Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Why those? I've got mine into brown mustard seeds recently; they have all the essential amino acids and other nutrients of interest, and they are typically left behind in the feed bowls, for reason unknown. Tipped out they're either eaten or disappear into the soil; bit of both probably.

I'm sure you must have looked at their nutritional profiles. Hemp provides a complete protein at around 25% to 30%, Nyjer seeds are not far behind.

 

[MROO]

My husband has had fresh home grown chicken. But he will have no part of eating any we grow here. As he put it, he's happy to eat their unborn young (eggs), but will have no part of killing or eating a bird we've raised.

So any culling duties fall to me. I honor their lives by burying them in the garden to feed the soil.

I wish I wasn't, but I'm the same way. With my space limitations (and living in-town) I can't raise enough at once to not get attached. I can cull if I must, but I can't eat a a critter I've known "personally."

Unfortunately, it goes beyond just my chickens. My sister is a dairy farmer and I've worked closely with the 4H kids and their heifers - from bottle-feeding to show baths. The show heifers get names. The rest of the working stock gets numbers.
We gather at The Farm regularly (her family can't leave for long, so we go to them.) Sis provides the main course while we bring everything else. They all laugh when I ask if dinner was "a name or a number," but the answer determines my menu!

 

[Molpet]

I wish I wasn't, but I'm the same way. With my space limitations (and living in-town) I can't raise enough at once to not get attached. I can cull if I must, but I can't eat a a critter I've known "personally."

Unfortunately, it goes beyond just my chickens. My sister is a dairy farmer and I've worked closely with the 4H kids and their heifers - from bottle-feeding to show baths. The show heifers get names. The rest of the working stock gets numbers.
We gather at The Farm regularly (her family can't leave for long, so we go to them.) Sis provides the main course while we bring everything else. They all laugh when I ask if dinner was "a name or a number," but the answer determines my menu!

I had a friend at work that would sample whatever I brought from home for dinner. I had a stew and she said it was so good. She wanted it all and said she would buy me anything I wanted from the cafeteria. Then she said she couldn't figure out the meat that was in it. I said Bambi and she spit it out . She said it was really good but it was the idea. ..

 

[Sally PB]

And I find them very regal.

They are. RIP, my lovely Snowbird.

 

[Canadian Wind]

View attachment 4027156
They are. RIP, my lovely Snowbird.

Oh, I love the wave in his feathers! He was definitely a beautiful bird.

 

[Perris]

I'm sure you must have looked at their nutritional profiles. Hemp provides a complete protein at around 25% to 30%, Nyjer seeds are not far behind.

Actually I don't remember whether I did or not; with seeds I have tended to focus on those I might come across in the supermarket rather than those sold as bird food. Hence brown mustard seeds, for example, which I found being discounted as they were close to their sell by date (and sell by dates can be safely ignored for whole seeds, within reason). Protein about 26% (and which includes higher values of many EAAs than most other things I've noted), plus good calcium and vit E levels, amongst other things.

 

[BDutch]

Actually I don't remember whether I did or not; with seeds I have tended to focus on those I might come across in the supermarket rather than those sold as bird food.

The bird seeds for wild birds are often contaminated with too many poisons.
Sometimes even in dangerous quantities. Better buy seeds meant for humans or organic seeds.

There was a research about bird seeds who many people buy to help songbirds though the winter period. A consumer organisation published the outcomes not long ago. It had a lot of impact for the bird seeds selling points.
A wild bird organisation who sold seeds immediately changed their bags and sells only organic now.

I try to look for an article that is easy to translate.
The Dutch report (pdf).:
https://www.pan-netherlands.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/onderzoeksrapport-1.pdf

 

[BDutch]

Article in NRC (behind a paywall)
Toxic food for the birds in the garden
It was a fright for bird lovers: pesticides have been found in a lot of bird food.

Author Harold Timans
Published on November 20, 2024

Spoiler: article: Toxic food for the birds in the garden

Bird food suppliers are almost literally making consumers happy with a “dead sparrow” *. These mixtures may not be the ideal winter support. This is evident from a report by Pesticide Action Network Netherlands (PAN), which states that these mixtures contain pesticides.

Bird food from nine different manufacturers, including Welkoop and even the Bird Protection Society, contains an average of around two toxins. Welkoop bird food is the most toxic with four pesticides found and the highest dose (3.2 mg/kg). This garden giant also scored below average in an earlier report by PAN in 2021, with the highest levels of pesticides on garden plants. Organic bird food from C.J. Wildlife Foods is the only one that came out ‘toxic-free’.

The most commonly found residue is piperonyl butoxide (PBO, an agent that enhances the effect of other pesticides), which is present in eight of the nine products. In total, PAN found five types of pesticides in addition to PBO: tebuconazole, pyrethrins, chlorpyrifos-methyl, pirimiphos-methyl and deltamethrin. On average, PAN found 0.51 milligrams of pesticide per kilo of feed. Is that worrying?

Toxicologist Jacob de Boer, emeritus professor at the VU, believes that PAN previously sometimes pressed the alarm button "too early", but is now certainly raising something "very serious". "One substance is neurotoxic, and the other is hormone disruptive. If it is already on a product, it really has to be below risk limits. PAN could detect up to 0.01 milligrams, it really shouldn't exceed that."

Completely gone
According to De Boer, the "bottom line" of pesticide use is that they should be completely gone from an end product. "There are countless pesticides that break down naturally, making the end product poison-free. Bird seed with pesticides is really easy to avoid.”

The Bird Protection Society states on its website that it finds the results worrying: “For people who want to help birds, it is confusing that there is toxic feed in circulation.” The feed that contained PBO is therefore no longer available on the website. The Bird Protection Society does still sell organic bird food, because according to the organization, this is the only one that was found to be poison-free in the PAN study. At first glance, this does not seem to match the PAN report, which only mentions the bird seed from C.J. Wildlife Foods as poison-free. However, the Bird Protection Society website shows images of two brands of its organic bird food: a kilo pack of the untested BestLife, and a 2.5 kilo pack from C.J. Wildlife.

Does the bird food come from two manufacturers? “No, the website is incorrect. All our organic bird food is made in collaboration with C.J. Wildlife,” the Bird Protection Society clarifies. "The organic feed on our website is therefore the same non-toxic feed that PAN investigated." A relief for consumers who feed additionally, but the Bird Protection Society still advises to be cautious: "Make sure that the birds can find natural seeds and insects for a large part of the year. That does more good than just feeding. And if you do feed additionally, use organic feed."

*Dutch expression, meaning looks good but is worth nothing.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Article in NRC (behind a paywall)
Toxic food for the birds in the garden
It was a fright for bird lovers: pesticides have been found in a lot of bird food.

Author Harold Timans
Published on November 20, 2024

Spoiler: article: Toxic food for the birds in the garden

Bird food suppliers are almost literally making consumers happy with a “dead sparrow” *. These mixtures may not be the ideal winter support. This is evident from a report by Pesticide Action Network Netherlands (PAN), which states that these mixtures contain pesticides.

Bird food from nine different manufacturers, including Welkoop and even the Bird Protection Society, contains an average of around two toxins. Welkoop bird food is the most toxic with four pesticides found and the highest dose (3.2 mg/kg). This garden giant also scored below average in an earlier report by PAN in 2021, with the highest levels of pesticides on garden plants. Organic bird food from C.J. Wildlife Foods is the only one that came out ‘toxic-free’.

The most commonly found residue is piperonyl butoxide (PBO, an agent that enhances the effect of other pesticides), which is present in eight of the nine products. In total, PAN found five types of pesticides in addition to PBO: tebuconazole, pyrethrins, chlorpyrifos-methyl, pirimiphos-methyl and deltamethrin. On average, PAN found 0.51 milligrams of pesticide per kilo of feed. Is that worrying?

Toxicologist Jacob de Boer, emeritus professor at the VU, believes that PAN previously sometimes pressed the alarm button "too early", but is now certainly raising something "very serious". "One substance is neurotoxic, and the other is hormone disruptive. If it is already on a product, it really has to be below risk limits. PAN could detect up to 0.01 milligrams, it really shouldn't exceed that."

Completely gone
According to De Boer, the "bottom line" of pesticide use is that they should be completely gone from an end product. "There are countless pesticides that break down naturally, making the end product poison-free. Bird seed with pesticides is really easy to avoid.”

The Bird Protection Society states on its website that it finds the results worrying: “For people who want to help birds, it is confusing that there is toxic feed in circulation.” The feed that contained PBO is therefore no longer available on the website. The Bird Protection Society does still sell organic bird food, because according to the organization, this is the only one that was found to be poison-free in the PAN study. At first glance, this does not seem to match the PAN report, which only mentions the bird seed from C.J. Wildlife Foods as poison-free. However, the Bird Protection Society website shows images of two brands of its organic bird food: a kilo pack of the untested BestLife, and a 2.5 kilo pack from C.J. Wildlife.

Does the bird food come from two manufacturers? “No, the website is incorrect. All our organic bird food is made in collaboration with C.J. Wildlife,” the Bird Protection Society clarifies. "The organic feed on our website is therefore the same non-toxic feed that PAN investigated." A relief for consumers who feed additionally, but the Bird Protection Society still advises to be cautious: "Make sure that the birds can find natural seeds and insects for a large part of the year. That does more good than just feeding. And if you do feed additionally, use organic feed."

*Dutch expression, meaning looks good but is worth nothing.

I wonder how this plays out in the US. It's been nearly impossible lately to find organic black-oil sunflower seeds, but the chickens love to find them in their scratch mix.

Their favorite organic scratch mix with sunflower seeds seems to have been discontinued last year, so I recently bought a bag for wild birds.

Unfortunately, there wasn't an organic option, and the seeds are so shiny So I called the number on the back of the bag to check if they process them with pesticides.

That phone number led to a phone-tree with a long wait that eventually resulted in a deflection to another company's customer-service line...then I gave up. Maybe I should revisit that quest to see if they'll give some kind of statement about how they process the seeds.

 

[no fly zone]

I wonder how this plays out in the US. It's been nearly impossible lately to find organic black-oil sunflower seeds, but the chickens love to find them in their scratch mix.

Their favorite organic scratch mix with sunflower seeds seems to have been discontinued last year, so I recently bought a bag for wild birds.

Unfortunately, there wasn't an organic option, and the seeds are so shiny So I called the number on the back of the bag to check if they process them with pesticides.

That phone number led to a phone-tree with a long wait that eventually resulted in a deflection to another company's customer-service line...then I gave up. Maybe I should revisit that quest to see if they'll give some kind of statement about how they process the seeds.

Maybe try getting some seeds from Baker Creek and grow your own sunflowers? Then you'll know exactly what went into producing them.