Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fluffycrow]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!

Tea is ready.

Temperature is in the 70s cloudy.

Have a great day!

When I went out to see my chickens yesterday I found one of my Barred Rocks dead and a rooster in my coop.

I do not have a rooster and do not know where he came from.

So sorry for your loss

 

[Shadrach]

Where I live people often go on a bike for such a distance. Elderly often on an electric bike.
Its faster and more reliable than the bus. It probably takes about 30 minutes to get there, and it gives you the opportunity to take things with you in bike-bags.

View attachment 3943161


Missed a few things.
Until our vacation I got update notifications of this thread. But this stopped for no good reasons.

Faster than a bus! Are your buses horse drawn?
My eldest and her husband are keen cyclists. They do mountain biking most weekends. They also do triathlons and half marathons. They've got good bikes one of which is electric. They live near the field and work in the centre of Bristol about a 5 mile journey. In the summer they often cycle into work. In the winter...not a chance.
The Portway, the easiest route by gradient runs along the river Avon. The wind gets funneled up the Avon gorge and even on relatively calm days one is facing a 10mph to 15mph headwind. On more windy days 40mph gusts are quite common and and bad days they just close the bridges at the end of thiis road that lead to Wales.
To suggest that me, at 70 years old should cycle for three quarters of an hour in the pouring rain at temperatures a few degees above freezing, then stand/sit in an open field for maybe three hours, probably soaked and then do it all again on the way home is like pre booking me a hospital bed.
This is a picture of one route out of the city to the field. Not many 70 year olds pedal up this. It goes on climbing to the left at the top for another three quartes of a mile.

This is another possible route out. The area is called Totterdown because the hills are so steep people totter down them rather than walk.

You don't have hills in the Netherlands if my memory serves me.

 

[L-plate chicken mum]

You don't have hills in the Netherlands if my memory serves me.

No, but they do have mountains & a very well developed sense of humour!
https://www.denoorderzon.nl/dutch-mountain-trail-wandelgids-zuid-limburg-9789090336695
Beautiful countryside & their highest “peak” is higher than the highest one in the Chilterns . Both are chalk hills so fabulous flora but Limburg’s are less trashed

 

[Perris]

Jenni and Winkler cont.. Chapter 2 is on plumage maintenance and the need for renewal.

Full grown feathers are dead, and they deteriorate over time for a variety of reasons. The main conclusion here is (rather surprisingly to me) that it's often difficult to know whether and to what extent a given moult is driven primarily by the need to replace worn feathers OR to adjust plumage characteristics. It is obvious with some breeds but we don't know enough either about the degree and impact of wear, or about plumage function to be sure in many cases. It is certainly the most effective method to adjust the plumage to changing requirements: juvenile to breeding adult, for example, or to match a coming winter landscape.

Incidentals that caught my attention en route here are that (i) a little overhang at the tip of the bill facilitates the removal of ectoparasites; (ii) fright moult, involving the dropping of whole feathers that have been grabbed, is possibly a means of defence akin to tail loss by lizards or ink release by octopi; (iii) melanin granules increase the hardness of feather keratin by a whopping 39%.

Biggest surprise: (iv) Entire ecosystems live on feathers: most feather mites feed on the fungi, bacteria, algae, other micro-organisms, pollen, debris, and uropygial gland secretions they find there, and do not damage the feather itself; some may be beneficial - and moulting doesn't reduce the mite load. Some bacteria do degrade feathers (and moulting doesn't reduce their load either). Sunning may be an effective defence against these bacteria, which are probably acquired from the soil. So that's why our chickens spread their feathers when they sunbathe!

 

[Perris]

Jenni and Winkler contd. Chapter 3 is the core of the book and is 90 pages long. It deals with the processes of feather growth, physiology, energetics, and control during the moult. The upshot of it all is that the main burden of the moult is decreased performance and increased vulnerability. Reduced activity, especially close to safe feeding ground, can compensate for the added costs of moult.

There are lots of incidentals. These from 3.1 to 3.3 (3.4 to 3.6 to follow separately). Feathers grow at a similar rate both day and night, and the growth rate is almost linear apart from at the very start and the very end. Feathers and associated material (such as the sheath on a pin feather) are 90-95% protein. Besides the protein synthesis for new feathers, whole body protein turnover is greatly accelerated - but little is known about the functional significance of these changes to whole body protein metabolism. A protein-poor diet depresses feather growth rate and quality, and the immune reaction; it seems that when resources are limited, moult and immunity are in competition for energy and/or protein. The relationships between moult and immunity are described as 'somewhat bewildering' (p. 107).

Feather quality is the first thing to suffer from adverse environmental conditions.

Moult is accompanied by a substantial expansion of the vascular system and blood volume, and an increased body water content and turnover. As an aside, independently I have noticed that I have to refill waterers more at this time of year, and that explains it.

 

[ManueB]

Further to https://www.backyardchickens.com/goto/post?id=28019630 here are the other birthday boy and girls from yesterday: Gwynedd View attachment 3942875
Llandeilo
View attachment 3942878
Oxwich
View attachment 3942879
and young broody Rhondda
View attachment 3942881

Thank you for posting. They are all very beautiful. I'm not sure I saw a picture of Gwynedd before and he is stunning.
It does make me wonder, this lineage thing, why you got such rare breeds (the Swedish and the penedesenca) with the choice of letting them mix together. I think I remember that you said the Swedish were close to a landrace in the way they were bred. But if your intent was to get a hardy mix in the end, why did you not choose to begin with local sturdy breeds ? For colour ?

Thank you for the information about the most from the book you read. It's quite fascinating.
I wonder how much applies to our chickens and how the fact that they lay so much more than other birds affect the way they molt compared to other species.

My little tribe are currently living in Mum’s garden, I live in a rented flat 5 miles away but spend most of my time at hers looking after her (she is coming up 96) and them. Currently on a waiting list for an allotment where, when the time comes I can keep them as current allotment won’t allow roosters so they will be about 5 miles from home.
So I kind of understand your situation Shadrach and am grateful that, at the moment, I have it easy.

Would love to have a house & very large garden for them but that’s in the ‘pigs might fly’ category & a concern for another day. Still, they are greatly entertaining for Mum & have (sort of) saved my sanity!

Tax:
Bub-bub still knows that Mum’s house is really his…

View attachment 3943301

When they were little their “coop” was inside &, at around a month old they did like a comfy slipper

View attachment 3943302

Himself never had a proper mama or a brooder so by all rights (according to online wisdom) shouldn’t have survived. Had him working at a week old, lucky for him he hatched mid June
View attachment 3943305

Kuddos to you too, for taking care of them, and of your mum.
This picture of bub-bub is adorable. Although he probably felt very mighty, not adorable, when posing !

So Shadrach's adventure haven't discouraged you from having chickens at an allotment ? I hope it will all work out for the best !

 

[Shadrach]

14/09

 

[Shadrach]

Jenni and Winkler cont.. Chapter 2 is on plumage maintenance and the need for renewal.

Full grown feathers are dead, and they deteriorate over time for a variety of reasons. The main conclusion here is (rather surprisingly to me) that it's often difficult to know whether and to what extent a given moult is driven primarily by the need to replace worn feathers OR to adjust plumage characteristics. It is obvious with some breeds but we don't know enough either about the degree and impact of wear, or about plumage function to be sure in many cases. It is certainly the most effective method to adjust the plumage to changing requirements: juvenile to breeding adult, for example, or to match a coming winter landscape.

Incidentals that caught my attention en route here are that (i) a little overhang at the tip of the bill facilitates the removal of ectoparasites; (ii) fright moult, involving the dropping of whole feathers that have been grabbed, is possibly a means of defence akin to tail loss by lizards or ink release by octopi; (iii) melanin granules increase the hardness of feather keratin by a whopping 39%.

Biggest surprise: (iv) Entire ecosystems live on feathers: most feather mites feed on the fungi, bacteria, algae, other micro-organisms, pollen, debris, and uropygial gland secretions they find there, and do not damage the feather itself; some may be beneficial - and moulting doesn't reduce the mite load. Some bacteria do degrade feathers (and moulting doesn't reduce their load either). Sunning may be an effective defence against these bacteria, which are probably acquired from the soil. So that's why our chickens spread their feathers when they sunbathe!

So if this is all so clear cut, why do some chickens go off their easiest source of protein which is their supplied feed?
Poor nutrition is shown in the feathers by stress bars. It is very rare to see stress bars on a chicken these days in backyard chickens.
I seem to recal that one function of sunbathing is to dry the oils out on the feathers so that the debris can be groomed off with their beaks.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Sorry for your loss.
Do you have roosters in the area that have been set free?
Coincidence?

This rooster is simply gorgeous.

I don't have any idea where he came from.

Yesterday when I went out to the coop he was circling the run.

I don't believe in coincidences.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

that's very odd - and must have been upsetting too. What are you going to do with him?

He is running around in the back yard.

I don't know what to do with him.