Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Iluveggers]

One of the things on BYC that drives me bonkers is the “don’t feed your hens too many treats just commercial feed” argument. I don’t understand how that can be controlled if your chickens have access to pasture/yard/grass/whatever you call it. If I give my chickens kale and collard greens, that is considered a “treat”. If they forage and eat a ton of grass and bugs, it is not a treat. I personally think for the most part chickens can regulate what they need. Yes maybe they will gorge on something if they have access to it but I think eventually they’ll stop eating it, for example a heap of berries. My girls have local feed available from morning til roost, but also have grass & bugs to choose from, along with the occasional melon rind or other scrap. As they get older I will probably give them more scraps, and let them regulate their own bellies. Do you guys feel strongly one way or another?

Also, I doubt feed alone is the cause of production hens issues. If they are confined to a cage lack of exercise and forage might be a problem. I don’t think excess calcium from layer food would be an issue since they are usually removed from production if they stop laying or slow too much.

 

[Perris]

Besides. Heritage breeds and barnyard mixes often get 100% industrially produced starter/grower/layer feed too. And I dare to say they do live longer as production breeds.

Good point. Does anyone have any actual stats on this? And do we (if so, how?) distinguish between hatchery-grade heritage breeds and not-mass-produced-heritage breeds?

Am I guessing correctly that someone's pet peeves is also rubbing the wrong way ?)

Spot on! No matter what the issue or problem, someone on any BYC thread can be guaranteed to pipe up that the problem is 'treats' and the solution is commercial feed only. The educator in me feels compelled to try to make such people just stop and think for a minute.

On genes v diet, I'm sure I've seen posts by people who have production breeds but have had them since chicks (not as spent rescues), and have treated them like backyard chickens not industrial production units, and they lived normal length lives (at least, more than 4 years). Anyone here experienced that?

 

[Perris]

On the other hand, there are quite a number of studies on the impact of genetics for hens welfare and the reproductive problems of high production breed's

thanks for the link; I'm reading it now, but have to note immediately the second sentence: "given the appropriate lighting and nutrition, many strains of laying hens produce an egg on almost every day"

 

[Molpet]

Someone gave me some month old chicks in 2016. 2 were isa browns. One laid every day the other missed one day, for over a year. They laid through molts even. Then they went to one a week and about 18 months old within a week of each other they suddenly hid in the coop and the first one slowly die, I put the other one down.
They were free ranging and I still have a br from then. She's laying every so often still.

 

[Perris]

I still have over br from then

something missing here? can you please clarify?

 

[Molpet]

something missing here? can you please clarify?

LOL typo
Should be "I still have a br from then "
They gave me 2 buff Orpington and 2 barred rocks along with the isa. I sold the 2bo the next year. And one of the br was a cockerel.

 

[Shadrach]

There may be organised volunteers around who will come and harvest fruit trees and distribute the proceeds to local food banks and soup kitchens. You would need the permission of the owner of the tree of course, but it's worth a shot don't you think?

Not enough to pick to make it worthwhile. We'll get most of them.

 

[Shadrach]

Took a fall in the coop banged the knee up one deeper wound on the lower leg. I will be fine put silver on all of them .. no more bleeding but 2 bled good.
That was closing the coop for the night.
Funny but smudge had gotten off the perch to stand next to me prone ?View attachment 3200054
Tax

Probably waiting for you to stop moving so he could take a bite and call the hens.

 

[Shadrach]

I have a hypothesis for the collective consideration of those on this thread:

The notoriously short lifespan of 'battery/production breed' chickens is more attributable to their diet (100% industrially produced starter/grower/layer feed until/if 'rescued') than to their genes. Discuss.

Swimming against the tide again Perris?

 

[Shadrach]

I agree. So does Mark, the vet, who told me hens are born with every egg they will ever lay already inside them (much like women). He said accelerated ageing is why commercial laying hens ovulate daily. When they stop ovulating, it's because they're middle aged even though their age in years might be young. Also, accelerating ageing through a breeding program introduces serious health problems.

On the weekend I had lunch with a friend who keeps hens in her backyard. One of the hens is 10 years old and laid a few eggs last season. She's an old hen, but very healthy, and a mixed breed.

I tried explaining the a hen only has a certain amount of eggs in her on a thread here somewhere. People assume that the hens are bred to lay more eggs, but it's more a case of they are bred to lay what they have faster.
There are some topics one is just wasting ones time trying to educate people on. The Educators don't pick this stuff up, maybe because they don't know.

Every egg a hen will lay is formed in the infundibulum at maturity is how I understand it. The infundibulum looks like a cauliflower, each head being a potential egg.