Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Molpet]

True. There's also a 25lb sack called an "arroba" but the actual weight depends on what it is.

Weights are one measurement
Volume is another.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Weights are one measurement
Volume is another.

True, but if you look up "What is a quintal?" it says a 100lb unit of measurement. Not a sack that could hold 100lbs. So I think it started as a weight measurement, but now it's just became a colloquial way to say "the big sack" of whatever

 

[Perris]

Usage is key. A long time ago a pound money was a pound weight, and they're still both abbreviated with a version of the letter L not P because the latin word in both cases was libra : £ and lb.

 

[RoyalChick]

True. There's also a 25lb sack called an "arroba" but the actual weight depends on what it is.

Tablespoon

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!

Hope Carbon gets better soon.

Temperature is in the 50s and mostly cloudy.

Have a great day!

Yesterday was cleaning day for the chickens;

Raked the coop floor and gave them some chips to scatter

Cleaned the nest and refurbished them with chips

Will clean the roosts on a bright sunny day so they will dry
prior to evening.

 

[Shadrach]

Could she be getting into something at the allotments that the others aren't? Also, when the dogs get gut issues, I give them some plain, unsweetened greek yogurt, and it helps a lot, would that possibly have the same benefit for chickens?

I don't think so. I had her on my lap this afternoon and gave her a checkover. I even had a look down her throat. She's still moulting but otherwise she's fine whever I can see.
If there is some kind of infection then the antibiotics didn't deal with it, or dealt with it and the problem is chronic. There are that many causes of diarrhea in chickens.
She's getting probiotics from the fermented feed and probiotics and vitamins in the powder I give her.
Reading the A&E threads and reading elsewhere there are other peoples chickens who are producing diarrhea when moulting.
I don't believe it's feed related mainly because the allotment chickens have been fed so many different types of food over the years, changes in diet, unless on was to introduce something extraordinary it wouldn't amount to a major change.

 

[Shadrach]

I found once cooked my chickens eat all type of peas, but just fermented I had trouble to get them to eat them, even split peas.

The problem with cooking peas, beans etc is the heating reduces the nutrients in the foodstuff. I don't want the chickens to eat peas as such, I want them to get the nutrients, mainly amino acids, that the dried peas can supply. It's abount nutrition per 100 grams. Cooked peas fall well below the protein contant of say a decent wheat. I'm looking for a way to boost the protein content, not reduce it.

two things we never ever lack of are potatoes and beans . We could survive on them the whole year

Many of the Catalan farmers depended on these crops to survive the winter with perhaps some wild boar or died sausage/ham in very small quantities.

 

[Shadrach]

It's quite interesting to see what was said in the interwar years about feeding stuffs then in use. On buckwheat Robinson says "very often fowls do not consume it readily. Its feeding value is comparatively low, on account of high fibre content (approximately 14%)". Have you noticed that as an issue with it?

14% doesn't seem like a value to be concerned about. Dried peas for example check in at around 25%. Grass anywhere from single digits to 20 somethiing percent.

 

[Shadrach]

I'm a fan of porridge, for me and the chickens, though I just do the trad milk+water to boil then cream and brown sugar when served for me to eat, though the salty version is nice for a change. Not that I don't love dates, and they are little powerhouses of nutrition. Bit expensive for chicken feed though. On oats, incidentally, since I have the book open on that page, Robinson said that samples vary enormously in quality, and a good one will weigh not less than 40lb. per bushel. Don't you just love historic measures? Bushel anyone?

It's when trying to calculate feed ratios that I can't help wondering why everywhere doesn't use the metric system and stick to mass measurement; cups, bushels, ounces...

 

[Shadrach]

You've probably already done this -- but have you palpated her abdominal area to feel if there are any hard lumps or masses?

When my hen Butchie started to decline, I could feel a hard mass in her abdomen. Dont know if it was a tumor or hernia, but I felt it growing larger over time.

I have and I can't feel anything abnormal.