Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Skyeknight]

I kept an egg spreadsheet for a while. It's good for a lot of learning, like understanding the arc of the laying season.

If you want to track each bird's production, it'd be good to keep a close eye on eggs and learn who lays what. Color can vary enough to be confusing, but an individual's egg shape seems to vary less.

Also would be helpful to add a column for weather and another for impactful events (predator attacks, introductions of new birds, deaths, presence of a bully rooster or hen, change of feed, etc.) to account for the effects of stress on laying.

Personally, my favorite reason for egg data has been to calculate our cost-per-egg. It's >$12/dozen here. Actually, I should probably track and calculate that again now that most of our layers are 4 and 5 years old...next season. I keep too many spreadsheets as it is!

Only have 3 chickens that lay eggs atm so right now it's pretty easy to differentiate with colour and shape. I am planning to get an Araucana rooster in 2027, so that should make things easier with the fancy blue and green colour of his offspring. Right now it's pretty casual data collection, So I don't really look at weather, feed change etc. I do note down specifically in relation to laying that eggs are being predated and when a chicken goes broody and for how long. And roosters/introductions is more management side which is also written down, but more so for the breeding projects. General stuff I do note down is birthdays/age, weight at specific date, deaths and which chickens are raised by which broody/me. That last one might impact behaviour and stuff like that.

If I start calculating cost per egg I might as well stop with chickens since I don't really eat that many eggs. And the PFAS situation doesn't help. Here eggs should be between 2 to 4 euro per 10 eggs depending on if it is biological etc. But I will be looking at it that way from the meat side of things, so cost per kilo meat. Which is around 8 euro per kilo atm.

Since I only just started data colection this year I am worried there are better ways to note data down. I do plan to let statistics loose on the data and I really don't want to be fixing a whole year of data.

 

[MrsNorthie]

I kept an egg spreadsheet for a while. It's good for a lot of learning, like understanding the arc of the laying season.

If you want to track each bird's production, it'd be good to keep a close eye on eggs and learn who lays what. Color can vary enough to be confusing, but an individual's egg shape seems to vary less.

Also would be helpful to add a column for weather and another for impactful events (predator attacks, introductions of new birds, deaths, presence of a bully rooster or hen, change of feed, etc.) to account for the effects of stress on laying.

Personally, my favorite reason for egg data has been to calculate our cost-per-egg. It's >$12/dozen here. Actually, I should probably track and calculate that again now that most of our layers are 4 and 5 years old...next season. I keep too many spreadsheets as it is!

LOL I don't really want to know how much it costs us per dozen.. We just bought them a bunch of corn on the cob, water melon, we grew all the kale they will ever want, and I have been buying fish for them too, as little bonus treat. The Egg Thief is already a little salty that they eat better than we do, without actually tracking what it costs.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Tax: Peck and Nugs figuring out why I let the pollinator garden, where they used to annihilate native invertebrates, become overrun with bramble this year.

The berries had been ripening for several days. I'm not sure why they didn't see them before this, but when they did, their eyes got huge, and they sprinted from the garden all the way here, over 100 yards. I couldn't stop laughing at that.

They do prefer when a rooster accompanies them to leap up and bring down the higher berries. (Their human friends get the highest berries. Wineberries are delicious.)

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

That's a whelk, not an oyster. Curious where and why they sourced these shells, but the chicken farmers in this family all passed away in the last couple decades So much I'd like to ask.

I feel this so much right now. No one left to ask the questions and more questions keep coming up! The neighbor used to keep chickens and “fed them a few scraps” and still got eggs. I wish that neighbor was still around to talk to. I feel like I’m piecing things together but it won’t be a whole picture and it will take a whole lot longer than if someone with generations of experience behind them were here to ask.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

If somebirdy's eating oyster shell at supper, there will be an egg under the roost the next morning, and said hen will wake up lighter and happier.

I just realized there's a notable exception. Lil Nugs likes to steal shells from a favorite cup in Stilton's yard every evening during the laying season. So she eats oyster shells every night but has yet to lay off the roost.

In Nugs' case, it's unclear if this routine is more about the calcium or the larceny.

It's one of the trickier tasks to explain to chicken sitters, that before they secure coops for the night, they need to open a specific gate for one speckled hen so she can burgle shells from her neighbors

She'll wait at the gate long after the others have roosted for a crack at those shells.

 

[BDutch]

I think you’ve written about this before, but how closely related are Amrocks to Plymouth Barred Rocks? If I recall correctly, it’s not just the same breed named differently in Europe.

Amrocks are descendants of the Barred rock/Plymouth rock. In Europe the Plymouths/Barred where welcome as a double purpose breed and they created a new standard for it. The Amrocks are bit different than the Plymouths. We have our own SOP in 2 sizes.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/

About the creation of the bantam Amrock - Page 4: http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/nummers/07E03A05.pdf
It says the site is not safe. But its just old, the organisation is no longer active but trustworthy.

@Perris, there are a few very old books published on this site : http://www.aviculture-europe.nl/
PS edited link + choose left aside books

 

[Perris]

@Perris, there are a few very old books published on this site :

can you try again please? (that's the same link you pasted about the Amrocks)

 

[Perris]

I still expected more than 2 eggs today

mystery solved; the broodies were sitting on 5 between them

 

[RoyalChick]

On oyster shell: our adults eat chick starter along with a lower-protein all-flock (all-flock has been stunningly hard to find, btw). Layer feed is a no-go for us because of the roosters and non-laying hens.

Each coop has cups of calcium in 2 places, next to cups of grit. I once heard in a podcast that maximizing access to grit and oyster shell promotes optimal health, and it feels true. We've seen fewer hard crops in the morning since upping our grit game, and despite not feeding layer feed, soft shells have been rare.

A great side benefit is I know when a hen's feeling funky due to a laying issue because she'll be at a calcium cup at odd times. If somebirdy's eating oyster shell at supper, there will be an egg under the roost the next morning, and said hen will wake up lighter and happier.

Ours love cheap, pelletized shells from the farmer's co-op, even more than the pricy flaked shells, but here's evidence of how the old-timers did it in southern Appalachia before us yuppies. I've posted this before from the part of our acreage with the old chicken coop:

View attachment 4148484
That's a whelk, not an oyster. Curious where and why they sourced these shells, but the chicken farmers in this family all passed away in the last couple decades So much I'd like to ask.

Interesting about the whelk shell.
I have two containers. One for oyster shell. I bought a big bag at Tractor Supply 5 years ago and still have plenty.
The second container is roughly crushed egg shells. This has their own eggshells but also contributions from the eggs that anyone who ever gets eggs from me gives me.
They love the egg shells and only rarely try the oyster shell.
They are creatures of habit and they have a night-time routine of stocking up at the egg shell cup on their way to roost. Quite cute as they all stand in line and go in one-by-one.

 

[BDutch]

our adults eat chick starter along with a lower-protein all-flock (all-flock has been stunningly hard to find, btw). Layer feed is a no-go for us because of the roosters and non-laying hens.

I have a container with layer pellets, a bowl with dry chick feed and a bowl with wet chick feed (once a day) for my mixed flock. Besides they have grit and oyster flakes, water bottles / container and an open water bowl. They free range, and I give egg shells back to them.
Providing choices works well for my flock. In general the egg shells are perfect.

Yesterday I noticed one of my Anrocks had a dark colouring in the front of her head and comb. I hope this occurred bc it was very warm last Thursday and it will disappear again now the weather is back to normal. Anyone with similar experience ?