Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

how did the day with your friend in the next county go Shad? Did it raise your spirits as hoped?

 

[BDutch]

your chickens are not vegans because you let them range and as you note they can and do eat insects and other animal protein when they do. And most commercial chicken feed is not the poultry equivalent of a vegan restaurant or home cooked meal. It is the cheapest plant matter available at the time it was made.

I know my chickens are not vegan. I know many chickens are at least 99% of their time vegan bc they only get wat is served and the run doesn’t provide much if it’s small and covered with a solid roof.

The feed I buy is doesn’t contain the cheapest ingredients bc it’s organic. No GMO, no poisons.

 

[ksbkeys]

Two and half rather cold, sunny, hours at the field today; Ides of March no doubt.
Fret is broody. She isn't sitting yet but she's eating for two and making found food chick calls; sort of getting in tune I imagine. I had to strip out both nest boxes and somehow have aquired a dozen eggs in the process. I managed to sell them for a change.
Everyone got out onto the field despite the cold and a stiff breeze.
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I always enjoy your photos! Will you let Fret hatch any eggs this season? I love Broody hens!

 

[Perris]

The feed I buy is doesn’t contain the cheapest ingredients bc it’s organic. No GMO, no poisons.

A feed calculator is designed to find the cheapest combination of feedstuffs that are available on the day and that satisfy the minimum nutritional requirements stated on the label or required by law, plus any other requirement of the manufacturer, such as being organic in your case. So organic will not be cheaper than standard feed, but it will still be using the combination of ingredients that were cheapest on the day when all the different nutritional requirements and possible combinations to reconcile them had been input. Unless you are buying from a firm that doesn't use a feed calculator to construct its ration...?

That is why many commercial feeds list only their average nutritional profile, not their ingredients, because the ingredients may differ with each batch.

 

[BDutch]

Unless you are buying from a firm that doesn't use a feed calculator to construct its ration...?

That is why many commercial feeds list only their average nutritional profile, not their ingredients, because the ingredients may differ with each batch.

They undoubtedly use a calculator. But they put the ingredients in order from most to fewest on the bag and add the nutrients.
These are both labels of mixed grains from 2 different companies. (Not a complete feed).

Bc the grains are organic the grow on healthy soil.

Wheat, corn, sunflower seeds:

Wheat, corn, barley, sunflower seeds, mussel shell. ;

 

[ChaosMom]

Incorrect. Chickens kept by humans may be able to do without meat as well as humans. Feral chickens, Jungle Fowl, would not survive on a vegan diet and wouldn't choose to do so. There is nothng natural or healthier than omniverous diet in the right proportions.


How does one know a feed is balanced? We only have the feed producers view and given we can't decide what a healthy diet is for humans the chances of having got it right for chickens is remote.
It has been suggested by many nutrtion experts that getting ones vitamins via supplements is the least healthy option when compared to getting them through eating real food.
If one is going to play the "natrual" and "healthy" card then commercial chicken feed is the same as the ultra processed food we are now being told is responsible for many of the diet related problems humans are now dealing with.
Buying good quality feed is important but quality and vegan or organic does not mean better quality than a quality eed contaiing animal products.


There are no studies that have proven that vegetarians and vegans are any healthier than omnivours due to diet alone. People who eat vegan and vegitarian diets usually have better lifestyle options and are more aware of the importance of the other non diet realted componants of better health.
Craving meat has never been proven to be unhealthy. Eating too much meat has been.

Lots of chat from the vegans and vegitarians regarding "natural" when it comes to chickens. There is nothing natural about locking a chicken in a run and feeding it highly processed vegan food.

I've fed commercial feed to chickens for years. I don't have too much of a problem with it. What I am having a problem with is all the nonsense spouted by vegans and vegetarians about diet.

I’m on our church’s Creation Justice (environmental health and justice) team. (We are a church of happy and determined social justice warriors, lol.) About 2/3 of the team are v/v, and a couple are pretty strident about it, which is pretty unusual in my experience. They’ve turned off far more people than they’ve convinced.

My take is that some of my teeth are pointy and sharp, good for tearing meat, and some are broad and flat, good for grinding grains and other plant material. This tells me that humans have evolved (or been created, for those who prefer) to be omnivores. If anyone chooses to tilt this toward all-meat or all-plant based on health or ethical or environmental concerns, that’s a perfectly reasonable choice. But it’s not “natural”, as in the default setting.

I’ve moved toward a much more plant-based diet, and I’m starting to buy most animal products from local farmers who raise (and slaughter) their animals humanely and don’t use CAFO’s and so forth. More expensive, of course, but when diet tilts toward a higher proportion of plant-based, it evens out.

I do miss Costco’s New York strip steaks though, whew

Meanwhile, the girls are on a presumably whole grain commercial diet that I ferment and will receive occasional meat/ fish/ poultry/ dairy/ egg additions as appropriate.

 

[Shadrach]

I know my chickens are not vegan. I know many chickens are at least 99% of their time vegan bc they only get wat is served and the run doesn’t provide much if it’s small and covered with a solid roof.

The feed I buy is doesn’t contain the cheapest ingredients bc it’s organic. No GMO, no poisons.

I don't want to get too involved in the feed and food debate but...
Things are not as clear cut as the supporters of organic food would have us beleive.

https://www.iatp.org/news/poison-risk-is-greater-from-organic-foods-says-scientist

https://www.brusselstimes.com/11418...-organic-food-have-more-toxins-in-their-blood

 

[Shadrach]

how did the day with your friend in the next county go Shad? Did it raise your spirits as hoped?

Not really, it made me jealous.

 

[Shadrach]

I always enjoy your photos! Will you let Fret hatch any eggs this season? I love Broody hens!

Probably not. She developed leg problems last time she sat and while she seems to have overcome them I think the risk of an injury repeat is high.

 

[Molpet]

I have 4 coops in a large poultry yard. The turkeys wander all over but the chickens stay away from the other coop members most of the time. I have a couple hens that lay in the others coops.

The ones closest to the house tend to be tamer because the original members were hatched in an incubator and they see me more. They are also getting more scraps because they tend to wander out of the poultry yard to get away from the turkeys. The turkeys like to sit against the house and harass the chickens.

Anyway they get cooked poultry carcasses. The closest coop pick them clean. The other coops hardly touch the carcass.
The closest I see eating mice, snakes and fledgling robin. Maybe the other do also but I don't see it because they are farther out.