Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

People keep saying chickens can't digest milk properly, loose stools.

That's nonsense. There is a lot of codswallop said and written about lactose online. The highly profitable 'alternative milk' industry has a lot to gain by dissing real milk. Milk has been recommended in poultry manuals since antiquity!

 

[Perris]

Fish is hard to source economically here also.

It is in most places if you're looking for fresh, and the pet food industry hoovers up all the trimmings these days so that's not normally an option these days either. But can you really not get tinned sardines? They're 39p here for a tin of three beauties in oil from Morocco (125g tin, 90g drained weight).

 

[TropicalChickies]

while hunting for an early edition of L Robinson's Modern Poultry Husbandry (in pursuit of someone else's post on https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-many-eggs-were-laid-by-hens-150-years-ago.1593024/ ) I came across another site that reproduces a bit of that book, in this case re: home made feeds rather than number of eggs laid. Those who are experimenting with real feed might find it interesting: https://naturalchicken.blogspot.com/2011/11/old-time-chicken-feed-recipes.html

Thank you. I've been slammed with farm work and we're getting huge rains early in the rainy season because of the El Niño so I haven't been able to update or comment. But I'm following this discussion with much interest.

And I do really hope Carbon just has a mild infection of some sort and recovers.

Lots going on here, chicken-wise. Foremost on my mind is why the bloody hell do so many cockerels hatch here? It looks like all 4 of the 11 week old juvies here are cockerels. This puts the cockerel hatch rate here at 90%! Literally 9 out of last 10 chicks hatched here were males.

This is from three hatches at different times of the year.

Here's some lurking tax. Dusty's 11 week olds. One is crowing -- well, a strangled yodeling more like it. Nice enough little fellas, living on the outskirts of the main group since mum Dusty went broody again just 8 weeks after they hatched and never really introduced them. But they are tolerated in the main coop now at night and at least they have each other.

My partner Juan calls them Frankie and Rocky because he says they are like two working class Italian kids from the neighborhood who had to grow up fast. Here they are in a rare moment of stillness, digesting breakfast.

 

[TropicalChickies]

It is in most places if you're looking for fresh, and the pet food industry hoovers up all the trimmings these days so that's not normally an option these days either. But can you really not get tinned sardines? They're 39p here for a tin of three beauties in oil from Morocco (125g tin, 90g drained weight).

That's crazy cheap. They are $.95 here for the same amount and Ecuador actually has its own fish canneries. And keep in mind the minimum salary here is only $450 per month.

The cheapest and best way I've found to supplement my chickens food with high quality animal protein is beef bones. For 50 cents/lb I can get a nice sack of big meaty bones twice a week and boil them until the meat starts to fall off. The chicks get the meat pieces -- and there's enough to share out some for the dog pack too.

I soak their grain and seed mix in the broth so the chickens get the marrow and vitamins and minerals in it as well.

 

[Perris]

The cheapest and best way I've found to supplement my chickens food with high quality animal protein is beef bones. For 50 cents/lb I can get a nice sack of big meaty bones twice a week

lucky you! I used to buy marrow bones for the dog, at about £1 a pop, but they leapt in price since the first covid lockdown, and now are in the region of £6+/kg, if I can find them.

 

[TropicalChickies]

agreed, but the easy solution is to avoid 'meals'. Just get some fish or meat OR DAIRY - why is dairy so overlooked? It's the cheapest and most accessible animal protein out there. Plain natural yogurt is better than milk btw (unless you can get raw milk).

I also get whey liquid for free from one of the market stalls where I buy cheese. Ecuadorian cheese is very simple -- every market has just a big slab of fresh pressed farm cheese sitting there in whey, which the shopkeeper will drain off from time to time. I asked one of the shopkeepers -- they are all practical, friendly indigenous folks from the Sierra -- if I could buy some of the whey one day and she just gave it to me. Now I just bring a container when I go into town and fill up on whey. Both our dogs and chickens really enjoy it.

 

[Perris]

do they know they could make ricotta from the whey?

 

[RoyalChick]

agreed, but the easy solution is to avoid 'meals'. Just get some fish or meat OR DAIRY - why is dairy so overlooked? It's the cheapest and most accessible animal protein out there. Plain natural yogurt is better than milk btw (unless you can get raw milk).

Mine go nuts for yoghurt, kefir and cheese of all types. It has calcium in it too. They also love whey - when I make dairy products for myself I usually make a mash for the chickens with the whey.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

It is in most places if you're looking for fresh, and the pet food industry hoovers up all the trimmings these days so that's not normally an option these days either. But can you really not get tinned sardines? They're 39p here for a tin of three beauties in oil from Morocco (125g tin, 90g drained weight).

Walmart in the USA has sardines for $1.08 (the cents may be different) and a can of tuna for around $1.29.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

I treat my chickens to sardines and tuna.

Temperature is in the 60s.

Have a great day!