Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Solanacae]

@BDutch I hope integration goes well for Kraai! Is your plan to keep her separate from the others until after your vacation, then?

that's extortion. I don't know what's going on with vets these days; my once-independent vet did a deal with a corp to outsource his admin (which was driving him nuts), and then seemed to be treated as an employee with instructions to do this, that and the other, and, probably not coincidentally, the bills more or less doubled in 2 years. Worse, the dog was given (unnecessary, I believe) 'boosters' for things that used to be given as a once-only vaccination when a puppy and jabs for health threats I'd never heard of. I lost trust in them some years ago because of this, and stopped going for annual check-ups and excess jabs. Fortunately the dog has been healthy since; I will take him if he has a problem but not otherwise.

A friend of mine is a dental hygienist. She worked for a dentist for many years but decided to quit when the dentist joined some sort of dental collective/corporation. He had been operating independently for most of his practice but the business side of his practice - advertising, billing, etc. - was the part he really struggled with. It’s hard for small businesses to compete with big ones, and so he decided to join something bigger so he could just focus on the dental care. So for him, it was a good decision. The corporate people, however, told the hygienists that they had to push elective procedures (tooth whitening being a big one) really hard onto the patients. They also discouraged rescheduling patients for necessary procedures like filling cavities, and told the office that they needed to perform the procedures as soon as it was evident that they were needed. The concern was that the patient would not want to have the procedure done if they had to reschedule, or that they wouldn’t want to pay for something expensive and wouldn’t schedule a return appointment. While
I can see how being able to have a cavity filled right away would be convenient to the patient, it creates problems with scheduling since the procedure wasn’t factored into the schedule and the other patients would have to be juggled around in order to accommodate corporate’s request. My friend wanted no part in that, as she viewed it as unethical and decided to find another office to work at. Unfortunately a lot of other dentists in the area were joining the same corporate group, so she had to do quite a bit of looking around before she found an office she liked.

I see it happening in medical practice as well. There are fewer independent doctors these days, which is a shame.

Off topic tax:
I had a few cucumbers get huge and seedy before I noticed them, but the chickens were delighted by the oversight.

 

[Perris]

In my fancy insect protein feed (grower) ground limestone is the 8th ingredient. I don’t know the percentage but they must be listed in order of amount (volume, mass, no idea). That probably isn’t too bad because the long list of ingredients after have lots of ‘micro’ needs like selenium.
The regular grower has calcium carbonate listed fourth but it may be the same because that is the one that says ‘grains’ without specifying!
Grower is a good one to look at as they have to keep a low total calcium.
I don’t see the article - can you link it tell me where to find it (I did see one but no mention of bread).
I assume bread is bad? My friend who helps me with construction - fixing rotten siding on the barn right now - always shares his lunchtime sandwich with my chickens. He has such a lovely relationship with them (they gather round and have a chat) that I don’t have the heart to tell him not to. I am guessing it isn’t enough to be an issue.

Sorry rc, been really busy today; will reply to this properly tomorrow.

 

[BDutch]

@BDutch I hope integration goes well for Kraai! Is your plan to keep her separate from the others until after your vacation, then?


A friend of mine is a dental hygienist. She worked for a dentist for many years but decided to quit when the dentist joined some sort of dental collective/corporation. He had been operating independently for most of his practice but the business side of his practice - advertising, billing, etc. - was the part he really struggled with. It’s hard for small businesses to compete with big ones, and so he decided to join something bigger so he could just focus on the dental care. So for him, it was a good decision. The corporate people, however, told the hygienists that they had to push elective procedures (tooth whitening being a big one) really hard onto the patients. They also discouraged rescheduling patients for necessary procedures like filling cavities, and told the office that they needed to perform the procedures as soon as it was evident that they were needed. The concern was that the patient would not want to have the procedure done if they had to reschedule, or that they wouldn’t want to pay for something expensive and wouldn’t schedule a return appointment. While
I can see how being able to have a cavity filled right away would be convenient to the patient, it creates problems with scheduling since the procedure wasn’t factored into the schedule and the other patients would have to be juggled around in order to accommodate corporate’s request. My friend wanted no part in that, as she viewed it as unethical and decided to find another office to work at. Unfortunately a lot of other dentists in the area were joining the same corporate group, so she had to do quite a bit of looking around before she found an office she liked.

I see it happening in medical practice as well. There are fewer independent doctors these days, which is a shame.

Off topic tax:
I had a few cucumbers get huge and seedy before I noticed them, but the chickens were delighted by the oversight.

Thanks for you’re interest. I’m not sure yet. I probably wil add Pearl to the second run tomorrow and hope they become friends very quickly.
With a bit of luck Kraai can be integrated with the flock (without Black the attacker) by Thursday or Friday. And open up on Saturday,
If it doesn’t work Kraai and Pearl might have to spend 3 weeks together.
Of course I’m not sure at all. Maybe I have to alter my plans. Maybe my daughter who lives nearby can try something halfway our holidays.

Sorry to hear what happens with the dentists / doctors who have the best in mind for their patients.

 

[Shadrach]

@Shadrach @RoyalChick

These are the guards I intend to get:
https://www.possumguard.com.au/

In New Zealand the only thing that can threaten an adult chicken are dogs, feral cats (rarely) and ferrets/stoats/weasels. We have hawks, but no owls large enough to be a threat. No larger predators, no snakes. I feel comfortable letting them be in trees on my current property as it is not a ferret friendly location.

That was not what I was expecting. I can see it would work though with the rights trees.
Thanks for the link.

 

[Shadrach]

some very good news this morning!
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...ects-to-lay-carbon-neutral-eggs-for-morrisons
what the article doesn't say is what insects they're using... I'm guessing from the relevant firm's website (https://betterorigin.co.uk/our-product/ ) it's black soldier fly larvae, because of the 2 week turnaround and they can fly, so are much more difficult to raise than mealworms so that customers will be less inclined to DIY it once they see the benefits of insects in the feed.

further rummaging on their site confirms they're using BSFL https://betterorigin.co.uk/2021/06/why-insect-feed-is-great-for-poultry/

Crazy really that after a bit over one hundred years of
battery style chicken keeping it's taken this long for someone to research and then mention that perhaps we could be feeding chickens better.

I mean, who would have thought chickens like a bit if meat even if it is a bug.

I guess the experts hadn't taken on board that it takes however much more resources to produce say a kilo of meat, but hadn't worked out this might apply to chickens,

 

[Shadrach]

I am feeling better about switching to insect based chicken feed - I didn’t even know it would have a better carbon footprint.

Can you get hold of it easily?

 

[Shadrach]

exactly. This is a good resource for anything related to food loss (pre-retailers) and waste (retailers and consumers): https://www.fao.org/platform-food-loss-waste/en/

It's quite a useful site isn't it.
A lot less drama then the media and some interesting links from the site.

 

[Shadrach]

View attachment 3208686

The back of the comb in this picture. Is it attached all along the base, or is the back bit an over hang of the comb shape,
I hope that makes sense.

 

[Shadrach]

In my fancy insect protein feed (grower) ground limestone is the 8th ingredient. I don’t know the percentage but they must be listed in order of amount (volume, mass, no idea). That probably isn’t too bad because the long list of ingredients after have lots of ‘micro’ needs like selenium.
The regular grower has calcium carbonate listed fourth but it may be the same because that is the one that says ‘grains’ without specifying!
Grower is a good one to look at as they have to keep a low total calcium.
I don’t see the article - can you link it tell me where to find it (I did see one but no mention of bread).
I assume bread is bad? My friend who helps me with construction - fixing rotten siding on the barn right now - always shares his lunchtime sandwich with my chickens. He has such a lovely relationship with them (they gather round and have a chat) that I don’t have the heart to tell him not to. I am guessing it isn’t enough to be an issue.

It really does depend on the bread.
Supermarket packaged bread is full of crap.
Some of the independent bakers put stuff in I would rather they didn't.

 

[Shadrach]

I feed my chickens all food scraps which does include all the stale bread and crusts from the ends of loaves. Other than bread it's mostly vegetable/fruit/meat scraps and plate scrapings after meals have finished.
I'm not going to claim this makes for the best diet ever, however this is one main reason WHY people have chickens, at least in my country. If you told someone they shouldn't feed their chickens food waste they would look at you like you're a crazy person.
I also feed my flock a lot of apples and kiwifruit because I get it for free. For sure this must unbalance their 'healthy balanced commercial diet' but I'm doing what I've always done, what I was taught to do as a child, and we had hens that lived over 8 years when I was a kid. Some of those hens we had when I was a child lived only on food scraps, grass, weeds from the garden, and wheat.

Exactly.
It seems to be that half the point of having chickens, no matter what your relationship with them is, is lost in the coop and run keeping model. Put 20 chickens on your veg plot after the growing season is over and they'll dig it over for you and eat many of the pests.
We had a compost heap much like the other farms and small holdings. First port of call after unlock in the mornings. If I told the chickens they couldn't eat the kitchen scraps and just the bugs they would tell me I had sunstroke.