Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[fluffycrow]

I remember I had one or two that looked like that after foraging all day. The elders called them (loosely translating here) speckled girls. Which is weird because they weren't speckled. They were blue, the colour of a Blue Haze. Supposedly these were the best foragers. I didn't find them to do better or worse out in free range. What I do remember is that they were treated as social pariahs by the rest. They were always a little bit removed from the group

 

[MrsNorthie]

Something happens to them it's not as traumatic to me.

It is hard for me because I have such a love of animals, they are so much better than people. We are going to raise some meat chickens and turkeys, and a few pigs, all small scale to keep their living conditions happy and healthy, and I will still love them all, just can't help myself. LOL

I still name them; even the ones I eat. I read a lot about how one shoudn't name livestock destined to be eaten. It hasn't made any difference to whether I can eat them or not so far.

We raised a pig with my aunt and parents, when my boys were little ours had a curly tail while the other 2 did not have tails and of course, my boys named him Curly Tail... After he was butchered, my oldest was devouring some fresh homemade sausage while saying, "I do miss Curly Tail, I wish we could put him back together again.." LOL

 

[MrsNorthie]

I do that already in a fashion. They get the mixed grains etc between the regular commercial feed. They also get fish, meat, cheese, fruit, most days which I hand feed to the adults and scatter a bit for the juveniles. Dig has tried to take from my hand, not to menton get on my lap to try to get what's in the non feeding hand. I, erm, discourage him. He's learning.
Funny how at a certain point the young drop to lowest status and become last in line for everything in chicken lives yet humans worship youth above all; at least many seem to.
However, despite the variety of food these days they get all except what I leave in the coop overnight (Perhaps 80 grams to 100 grams) in a three to four hour period in the afternoon. I don't know who gets to eat what from the overnight food.
A chickens crop can only hold so much so it would be better for them to have the feed intake spread over more hours.

Dig and Mow are stunning! I have a hard time discouraging them from being lap chickens, but I am soft. Blue loves eating out of my hand now and it is probably my biggest thrill, to have won him over. They go mad over fish and watermelon, but they love hunting it down and nothing makes me happier than seeing them all merrily pecking and scratching together. (All those giant fluffy butts up in the air are quite amusing.) It is hilarious when one finds something particularly exciting, they take off running, drawing the attention of every fluffy butt in the run and the chase is on. (you could have just eaten it quietly, but nooooooo.. had to show off.) They pretty much eat all day, but I have the benefit of being right here to let them out at sunrise and tuck them in at sunset.

Mine are all still under a year old, and while baby animals of all kinds are sweet and adorable, it is only as they mature that you can really appreciate the individuality. People seem to value young and female and I admit, when I started out, I was totally "Team Hen", and while I love my girls and their cuddly friendly qualities, I adore my boys. They are a bit cheeky, but they are growing into lovely gentlemen. I am really impressed that the pecking order seems to sort itself out without any real violence and I credit Blue with that. If someone gets out of line Goldie will chase them a bit, but stops before actual physical contact, Blue, being the King, just runs into the middle of the situation and gives a stare, and the offender just shrinks away. He seems to be mentoring Pip, I often see them together and Pip is mimicking a lot of Blue's behaviour.

 

[Perris]

I have read something about this; I shall look it up in the morning and get back to you. Bed now.

Here we are: Nicol Behavioural biology p.79 "Adult chickens provided with commercial feed rations can consume sufficient feed to maintain body weight by feeding for just 1 or 2 h day"

 

[Shadrach]

Here we are: Nicol Behavioural biology p.79 "Adult chickens provided with commercial feed rations can consume sufficient feed to maintain body weight by feeding for just 1 or 2 h day"

What exactly does that mean. They need to eat once a day and manage to get 150 grams of feed in in one sitting into their crop? I don't think so.
If provided with feed for two consecutive hours they will eat enough in those two hours?
Maybe Nicol's chickens do that but no chicken I've known does.
Does Nicol mean if they are provided with feed 24/7 it takes between 1 to 2 hours of eating to get sufficient nutrients to maintain body weight.
This seems most likely

Say a chicken is offered food for two hours from 6am to 8am. Say they go to roost at 8pm. Would they have any food left in their crop at roost time?

Just to make the point a bit clearer, this is a 150 gram ration of dry growers pellets. The containor weighs 20g.

This is 150g in a bag.

Bear in mind this is dry food. Water needs to be added and the pellets swell in the crop. Lets say another third in volume as a guestimate from seeing the ratio of urates to solids in droppings.

I would agree that a chicken can consume sufficient nutrients by eating for two hours a day in a 24 hour period, but not at one sitting, nor in two hours of continuous eating because the crop doesn't empty fast enough to allow for the volume of food and I've never seen a chicken even attempt to eat that much in one sitting,

 

[Perris]

Her reference is Savory, Diurnal feeding patterns in domestic fowls: A review
Applied Animal Ethology
Volume 6, Issue 1, January 1980, Pages 71-82

I can't access the paper but the abstract is as follows:
"Abstract
Feeding in darkness by domestic fowls can occur in intermittent lighting with short light periods, but is exeptional with photoperiods of 8 h or more. A survey of 30 papers giving information on diurnal feeding patterns with 8- to 16-h photoperiods showed that fowls usually eat most either at the start or at the end of the day, or both, but not in the middle of the day. Laying birds tend to eat more at the end of the day than non-layers, and non-layers more in the morning. Reproductive state appears to be the most important single factor causing variation in feeding patterns. Variation is also associated with the strain of fowl, age of birds, particle size, diet, cage shape and lighting. It is concluded that the type of feeding pattern shown depends mainly on how much is stored in the crop at the end of the day and how hungry birds are in the morning. With non-laying birds, an increase in feeding at the end of the day depends on an ability to predict the onset of darkness, but with laying birds it can also be a direct consequence of the timing of oviposition and/or egg formation."

 

[Shadrach]

eat most either at the start or at the end of the day, or both, but not in the middle of the day.

Variation is also associated with the strain of fowl, age of birds, particle size, diet, cage shape and lighting. It is concluded that the type of feeding pattern shown depends mainly on how much is stored in the crop at the end of the day and how hungry birds are in the morning.

Safe to assume that she's talking about caged birds.
From the top quote, safe to assume feed is constantly available.

None of the above suggests that giving one feeding opportunity a day, even for two hours a caged hen will consume sufficient food which is what my original point was about. Should the allotment chickens only get given the opportunity to eat in a two hour period late afternoon then I doubt they are getting sufficient food.

 

[Shadrach]

So does Nyx, my small Black Ameraucana (with 5 toes per foot). I just figure she has a loose crop.

Some birds do have these pendulous crops. Sometimes it's a health issue and the crop doesn't drain properly because the crop exit is higher than the bottom of the pendulous crop. Some people use crop bras to resolve such problems.

 

[Perris]

Safe to assume that she's talking about caged birds.
From the top quote, safe to assume feed is constantly available.

None of the above suggests that giving one feeding opportunity a day, even for two hours a caged hen will consume sufficient food which is what my original point was about. Should the allotment chickens only get given the opportunity to eat in a two hour period late afternoon then I doubt they are getting sufficient food.

Is there someone who lives nearby able and willing to pop in to give them some breakfast, to save you either making 2 trips a day, or staying there a long time, or leaving food in the coop overnight?

 

[Shadrach]

Is there someone who lives nearby able and willing to pop in to give them some breakfast, to save you either making 2 trips a day, or staying there a long time, or leaving food in the coop overnight?

No.