Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[pennyJo1960]

Up till the new coop is done I will not allow a hatch in their the rats can kill .. The only coop secure from them is Banty land .. Up there I do not want their life to be hatching ..
I have two incubators.

 

[Perris]

Some of Venka's babies are starting to look quite pretty. They were 5 weeks old yesterday. I now know Killay (predominantly black, far left; was the chipmunk patterned chick I then thought was Neath's) is Maria's, as he's the only one with a P comb, and I'm sure he's a boy. So one of the ones on the right is Neath's (not sure who yet, assume one of the chestnut browns), the rest are Venka's. The one standing at 9 o'clock is still trying to fight off some bug; s/he's now noticeably smaller than the rest of the clutch.

The twins are really quite cute; I can only tell them apart by the little crest

 

[pennyJo1960]

frickin adorable Perris !

 

[Perris]

Meanwhile Eve's 3 were 8 weeks old yesterday and also coming along nicely (& no sick notes)

 

[Sequel]

Meanwhile Eve's 3 were 8 weeks old yesterday and also coming along nicely (& no sick notes) View attachment 3213099

They are frickin adorable Perris! And so unique!

 

[BDutch]

My partner is still doing the finishing work after changing our windows. We bought standard sized to pay less, so he had to make the holes in the wall bigger. Unfortunately he got some of the old mortar dust in his eyes almost ten days ago and he's been in pain since, he is convinced it's due to the limestone in the old mortar! From what I gather modern mortar is a mix of cement and thin sand, I don't think it would be of any use .
I still don't understand how our flock can lack calcium since we are on really chalky ground.

…

Ok. …

For humans some types of Calcium are not digestible (limestone?) and others are (like Ca in milk and pharma tablets). This has to do with the chemical bond that the Ca has entered into.

I know this because I have a nephew who was allergic for cows milk when he was a baby. To compensate doctors adviced supplements.

Of course our chickens have another digestive system. But maybe there is a similarity?

I found some info about feeding Ca to chickens. Informative, but not very clear. https://www.semanticscholar.org/pap...rris/ed3516f0c73725e4116881a77c1a9368ef156a41

 

[Shadrach]

Here you go @TheFatBlueCat

https://www.scielo.br/j/rbca/a/ZFYLhJkZ8VSVpXZSJmCcKvr/?lang=en

 

[ManueB]

For humans some types of Calcium are not digestible (limestone?) and others are (like Ca in milk and pharma tablets). This has to do with the chemical bond that the Ca has entered into.

I know this because I have a nephew who was allergic for cows milk when he was a baby. To compensate doctors adviced supplements.

Of course our chickens have another digestive system. But maybe there is a similarity?

I found some info about feeding Ca to chickens. Informative, but not very clear. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Oyster-Shells,-Calcite-Grit,-Ground-Limestone,-and-Heuser-Norris/ed3516f0c73725e4116881a77c1a9368ef156a41

I love those old articles. I think I'm going to binge on the older issues of poultry science this winter . It did seem clear that limestone wasn't a very efficient source of calcium for the hens to make solid eggshells!

Meanwhile Eve's 3 were 8 weeks old yesterday and also coming along nicely (& no sick notes) View attachment 3213099

They are stunning! They grow so quick it's almost visible on a daily basis. I heard Lea make her first alert call today and I'm waiting for Gaston to crow any of these days. He's gotten so big that he soon won't be able to go through the chicken nettings, which means he won't be able to follow his sister's all around the place and be stuck with the four ex-batts...don't know how he'll take to that!

@no fly zone how are sky's chicks coping ?

 

[ManueB]

Heat mean all kind of parasites here .
I've got some type of mites in the coop that I'm not succeeding in getting rid of. They don't seem to be red mites, they don't hide in crevices but stay on the smoother surfaces like the plastic feeder and the modern roosts whereas I don't see any on the older wood roosts.

I also saw one or two sticky fleas on two of the hen's comb. We took them off and put some Vaseline. My partner got some Frontline for dogs with permethrin (intended for the Asian hornet), I may use it for the hen's comb if I see more. But I'm not keen to do that because our cats hang around very close to the chickens : any other effective treatment ?

And also, my four ex batts are missing feathers on top of their heads and I'm not sure if it's due to the rooster ( who grabs all he cans but still doesn't succeed mating them properly) or to some parasite ( I checked them and couldn't see anything on them). Any opinion ?

 

[BDutch]

Up till the new coop is done I will not allow a hatch in their the rats can kill .. The only coop secure from them is Banty land .. Up there I do not want their life to be hatching ..
I have two incubators.

Yes, very sensible.

Long time ago I lost 2 chicks (from 8) in my first hatch with broodies because a rat chewed himself into the run. Still needed to learn a lot that first year (spring 2015).
At this time our neighbourhood had a lots of rats. The rats could freeload at a neighbour who had chickens and rabbits in a run. The rats went through tunnels to their run.
After two fox visits they stopped keeping chickens and rabbits. The rats disappeared too.

Of course we do have a concern with foxes . But we benefit from foxes as wel.