Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

So what's with the commercial feed at less than 5% fat?

This is what I found on a Dutch site:
Don't give your chickens too many high-fat snacks

Chickens love food, especially corn and other high-fat grains and seeds are their favourite. They are full of important vitamins and should certainly not be missing in their diet. But a surplus of fats is bad for their health and inhibits egg production.

In addition to dry mixed grains and seeds, you can also ferment this as a snack. This ensures that they are full faster and it stimulates optimal health, because then there are even more vitamins in it.

Source: https://kippenpakket.nl/wat-hebben-kippen-dagelijks-nodig/amp/

There are more interesting explanations on that webpage. Like this one :
When chickens get a surplus of protein, they can suffer from a protein poisoning. One of the first signs of this is that they get a blue comb, this is especially common in roosters.

 

[Perris]

I keep coming up against a particular question. Why has commercial feed got such a low fat content?

There are very few things a chicken will eat and thrive on with a fat content of less than 5%. Even grass has a higher fat content than 5% for many grass types when dried.
Worms, loads of fat!
Nuts, loads of fat.
Bugs, who knows the fat content of every bug a chicken will eat?
Meat, fish, both have a relatively high fat content but high protein as well.

Science has decided we need fats in our diet and some fats are better for us than others. My own fat intake is low compared to many but I'm way past 5%.

So what's with the commercial feed at less than 5% fat?

I think part of the answer is the difficulty of calculating even average values for fats, singly or in combination with other oils and fats, and commercial feed manufacturers appear to be enslaved to the numbers, combined with a superabundance of caution (driven by a highly litigious environment perhaps?)

I wouldn't put much oil or fat in either if my sources were as described in Nutritional Requirements of Poultry (written by the Subcommittee on Poultry Nutrition, Committee on Animal Nutrition, Board on Agriculture, National Research Council) (1994) 11: "Feed-grade fat may come from many different sources. Grease from restaurants, the rendering of animal carcasses, and the refuse from vegetable oil refining are major sources. These sources represent several types and categories, and each is defined by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (1984)."

 

[Perris]

The wholegrain feed met with full approval again, bar the green peas

have they worked out how to shell the peas yet?

 

[Perris]

Just seen Killay escorting Fez to the coops, and going in one to show her where to lay. Sadly, she circled thrice, and then headed off into the corner shrub bed. This was the wild child who lived out 24/7 for her first 6 weeks or so; I do hope I'm not going to have to go secret nest hunting; she could be very good at it

 

[Perris]

update: he's a very patient chap. He's brought her back, hung around while she dithered at the door, and has gone in again now with her watching from outside. He may need to actually park his arse in the box before she's convinced!

 

[Shadrach]

Maybe cost?
I believe oil has to be added to commercial feed to bring it up to 5% fat content. I have seen articles that clearly suggest higher than 5% is better (for both males and females). So I suspect it is another one of those ‘minima’.
Ever since I dug into the physiology of fatty liver disease I have been much less worried about fatty treats like nuts, cheese, beef (FLD is more about carbohydrate metabolism and not enough exercise than about dietary fat intake).

I've believed FLD is more to do with genetics than diet for a while now.

 

[ManueB]

I add a teaspoon of oil to the starter mash I give the chickens in winter .
Either hemp oil or wheat germ oil.
It's what I do for my own breakfast and I thought maybe it would be nice for the chickens breakfast too.
Though when I think of it they would probably much rather get one more spoon of sunflower seeds .

update: he's a very patient chap. He's brought her back, hung around while she dithered at the door, and has gone in again now with her watching from outside. He may need to actually park his arse in the box before she's convinced!

Think of it... Fez could be the beginning of a local Wales feral chicken project !

 

[Shadrach]

update: he's a very patient chap. He's brought her back, hung around while she dithered at the door, and has gone in again now with her watching from outside. He may need to actually park his arse in the box before she's convinced!

Watching such couples go nest site searching used to provide hours of amusement. One can just imagine the conversations as one site after another is rejected by the hen or the rooster picks some super stupid location.

 

[Shadrach]

have they worked out how to shell the peas yet?

Nope. Peas are just not working out as a protein boost with this lot.
I've asked the company that I buy the bird seed base for the fermented feed for a nutritional analysis of the type I buy. They say they can do it. I'll be interested to see what they come up with.

 

[Perris]

Nope. Peas are just not working out as a protein boost with this lot.
I've asked the company that I buy the bird seed base for the fermented feed for a nutritional analysis of the type I buy. They say they can do it. I'll be interested to see what they come up with.

maybe the broody-raised kids will work it out.

I am just reading about how there is a correlation between how long a bird spends as apprentice to its parents and brain size, 'perhaps so that a bird can store all it learns'. Several have commented on how long my broodies stay with their broods, and it's always seemed to me to be because they're still teaching/learning. There's a lot to learn in a diverse free ranging environment. Janeka's kids are at 15 1/2 weeks now, and roosting separately, but they still spend most of the days together, she still tidbits for them, and they still come running when she calls she's got something for them to eat.