Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[HiEverybirdy]

Just pronounce Stilton as Stil-TENS Hens. .

I think you are doing a lovely job at growing and adapting your chicken space as needed!

Not too shabby!

ETA: I read too quickly at first and didn't see the 2nd sentence in your post--thank you for the kind words.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Behaviour studies are notoriously difficult.
Some of the problems are obvious. They take an enormous amount of time in observation. The circumstances/environment the study is conducted in has a massive impact. What is normal in one set of circumstances isn't in other circumstances.
Even with my very small group of who I consider to be reliable observers our obsevations often lead to different conclusions and we go over the details fairly thoroughly and adjust the conclusion accordingly.
Take this for example.
From my observations I came to believe that moulting hens went off commercial feed. Now if commercial feed is all there was to eat then the drive to hang on to life would in most instances force the hen to eat whatever was available or die. I haven't read any accounts of moulting hens dying of starvation.
One way to try and put this theory to the test is to create a poll which I did.
Here is the poll.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...off-their-usual-feed-when-they-moult.1498056/
What to make of it?
Well it is a problem observed by some is a reasonable start.
It's also reasonable to guess that those who voted yes have observed this at some point.
Polls being what they are and people being what they are a proportion of the no votes will be people who just haven't observed this. It doesn't mean it isn't happening though.
There are according to the poll experts those who will just vote no, perhaps through trolling of a kind, perhaps because they have disliked something else the OP has posted.
Roughly, the poll experts have it the yes votes are likely to be more reliable.
So just on the yes and no votes even if you don't account for poll slanting there is a 50/50 split.
Include the other two options and it's reasonable to say there is a problem with hens going off their feed when moulting.
I can't recal ever having seen this dealt with at any depth on BYC which is a chicken related forum. There are no articles about it that I could find. No "educator" advice on the subject, yet 50% of the votes suggest the problem is real.
The often trotted out catch all is every hen is an individual and different etc etc.
This may well be true but a group of individuals can and do exhibit what we would describe as "normal" behaviour. In the statistical bell curve there will always be the outliers but the norm falls within a fairly well defined range.
So far I've read more reliable reports of roosters prefering moist soil for bathing than not. I think there is an issue here that warrants further investigation.

I'd like to throw a damp-dirt hypothesis into the ring: since roosters seem to like staying extra shiny and a tad musky, maybe damp dirt doesn't strip away as much of their oils as dry dust.

Given, hens stay shiny, too, but ours smell like fresh-cut straw, while roosters wear a slightly sharper fragrance.

 

[Ribh]

from what I understand most hens tend to molt when it starts getting colder. Though I can't say this has been true with mine.

Not necessarily. I had a couple that always moulted when the weather warmed up. They were winter layers so that sort of makes sense. And my frizzles moult randomly. Given they tend to look pretty tatty @ the best of times it can sometimes be hard to tell.

 

[Shadrach]

My hunch is that different environments afford different nutritional support and hens use commercial feed according to need.

I agree with this.

 

[Shadrach]

My birds are always the worst with their first major molt. Queen was my latest example of this. I thought she was going to die she looked so miserable and unwell. She barely ate anything, commercial feed or otherwise. I do believe she didn't consume enough protein to complete her molt as she didn't drop all of her old feathers. She is currently broody and I am watching her with interest as I've had hens go through molts when they sit.

What I noticed was although this difficult moulters didn't eat much in the way of commercial feed they still went to roost with reasonably full crops. This indicates that they were eating. Bear in mind these were free range chickens with access to all sorts of vegitation and insect/grub forage. I became less concerned about their health once I had felt a few crops at roost time. Exactly what they ate, despite my best attmpts to follow them and observe is still a bit of a mystery.

 

[Shadrach]

Except that 1/2 my present lot are going through their 1st moult...

I'm going to put you down as one of the outliers on the bell curve.

 

[Shadrach]

Does that mean Merle is now in the same coop as Stilton, or do you have several coops ? And are Merle and Andre from the same hatch ?

Regarding nutrition and seasons I have heard it said that cold weather should mean giving more fat and less protein, but this doesn't go well with the idea that molting hens should be given more proteins, as from what I understand most hens tend to molt when it starts getting colder. Though I can't say this has been true with mine.
Poultry nutrition is like human nutrition I guess, a bit of science, hard facts, but also fads and hardcore beliefs .

This is part of the beauty of free ranging chickens. While I'm all for a bit of anthropomorphism I don't think chicken go for the food fads. They do seem to have preferences though.

 

[Shadrach]

I don't know who can deny climate changes anymore with that crazy weather, here we are having ten days with 30 degree celsius.
I'm glad your chickens have found a way of escaping flowerbeds induced captivity !

I wonder if your hen that were broody and molted, didn't do that due to light restriction. I can see my first broody who stays in a dark place turning pale and her comb also fading colour.

The climate is and has been changing since the planet was formed.

 

[no fly zone]

Skeksis laid a perfectly normal egg today.

 

[Shadrach]

so what did the other members of the chicken club feed their birds, especially in winter when forage is poorest?

I have mentioned this elsewhere on BYC. They wouldn't tell me.
Not quite true but...
What the game fowl keepers feed their chickens has been and still was when I was in Catalonia a very well guarded secret. Each trainer had there own concoctions which they insisted made the difference between winning fighting cock and a loser. You are what you eat type of things.
I did manage to get a recipie from the guy who kept Fayoumies which I have somewhere (it's in Catalan) and some of the ingredients I didn't even recognise and couldn't find a translation for.
Sour milk was in it but I think what was meant was live yogurt. I'll see if I can find it one day and have another go at translating it so that it makes sense.