Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

Tea is ready.

Temperature is in the 70s partly cloudy with gusty winds.

Have a great day!

 

[Perris]

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 ?

I sought out breeds with a reputation for being good free rangers; predator-aware, good foragers, etc. plus getting good stock to begin with, in so far as I could judge as a beginner. I don't think any local breeds fit the bill, or have other disadvantages.

I've ended up with majority SFH and Penedesencas and their offspring because they've been the most successful here, of quite a variety that I've tried (RIR, Barbezieux, Norfolk Grey, Braekel, all come and gone; Araucana and Welsummer continue but as singles; both have offspring here though). Availability was a major factor in it - I've travelled all day to get hatching eggs, but I draw the line at a day to get to where they are on offer, and back.

I wonder how much applies to our chickens

Galliformes are specifically mentioned now and then in the discussion; chickens a few times, e.g. "in domestic chickens, a higher resistance to endoparasites (cestodes) has been found during moult" p. 105.

 

[Perris]

why do some chickens go off their easiest source of protein which is their supplied feed?

Because some birds convert body protein (and thereby reduce their whole body mass, which also lowers maintenance demands), to grow new feathers and fuel the other renewals going on, without having to expend energy on foraging or primary digestion. The extreme case is penguins, who moult while fasting.

stress bars

that and fault bars are discussed in chapter 4; to follow.

 

[Perris]

He is running around in the back yard.

I don't know what to do with him.

do you want to keep him if he isn't claimed? Are you allowed to keep him where you are?

Else, isn't there an animal control organisation there that would come catch him and take him away for you?

 

[Perris]

On to Chapter 3 section 4: energetics and nutrition of moult, which is perhaps the most interesting bit of the book for many of us.

Overview: The prevalent notion that moult is costly is not well founded. Typically it daily demands less than a third of the extra energy that is needed to produce an egg, even for a rapidly moulting small passerine. Free living birds clearly offset a large part of the costs of moult by reducing other energy expenditures, e.g. locomotion.

Protein supply may constrain moult, especially among granivores, herbivores, frugivores and nectarivores; some eat insects during this time, as inadequate dietary protein can protract the moult. Some, such as Greylag geese, lengthen food retention time, and thereby more than double nitrogen absorption (from 16% to 42%), despite reducing foraging time and intake rate by more than 50%.

Incidentals: the key amino acid is cystine. Feather keratin has proportionately more cystine than does animal protein (never mind plant protein, which is much lower). However, "the amount of sulphur-amino acids present in a normal [wild bird] diet, coupled with increased sulphur absorption, seem to more than cover the needs even of a rapid moult without foraging selectively for certain amino acids [6 refs for that; I can supply if anyone wants to follow that up] although birds can discriminate diets differing only in sulphur amino acid content." And note that excess cystine can be toxic, p. 129.

"Paradoxically, natural moult, while apparently very costly and very inefficient, results in a phase of minimal energy expenditure in free living birds, at least those examined so far. This is due to the many mechanisms that compensate for the costs of moult and because birds normally do 'nothing else' or are unable to do 'anything else' during a fairly rapid moult. In turn, this relative inactivity during moult is probably caused by the many non-energetic costs of moult, such as impaired flight, greatly reduced maximum oxygen consumption and impaired plumage function (waterproofing, display, insulation etc.), all with potentially negative consequences for survival."

 

[BDutch]

Faster than a bus! Are your buses horse drawn?

To the nearest railway staion is about 25 min by bike and it takes another 5 minutes to park it.
With the bus (including the walk , being in time not to miss the bus, and the buss ride it takes 35-40 minutes.
With a horse drawn kind of bus (5 km/h) it would take about 2 hours.

In the summer they often cycle into work. In the winter...not a chance.

I do too. Now its only 10 minute’s but 5 years ago I cycled 9.5 km to work ( and back). I have s good waterproof jacket and overtrowsers. I used the overtrowsers in winter too against the cold. And I bought good ski knittens.
I only went by bus (or worked at home) when we had fresh snow or ice-rain. The bicycle roads are salted / kept free from snow asap after a snow storm because many people and scholars bike to school/work.
In general cycling keeps you warm.

The wind gets funneled up the Avon gorge and even on relatively calm days one is facing a 10mph to 15mph headwind.

This is why an electric bike is great. They advertise with ‘always wind in the back’ . It has eco-support , tour, sport , and turbo. Going up hill or with a strong wind in front I choose turbo. Having both could be problematic with an ordinary electric bike.

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.

If you have excellent gear against the rain, you don’t get wet. People here are not as dumb as you may think. But at your age I recommend to wear a good helmet too in case you get involved in an accident.

We have a few hills in/around my town (from the ice age, north of the Rhine river). There is one road to the next village with a good 10% angle.
But I admit, your streets seems steeper and not a nice street to cycle.

Edited typo and more.
Maybe I made some stange language mistakes kn translation. I didnt check. Please tell me if there are silly mistakes.

 

[fuentemoon]

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.
View attachment 3943784

This is another possible route out. The area is called Totterdown because the hills are so steep people totter down them rather than walk.
View attachment 3943785
You don't have hills in the Netherlands if my memory serves me.

Those streets remind me of San Francisco, Ca

 

[BDutch]

mountains

We dont have mountains in the Netherlands. Only a few hills. But the name people gave to these hills say mountain (translated berg) . Where I live we have the Grebbeberg and Wageningse berg only about 50 meters above the Rhine.

 

[BDutch]

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.

Someone who wrote a book with just a very little research could be wrong in her conclusions. Maybe your suspicions is good and there might be more to it than written in the book.

Happy chickens free ranging, until ..

This bastard came along.
Its the tomcat that chased my chickens in previous years but I hadn’t seen him for a very long time.

The chickens sounded the cat alarm to each other, a little louder and a little more distressed as when they see a neighbour cat/female cat.

This very well might the beast that hunted my chickens a couple of times and injured Black 2 weeks ago.

 

[Perris]

a book with just a very little research

the one I have been citing has 50 pages of densely printed references, all to academic papers. The authors (2) are Swiss, both have PhDs on birds, both are older than me, one's the scientific director of the Swiss Ornithological Institute, and the other was the curator of the bird collection at the Natural History Museum Basel (now retired, volunteers there still). I think they know what they are talking about.