Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[no fly zone]

The newest babies (again).

I wonder if they are frizzles...

 

[NatJ]

That reads as very reasonable but I'm not sure better bit is true; cheaper way of providing the basic nutrients maybe. Better? I don't think so. Not for an omnivore.

For baby chicks that are completely confined, with no ability to forage for other food, a modern commercial chick starter is better than a mixture of hard boiled egg and the bread that can be bought in a modern store.

For chicks that forage freely with their mother, in a situation with plenty of things to forage, egg-and-bread might be just as good or better, especially if it is made with a whole-grain bread that does not have excessive salt and suger (i.e. not the most common bread in the grocery store.) But that is not a situation most of us have.

So for most of us on this forum, commercial chick starter would be "better" as defined by whether the chicks develop obvious health problems by the time they grow up.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good Morning X Batts.
We have couple dry days cool mid 60's.

 

[bruceha2000]

The best advice for all creatures is a varied and balanced diet.
Commercial feed doesn't really give the varied bit and I have my suspisions about the balanced with some feeds.

Probably why our commercial feed, kitchen scraps and whatever they can find outside hens have darker yolks than battery hens fed only commercial "make the most eggs" feed.

I find it incredibly unfair that, in 2 years, I've seen barely a whisper of broody behavior,

You are luckier than I am. Every batch shy the ones from last June (at least so far ) has included at least one girl that goes broody. And that with my efforts to get only breeds NOT generally expected to go broody.

 

[Perris]

I find it incredibly unfair that, in 2 years, I've seen barely a whisper of broody behavior, even after rolling out the red carpet for our "broody" breeds (whatever that means). We have roosters and leave strategic piles of eggs in nesting boxes. We leave an entire coop vacant just in case...but nobirdy will take me up on it.

Every batch shy the ones from last June (at least so far ) has included at least one girl that goes broody. And that with my efforts to get only breeds NOT generally expected to go broody.

I expect that, with a few exceptions (game birds and some bantams on one side, battery breeds on the other) this is another so-called 'breed characteristic' that skates on very thin evidential ice.

 

[Ribh]

I find it incredibly unfair that, in 2 years, I've seen barely a whisper of broody behavior, even after rolling out the red carpet for our "broody" breeds (whatever that means). We have roosters and leave strategic piles of eggs in nesting boxes. We leave an entire coop vacant just in case...but nobirdy will take me up on it. And you have an ex-batt going broody??

Try bantams. Almost guarranteed to spend the summer broody. I had 8 & they all sat all summer.

 

[Shadrach]

I find it incredibly unfair that, in 2 years, I've seen barely a whisper of broody behavior, even after rolling out the red carpet for our "broody" breeds (whatever that means). We have roosters and leave strategic piles of eggs in nesting boxes. We leave an entire coop vacant just in case...but nobirdy will take me up on it. And you have an ex-batt going broody??

Some say I have a gift. More like a curse.
Seriously, I don't know what it is. My Uncles free rangers went broody anyway. Apparently I just made things worse.
The farm I worked on in Hertfodshire had free rangers. They went broody if you just showed them an egg!
None of the hens in Catalonia went broody until I arrived. The previous owners had hens going broody apparently.
By the time I left Catalonia every hen there went broody, sometimes 3 or 4 times a year. Even Gedit who never laid an egg in her life sat on a pile of eggs for a while.

 

[Shadrach]

The newest babies (again).

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I wonder if they are frizzles...

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I have to say as some others have, I'm not a fan of the look of the Transelvanian.
This lot look cute though.

 

[pennyJo1960]

My first coop of banty where always broody
]

 

[Shadrach]

For baby chicks that are completely confined, with no ability to forage for other food, a modern commercial chick starter is better than a mixture of hard boiled egg and the bread that can be bought in a modern store.

For chicks that forage freely with their mother, in a situation with plenty of things to forage, egg-and-bread might be just as good or better, especially if it is made with a whole-grain bread that does not have excessive salt and suger (i.e. not the most common bread in the grocery store.) But that is not a situation most of us have.

So for most of us on this forum, commercial chick starter would be "better" as defined by whether the chicks develop obvious health problems by the time they grow up.

I have always fed chick starter feed or broiler feed as it's called in some places. I've also fed the medicated version whenever I've been able to get it right back to the 1960's.
The chick feed in the 60's was different but still commercially produced.
On this forum on threads other than this I've always recommended it and would still do so.
Here on this thread which most won't read it's good to have some alternative views and like Perris, I'm very interested in old school chicken keeping books and advice. Some really did know an awful lot about chickens. They were probably not the type of chickens the majority of the contributors to BYC get I must admit.