Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

What is the shortest period you have seen a hen wean her chicks under circumstances that were not exceptional?

Difficult to state. It's back to that ghastly statistical business again.
At one extreme is Cheepy, say a week before the task became obviously impossible for her. At the other extreme, Ruffles who did almost two months and one would have to have watched very carefully to note the transition from mother to friend.
In most cases it's within days of the mother hen starting to lay again. Whether it's the onset of egg laying that determins the end of mothering, or the end of mothering that starts the mother's egg laying cycle again is yet one more area of study I've not found any information on mainly because the bulk of the study funding comes from large commercial producers of eggs and meat and the topic is largely irrelevant to them.

Given the diversity of circumstances which would include, chicks deaths, nest location, position in tribe, relationship with other tribe members, personailty, progress of chicks etc etc I would consider four weeks a minimum but possibly still adequate.

Is this something common ?

You may have read that Fret had a second go at being broody less than a month after sitting for the full 21 days and not hatching.

Are you planning to give it as soon as you get it or will you try freezing ?

I'm not planning on freezing. I'll collect say once a week and give maybe three times a week. I don't think the fish will come with a use by date on so it should be fine in the fridge for a few days.

 

[Shadrach]

Where I lived in Catalonia was of particular interest to a number of science disciplines due to it's location.
I have a number of relatives who could best be described as academics. I think Perris has read papers from one of my relatives who's field was avian biology. I have two others who have published academic papers and a couple who have published books in their field.
The appartments that were on the property were often rented out to various groups conducting research in the area.

I'm going to pick two who I know personally. Both would be described by others as academics but ask the pair how they describe themselves and what they do in their discipline and the answers one gets are rather different.

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Constanti-Stefanescu
Contstanti described himself to me as a scientist and reseacher. He works in the field, travelling all over the world following the migration paths of butterflies.

https://www.su.se/english/profiles/...-teaching,body-research,research-publications
Chris describes himself as an academic and according to him he spends most of his time reading other peoples papers and publishing his own. In his position it's all about the number of papers one publishes, good or bad. The last time I spoke to him he said he rarely did field work. The area he would like to study is how plants communicate with each other. We had a bit of a dsicussion on this topic and how getting funded for such a study is difficult because those with the money don't see a way to commercially exploit any findings.

So, there are different types of academics. Some still involved in research and others who are not.

 

[TropicalChickies]

We planted a couple of almond trees, but one did not make it, so I think that we are going to need another. I have them with my apple trees, but we need a good crabapple tree or two, for cross pollination. We are getting some apples but I suspect they would do much better with pollinators. I would also like a couple of walnut trees.

Well, the reason those nuts are insanely expensive here is because the trees do not grow in a humid wet rainforest climate. That's why I'm focusing on growing trees that produce nutritious nuts/seeds appropriate to the climate here.

Anything that a person buys that is imported costs considerably more because transport and distribution is more expensive than growing the actual food. As a cacao farmer (cacao is the base ingredient in chocolate) who also processes and ships a finished product this is something I know a good deal about. Dried cacao beans get a local price of a mere 90 cents per pound on average. By the time they reach a market in the US, Europe, or Japan, the same beans without any further processing will cost $9 - $12 per pound.

Nor do apples grow here. Nor pears, peaches, apricots or figs -- although those fruits do grow higher up in the Andean Sierra. Instead we have papaya, guayaba, many varieties of lemons and oranges, tangerines, pineapple, etc and many fruits Global Northers have never heard of like arazá, borojó, jabicotaba, salak, and inga. We have at least 8 varieties of banana growing on the farm and 5 varieties of plantain, plus yuca (cassava), air potatoes, and taro.

People are often shocked to find out that it's a struggle to grow things like lettuce or onions and you can forget about growing cauliflower or broccoli or brussel sprouts. All of these things require cooler or drier weather the north experiences in spring and fall.

There is abundance here, but it's a very different selection and requires some adjustment of expectations and taste to enjoy.

Jabicotaba (not cherries)

Naranjilla. A tart tomato relative.

Salak. Aka snakefruit

Breadnut.

Chicle.

 

[bruceha2000]

Behaves fairly normal now, however!

for a guinea

I'm unsure exactly when she died but I'd think only an hour or two before I found her.

I did necropsies on several of my girls over the past years that just dropped dead. In all cases it was fatty liver disease. Liver explodes, bird bleeds to death almost instantly.

Chris describes himself as an academic and according to him he spends most of his time reading other peoples papers and publishing his own. In his position it's all about the number of papers one publishes, good or bad. The last time I spoke to him he said he rarely did field work.

So he is like people on BYC that read something then repeat it without finding out if what they read is valid?

 

[Perris]

he said he rarely did field work

I don't think it's possible to sequence genomes in the field. Lab work is research.

 

[Perris]

So he is like people on BYC that read something then repeat it without finding out if what they read is valid?

we all do this all the time; life would be impossible otherwise. It's called received wisdom/ experience/ traditional knowledge / common sense. It changes across time and space.

 

[bruceha2000]

I don't think it's possible to sequence genomes in the field. Lab work is research.

In that instance I would consider the lab work as field work. Discovering things personally, just less travel.

 

[Molpet]

It made me wonder if six chicks was not too many.

I usually have 6 to 12 per broody.
Seems about the same except for lost chicks

 

[Molpet]

Whether it's the onset of egg laying that determins the end of mothering, or the end of mothering that starts the mother's egg laying cycle again is yet one more area of study I've not found any information on mainly because the bulk of the study funding comes from large commercial producers of eggs and meat and the topic is largely irrelevant to them.

I have had several lonely only pullets that went in the nest box with chicken mom when she laid. Around 10 weeks until spring.
I have a turkey hen, good Mama, whose eggs didn't hatch for a couple years. I give her chicks for 2 years that stayed with her until she goes broody the next spring.. they were pullets.
This spring she got 3 chicks and 4 poults that others were ignoring. One turkey hen, who hatched the poults moved in after a couple weeks and took over her poults. One chick was a pullet and a mink got her. The others are cockerels and she is still taking care of them at 15 weeks. The other turkey hen is not pleased that they try to sit by her. Good Mama has to defend them. Not sure how the mink managed it. I'm not sure what is going to happen when I harvest one or both of her cockerels.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

for a guinea


I did necropsies on several of my girls over the past years that just dropped dead. In all cases it was fatty liver disease. Liver explodes, bird bleeds to death almost instantly.


So he is like people on BYC that read something then repeat it without finding out if what they read is valid?

Ah it certainly could have been fatty liver disease. I didn’t do a necropsy. I did a brief search on risk factors, and see that selenium deficiency appears to be a factor. That's very interesting as we have significantly low levels of selenium in New Zealand soils. I figured their feed, plus the meat meal (livestock are supplemented), plus seaweed plus kitchen scraps (imported food contains selenium), would be enough but maybe I need to look at richer sources. Given it's toxic above miniscule amounts I'd want to be very confident of my dosages!
It also could have been a complete fluke. I have a barred rock hen who is relentlessly obese, constantly stuffs her face with whatever she can find. She sits panting in the sun. She eats the same diet as everyone else (nobody else has a weight problem, including the other barred rocks). She is coming up 3 years old and apparently is fine. She is the one i expect to find dropped dead! So who knows!