Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[no fly zone]

Once a week, I boil a pound of beef bones from the butcher into a bone broth. Then I take out the bones and trim off all the pieces of meat and tendon while I soak a grain and seed mix in the broth. I mix the small sheds of meat back into the grain mash and serve it to the chickens. I have to carry a stick when I take it out to keep them from jumping into the pot -- for a normally pretty well behaved group. The difference in the eating behavior is marked. Instead of just pecking like usual, each one immediately grabs a piece of meat and runs off with it some distance to swallow it. (They also so this with frogs and lizards they catch). Then they dart back in and out until the meat is gone. Then they settle down to peck at the broth soaked grains, which they enjoy, but definitely the meat is the main attraction.

Makes me wonder what is really happening to chickens fed exclusively grain based diets...

Skeksis was a master at grabbing the good bits and dashing off to eat them before coming back for more. I would sometimes eat a burger (100% grass fed beef) outside, and give her little bits.

 

[Shadrach]

Skeksis was a master at grabbing the good bits and dashing off to eat them before coming back for more. I would sometimes eat a burger (100% grass fed beef) outside, and give her little bits.

A bit of meat is good for them. The game fowl keepers I knew in Catalonia fed meat most days; not much apparently and mostly lean cuts from wild boar.

 

[fluffycrow]

A bit of meat is good for them. The game fowl keepers I knew in Catalonia fed meat most days; not much apparently and mostly lean cuts from wild boar.

We do something similar for them here, instead of feeding a little every day, we feed quite a bit once or twice a week. I haven't had the chance to experience the full gamefowl experience, but most keepers here introduce chicks to meat (sometimes raw) at one week of age, supposedly the hens don't give them any meat and discourage the chicks from eating any before then

 

[Shadrach]

I've just found yesterdays pictures on one of my music hard drives.

 

[Shadrach]

Intermittent rain all day and a bit chilly at 14C. I got the foil on the underside of the nest box although from feeling the nest it's probably unecessary.
I'm stressed!
I haven't been this stressed about a sitting hen since Ruffles sat on her and Cillins eggs when there was only Fat Bird and Ruffles left in Tribe 1 and Cillin had only recently joined the tribe.

Just to add to the stress I found a badly cracked egg in the coop; not in the nest box fortunately. It was one of Frets and to make matters worse it was fertile and developing. I guess her, or Carbon accidentally carried it out at some point.
Fret is eating enough. She did this after I lifted her off the eggs for food this afternoon.

That's pretty good for a hen of her size.
The nest is in good shape. The eggs had been turned since I looked yesterday.
She's got them all covered. Note this nest box would be on the tight side for a large hen. But, with a hen of Fret's size it does mean there is less chance of an egg rolling out from underneath her and going cold at nest edge.

She did eat some mash while she was out but I hand fed her at the nest when she went back, layers pellets, cheese, chopped almonds and high protein bird seed which they all like.

Henry and Carbon spent about an hour and a half on the allotments.

I'm getting two courgettes a day.
I pulled some onions to use tomorrow for a large pot cook. A couple for my eldest as well.
Going to have a good crop of apples this year but no plumbs on the plub tree.
I can't see these tomatoes rippening with the overcast and wet weather forcast for this month.
Everything is looking very green.

 

[BDutch]

As a kid I had fish. They seem to be excited to see me.. at least as the bringer of food.
Watched TV documentary about a scientist who took home a octopus to study. Her tank was in the living room. She played with his teenage daughter, watched TV and dreamed like a dog.

Plants being eaten by bugs spread pheromones specific to type of bug so neighbors spread chemicals that bug doesn't like to eat.

I wouldn't be eating anything if I let all this bother me. Something has to die for me to live. If I grow it I tend to eat less, because it's a lot of work.
I figured my animals have a better life than what I get in the store

An octopus is not a fish. Since I know they are intelligent creatures , I don’t eat them.

From google:
Octopuses are incredibly intelligent animals! They recognize individual human faces, have their own unique personalities, use tools, solve puzzles, play, and can disentangle complex problems. Even though they are invertebrates, they are now being studied on the same level as vertebrates like dolphins and chimpanzees.

 

[no fly zone]

An octopus is not a fish. Since I know they are intelligent creatures , I don’t eat them.

From google:
Octopuses are incredibly intelligent animals! They recognize individual human faces, have their own unique personalities, use tools, solve puzzles, play, and can disentangle complex problems. Even though they are invertebrates, they are now being studied on the same level as vertebrates like dolphins and chimpanzees.

I follow the reef doc on IG. He has several pet octupuses.

 

[MrsNorthie]

French standard Marans have feathered legs; UK standard Marans do not and count it a fault. Does anybody know what the US standard for Marans is?

I found this on the Maran's chicken club site:

"Marans have been imported to the USA in small numbers for many years now, probably beginning around the time that soldiers returned to the States after World War II. Over the years, birds and eggs have been brought in not only from France but also from countries such as England, Canada, Australia, and possibly Belgium and Switzerland. Importations of "English type" clean-legged Marans have led to the establishment of many clean-legged flocks in this country, especially in the cuckoo variety; nonetheless, the American standard adheres to the French standard calling for lightly feathered shanks and toes."

 

[MrsNorthie]

Also, Chirk managed to get out of the trug himself this morning.

Oh that is great news!

 

[TropicalChickies]

7 month old Frida has been very shy and conspicuously absent from my tax payments. Now that she's mated and under Lucio's protection, she's getting a bit bolder and finally come close enough to photograph. She's in perpetual motion, so none of them are in focus, but you can see why her appearance satisfies my yen for somewhat oddball looking chickens. A bearded, crested carrioca (Transylvanian/ naked neck), oh my.

Lucio, photobomber extraordinaire