Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[RoyalChick]

Hmmmm, many do indeed like to make out they are living close to nature and the provenance of what they eat.
I've met quite a few such people and most do not have a clue what living close to nature means. I can think of some that would be mortified if they couldn't rush off to some social engagment, some jolly important meeting in their nice shiney car, go on holidays etc etc. I think the fasionable term is hobby farmers.

Yes. My point is not that you should like or respect those people, just that you should recognize that they exist and that you don’t think like them. So your view of the value of ‘allotment raised eggs’ to them is most likely wrong.
You aren’t trying to make a business of this just to have them contribute to feed costs. In exchange they get to go on about how they ‘eat local produce’ and ‘support animal welfare’.
How much is a bag of chicken food pellets in the UK?

 

[Perris]

Where did your Penedesenca come from Perris?

I got them as hatching eggs from a lady in Tiverton, who got them from one of the main breeders in Villafranca, apparently.

 

[Shadrach]

Yes. My point is not that you should like or respect those people, just that you should recognize that they exist and that you don’t think like them. So your view of the value of ‘allotment raised eggs’ to them is most likely wrong.
You aren’t trying to make a business of this just to have them contribute to feed costs. In exchange they get to go on about how they ‘eat local produce’ and ‘support animal welfare’.
How much is a bag of chicken food pellets in the UK?

The idea was when the person who set the allotments up was still alive that it would be a community plot where people who couldn't afford to own their own land could grow vegetables etc and these people would buy the eggs that what then would have beenn semi free range chickens, ducks and geese laid.
Most of the people who joined the scheme are much as you have described in your last two posts, as were the people I looked after the animals for in Catalonia.
The problem is, I do know they exist. I've been dealing with such peoples arrogance and selfishness for years.
I don't mind particularly that most have found that nature and growing some of your own produce isn't all sunshine and lovely and prefer to do other things having experienced what battling with nature to get things to grow is hard work.

What I do mind is all in the group agreed to get these creatures, but none apart from C and Wendy for one afternoon a week now are prepared to look after them. Even if they coughed up an £5 per month (there are 12 allotment holders) then that would not only cover the cost of all the feed but also bedding and repairs.
Some of these people, in fact most of them from what I can gather, know I go there every day, no matter what the weather and supply feed and medication all paid for out of my pension ffs and don't even offer to help out.
So, sure, I'm not a great fan of the hobby get a bit close to nature until I find something more interesting to do types.
A bag of chicken pellets ranges from £15 to £20 roughly for 20Kg.

 

[micstrachan]

She's getting ready to lay because her pin bones are getting wider.
I would rather she didn't lay.

I get that and suspect I’d feel the same. But I still see it as a sign of improved health… just that her body is able to do it. I hope it doesn’t wear her down too much.

 

[TheCluckyClucker2]

what's a BB Red?

Black Breasted Red.

 

[Perris]

It's mainly the lack of calcium for the layers and lack of protein for those moulting and/or repairing feather damage.
After that a low protein high carb diet does much the same to chickens as it does to humans if they do not get enough excercise to burn the calories off.

Would not free choice oyster shell supply the former for those who want/need it? And some of your 'treats' are high protein; they'll get some from the bugs and grass too. Most seeds are pretty good on the vitamin and mineral front, so it's not just carbs in what C's contributing.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hey even my blue Marans rooster Smudge has the white on his tail set.

 

[Shadrach]

Would not free choice oyster shell supply the former for those who want/need it? And some of your 'treats' are high protein; they'll get some from the bugs and grass too. Most seeds are pretty good on the vitamin and mineral front, so it's not just carbs in what C's contributing.

I put out grit and calcium carbonate on a regular basis. When I get back to the allotments the tray I put it in has had the grit thrown out somewhere and bits of bread or corn or birdseed in it. I think it may be because I clean the tray every day so all C has to do is empty and fill.
If the chickens ranged over the entire allotment from dawn till dusk then the calcium and protein might not be such an issue. Just looking at the pictures I've posted gives some idea of what 20 plus chickens will do to an area of ground. In the early pictures there was a lot of greenery, now it's begining to look like the coop run.
Those that have dealt with full free ranging seem to think that a pair would need about an acre of mixed grass, shrub, and woodland to survive just on what they forage. Of course, the breeds that can do this are about half the size or less than the heritage breeds that lay 200ish eggs a year and they lay a lot fewer eggs.
What needs to be born in mind is these chickens are production breeds and they need a production breed diet.
If a hen lays an egg a day the recommendation is between 4 to 5 grams of calcium per day. That's a lot of calcium.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2021.0502

 

[Solanacae]

nice thought, but I think Shad said earlier that no-one is much interested in the eggs (?huh? are they nuts? )

Oh, I’d forgotten about that. If they’re contributing money to the allotment though (Shad said £5/month?) you’d think they’d want to get their money’s worth.

I don't know how the egg bribery stuff ever works in the US. Eggs are cheap here in the UK. You can get half a dozen eggs for under £2.
It probably costs people more in time and travel to come to the allotment or meet up with C to get an assortment of eggs that won't taste any different to the pasture raised eggs they can buy from a shop.
One can hardly advertise the eggs as free range without telling the same lies as the large egg producers.
The only attraction one is left with is tryinng to persuade people that the hens are in better keeping conditions than the batteries.
This isn't necessarily true now in the UK. In fact, many of the pasture raised egg concerns can provide far better keeping condtions than many of the backyard keepers.

Where I live in the US, you can usually get a dozen white battery setup eggs for $1.19. I sometimes see them as low as $.99 when they’re on sale.

If you want cage free, you can get them for around $2.50 and they’ll be brown shelled. Organic, free range, pastured, etc. will all tack on more cost.

If you want blue and brown shelled organic eggs with “bright amber yolks” that are pastured and laid by heritage breeds then you are looking at $5.99/dozen, which is beyond ridiculous. The breeder I get my chicks from bought a carton of one of these just to see if she could hatch any and find out if it would even grow into anything that resembled an heritage breed. She cracked one open and the yolk was a disturbing fluorescent orange. Not sure what those hens were being fed to get such a color, but it was not normal for even a pastured egg. None of the eggs hatched, so no idea on the claims to heritage breeds.

I track my egg production and feed costs with an app, not so much because I’m trying to keep costs low, but because I’m curious how it compares with retail prices. I got the app just to track who was laying so I could keep tabs on their health. My hens aren’t laying much right now and the app says I’m getting a dozen eggs for $2.88. I know a lot of people who are far more concerned with getting as much food for their dollar than they are of the quality of their food, so that was why I suggested the better food = more eggs argument. Views on food and appropriate pricing are probably different in the UK.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Oh, I’d forgotten about that. If they’re contributing money to the allotment though (Shad said £5/month?) you’d think they’d want to get their money’s worth.

I don't think they do contribute, Shad was just saying that if they did, it would work out