Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

That may well be it; I read a lot of old poultry manuals and I think they have all included bread in the ration. Of course it wasn't made by the Chorleywood process then.

 

[ManueB]

My little bantams Théo and Chipie have being particularly bullied by Nougat, one of my ex-batts and it's growing pretty bad now. She used to be the sweetest and most calm pullet of the lot when they were young, and probably because of this she dropped on bottom of the pecking order, even though she is the biggest and one of the most agile. She was really angry when the bantams arrived and went on molting and stopping to lay and sulking just at that time.
Now she's got back to laying and it began to go a bit better, but ever since Théo has started trying to mount some of the ex-batts she has turned back to terrorizing them and hunting them all day. This morning I found two of his feathers pulled out with bloody quills . She has become flighty and grumpy all the time. I'm waiting to see how this will evolve or if we have to do something.

This her grumpy.

 

[RoyalChick]

I think many people in farm environment are used to feeding old bread to their animals and poultry.
Our neighbour's 20 rabbits survive on it with hay; so do a pair of abandoned ponies that are about 45 mn walk up in the forest and to whom a 75 year old neighbour feed a huge bag of hard bread everyday. (They are now 33 and 36 and survived last winter in 80 cm of snow with only the daily bread and pellets I brought once a week).
We know now that feeding bread, especially industrial, is not good for most animal farms, but it's difficult to change your mind if you've seen it done forever.
Not saying this is right, just that's it's not that uncommon. It's easier to teach someone who start knowing nothing (like me) than someone who's sure they know what's right.

My mother looked after a lot of cats and she used to feed them fish offcuts from the market and made it 'go further' by mashing it up with old bread and water.
It sounds horrific now (I have a pampered cat on an anti-allergy prescription diet!), but those cats were tough as old boots and lived to be 16-20 years old. I guess they supplemented their diet with what they caught themselves. One was run over and looked like he would never survive but he made it with nothing worse than a split in his palatte in the roof of his mouth.

 

[ManueB]

Here those of us who have been here for 4 or five generations probably do resent all the city folk moving in with city ways. Usually if they have country ways they aren't resented...... But when the nearest town goes from 600 to 24k in my lifetime we're out numbered.

I can't even imagine how terrible this must feel.
Was there some particular circumstances for such a huge growth, or just people wanting to move to the country?
I'm sorry if it sounded like I was spiteful of the way people live in my village. I often don't understand some things and will sometimes make a little fun of it but I certainly feel much better here than I did in the city. Being too many people in a place is a terrible thing.

 

[ManueB]

My mother looked after a lot of cats and she used to feed them fish offcuts from the market and made it 'go further' by mashing it up with old bread and water.
It sounds horrific now (I have a pampered cat on an anti-allergy prescription diet!), but those cats were tough as old boots and lived to be 16-20 years old. I guess they supplemented their diet with what they caught themselves. One was run over and looked like he would never survive but he made it with nothing worse than a split in his palatte in the roof of his mouth.

I feed my cats organic sterilized grain free pellets and then they gorge themselves on the hen's feed and my partner feeds them raw salted pork belly .

 

[Molpet]

Was there some particular circumstances for such a huge growth, or just people wanting to move to the country?

A interstate was put in with an exit at the town. So it's great for people that work 40 miles away in Chicago and it's suburbs

 

[BY Bob]

Slingshot with clay balls. I'm not going to go into any more detail than that but the clay balls are a good hint.

I understand. I really do. I am now fully armed at all times and let's leave it there.

 

[BY Bob]

Mostly Legbars.
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I think they are quite lovely. But then I have these in my tribe so....

 

[micstrachan]

8

I have a nice branch I salvaged years ago that I use as a breakfast bar for the girls.

I pour a little free range scratch mix on it. It keeps the seeds off the ground and the girls can enjoy digging it out of the crevices. Whatever they miss will often sprout in the crevices and they get fresh greens!

View attachment 3001438

one of the roosts in the coop is a thick redwood branch and there are sone branch perches in the run, as well.

 

[micstrachan]

Looks like Redbor Kale. My chickens love it. The leaves on top are still edible, wonder why they left them like that? Especially when there are chickens on site?

Yes, mine are crazy for kale! I found the purple stuff bitter, but the chickens liked it.