Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Molpet]

Birds are going to be getting some nice treats. Went to the grocery store today and they had packages of 300g of walnut halves for only $1 CA! Grabbed three.

I just bought a lb for $6 usa on sale today. You did get a deal

 

[Canadian Wind]

I just bought a lb for $6 usa on sale today. You did get a deal

Now to stop myself from eating them all!

 

[MrsNorthie]

Now to stop myself from eating them all!

I got some for the birds and also got some extra to make a cherry walnut cake for the Egg Thief.

 

[Perris]

They've been finding food for thousands of years by foraging. It's what they are meant to do. It's so much a part of what they are meant to do that it links their whole physical and mental health to the activity.

I couldn't agree more.

Apparently many of these herbs and spices need to be looked at from the gut health side of things rather than a lab analysis report.

Yep. Not to mention that lab analyses focus on each nutrient in splendid isolation, and thus miss all the synergies present when the nutrients that occur together are given together, as happens when the plant (or animal, or fungus) is consumed in its whole form.

Lots of plants have very small quantities of chemicals we make use of. Studies have picked up on various possible health benefits for many plants but rightly point out one would need to eat a lot before it matched a medical dose, for want of a better description. Suppose one eats a little of said plant over a long period of time (?)

Indeed. There is a difference between a maintenance 'dose', and a medical dose that is intended to rectify something very quickly by giving it in a relatively concentrated or purified form.

The more other creatures are studied the clearer it is that many self medicate on these not nutritionally significant plant antd bug contributions

I am currently reading One Medicine: what animals can teach us and why they matter, Morgan 2023. Chapter 3 (Why you should shit) is particularly entertaining, as well as informative

edited to correct the chapter title: somehow the word 'eat' got lost after 'should'!

 

[RoyalChick]

I got some for the birds and also got some extra to make a cherry walnut cake for the Egg Thief.
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You people are so cruel. Another cake! Looks delicious.
I will not buy eggs. I will not buy eggs. I will not buy eggs.
Pooh looked in a nest box briefly yesterday. Hopefully she was reminding herself.

 

[fuzzi]

I'm begining to understand just how crucial even just a couple of hours ranging time is to the field chickens and I suspect this is the case for all chickens. Some of the studies on improving the lot of commercial chickens write about substituing/replicating environments so the chicken can carry out natural behviours. One such improvement is providing materials for chickns to scratch in. What gets overlooked (interesting) is why they scratch. They don't do it to manicure their toe nails although scrtaching does, they do it because that's their primary way of finding food. If they don't find food they scratch less if at all after a while.

It's this scratching the groud, checking, pecking and moving on we call foraging. Some seem to think that chickens are grazing creatures. While they will eat grasses and plants, mostly I see them with their beaks close to the ground scratching a patch and then moving and repeating. They've been finding food for thousands of years by foraging. It's what they are meant to do. It's so much a part of what they are meant to do that it links their whole physical and mental health to the activity.

Reading through some of the feed debates, some dismiss what would seem to be a relatively small nutrient contribution next to commercial feed as a marketing gimmic and of little nutritional value.
Recent studies on nutrition for humans have suggested that we can and probably should increase the herb and spice content of out food beyond the usual salt pepper and chilli. Apparently many of these herbs and spices need to be looked at from the gut health side of things rather than a lab analysis report. We were foragers (not really hunters at any point in our evolution) and nutrition advice is still despite the number of alternative diets is eat a bit of everything you can find that's edible because like the chicken we are omniverous. Lots of plants have very small quantities of chemicals we make use of. Studies have picked up on various possible health benefits for many plants but rightly point out one would need to eat a lot before it matched a medical dose, for want of a better description. Suppose one eats a little of said plant over a long period of time (?)

The more other creatures are studied the clearer it is that many self medicate on these not nutritionally significant plant antd bug contributions
I've watched chickens pass over what I would have thought was an interesting bug or plant and head for one particular place and start digging or tearing bits of a plant that they didn't show much interest in a few weeks ago.

Anyway, it's still damp, grey and chilly. Slightly better at 5C before dusk with a breeze rather than a wind.
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They're not broke until we humans mess around with their natural inclinations.

My flock are attacking anything green and growing that I offer. I suspect they are needing something that only green stuff offers. So, I am digging up "weeds" from the yard, roots and dirt still attached, and offering them to the flock. All they leave behind is a little soil, dirt.

 

[RoyalChick]

Thank you Pooh and Tassels!
Now I have a dilemma. Breakfast, or half way to a cake?

 

[Perris]

love those 'egg cups', and the taupe coloured egg!

 

[RoyalChick]

love those 'egg cups', and the taupe coloured egg!

Thank you.
That is the Tassels egg. Don’t get many like that because she is not a daily layer and spent most of the summer broody. It always feels extra special when I get one of her eggs.
This is Tassels.

 

[Canadian Wind]

love those 'egg cups', and the taupe coloured egg!

Agreed, I've never seen an egg that colour!

I have one blue-egger, the rest all lay lighter shades of brown. This is the blue-egger on the left. She needs a name! Had her for 2+ years and still remains unnamed.