Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

How do egg-eaters get started, then? (serious question)

I think the reason that it haunts us newbies is because we have seen our chickens tap everything with their beaks while trying to figure out what something is, and more importantly, if it's edible. My always-dying-of-starvation Barred Rock broke the tip of her beak soon after I put ceramic eggs in the nest boxes as they approached 16 weeks old. I can easily imagine a scenario of a young chicken seeing a real egg for the first time, wondering "What's this?", peck PECK, broken egg. And now "What's THIS?" when seeing the white and yolk.

I think the egg-eater needs something not present or not present in sufficient quantity in their normal diet.

Each bird has a unique GIT, with a highly variable microbiome, and their needs are different because of that, before one factors in age, sex, laying status, etc. Proprietary feeds are based on averages. Birds at the extreme ends of the bell curve suffer more from that than birds nearer the peak.

Natural selection works against egg-eating. So I think it must be driven by nutritional demands over-riding instinct, as and when it occurs.

 

[Perris]

I managed to get a decent photo yesterday of the chick that nearly had its throat ripped out a few weeks back; it's barely visible now. Their healing powers are wonderful. The chick in question is the one in the middle, throat exposed

 

[Perris]

Last night's strawberry moon

And the housemartins finally arrived back yesterday afternoon; they're running quite late as the solstice is only 10 days away. But there are lots of insects about here now, so plenty for them to eat. The birds that take them as caterpillars and larvae to feed their chicks have had their fill, and now it's the turn of the adult insect eaters to feast and raise young.

 

[BDutch]

Welcome back Shad!

I have eggs that break or no shell. They clean those up so predators aren't attracted I believe.

They just love to eat an egg that has no other purpose than to get eaten since it has no shell. Egg white and yolk = food.

A week ago I took out 2 eggs and laid them on the coop roof with the intention to take them inside as soon as I finished filling up feed and changing water. I forgot to take the 2 eggs inside. A few hours later one egg was broken and eaten, leaving only part of the shell. I suspect a magpie or a jay had broken the egg and eaten it.

A few days later I washed two rubber (fake) eggs who got dirty with the rainy weather. But instead of laying them back in the large nest-box, I put the two rubber eggs on top of the run. Thinking … if the robber comes back … and after a few attacks the egg-thief won’t be tempted next time I act like someone who's starting to get dementia. .

I prefer it anyway when the laying hens use the nest boxes in the small coop in this rainy weather, because they automatically wipe their feet there before they enter the laying nest.

 

[fluffycrow]

How do egg-eaters get started, then? (serious question)

From the few experiences we’ve had here, it’s usually the work of more than one hen.
Typically one that lays poor quality shells, and the next that comes to lay. The thin-shelled egg breaks easily when the other hens try to move it around with their beaks. Over a week or so, they understand that beak + shell = surprise. Maybe it’s their form of a Kinder egg.

At the same time, as Perris mentioned, it seems like there needs to be a need for more protein for the chickens to start actively breaking/eating eggs. Ever since the chickens here started getting more protein, and we moved away from the ISA browns (which were too productive for their own good), there have been no egg eaters, even though some hens regularly lay thin-shelled eggs (which we are trying to manage)

 

[fluffycrow]

View attachment 4145596

Love this photo. The new phone camera is really good.

Glad that you’re back, and hope that everything that was keeping you away has been solved, or wasn’t life changing

 

[BDutch]

Last night's strawberry moon
View attachment 4145744
And the housemartins finally arrived back yesterday afternoon; they're running quite late as the solstice is only 10 days away. But there are lots of insects about here now, so plenty for them to eat. The birds that take them as caterpillars and larvae to feed their chicks have had their fill, and now it's the turn of the adult insect eaters to feast and raise young.

Housemartins? A word for which I needed some assistance.


Second try.. housemartins birds -> in Dutch huiszwaluw (house-swallow).
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/house-martin

 

[LaFleche]

Housemartins? A word for which I needed some assistance.
View attachment 4145745

Second try.. housemartins birds -> in Dutch huiszwaluw (house-swallow).
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/house-martin

I love them both!

 

[Sally PB]

Glad that you’re back, and hope that everything that was keeping you away has been solved, or wasn’t life changing

Same. Welcome back, @Shadrach.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Housemartins? A word for which I needed some assistance.
View attachment 4145745

Second try.. housemartins birds -> in Dutch huiszwaluw (house-swallow).
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/house-martin

You sent me off to my first Wiki rabbit hole this morning!

I'd never heard of them, but their bass player later became Fatboy Slim. Who knew?!

I do rather love "Britse" for British.