Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

What do you mean with this? Was he stil hanging around with his mommy and sleeping together in a nest?

If a hen hatches chicks in a location other than the coop/s she lives in then at some point, usually around when the hen stops mothering the chicks, she introduces them to the other chickens she lives with by returning to the tribe coop with the chicks and claiming her place and the chicks place in the tribe. Even though the mother and chicks may have spent the day with the tribe until this integration point the chicks home is the nest but not the tribes coop and thus not the tribe.
Cillin became an orphan before his mother Otic had returned to the tribe coop with him.

 

[fuzzi]

Congrats with Fez , @Perris and congrsts with the chicks @fuzzi !
How many chicks have hatched?

Thank you. Seven hatched, one declined and died. So six are left. Please, PLEASE let there be some females. My last hatch of 5 was all males.

Heading to the auction:

 

[fuzzi]

what none of them will engage with is that there are significant inconsistencies in the ME figures given for the raw materials. They write as if the numbers were written in stone, not that they vary with the raw material, the methods of testing used, the birds they run the tests on etc. etc. This paper from 2020 reviews a century of making these calculations, and suggests the whole system needs a rethink.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3382/ps/pez511

Just because the label says something doesn't mean it's always correct.

 

[MrsNorthie]

Just because the label says something doesn't mean it's always correct.

I see labels on animal feed that basically say that "we aren't going to provide the nutritional values because labeling requirements vary depending on location." I was looking for one to screen shot, but ofc when I am looking for it... *sigh That is why I like the whole grains, preferably organic, locally sourced but it is hard to find unless you are buying really large quantities.

 

[kcan2]

Cillin became an orphan before his mother Otic had returned to the tribe coop with him.

Is that Cillin in your profile pic?

Mine hanging out the other day (tax). They sure do like looking for goodies in and under those small stones:


Found this gem in the lawn - a 5 leaf clover!

 

[Perris]

I think your most recent thread (the one that is getting bad tempered) however, may just be the wrong way to approach the discussion.

You are right! It was an attempt to:

Addressing head on that the commercial feed may be inadequate

which is what I was trying to do there, because I am now convinced that commercial feed is inadequate/positively harmful by default.

That some people have healthy old birds despite eating it all their lives I don't doubt, but I'm also sure that the forage or 'treats' it turns out they've also eaten, when said people stop and think about it, have probably been life savers. The stuff that's missing from commercial feed is only needed in very, very small quantities every so often, and can usually be supplied via real food, which is what most of these people actually mean by treats, despite their comparisons with candy etc. (The language they use sometimes feels Orwellian.)

They picked one part to focus on, instead of looking at your post as a whole. Some sounded quite defensive.

Indeed. I sometimes wonder if it's a bit 'Don't look up'-esque.

I do know that my birds will not touch pellets.

As many find. And they get told to make their poor birds eat it or starve. That makes me mad.

Thread debates with two entrenched sides isn't likely to prove productive.

Indeed. A challenge is not received with enthusiasm by the nutritionists and sellers of commercial feed. The professional beliefs and teachings of the former are affected, and the profits of the latter.

It's worth bearing in mind we eat similar crap and have the weight gain to prove it, not to mention the heart problems, the cancers, the type 2 diabetes, diet related depressions and much more no doubt.

I should add that to the argument!

The problem lies with this word "treat".

I think it's just a red herring.

Nutrition is a quite complicated matter.

That's what nutritionists and people who make money in the food/ feed business want us to believe. Remember that chickens have lived for millions of years and commercial feed has been around for a few decades. Real food is not and does not have to be expensive. Local seasonal unfashionable produce is cheap. My last 25kg sack of whole wheat cost £8. Forage is free.

Someone who doesn't have a garden of any sort can't let their chickens forage (and probably shouldn't have chickens). Anyone else can, and if they don't overstock, their garden won't be eaten to destruction - as their pens are, because their inhabitants really, really want to eat grass and weeds and dirt and the things that live in it. Hang on a minute - I've got it:

'Free your chickens' should be my slogan!

 

[Ribh]

Someone who doesn't have a garden of any sort can't let their chickens forage (and probably shouldn't have chickens). Anyone else can, and if they don't overstock, their garden won't be eaten to destruction - as their pens are, because their inhabitants really, really want to eat grass and weeds and dirt and the things that live in it. Hang on a minute - I've got it:

When I moved where I am presently the owner requested I cage my girls so they didn't destroy her lawn. I haven't caged them yet & she still has her lawn! They will graze on the lawn first thing but after about 20 minutes they move under the orchard trees where they can feast on fallen fruit & whatever else they happen to find. At the height of summer, when we got a grasshopper infestation in the veggie patch, the girls would follow me round knowing I'd do a bug hunt & toss the bodies their way. The commercial feed is just to top them up.

 

[Perris]

Please, PLEASE let there be some females. My last hatch of 5 was all males.

I don't know if there is any truth in it, but some old poultry manuals assert that there will be a preponderance of males in early clutches and of females in later clutches. I have not looked for any proper modern study on why that might be, if it is indeed true.

 

[fluffycrow]

Is that Cillin in your profile pic?

I think that's Major. Cillin is a rose combed boy, if I remember correctly

 

[Perris]

Happy birthday Fez! the wild child is 1 today

Killay is paying her very close attention, and my hunch is that he too thinks she's going broody, so he is keen to ensure his paternity of her clutch, so he's not letting the other roos near

If she does go broody, this might turn out to be a useful advance warning sign, at least for keepers with roos.