Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Two and a half hours today. Some light drizzle early evening and warmer than yesterday.
Everyone got out.
Fret's limp is improving slowly. She's lost a bit of confidence in the terrain she will tackle but she is at last digging again. This is important for these birds and for chickens in general. Foraging is an integral part of keeping chickens healthy. The more time they spend foraging the more exercise they get and the less important the make up of their feed becomes. It's not so much a question of what they forage, it's the activity itself. It's what they were are meant to do. They are not meant to sit around stuffing their faces on provided feed; it's just not good for them just as it isn't good for us. We and they just get overweight and unfit and that leads to further health complaints, particularly for the more senior.
I have my doubts that Fret's limp will heal completely, but if she increases her activity then her chances of remaining fit improve.
That's dried and minced fish with a few oats they're eating off my plot in the pictures.

 

[Perris]

The first edition can be read here.
https://issuu.com/angelc7/docs/moult_and_ageing_of_european_passer

that is a different book, written in 1994. I gave the details of this book, published in 2020, https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...rescued-chickens-thread.1502267/post-28021985
. If you want to order, it is ISBN 978 1 4729 7722 9.

 

[kcan2]

Oh no, Henry's tail! Looks like he is currently in the "stumpy" stage, but working on covering up his losses
I enjoyed learning more about feathers and moulting from @Perris
Generally speaking, is it typical that hens tend to dust bathe more often than roosters?
Mine seem to equally enjoy sunbathing, if not dustbathing.

 

[RoyalChick]

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.

Wow - I also notice the water consumption and had no idea why.
Fascinating.

 

[Perris]

Chapter 3 contd., section 5 on control and 6 on overall impact and consequences of moult during the moult.

Onset, duration, extent and speed of moult seem to be governed by an endogenous, largely genetically determined schedule interacting with photoperiod (daylength for those living naturally). Breeding also modifies it - usually delays it. Food abundance, parasite load and stress events can influence the onset and rate of moult. The role of various hormones that are known to affect it is not yet well understood. What governs the order of moulting - why one feather and not another when hormones are circulating everywhere? why the precise sequence that's followed? - is still a mystery.

Moult probably involves extensive renovation of many constituent tissues in the body, not just the feathers. It involves a whole suite of physiological and behavioural processes. The intensity can be varied within a large range, from moulting just a few feathers at a time, through some flight feathers plus half the body feathers, to the simultaneous shedding and regrowth of all flight feathers.

There are hardly any studies on the effects of moult on mortality. There are also very few on plumage during the moult. How detrimental are wing gaps to flying? how often do growing quills get damaged? do birds get wet? is the risk of infection increased? and like questions are still awaiting investigation - for long, low-intensity moults as well as for fast, intense ones.

 

[ManueB]

Chapter 3 contd., section 5 on control and 6 on overall impact and consequences of moult during the moult.

Onset, duration, extent and speed of moult seem to be governed by an endogenous, largely genetically determined schedule interacting with photoperiod (daylength for those living naturally). Breeding also modifies it - usually delays it. Food abundance, parasite load and stress events can influence the onset and rate of moult. The role of various hormones that are known to affect it is not yet well understood. What governs the order of moulting - why one feather and not another when hormones are circulating everywhere? why the precise sequence that's followed? - is still a mystery.

Moult probably involves extensive renovation of many constituent tissues in the body, not just the feathers. It involves a whole suite of physiological and behavioural processes. The intensity can be varied within a large range, from moulting just a few feathers at a time, through some flight feathers plus half the body feathers, to the simultaneous shedding and regrowth of all flight feathers.

There are hardly any studies on the effects of moult on mortality. There are also very few on plumage during the moult. How detrimental are wing gaps to flying? how often do growing quills get damaged? do birds get wet? is the risk of infection increased? and like questions are still awaiting investigation - for long, low-intensity moults as well as for fast, intense ones.

That adresses many of my recent questions, but how frustrating that so little is known !

I think every chicken keeper who watches their birds daily realise there is so much more to molting than what is usually said on the internet ...that it's a normal regrowing of feathers, nothing to worry about, and that supplemental protein will help.

I've found it very worrying actually with my ex-batt's. For at least two of them, I thought they would not survive. One of the mistery was those mobility issues - loosing balance and stumbling, for a few days to two or three weeks.

This is a video of molting Nougat, who passed recently, last winter. Warning, it's quite a sore sight. If you watch closely you can see from second 7 to 10 that she is crouching to walk. This was how she walked for nearly a month. She was unable to go up the ramp to access her roost even though it's a very soft slope. I had to carry her and also make a platform for her to sleep, because she couldn't stand or walk on the roost.

If some of you have good image of stress bars, I would be interested, because from what I could see on the internet I think some of my chickens have them.

Generally speaking, is it typical that hens tend to dust bathe more often than roosters?

It's what I notice here. However there are some periods in the year when my roosters will dustbathed daily.

I thought it's because watching over the hens for security comes above all else - they also spend less time foraging and when they dig, it's often for the hens and not for themselves. But maybe it's just one of those false rooster stereotype and there are other explanations ?

I have two roosters. One never sunbathe and the other can't stop himself from laying down as soon as there is a bit of sun. He has sun nap attacks .

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[Perris]

If some of you have good image of stress bars, I would be interested,

there are good photos in the book. When I write up chapter 4 (hopefully today but I've got a lot on) I'll try to remember to take some photos of the relevant plates and include them. It matters because there's commonly confusion between stress bars and fault bars - not surprising, since I think most people haven't heard of fault bars; I hadn't before reading this book.

 

[Shadrach]

Both Henry and Mow are moulting. Niether are having a heavy fast moult where bare patches are obvious. Henry still eats as usual while Mow was eating a minimum amount of the feed I supply and increased her time spent foraging. Mow is now eating more of the feed I supply. Mow has been moulting for almost two months now. Henry had a period of spending much more time than usual dust bathing while Mow hardly bathes at all.
This is Mow's first proper juvenile moult and in my experience these first moults look to be the hardest.
I find it interesting the during the chick to juvenile stage there seem to be three distinct moults none of which seem to negatively effect the health and behaviour of the bird.

 

[MaryJanet]

This is Mow's first proper juvenile moult and in my experience these first moults look to be the hardest.

I think so too. The older hens are calm throughout and exhibit the symptoms Perris has been reading about: slowing down and taking advantage of easy food. While the first moult hens are more active than that, I'd even suggest they're as active as usual.

 

[Perris]

Jenni and Winkler 2020 cont. Chapter 4: this is on the effects of environmental conditions during moult on plumage quality.

First point of importance here is that (as of when the book was written, so up to 2020) there are no studies of this in large species that retain their primary feathers for up to 3 years, and for whom feather quality is of particular value; the studies that have been done looked at small passerines like sparrows and tits. So what follows may not be representative for galliformes in general and chickens in particular.

With that caveat in mind, main conclusion is: fast moult speed seems to have a strong negative effect on all aspects of structural feather quality (size, resistance to wear, insulation properties etc.). Some birds sometimes skip breeding entirely in a given year in order to have a good moult and restore plumage quality (rather than rush it after raising a brood) e.g. middle-sized albatrosses. The other thing they stress is that plumage quality is a product of conditions during the moult period. Those conditions have far reaching carry over effects, because that plumage has a huge impact on the bird's life for the rest of the year or three, until those feathers are replaced in a subsequent partial or full moult.

Other significant findings that caught my attention are: Food shortages in general, or lack of particular nutrients required during moult, may have one or more consequences: it may cause a delay or interruption to the moult; may lead to feather production at the expense of body reserves (drawing what's needed from other body tissues); may reduce the number of feathers grown simultaneously or the feather growth rate, thereby extending the moult; and/or it may reduce the feather quality.

The birds studied prioritized their normal moult timing and intensity at the expense of body reserves and then feather quality. Even severe malnutrition does not normally stop the onset of the process, and moult may proceed even until death by malnutrition.

NB Defects in feathers caused by particular nutrient deficiencies "are rarely observed in free-living birds", p. 153, but "in free-living birds, evidence that habitat quality or food availability affects plumage quality is scarce", p. 154.

There are 3 kinds of malformation in feathers; the terminology used for them here is (i) pale or pallid bands, (ii) fault bars, and (iii) feather holes. Pallid bands, typically a few mm wide, have reduced pigmentation, and seem to be produced by malnutrition. A fault bar, about 1mm wide, is a translucent line across the entire vane or just part of it, where the barbules are reduced or missing, and seems to be caused by acute short-term stress events such as handling, fear, or sudden cold impacting the growth in the follicle. Fault bars compromise the integrity of the vane and are typically where a feather will break. Holes are the result of bacterial decomposition or chewing lice. See attached photos for illustrations.

The term 'stress bar' is not used in the book. Regarding stress, it was pointed out in chapter 3 that a normal moult down-regulates corticosterone production; lab experiments that injected abnormally high doses of this stress hormone into birds (some of whose feathers had been plucked in order to study regrowth, so outside a normal moulting period and processes) did compromise replacement feather growth, but naturally occurring corticosterone concentrations do not interfere with feather growth or quality.