Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Skyeknight]

It can be dangerous breeding milking cows with beef cows, the calves are often bigger and more difficult to deliver. :-(

I know first time prenancies are always Holstein Frisian bulls here, after that Belgian Blue may be used. Thye can be Bigger, but even when fully grown look dual purpose and don't have the big muscles.

 

[thistlewick]

https://www.veterinary-practice.com/article/humane-killing-of-day-old-chicks-in-hatcheries
Ummm
Cervical dislocate bad

Ground up or Oxygen deprivation good

That's a UK website for UK and EU rules

No clue what the US has for USDA standarization but we do have humane laws, I just don't know what they are specifically.


IIRC, now that I am thinking about it a little more and remembering more, the book I read (it was a journalist who wrote it, he did his research well) they use the 'crushing' method, then froze and shipped off. It's been a few years since I read it.

 

[no fly zone]

That's a UK website for UK and EU rules

No clue what the US has for USDA standarization but we do have humane laws, I just don't know what they are specifically.


IIRC, now that I am thinking about it a little more and remembering more, the book I read (it was a journalist who wrote it, he did his research well) they use the 'crushing' method, then froze and shipped off. It's been a few years since I read it.

The USDA is a clown show.

 

[thistlewick]

The USDA is a clown show.

Yes, it can be, but we do have laws

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media_file/2020-08/PHVt-Humane_Handling.pdf

The documentary Earthlings didn't highlight cruelties from just the US, it was worldwide. It's a lot worse in lots of places.

 

[HiEverybirdy]

I concur. My flock will not push through long grass either; I think they like to be able to see ahead / what they're walking into.

We mow here fortnightly and with the blades set relatively high; it seems to suit the microfauna in the lawn and therefore the chickens well. The chickens also appreciate grasses at edges or that have self-seeded in paving and suchlike being left to flower and go to seed, because they are very fond of some grass flowers/ pollen/ seeds, and they can be very nutritious. Pollen in particular is often packed with nutrients.

One of the favourite post-prandial spots here is the SE corner bed. Nothing for a predator to see here
View attachment 4150291
but from the other side
View attachment 4150292
Edited to add, the shrubs are, from the left, cornus akousa, myrtle, eucalyptus soaring skywards, parrotia persica extending horizontally, pittosporum, and a viburnum bottom right. Beech hedge to right, alder and blackthorn behind. Everything planted but the parrotia is evergreen, so continues to provide cover in winter (the native alder and blackthorn in the hedge behind are deciduous and the beech hangs on to its leaves even when brown).

This is the first year my brain has registered the chickens' grass preferences. I hadn't noticed how opinionated they are about this topic.

They're fine with freshly mown grass but most enthusiastic a week after mowing, when it's medium length.

They start avoiding grass when it begins to look thick and shaggy, which our grass is right now because we skip several weeks of mowing during firefly season/nectar dearth (to let clover and plantain grow up for bee food).

The grass is wet this year, which seems to annoy them, and they probably know that foxes and bobcats can easily hide in tall grass, as do less threatening but still startling trespassers like this lovely lady (eastern box turtle).

She somehow made it through the grass and through the gate to the center of the chickenyard, which is neither the best nor worst place for a turtle.

Marans Lorraine, the sharpest eye in the yard, bakawed to let everybirdy know about the intruder, so I wasn't surprised to find her. Lorraine never bakaws for nothing; I just don't always see what she sees.

After inspections, the chickens let the turtle be. They give the same treatment to toads, frogs, and snakes too large to eat.

I did move the turtle in the direction she was headed so she didn't have to dig under several fences to get there.

 

[fuzzi]

This is the first year my brain has registered the chickens' grass preferences. I hadn't noticed how opinionated they are about this topic.

They're fine with freshly mown grass but most enthusiastic a week after mowing, when it's medium length.

They start avoiding grass when it begins to look thick and shaggy, which our grass is right now because we skip several weeks of mowing during firefly season/nectar dearth (to let clover and plantain grow up for bee food).

The grass is wet this year, which seems to annoy them, and they probably know that foxes and bobcats can easily hide in tall grass, as do less threatening but still startling trespassers like this lovely lady (eastern box turtle).

View attachment 4152631

She somehow made it through the grass and through the gate to the center of the chickenyard, which is neither the best nor worst place for a turtle.

Marans Lorraine, the sharpest eye in the yard, bakawed to let everybirdy know about the intruder, so I wasn't surprised to find her. Lorraine never bakaws for nothing; I just don't always see what she sees.

After inspections, the chickens let the turtle be. They give the same treatment to toads, frogs, and snakes too large to eat.

View attachment 4152630

I did move the turtle in the direction she was headed so she didn't have to dig under several fences to get there.

Thank you. Eastern Box turtles don't achieve maturity to reproduce for several years, and are killed crossing roads. Their numbers are in decline.