Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

Pics
Date sort Score sort
16 and me said:
This is very interesting & a very helpful resource! I have been keeping a very close eye on one hen in particular the last few days and have noticed she will only eat the grains and seeds & forage. I had her separated from the flock and gave her the pellets I always feed the flock. She didn't touch them and actually started to make whining sounds. I put her on the grass while I went to get some crumble. She ate the gras like she was starving. I brought her back in after a while and gave her the crumble. She wouldn't touch it. I put down some wheat, barley & oats. She again scarfed it down like she hadn't eaten in days. I have been wortied since observing her, if giving her a diet of whole grains, seeds and forage will suffice, based on the hypothesis that they need the commercial feed.
Click to expand...
Perris has been banging on about the nonsense one reads about the necessity of feeding commercial feed for some time. It's not getting much traction in some quarters.:lol: I'm in full agreement with Perris on the feeding of whole grains and forage. Where we diverge is the matter of fermentaion. There are circumstances where fermentation of whole grains may be of benefit, but there are others where it could be downright unhealthy. More about this topic in my almost completed article.
 
L-plate chicken mum said:
May not be scientific however it seems to me there is an association between being able to range over a large area and the older hens.
Click to expand...
My experience would seem to endorse this view. The problem is ranging or free ranging birds have to deal with a greater threat from predators and this as one might expect reduces the average lifespan considerably.
 
Lost track of this thread for bit, so a post to help with my notifications and a bit of lurker's tax.
20240125_094928.jpg

20240124_192119.jpg

20231222_121907.jpg

20231206_132715.jpg
 
Shadrach said:
Perris has been banging on about the nonsense one reads about the necessity of feeding commercial feed for some time. It's not getting much traction in some quarters.:lol: I'm in full agreement with Perris on the feeding of whole grains and forage. Where we diverge is the matter of fermentaion. There are circumstances where fermentation of whole grains may be of benefit, but there are others where it could be downright unhealthy. More about this topic in my almost completed article.
Click to expand...
I look forward to reading it! While I don't really have an opinion on the health aspects of fermentation, I have attempted and abandoned the effort twice. First attempt I just found was too much extra fiddling for me. Summertime it's too hot and it would be a dried up stuck to trays mess when I would get to the pen to clean up. Wintertime it would freeze. The last attempt grew mold on day 2 or 3, or at least it looked like it to me - so I have abandoned the effort. (Sorry, Perris) :frow
 
Shadrach said:
The problem is ranging or free ranging birds have to deal with a greater threat from predators and this as one might expect reduces the average lifespan considerably.
Click to expand...
Do you have any sensible stats for that expectation? For what it's worth, now into my 7th year of free ranging, the birds that get or are assumed predated here these days (and there are not many) are youngsters, not the older birds. Averages can be very misleading.

Inexperienced birds - which youngsters are by definition - are more likely to get predated than experienced ones, and this is not sufficiently recognized in most studies I've seen. Most experiments I've come across are far too short term, and often incapable by design of giving realistic results. A chick hatched in an incubator and raised by machines in a sterile environment does not behave like a chick raised by a broody free-ranging from hatch.

Anyone who starts free-ranging experiences losses from predation. Some keepers respond by promptly bringing their birds back into the protection of captivity, and assume that the losses they suffered are typical and that they would continue at that rate until all birds are gone. Many posters on BYC are exemplars of that. I lost my first 6 birds to the foxes within the year.

But keepers who persevere, and who analyse the losses - letting the chickens roost in trees was my mistake - and fix the issue(s) identified - make them sleep in the coops in my case, together with some research on foxes and methods of their deterrence - find that, with experience, the birds get better at predator detection and evasion, just as they get better at foraging and other natural behaviours. And they pass this knowledge from experience on to the chicks raised amongst them.

A proper study of the life expectancy of free-range versus confined chickens should compare the data of a long-established multi-generational free ranging flock - not one of identical clones put together ex nihilo for the purpose of the experiment - with those from a variety of confined type flocks. I don't bet, but I'd wager the losses from disease among the latter would outnumber the losses from predation among the former. And there may be some very old birds among the latter, but I'd wager the general health of the flock was better among the former. Further, it might not happen during the experiment, but it does happen in real life, that some flocks in confinement face catastrophic losses when a predator gets into their 'secure' coop. Perhaps an actuary's approach would be appropriate?
 

Similar threads

C
    • Love
    • Like
Got us some ex commercial hens. <3
11 12 13
Replies
125
Views
8K
ChikaInu
C
W
Poorly (new) ex battery
Replies
5
Views
206
Willaby1
W
Kewpieteef
    • Love
Feather Heaven Flock & Friends
Replies
5
Views
466
Kewpieteef
Kewpieteef
S
    • Like
Toronto chicken rescues
Replies
1
Views
1K
Debbie292d
Debbie292d
P
Ex Battery hen poorly - raising and lowering head and off balance
Replies
2
Views
1K
poly2005
P

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom