Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

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."

Yes, that's the SS Great Britain. The tour is worth doing I thought.
A replica of the Matthew is also here. I'm going on it with my eldest next month.
https://matthew.co.uk/

 

[Iluveggers]

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
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Just curious as to why 19% protein is too high? I’m still learning!

 

[Windrider]

Yes, that's the SS Great Britain. The tour is worth doing I thought.
A replica of the Matthew is also here. I'm going on it with my eldest next month.
https://matthew.co.uk/

Oh, I forgot about the Matthew! As someone who has sailed long distances in modern and even vintage sailboats, I am always astonished that people got around the world in caravels, galleons, and such. I crewed on the replica of the Bounty in the South Pacific and on some local brigantines, and to say they don't handle well is putting it mildly. On the other hand, I have also sailed on traditional Polynesian proas, and those things are surprisingly sea friendly and have a good turn of speed. I'd be interesting in hearing about your tour of the Matthew.

 

[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.

Any excuse to post Marans pictures will do.
These Marans came from Marans in France.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Any excuse to post Marans pictures will do.
These Marans came from Marans in France.
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They're beautiful hens.
I am very pleased with the health of my hens so far. New Zealand has a closed gene pool except for trademarked commercial stock. We have no hatcheries that supply the domestic market except for those same commercial stock. All chickens except for brown shavers and hyline browns (all production red sexlinks) are provided by breeders. While my hens have very variable laying performance, so far their health has been excellent. I think this comes down to the breeder-style way of doing things. If someone has made a commitment to a breed they aren't going to tolerate sub standard birds. As a country we are not much into pampering chickens either.
It seems to work!

 

[bruceha2000]

I have Campines, which are related & my absolute favourites!

I liked my 2 Golden Campines but they were fliers and wouldn't stay in the fenced area. They would be back every night at lockup ... until they didn't. Both disappeared at different times, likely became fox food.

I think I'm coming to the conclusion that the term 'treat' when applied to chickens is at best haphazard and at worst fatuous

For my birds "treat" means the morning BOSS (5.5 oz cat food can for 23 girls) along with their commercial pellets, afternoon scratch (same size can) along with their commercial pellets. Morning also includes whatever we have from the house, usually 1 apple core cut up plus other small things. They get their own definition of treats/food when they forage during the day.

Are Easter Eggers considered a heavy-laying breed?

I wouldn't say heavy but decent and reliable. I'm still getting 4 a week from my 7 year old EE from Meyer (Penelope). I also have a reliable 5 year old EE (Cassiopeia). The youngest are 3 years old and laying well.

One must be aware however that while when I first got chickens 10 years ago Easter Eggers looked pretty much like non standard Ameraucana (pea comb, muffs, beards, green legs, blue or green eggs) and generally would lay bluish green.

Now, apparently, EE can be ANYTHING that lays a blue or green egg. Thus you can't even describe an EE by body features any more. 4 of my girls are the "original" EE type, I also have a non standard (therefore an Easter Egger) Ameraucana that lays blue. She has 5 toes per foot so someone really screwed up the Blue Ameraucana breeding program at Meyer.

 

[Iluveggers]

I also have a non standard (therefore an Easter Egger) Ameraucana that lays blue. She has 5 toes per foot so someone really screwed up the Blue Ameraucana breeding program at Meyer.

Oh, my…bet that was a surprise!


Speaking of Marans, @Shadrach , here is my tax. Lucky is the FBCM about 2 months old. Just barely a patch of orange on her neck that you can’t see in this pic. Also have a clean legged Blue Cuckoo Marans who is a few weeks younger. They were in the grass and decided to take a break together leaning on the outside of the run fencing, lol.

 

[Perris]

In the Netherlands children (and adults) bring their own lunch to school (work). Mainly sandwiches some parents add candy that the children may eat after the sandwich. But hopefully this has changed now. At work there are more snd more people bringing salads and other health food.

Tax for feed
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And more tax with ini mini and Janice.

Thanks for the label; does it list ingredients anywhere, or is it just the analytical stuff?

 

[Perris]

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
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Penny, have you got a photo of the second one that tells us what is in the bag, as opposed to what's not in it?

 

[Perris]

This is where we are with the feed comparison: I have 20 odd labels' ingredient info entered into an excel spreadsheet. Naturally, there are different legal requirements in each country (as they follow their own scientists' recommendations; the science is the same but the experts are not agreed about its relevance or interpretation) that producers in that country have to satisfy, which can make this exercise challenging. But, in general, I think we can get useful info from the order in which ingredients are listed, since every country requires them be listed in order of relative quantity, so whatever is 1st is what there's most of, etc.

In some cases the same ingredient pops up more than once within a single label, as e.g. ground wheat and wheat middlings on the same label (e.g. #8100). I have recorded such at the highest level it appears and left it at that, so in this example wheat appears just 1st, and not 1st and 3rd. Another potential source of confusion is different names for the same thing. If in doubt about an ingredient, use google translate to find a version you recognize. More problematic is the very laconic 'grain and grain products' type entry. For these I have merged the relevant cells if I can, and we'll have to leave the details to our imaginations. Easier cases of amalgamation are dealt with via the = sign.

I have omitted some manufacturers' idiosyncratic inclusions like molasses, marigold petals and suchlike because they are nutritional frills and I'm trying to lay foundations.

If you supplied a label, do please check I've transcribed aright. Some of the photos were a bit challenging for my eyesight. And I'm as capable of missing things and making typos as anyone. I expect to be making additions, so feel free to add if you have one that is not already listed.

The file is added as a pdf attachment as an excel file is not allowed. If you know how to convert Excel to a free-to-all spreadsheet, please let me know. Enjoy