Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[HiEverybirdy]

He has 11 chickens currently. It varies with hatch additions.
I'm not suggesting he, or I are the norm. Most people do not spend amounts like this on feed or feed the same foods.
If he's feeding 30% meat or fish that is rather cheap.

The cost makes good sense. Protein is expensive, and last time I priced sourcing ingredients for homemade chicken feed, it was substantially more than commercial feed.

Because your friend raises a particular breed (and I failed to notice that you included the number of chickens in your original post), I somehow assumed he kept many more birds and was suddenly thinking my spending must be astronomical. I'm not thrifty when it comes to buying extras. The joy of shopping for chickens can make me blind to pricetags. Though the price of produce is feeling a little dear lately. It's $7 for flat of organic blueberries at Trader Joe's these days, yikes.

 

[Perris]

Don't really know then. It's one of those it depends answers.

I don't recall any hens stepping off the nest after laying and turning all the eggs so their orientation was uniform.
I have seen what has been normal in my experience hens gather the eggs in a nest before laying their most recent.

If keeping them cool helps to reduce the chances of early unsupervised incubation one might have thought the hen would push all the laid eggs out from underneath her when she lays.

Thinking a bit about the "slip the latest laid eggs under a broody."
What exactly is going on here?
Are people taking the eggs from the hens nest and storing them?
How does the hen go broody in a natural manner? Does she go broody out of desperation and hope the keeper gives her some eggs?
Why take the eggs at all if one intends the hen to sit and hatch?

Reprtedly Jungle fowl hens lay 7 to 9 eggs and procede to sit on them. My Finnish friend writes his land race hens lay around 10 before going broody.
It may be a good idea to incubate 20 eggs in an incubator but for a ranging hen that is reliant on forage to feed her chicks there is no way she'll be able to feed them all.

So, what's going on with all these spare eggs getting slipped under a broody hen?

I wasn't looking for an answer - I just thought it mirrored your 'some do, some don't, some will, some won't' comment earlier The experts don't know either. And what people do never fails to baffle me

But on the understanding side, very few people get a 100% hatch, and they just make assumptions or repeat received wisdom about why one/some didn't make it, or they just ignore the fails as normal wastage (which are 10-90% in wild birds remember; this is not confined to domesticated birds). To advance the understanding we really need to know the details about which egg(s) didn't make it. Most hens' nests have got far too many variables in play to make progress there, so the artificial incubator data is what we've got to work with.

But now I know what I know about this, next time I have a broody leave the nest with fewer chicks than she had eggs under her, instead of wondering what happened, I will have a rational and reasonably well documented explanation or two for those which suffered early embryonic failure, were slow to hatch, failed to hatch, or struggled as hatchlings, and be thankful that most of them are fine and dandy.

 

[Perris]

This looks to be a good buy if their nutrition table is accurate. £4.95 delivery.
14% protein is a good percentage for plain wheat and it's a 25 kilo bag rather 20 kilo.

https://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/products/organic-wheat-grain-25kg

That is marketed as a premium product for human consumption, and with postage is coming in at about £30. You are paying a lot for one extra percent of protein (or the organic label, but I think it's the protein that interests you).

The UK milling specification for wheat is 13% or more; they don't always reach it (largely due to bad weather) but that's what should be going into (all) the flour mills. That's what all wheat farmers here are aiming at and most of them are producing it.
https://ahdb.org.uk/cereals-oilseeds/cereal-quality-survey

According to Feedipedia, crude protein in wheat varies between 9% and 19%; the average is 12-13% https://www.feedipedia.org/node/223

For comparison, I can pick up (about 5 miles away) a 25kg sack of feed wheat (not human grade, not organic, grown about 75 miles away) for £10.99. Or I can buy (about 30 miles away) a 25kg sack of feed wheat (grown about 40 miles away) for £8. Given the £20+ price difference between them and the Doves option, it might be worth investigating getting a parcel firm to deliver feed wheat to you from a local supplier.

(I draw attention to the miles not just for food miles reasons but because the Doves is a blend from multiple countries, and at least one reviewer was concerned about that. My two are relatively locally grown, but I have to drive to pick up either, one closer than t'other, so even if I combine the pick up with other reasons to go there, there are 10 or 60 mileage expenses for me to add.)

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Awoke to a sad thing this morning. Pinkie, known on this thread as our crowing hen, was dead under the roost. Her body was stiff, but otherwise, she looked perfect, as always, not a feather out of place, eyes closed. There wasn't poop on or under her, nor was she pecked, nor was anything else amiss in the coop.

She was her normal self yesterday. I happened to spend extra time with them in the afternoon and am grateful she had a chance to hop on my shoulder one last time to tell me about the day.

The others rolled out of the coop normally this morning, and it appears to be a typical day for them. I think they had ample time with her body to say goodbye. I'm more of a mess.

Since you all understand the emotion that can come with this kind of loss, I wanted to ask you to hold her in your thoughts today, wish her a peaceful journey, or your version of that.

Pinkie had just turned 4. Her nickname was "the ambassador" because she never met a chicken, human, or dog she couldn't win over. She was sort of an angel chicken who would stick close to anyone under the weather. She rarely passed up a chance to sit on my lap and nap for as long as 30 minutes at a time, until long after my leg or foot had fallen asleep. We were good friends.

It's sad any time a chicken passes, but losing Pinkie is hitting hard. I'm not sure how to make my brain accept that she won't be running down the ramp every morning. I still find myself looking for her out there. You all know the deal. Chickens

Here's to the one and only, magnificent Pinkie Bird.

 

[Perris]

so sorry for your loss. She sounds very special.

 

[RoyalChick]

Awoke to a sad thing this morning. Pinkie, known on this thread as our crowing hen, was dead under the roost. Her body was stiff, but otherwise, she looked perfect, as always, not a feather out of place, eyes closed. There wasn't poop on or under her, nor was she pecked, nor was anything else amiss in the coop.

She was her normal self yesterday. I happened to spend extra time with them in the afternoon and am grateful she had a chance to hop on my shoulder one last time to tell me about the day.

The others rolled out of the coop normally this morning, and it appears to be a typical day for them. I think they had ample time with her body to say goodbye. I'm more of a mess.

Since you all understand the emotion that can come with this kind of loss, I wanted to ask you to hold her in your thoughts today, wish her a peaceful journey, or your version of that.

Pinkie had just turned 4. Her nickname was "the ambassador" because she never met a chicken, human, or dog she couldn't win over. She was sort of an angel chicken who would stick close to anyone under the weather. She rarely passed up a chance to sit on my lap and nap for as long as 30 minutes at a time, until long after my leg or foot had fallen asleep. We were good friends.

It's sad any time a chicken passes, but losing Pinkie is hitting hard. I'm not sure how to make my brain accept that she won't be running down the ramp every morning. I still find myself looking for her out there. You all know the deal. Chickens

Here's to the one and only, magnificent Pinkie Bird.

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Losing her must be very hard.
She was a beautiful lady.

 

[Molpet]

Awoke to a sad thing this morning. Pinkie, known on this thread as our crowing hen, was dead under the roost. Her body was stiff, but otherwise, she looked perfect, as always, not a feather out of place, eyes closed. There wasn't poop on or under her, nor was she pecked, nor was anything else amiss in the coop.

She was her normal self yesterday. I happened to spend extra time with them in the afternoon and am grateful she had a chance to hop on my shoulder one last time to tell me about the day.

The others rolled out of the coop normally this morning, and it appears to be a typical day for them. I think they had ample time with her body to say goodbye. I'm more of a mess.

Since you all understand the emotion that can come with this kind of loss, I wanted to ask you to hold her in your thoughts today, wish her a peaceful journey, or your version of that.

Pinkie had just turned 4. Her nickname was "the ambassador" because she never met a chicken, human, or dog she couldn't win over. She was sort of an angel chicken who would stick close to anyone under the weather. She rarely passed up a chance to sit on my lap and nap for as long as 30 minutes at a time, until long after my leg or foot had fallen asleep. We were good friends.

It's sad any time a chicken passes, but losing Pinkie is hitting hard. I'm not sure how to make my brain accept that she won't be running down the ramp every morning. I still find myself looking for her out there. You all know the deal. Chickens

Here's to the one and only, magnificent Pinkie Bird.

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-so sorry for your loss

 

[BDutch]

Awoke to a sad thing this morning.

Very sorry for this unexpected loss. Pinkie really was a pretty chicken with a beautiful character.

 

[Sequel]

B Awoke to a sad thing this morning. Pinkie, known on this thread as our crowing hen, was dead under the roost. Her body was stiff, but otherwise, she looked perfect, as always, not a feather out of place, eyes closed. There wasn't poop on or under her, nor was she pecked, nor was anything else amiss in the coop.

She was her normal self yesterday. I happened to spend extra time with them in the afternoon and am grateful she had a chance to hop on my shoulder one last time to tell me about the day.

The others rolled out of the coop normally this morning, and it appears to be a typical day for them. I think they had ample time with her body to say goodbye. I'm more of a mess.

Since you all understand the emotion that can come with this kind of loss, I wanted to ask you to hold her in your thoughts today, wish her a peaceful journey, or your version of that.

Pinkie had just turned 4. Her nickname was "the ambassador" because she never met a chicken, human, or dog she couldn't win over. She was sort of an angel chicken who would stick close to anyone under the weather. She rarely passed up a chance to sit on my lap and nap for as long as 30 minutes at a time, until long after my leg or foot had fallen asleep. We were good friends.

It's sad any time a chicken passes, but losing Pinkie is hitting hard. I'm not sure how to make my brain accept that she won't be running down the ramp every morning. I still find myself looking for her out there. You all know the deal. Chickens

Here's to the one and only, magnificent Pinkie Bird.

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I do indeed know how that feels and I will definitely be thinking of your beautiful Pinkie today! I’m so sorry!

 

[fluffycrow]

Awoke to a sad thing this morning. Pinkie, known on this thread as our crowing hen, was dead under the roost. Her body was stiff, but otherwise, she looked perfect, as always, not a feather out of place, eyes closed. There wasn't poop on or under her, nor was she pecked, nor was anything else amiss in the coop.

She was her normal self yesterday. I happened to spend extra time with them in the afternoon and am grateful she had a chance to hop on my shoulder one last time to tell me about the day.

The others rolled out of the coop normally this morning, and it appears to be a typical day for them. I think they had ample time with her body to say goodbye. I'm more of a mess.

Since you all understand the emotion that can come with this kind of loss, I wanted to ask you to hold her in your thoughts today, wish her a peaceful journey, or your version of that.

Pinkie had just turned 4. Her nickname was "the ambassador" because she never met a chicken, human, or dog she couldn't win over. She was sort of an angel chicken who would stick close to anyone under the weather. She rarely passed up a chance to sit on my lap and nap for as long as 30 minutes at a time, until long after my leg or foot had fallen asleep. We were good friends.

It's sad any time a chicken passes, but losing Pinkie is hitting hard. I'm not sure how to make my brain accept that she won't be running down the ramp every morning. I still find myself looking for her out there. You all know the deal. Chickens

Here's to the one and only, magnificent Pinkie Bird.

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So sorry for your loss. Losing a bird, especially one you've grown close to, is very hard.

Forage high, Pinkie