Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[16 and me]

this reviews the hygiene hypothesis as of 2022
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/falgy.2022.1051368/full

spoiler: "Children from large families with farming exposure have approximately sixfold reduction in prevalence of hay fever, indicating the potential strength and epidemiological importance of these environmental determinants. During the 21st century, a wide range of specific microbial, environmental and lifestyle factors have been investigated as possible underlying mechanisms, but sadly none have emerged as robust explanations for the family size and farming effects."

Most of the large families I know (6-12 kids) home-school their kids, and don't vax. They live rural lives, wear hand-me-downs, and live simple lives with minimal technology. With the odd exception, their kids have been and still are much healthier than the 1-2 child families I know who live the typical modern lifestyle. Our grandparents and great-grandparents would be tsk tsking us, for they really did know better.

 

[Perris]

eating artemisia

that one I have found some good info on: It is a natural coccidiostat, reducing the sporulation rate and the number of oocysts shed. It also reduces the number of caecal lesions, and blocks the pro-inflammatory factors activated by Eimeria spp.

 

[Perris]

they really did know better

I'm not sure about that; human lives at any time and place are complex and messy, and correlations are obvious while causation remains hidden.

It is often said that longevity has improved, but there were plenty of octogenarians etc. even in antiquity. However, the infant mortality was a lot worse then than now. So people who survived infancy and childhood tended to be tough as old boots, from a disease perspective, and died by war or pregnancy/childbirth, or accident / misadventure, rather than by illness (epidemics of new-to-them diseases apart of course).

 

[16 and me]

I'm not sure about that; human lives at any time and place are complex and messy, and correlations are obvious while causation remains hidden.

It is often said that longevity has improved, but there were plenty of octogenarians etc. even in antiquity. However, the infant mortality was a lot worse then than now. So people who survived infancy and childhood tended to be tough as old boots, from a disease perspective, and died by war or pregnancy/childbirth, or accident / misadventure, rather than by illness (epidemics of new-to-them diseases apart of course).

I agree with you on correlations and causations being messy and hidden. And my scope of experience is quite a small scale, but I am not alone in seeing the difference of lifespan (and quality of life in elderly). My grandparents generation of farmers (12 siblings,) lived well into their 90's with all their faculties and well-abled bodies. Their offspring (6-8 kids) started off in rural lives, and most moved into urban lifestyles in adulthood. They're living into their 70's (many have passed, the youngest are still in their 70's) dementia and alzheimer's is becoming prevalent. My generation pretty much all living modern lifestyles, are losing siblings in their 50's and 60's. Next gen, I have lost 2 nephews in their 30's already.
Besides alzheimer's and dementia, autism & spectrum disorders have risen dramatically, depression, anxiety & stress-related disorders are over the top, GI problems (some very serious), chronic inflammation & fatigue, SIDS & now SADS. Those who make it to old age, tend to require long-term care for their health issues, far more than previous generations. Meanwhile, families I know who continued to live a traditional rural lifestyle are caring for their parents who are 90's & a few over 100. (105 is the oldest, and still sharp as a tack I hear).
I still think that while there are many factors behind the cause, we need to get back to the rural simple life.

 

[Perris]

That's a good point that quality of life is very important, and too often ignored for mere quantity (for some unfortunates it appears to be prolonging death rather than life; more countries' changing legislation on assisted dying reflects this). But societies never seem to go back to simple ways voluntarily, only through catastrophic societal level collapse (aka 'dark ages'), and our individual experiences need to be set beside large data sets. There the message is clear that overall we are living longer - interestingly, it's lower in the US than in other rich countries; there's a linked page on that at https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy

 

[Perris]

Some tax for demography derail: 3 roos last month, when Skomer (left) was 28 weeks, and Tintern (front) and Gwynedd (right) were 23 weeks old.

 

[Shadrach]

I am amazed how quick they learn and take our lead. I've got a 6 month old cockerel who put himself on a timeout today when I yelled at him for being a jerk. If I yell Samuel! he knows I'm coming to chase him into the penalty box. So when I yelled Samuel! today he just ran inside the pen and disn't try to come out even though I disn't close the gate! When Pedro, the big boss hears me yell at Sammy he struts over and chases him too. The problem is that the hens pick up the stress from the drama. Between Sammy's agressive mating, the boys working out their differences, and me and Pedro chasing down Sammy, I'm seeing some misshaped eggs, along with some signs of stress among some of the hens. I don't know if I'll be able to wait it out for Sammy to mature - that just seems like forever away. If I can though, I really think he'll be a good roo.
Sammy:
View attachment 3786093

And Pedro, the head honcho.
View attachment 3786094

Much like waiting to see how teenage sons turn out. The penalty for a wayward teenage chicken male is a bit more drastic.

 

[ManueB]

Talking about rooster hate, this one is hard to believe but it seems to have a happy ending - what can humans do.

Spoiler

View this content on Instagram

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Yes, I've commented on the difficulty of this on a number of occasions.
I expected Dig to last until approximately 18 months old. I didn't expect to have to kill him because he attacked the hens. I can only recall one other cockerel that did this and he was dead the next day.
Fighting with Henry is expected. Trying to fight me has always been a possibility and not really a problem. I've dealt with this in the past and with a bit of work we've come to an arrangement.
Fret is a gentle, easy going hen and his mother. Trying to beat ones mother up just isn't cricket.

Thank you for clarifying. I understand and I think I share your point of view. I still wonder if that "un-cricket" behaviour isn't something triggered by confinement. (Not that it changes anything in Dig's case for his future, since the context of the allotment doesn't offer a lot of possibility to make their environment evolve).
When you say it's a behaviour you have only observed once before, was it all in a free range context or were some of these roosters you observed confined ?
There are a number of people on BYC who say their rooster attacked one or several hens. I just wonder if this is due to the settings, to temperament, or to a mix of both.

My problem is, THE problem is, one can't do what I'll call old style chicken keeping in a piecemeal fashion; it's an all or nothing kind of thing. Step up saying people shouldn't keep single sex flocks, people shouldn't feed commercial feed, people shouldn't use incubators, people shouldn't confine their chickens, etc etc just isn't going to fly here.

I disagree respectfully. I think introducing a bit of natural in an artificial environment does some good. Just like free ranging for a few hours daily is better than not free ranging at all. But of course, you can't expect everything to work out as it would in a completely old school way of raising the chicken just because you have made one or two of the things you mention.

 

[no fly zone]

Talking about rooster hate, this one is hard to believe but it seems to have a happy ending - what can humans do.

Spoiler

View this content on Instagram

View this content on Instagram

I follow that IG account. I hope they catch the psycho who did that to that poor rooster. He has a safe home now.

 

[RoyalChick]

that one I have found some good info on: It is a natural coccidiostat, reducing the sporulation rate and the number of oocysts shed. It also reduces the number of caecal lesions, and blocks the pro-inflammatory factors activated by Eimeria spp.

Yes. Mine self medicate it seems!
It is also a prolific grower and quite tasty - I had it for dinner myself a few times last year but it is still too small and low to the ground for me to harvest. It will eventually outgrow the chickens’ mowing abilities and grow to about a meter tall so I can harvest the tops for me.
Artemisia vulgaris.