Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

I don't worry too much about balance any more; ensuring variety around a stable core of a few quality grains covers the nutritional requirements with forage seasonally varying as well, I've found.

 

[GregnLety]

Chippy and Pinecone
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Love the frizzles. We have a few and I'll post some pics whenever I get a day off work.

 

[ManueB]

somebody laid a soft-shelled egg last night; Fez was 25 weeks old yesterday; and Killay was attending her all day; coincidence?
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Do tell us today if you have a new layer !
With the seven homegrown pullets that came into lay, Gaston has been a very reliable forecaster. Whenever I see he starts attending and mating a pullet , she lays in the next two weeks.

Today was the first day I've given home made fermented feed as the main feed.
I've been giving it in limited quantities as a treat feed until now. As treat feed (about 100 grams in total) it always got finished, fermented or dry, so I was interested to see what happened with this new mix when offered as a main feed. I put down a couple of small bowls of commercial feed in case the home made feed didn't meet expectations. Henry trod in one bowl of commercial feed in his hurry to prevent Dig from eating before himand Dig threw a few pellets around when he was having difficulties getting at the home made feed. Dig is last in line for everything.
I fed half when I arrived at 1pm and the other half at 3.30pm. They foraged in between.

I have to write, I've never seen anything like it. Fret who just hasn't been eating much since she hatched the chicks ate a lot. Carbon who is fussy and wanders from bowl to bowl or pesters me for something more appetizing didn't lift her head from the feed tray for a full five minutes.


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View attachment 3689475Almost finished. Less than 15 minutes.

Out and about.View attachment 3689470View attachment 3689471

This is what was left after second feed.
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Digesting before roosting.
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Nobody ate any of the commercial feed.
Fava beans were prefered to green peas.

As you may recall, I tried fermenting commercial feed in Catalonia and ended up just making a mash. The commercial feed I ended up with in Catalonia was a local product milled and mixed on site. The crumble had bits in it and made a mash that didn't look like slop. The commercial crumble I've tried here and I've tried a few is different and not good different and all I get is a paste when I added water which when left for an hour or so just changed to harder slop with no identifiable pieces of anything in it.

I'll know more once a few weeks of feeding fermented whole grains, nuts, peas and seeds has gone by and the novelty has worn off for the chickens. It's getting the right balance that takes most effort. The ferementing bit has been okay bar that one batch. I seal the jar now and only let it cook for 24 to 36 hours.

I am still giving mine a choice after months between fermented feed, layer crumble and starter mash.
Preferences vary a lot between individual birds and at different times.
Nobody was eating the layer feed this summer. I had to throw part of it away. My partner was intent on buying some again ; and now it's gets eaten mostly by the older hens who have been accustomed to it all their lives (but didn't eat it this summer) and one or two girls who like it.
I have noticed one or two chickens don't seem to like one type of food. Most of them however eat a bit of each but more of one type at different period. I take it it's both about preferences and nutritional intake. Here there is a huge difference in the nutrition they can get from foraging in late spring, summer, and early autumn and what they can find from now to April.

By the way, the last two weeks I have also had fermented grains go moldy on top which has never been an issue before. So it's likely due to colder temperatures. I stopped adding oregano because of that, and I put more water than I did and add some if needed and that seems to help.

And at this rate, it'll be there for way longer than we humans stick around

My partner likes to watch movies he borrows from the library when evening turn long as night falls early. Yesterday we watched the second Planet of the apes movie, "beneath the planet of the apes". It's not a good movie, but theend is very striking ; it is so rare for American commercial productions to not end up happy ever after. Charlton Heston, the hero, dies releasing an atomic bomb in what could either be a dying mishap or a conscious gesture. Wikipedia : "The final scene is Taylor's hand on the detonator and as the screen goes white while a narrator says, "In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe lies a medium sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead."

Bad movie tax. 28 December 2020 when the then six ex-batts discovered the white powder.

 

[Perris]

With the seven homegrown pullets that came into lay, Gaston has been a very reliable forecaster. Whenever I see he starts attending and mating a pullet , she lays in the next two weeks.

It was your remarks about this on your thread that alerted me to its significance. I will of course let you know when she starts laying

I put more water than I did and add some if needed and that seems to help.

I think it's important to keep grains submerged. Some seeds, like safflower and sunflower, float for the duration of the ferment (about 24-36 hrs here), and kahm yeast often forms on the surface and therefore on them. It is harmless, but I always look and smell carefully before rinsing and offering the fermented feed to the flock. I keep a roll of litmus paper to check the ph periodically or as required (particularly if I notice any grey poo, which is a sign of an over-acidic gut) and rinse the feed before serving if it has kahm yeast, strong smell (as with the hemp seed in one mix I tried) or is too acidic. Rinsing has made the feed better I think; at least, the flock seems to like it better this way, and they are my judge and jury on what works and what doesn't. We've now had two full seasons of no commercial feed ever here, and the flock's health and fecundity has never been better.

 

[TropicalChickies]

The commercial concerns would have us believe their produce is tested on a regular basis. Also, many commercially raised chickens never get onto natural ground to pick up any of these forever chemicals.
Some at the allotments are begining to understand better my motivation to try and completely ban plastics from the field. Yep the micro particles are there already, we don't have to add to them though.
It's this idiotic no dig fashion that's partly responsible for the allotments I see covered in plastic over the non growing months.
Interesting that the three most successfull growers this year haven't been no dig growers, haven't used bought in compost and haven't planted F1 plants.

I've done intensive double dug gardens, I've done single dug gardens, and I've done no dig. Quite a few gardens of each kind over years in many different places, so I think I have pretty good experience to speak from. I never much liked the idea of raised beds in boxes because I'd rather work with the soil in the ground than constructing something to hold a bunch of "garden soil" from a hardware store. I did hammer together some boxes from scrap wood once and fill them with raked leaves and compost and used them to grow quite a bit of veg, mostly greens, but that was when I was between places and only had an asphalt alley for a growing space. As a last resort. If there's in ground space available, there's no need for a raised bed, and yes, I've worked with really heavy clay soil. It has potential, just have to develop it a bit.

Anyway, in my experience, double dug beds aren't worth the work. It's like the marathon run or English channel swim of gardening. Bragging rights for over achievers. Or masochism. I never noticed any real increase in what grew from a double dug or once dug garden.

No dig, as you've commented, often inspires people to put all sorts of plastics on the ground to shade out weeds and prep the area. When I tried no dig, I used a heavy canvas tent tarp with an old door I found on top of it for weight. Didn't leave a bunch of plastic in the ground. But even though, it wasn't a roaring success. It seems to me that even when weeds/grass have been shaded out, the ground still needs to be opened up and folding in some nice organic matter certainly helps. It doesn't have to be fancy... A few bags of raked up leaves mixed with a bucket of manure of some kind makes a decent nitrogen/carbon mix without getting all geeky about the exact proportions. Horse stables are a great place to get free manure (besides chickens of course). When I lived in cities, I would just go to the stables where the mounted police horses were kept and shovel a few buckets for free.

The other problem with no dig is that a lot of people just don't seem to realize that for all that carbon heavy stuff (wood chips, straw,etc) takes a loonnng time to become a decent growing medium. Like at least two years in a temperate climate.

I always got the best results from a happy medium: by digging to the depth of most garden plant roots (6 inches or so), folding in manure and raked leaves, and mulching over.

And the best time to do this for a really thriving garden is not in the early spring -- it's the late fall in prep for the next spring. Time and microbes work wonders.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

Temperature is in the 50s.

Have a great day with family and friends today!

 

[RoyalChick]

I've done intensive double dug gardens, I've done single dug gardens, and I've done no dig. Quite a few gardens of each kind over years in many different places, so I think I have pretty good experience to speak from. I never much liked the idea of raised beds in boxes because I'd rather work with the soil in the ground than constructing something to hold a bunch of "garden soil" from a hardware store. I did hammer together some boxes from scrap wood once and fill them with raked leaves and compost and used them to grow quite a bit of veg, mostly greens, but that was when I was between places and only had an asphalt alley for a growing space. As a last resort. If there's in ground space available, there's no need for a raised bed, and yes, I've worked with really heavy clay soil. It has potential, just have to develop it a bit.

Anyway, in my experience, double dug beds aren't worth the work. It's like the marathon run or English channel swim of gardening. Bragging rights for over achievers. Or masochism. I never noticed any real increase in what grew from a double dug or once dug garden.

No dig, as you've commented, often inspires people to put all sorts of plastics on the ground to shade out weeds and prep the area. When I tried no dig, I used a heavy canvas tent tarp with an old door I found on top of it for weight. Didn't leave a bunch of plastic in the ground. But even though, it wasn't a roaring success. It seems to me that even when weeds/grass have been shaded out, the ground still needs to be opened up and folding in some nice organic matter certainly helps. It doesn't have to be fancy... A few bags of raked up leaves mixed with a bucket of manure of some kind makes a decent nitrogen/carbon mix without getting all geeky about the exact proportions. Horse stables are a great place to get free manure (besides chickens of course). When I lived in cities, I would just go to the stables where the mounted police horses were kept and shovel a few buckets for free.

The other problem with no dig is that a lot of people just don't seem to realize that for all that carbon heavy stuff (wood chips, straw,etc) takes a loonnng time to become a decent growing medium. Like at least two years in a temperate climate.

I always got the best results from a happy medium: by digging to the depth of most garden plant roots (6 inches or so), folding in manure and raked leaves, and mulching over.

And the best time to do this for a really thriving garden is not in the early spring -- it's the late fall in prep for the next spring. Time and microbes work wonders.

I tend to do no-dig (I am lazy) but combined with rotation (I am lucky to have enough space for that).
I heap up leaves and sometimes cardboard and leave it to rot down for a year. And then I sow in the prior year's area.
I am not sure where plastic comes in to play on no dig. What is the plastic used for?
I started this routine because I have very bad soil - mostly it isn't even top soil because it comes from when the septic field was dug - so my method is really a way of letting the worms create top soil for me. I have also had some success with a 'chicken dig' approach - but my Princesses are a little hard to direct to which areas need tilling so I suspect I end up doing at least as much of the work as they do!

 

[L-plate chicken mum]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

Temperature is in the 50s.

Have a great day with family and friends today!

Happy Thanksgiving to those that celebrate it & ditto for Native American Heritage day tomorrow

 

[TropicalChickies]

I heap up leaves and sometimes cardboard and leave it to rot down for a year. And then I sow in the prior year's area.

Instead of cardboard, some people put down plastic tarp on the ground.

And sure, no dig can be pretty effective as long as the organic matter used is able to break down and be digested by microbes and insects so it actually works to grow things. I've seen some folks trying to plant in what's basically a heap of straw or wood chips and wondering why they don't have tomatoes...

 

[Shadrach]

I am still giving mine a choice after months between fermented feed, layer crumble and starter mash.
Preferences vary a lot between individual birds and at different times.
Nobody was eating the layer feed this summer. I had to throw part of it away. My partner was intent on buying some again ; and now it's gets eaten mostly by the older hens who have been accustomed to it all their lives (but didn't eat it this summer) and one or two girls who like it.
I have noticed one or two chickens don't seem to like one type of food. Most of them however eat a bit of each but more of one type at different period. I take it it's both about preferences and nutritional intake. Here there is a huge difference in the nutrition they can get from foraging in late spring, summer, and early autumn and what they can find from now to April.

By the way, the last two weeks I have also had fermented grains go moldy on top which has never been an issue before. So it's likely due to colder temperatures. I stopped adding oregano because of that, and I put more water than I did and add some if needed and that seems to help.

I'm still headscratching regarding the whole feed business. I'm not evangelical about any feeding method. It's quite apparent even with limited quality forage chickens can survive on a very wide range of foodstuffs and forage. I still offer a bowl of growers pellets when I feed them the fermented food and they still get those extras which in the circumstances at the allotments probably have more of an impact on their overall health than their regular feed be that fermented grains and, or commercially produced chicken feed.

When it comes to these debates about feed I stress the importance of excercise; chickens need both to be healthy. The pair are interdependant. Provided the chicken gets fed what will give the basic essential amino acids, a handfull of the most critical vitamins and minerals a chicken that can forage most of the day will find what the fed diet is missing and get excercise doing it in some very harsh environments. It's one of the reasons people have kept chickens for thousands of years.

I'm not anti commercial feed and in many circumstances the poor chicken finds itself in it's often the better option given some of the "diets" I've seen and read about.