Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

So Paris byc eggs are contaminated but commercial aren't???

https://www.euronews.com/green/2023...m-backyard-chickens-due-to-forever-chemical-p

As one might expect there are quite a few organic this and organic that advocates at the allotments. Only one I've spoken to has read or bothers reading exactly what the organic label means with regard to the particlular produce they buy. Most of those forever traces chemicals and particles are in the organic food they buy.
With meat which is labled organic there is nothing that states that the feeds used for example are not GMO produce.

 

[Shadrach]

Would the commercial egg farms be under the same warning?

The commercial concerns would have us believe their produce is tested on a regular basis. Also, many commercially raised chickens never get onto natural ground to pick up any of these forever chemicals.
Some at the allotments are begining to understand better my motivation to try and completely ban plastics from the field. Yep the micro particles are there already, we don't have to add to them though.
It's this idiotic no dig fashion that's partly responsible for the allotments I see covered in plastic over the non growing months.
Interesting that the three most successfull growers this year haven't been no dig growers, haven't used bought in compost and haven't planted F1 plants.

 

[Shadrach]

Thank you.

You make the feed daily?

How much per chicken are you feeding?

I do.
I will eventually have an ingredients list with each ingedient's amino acid profile, plus fats, fibre etc.
Of course, as Perris mentions in their excellent article, not all crops yeid the same values and how the crops that go to make the componants are harvested, processed and stored has a large impact on their nutritional profile.

I'm feeding 100grams per bird currently but they have a bowl of commercial pellets in the coop about 100grams which is always empty by the time I get there.
Henry eats about twice the amount of any of the others. None are laying eggs so the 150gram per bird advice isn't really relevant.

 

[Perris]

There are plastics in pelleted feed, so commercial birds (and pigs, cows etc.) are being fed it directly

https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.o...and-pig-meat-blood-and-milk-contains-plastic/
https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/t...investigation-Twitter-viewers-video-watch-BBC
https://www.feedstrategy.com/animal...y-finds-microplastics-in-pelleted-animal-feed
https://www.veganfoodandliving.com/news/microplastics-found-meat-milk/
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...mal-feed-could-harm-human-health-experts-warn
https://www.grandmasterglobal.com/blog/plastic-content-in-animal-feed-could-harm-human-health/

 

[Perris]

Further to the last, when this started (allowing some plastic packaging to be included with the feed, as manufacturers claimed it was impossible to eliminate all of it) the pieces were big enough to be spotted as plastic inclusions. Like so

In response to the outcry from farmers who didn't want to feed their animals plastic, and the public when they heard about it, the response was to grind the bits smaller, not change the rules to keep plastic out of animal feed. Memories are short, and now we can't see the plastic because the pieces are too small, so someone can disingenuously claim backyard hens eggs are polluted with plastic while commercial ones aren't. Welcome to 1984.

 

[RoyalChick]

Also detected in human breast milk and placenta. We are well past the point of being able to avoid it.

 

[Shadrach]

Today was the first day I've given home made fermented feed as the main feed.
I've been giving it in limited quantities as a treat feed until now. As treat feed (about 100 grams in total) it always got finished, fermented or dry, so I was interested to see what happened with this new mix when offered as a main feed. I put down a couple of small bowls of commercial feed in case the home made feed didn't meet expectations. Henry trod in one bowl of commercial feed in his hurry to prevent Dig from eating before himand Dig threw a few pellets around when he was having difficulties getting at the home made feed. Dig is last in line for everything.
I fed half when I arrived at 1pm and the other half at 3.30pm. They foraged in between.

I have to write, I've never seen anything like it. Fret who just hasn't been eating much since she hatched the chicks ate a lot. Carbon who is fussy and wanders from bowl to bowl or pesters me for something more appetizing didn't lift her head from the feed tray for a full five minutes.

Almost finished. Less than 15 minutes.

Out and about.

This is what was left after second feed.

Digesting before roosting.

Nobody ate any of the commercial feed.
Fava beans were prefered to green peas.

 

[BDutch]

This is the news from my country.

 

[Perris]

Today was the first day I've given home made fermented feed as the main feed.
I've been giving it in limited quantities as a treat feed until now. As treat feed (about 100 grams in total) it always got finished, fermented or dry, so I was interested to see what happened with this new mix when offered as a main feed. I put down a couple of small bowls of commercial feed in case the home made feed didn't meet expectations. Henry trod in one bowl of commercial feed in his hurry to prevent Dig from eating before himand Dig threw a few pellets around when he was having difficulties getting at the home made feed. Dig is last in line for everything.
I fed half when I arrived at 1pm and the other half at 3.30pm. They foraged in between.

I have to write, I've never seen anything like it. Fret who just hasn't been eating much since she hatched the chicks ate a lot. Carbon who is fussy and wanders from bowl to bowl or pesters me for something more appetizing didn't lift her head from the feed tray for a full five minutes.


View attachment 3689467View attachment 3689468View attachment 3689464

View attachment 3689475Almost finished. Less than 15 minutes.

Out and about.View attachment 3689470View attachment 3689471

This is what was left after second feed.
View attachment 3689462

Digesting before roosting.
View attachment 3689465

View attachment 3689478

Nobody ate any of the commercial feed.
Fava beans were prefered to green peas.

Thanks for the update; glad it's working out for you and the chickens after the initial hiccups. I found fermenting is a bit like riding a bike; tough to start but becomes easy with practice.

 

[Shadrach]

As you may recall, I tried fermenting commercial feed in Catalonia and ended up just making a mash. The commercial feed I ended up with in Catalonia was a local product milled and mixed on site. The crumble had bits in it and made a mash that didn't look like slop. The commercial crumble I've tried here and I've tried a few is different and not good different and all I get is a paste when I added water which when left for an hour or so just changed to harder slop with no identifiable pieces of anything in it.

I'll know more once a few weeks of feeding fermented whole grains, nuts, peas and seeds has gone by and the novelty has worn off for the chickens. It's getting the right balance that takes most effort. The ferementing bit has been okay bar that one batch. I seal the jar now and only let it cook for 24 to 36 hours.