Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Wow, take a day off to watch my nieces and I’m pages behind!

I love your phrase ‘cringed with open arms and heart’. That is how I get when I realized the chicks I had weren’t the Buff Orpingtons I thought they were and were a production breed instead.

Mine are definitely that way, very curious and friendly.

I stopped fermenting when I got ready to move and haven’t started it back up yet, but it was a home mix balanced (there’s that word again) with the help of @U_Stormcrow ’s very helpful feed calculator. I fed it as a portion of their feed, mostly as a means to give them the benefit of the probiotics/gut acidification from fermenting. However, they were very happy with it and eggshell quality in particular was better too. Poops also seemed to be less stinky but I have no way of quantifying that.

I’ve done quite a bit of reading about food and philosophies towards eating, Michael Pollan being one author that in particular changed my approach towards food and where it comes from. I forget which book, but he basically says that one of the biggest problems with the industrial food supply is that food is processed into individual parts to give it a longer shelf life, and then things like vitamins and minerals are added back in because it’s nutritionally deficient. He points out that eating a food in its whole form, like an apple vs a fortified fruit drink or whole grains vs refined with vitamins, is far more healthful than any of our food scientists’ attempts to add back in what was taken out. Commercially prepared chicken feed, which always will claim to be ‘nutritionally balanced’ is not that much different from breakfast cereal in many ways. Some formulations will be better for you than others as well. It may have everything checked off on a spreadsheet of required components, but unless you’re getting it fresh from the mill, there will be losses in nutritional value over time. I don’t care how much folic acid they put into a bag of oat-based cereal, if you stick marshmallows in there too, I’d no longer consider it anything more than candy you pour milk over. (And there is an appalling numbers of cereals here that are so loaded with sugar they should be labeled candy here in the US, not sure if that’s the case elsewhere.) @Iluveggers , my experience teaching in a high-poverty school is exactly the same as yours with regards to school breakfast/lunch, though I never took food home. The amount of wasted food is appalling - and so is the lack of healthful food.

That said, I do feed my chickens commercial feed because I’m not ready yet to feed them purely on my own feed mix. At some point I may try, but I have enough other things on my plate at the moment. I have tried out a variety of different feeds available in my area, some by necessity due shortages in availability. I’ve attached the label of one of the brands my ladies seem to like best - both in terms of seeming to like the food and also their overall appearance and egg quality while on it. I’ve never been particularly impressed with the 16% protein feeds available here, though I have bought it when I didn’t have other options. I’ll grab a picture of the label in a bit.

I’m so sorry you’ve had so many creatures pass away in such a close period of time. That is just awful.

I’m curious how similar Catalonian French Marans are to US Marans at this point. They probably are bred to different standards, so while they have common ancestry, they are probably quite different in many ways. Body type would be one area I’d be curious to compare. Marans are theoretically a dual purpose chicken, but I doubt most people in the US use them as such. I’ve only seen them marketed for their dark eggs, to add color variety to the egg basket.

It's not so much a complicated story as a story many people don't want to read/hear. The American Marans are only like the French Marans in looks. Most of the original qualities of the French Marans have been destroyed by bad breeding, poor to limited genetic input and wrong keeping condititions.
Unfortunately this is the case for most of the heritage breeds the hatcheries will sell you.

 

[Shadrach]

Just wanted to clarify, when I took the fruit for my “kids”, it was my students not my kids at home…lol. I do a unit on farming & gardening, and talk about & model healthy eating, so most of my students appreciated the extra snack in the classroom and the only fruit ever not claimed was plums. After two days if the plums were still on my table I’d take them home.

@ManueB Gosh I am so sorry. What a terrible week. I hope you are able to remember and commemorate your hens in some way.



Question for all of you. Are Easter Eggers considered a heavy-laying breed? I did add two plus an olive egger to my flock this year. My aunt had a couple and they only laid 3-4 eggs per week their first year, so I figured they wouldn’t have the genetic problems of the sex-link hybrid or high-production leghorn types. The other chicks I got were all cold-hardy heritage breeds and not known for impressive laying skills. (Marans, Faverolles, Orpington, Brahma, Welsummer, & Sussex).

See above.

 

[Shadrach]

I thought a bus tour might be of interest.
Heading West out of the city.

Traveling along the Cumberland basin.

What to buy if you happen to have a few million spare. These monoliths are the old customs bonded warehouses. You could have a gocart track on one floor.

Clifton suspension bridge.

 

[BDutch]

…..


Question for all of you. Are Easter Eggers considered a heavy-laying breed? I did add two plus an olive egger to my flock this year. My aunt had a couple and they only laid 3-4 eggs per week their first year, so I figured they wouldn’t have the genetic problems of the sex-link hybrid or high-production leghorn types. The other chicks I got were all cold-hardy heritage breeds and not known for impressive laying skills. (Marans, Faverolles, Orpington, Brahma, Welsummer, & Sussex).

This is what I have learned from other BYC members:
Easter eggers are no breed but mixes with the one and only Araucana who lay blue eggs.

Mixing Araucana with other breeds in ongoing generations gives a variety of colours. Mainly green and olive.
Eg: Mixing Araucana with Leghorns who lay white eggs result in other egg colours / appearance as mixing with Barnevelders.
The appearances and egg colours of easter eggers can be very different.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Nice ride home for you huh

 

[Ribh]

Question for all of you. Are Easter Eggers considered a heavy-laying breed? I did add two plus an olive egger to my flock this year. My aunt had a couple and they only laid 3-4 eggs per week their first year, so I figured they wouldn’t have the genetic problems of the sex-link hybrid or high-production leghorn types. The other chicks I got were all cold-hardy heritage breeds and not known for impressive laying skills. (Marans, Faverolles, Orpington, Brahma, Welsummer, & Sussex).

I suspect it depends on what they are mixed with. I have never kept them so can't say from experience but from what I know about my mutts, it very much depends on which genes they have inherited. Some people seem to get lots of eggs, others not so many. I'd ask what the mix is, but even then it would be a bit hit & miss I think. My Aracauna is not a super layer; 3, maybe 4, eggs a week.

 

[Shadrach]

Lovely evening. Got some more fish down sick notes throat. She's eating at about half capacity, but she's eating.
Everybody out.

I'm getting to like the new coop and so I think are the hens. Henry isn't ready to give up his outside perch yet. But, big big surprise this evening, Fret went into the new coop and stayed there. 11 in this evening.
Cleaning is easy and I can see who pooped what which is a major health help.

This is the small coop at the back of the old coop. I can save this.

 

[Shadrach]

Nice ride home for you huh

That's going to the allotments Penny. It's dark when I ride home.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Either way you see more going then .. These are the ones I feed now .. The white label is too high a protein for smudge 19% so used as a treat

 

[Windrider]

I thought a bus tour might be of interest.
Heading West out of the city.View attachment 3203409
Traveling along the Cumberland basin.
View attachment 3203411

It gives me anxiety to see that pic with everyone driving on the wrong side of the road. I spent nine month in New Zealand and it is the worst not being able to drive just on your muscle memory and having to think which lane you are going to every time you turn.

Is that tall ship the SS Great Britain? So much sailing history in Bristol - so much so that even in the US we call a well taken care of sailboat "ship shape and Bristol fashion."