, mung beans, hempseed, black rape and 'energy corn' (which I assume is another type of maize, but as last ingredient, there should be relatively little of it). I'll report back in due course. I'm experimenting again because I'm having trouble getting quality wheat at the moment; the growing conditions here were difficult this year, and the best quality is all being kept for human food. (Another advantage of feeding whole grains is that poor quality is immediately apparent to the naked eye.)

 

[Sally PB]

The boody/molt question is interesting. My serial broody is a Jubilee Orpington. Of all the hens, she looks the best, molt/feather-wise. She's two and half years old now. The 3 yo Australorps and my rooster are having the worst molts.

I would have let her raise the chicks I got in May, but her timing was too far off.