Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Molpet]

Human beings are not meant to eat grain.

A book I highly suggest is "The Longevity Paradox" by Dr. Steven Gundry. He also has a channel on youtube.

I eat oatmeal in the winter and corn on the cob a couple times a year. Other wise I don't eat grains.

 

[MaryJanet]

Some takeaways from Birkhead on bird senses, for readers interested in these things:

Sight: chickens have no fovea (focal point on the retina) at all while most bird species have one (like us) and some birds e.g. raptors have 2 (p. 17); many birds, probably most, have some degree of UV vision that they use to find food and partners (p. 24). And regarding watching our chickens pecking at things too small for us to see properly, an American kestrel can detect a 2 mm-long insect at 18 m (p. 9).

Sound: hearing in most birds is like our own (p. 71). But the hair cells in their cochleas are replaced on a regular (annual) basis, so they don't lose their hearing with age or through damagingly loud noise as we do (pp. 46-7).

Touch: some birds are indeterminate layers, that is, the number of eggs they lay is regulated through the brood patch; if eggs are removed as they are laid, there is no tactile stimulation of the patch and no message sent to the brain to limit egg laying. Thus a sparrow may lay 50 eggs instead of 5 (p. 93). I guess somewhere along the evolutionary path from jungle fowl to modern chicken that switch got turned off. Also on touch, successful incubation does not demand a constant temperature, but simply one that does not fall too low or get too high, and embryos are far more tolerant of cooling than of overheating (idem). Also on touch, crests or wispy feathers on top of heads probably serve a sensory function like whiskers on cats to help them avoid bumping into things and are associated with species that live in dense vegetation or nest underground (p. 86).

Fascinating. I wish I could re-grow my cochlea hairs

Thanks for sharing.

 

[RoyalChick]

Since I just found a poult that the owl killed,..... it's difficult for me to find fault for a predator kill .

I assume they died of thirst or hunger as she hadn’t fed or watered them.

 

[Molpet]

I assume they died of thirst or hunger as she hadn’t fed or watered them.

The picture looked like feathers everywhere on my phone, maybe it was molting and looked different on the small phone screen

 

[fluffycrow]

The picture looked like feathers everywhere on my phone, maybe it was molting and looked different on the small phone screen

Same, and yes, I'm viewing it through a small phone screen as well

 

[RoyalChick]

The picture looked like feathers everywhere on my phone, maybe it was molting and looked different on the small phone screen

oh yes. Now I am on a broadband connection I can see the picture. Yes, looks like a predator.

 

[Shadrach]

What happened? Did a predator get the geese?

Yes, the two females.

 

[Shadrach]

Personally I don't like website blurbs that say the ingredients include x,y,z - as you've already got it, can you post a photo of the label where they are all listed, in order of inclusion? Barley and wheat berries are not always easy to tell apart for example, but my birds like one much more than the other, and that one is more expensive than the other, so I'd want to know if it includes barley, and if so, how much relatively speaking.

It looks like it would ferment fine - and I think the practice of fermenting is going to be more important than ever for those of us in the UK this winter because of the cool wet summer we've had and the increased risk of mycotoxins on grain harvested in less than ideal conditions. Paper for the very interested here

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/foodsciefacpub/160/?utm_source=digitalcommons.unl.edu/foodsciefacpub/160&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages

I'd expect most of your birds to not like the maple peas.

Finally, it's extraordinarily expensive - the 'similar items' at the bottom of the page include the Bamfords range, which is what I last used for peas, and paid about £14 for 20 kg not £12 for 5 kg; I realize you're paying for a trial quantity here, and I know handling's an issue, but you could get it delivered to your flat so wouldn't have to lug a heavy sack on bus and foot. I guess it all goes to show how, if bricks and mortar shops in the area don't stock what we want, we have to pay a premium to get something online. But it's still a big mark-up on what those who can get it in physical shops pay, and those retailers are probably charging double what they pay the wholesaler for it. What the poor grower gets is proportionately a very small payment for a great deal of work.

There is no label.
Well I fed them a handfull straight from the bag and they ate it. The peas met some initial skepticism but even the chicks ate them after watching Henry eat them.
Agreed the price is outrageous but this is just a test.

 

[Shadrach]

Since I just found a poult that the owl killed,..... it's difficult for me to find fault for a predator kill .

Agreed. It's the general lack of care that pisses me off. The geese run is against a large overgrown boundry hedge and this is how the foxes have got it. Because there has been a section of weldmesh fencing laid as a partial roof, anything that gets onto the roof has a platform rather than a vertical fence wire edge.

 

[Shadrach]

you did? I thought Shad deliberately kept them anonymised till now, when the geese tipped the scales over to name and shame.

Yeah I had tried but between the receding Covid fog and my general annoyance I typed the full name.