Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Skyeknight]

I have Roosters and babies and pullets and hens all together so I feed a 20% all flock -- and even though my birds get massive amounts of natural protein from bugs and forage and all that good stuff, I am still super glad I provide enough protein for all their needs.

I want to change over into all flock but that one is I think around 16% protein, while layer feed is 14.4%. The highest protein chicken feed I have found so far was 19.1% chick crumble. Although this was all in the Welkoop shop, so maybe I need to change shops.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I've read plenty on fermenting real foods. It's papers on the effects of fermenting of an already processed feed that I lack.

So much confusion arises from people not distinguishing clearly exactly what feed they are talking about; processed or unprocessed. I think that what you feed would be called 'scratch' by a lot of people on BYC, and regarded as a 'treat', OK for up to 10% of their diet, not more. I think that's nonsense, fwiw.

Well, they’d damn well better not (call it scratch), is all I can say. It’s a balanced, complete feed, much of which is in whole grain form, the rest being those random pellets containing the micronutrients that they don’t have a whole-grain source for.

Plus they forage to some extent.

I’d like to get away from corn and soy being the first two ingredients, but it’s really hard to find no-corn/ no-soy/ high-protein feed in whole grain form (not available in my area; ludicrously expensive; low protein, etc.)

I think that the main problem is that feed producers figure the market for that is the organic, non-GMO, possibly vegetarian crowd, which I’m mostly not. So the first two ratchet up the price, and the third precludes animal protein.

Maybe once the two new pullets are here and maturing, meaning five nearly full-size, it will become economically worthwhile to roll my own.

 

[Shadrach]

18/07. Three hours.

 

[Shadrach]

19/07.
Three hours. Warm with some sunshine. 21C to 18C by the time I headed home.
They're getting used to each other. Pretty much always together these days.
Either Sylph knows her name of has got the tone of voice, mostly for food, right now. Mow came into roost from the back of the run while Sylph still had her beak in the rough. I save two blueberries if I want to entice them closer to the run late evening and they both know it.

Looking at Mow side on her Light Sussex parentage shows quite well in the pictures below.

 

[fuzzi]

19/07.
Three hours. Warm with some sunshine. 21C to 18C by the time I headed home.
They're getting used to each other. Pretty much always together these days.
Either Sylph knows her name of has got the tone of voice, mostly for food, right now. Mow came into roost from the back of the run while Sylph still had her beak in the rough. I save two blueberries if I want to entice them closer to the run late evening and they both know it.

Looking at Mow side on her Light Sussex parentage shows quite well in the pictures below.View attachment 4177799View attachment 4177800View attachment 4177801View attachment 4177802View attachment 4177803View attachment 4177804View attachment 4177805View attachment 4177806View attachment 4177807View attachment 4177808View attachment 4177809View attachment 4177810

Daddy's girl.

 

[Perris]

They're getting used to each other. Pretty much always together these days.

that's good to hear.
The photos are lovely - that [phone] camera was a great choice!

 

[Perris]

I’d like to get away from corn and soy being the first two ingredients

Where does wheat grow in the States? My child-like mental image of the great plains is endless wheat fields and grain silos.

Canadian wheat is a thing here, attracting premium prices for bread-making for example. Has it got too hot on the US side of the border for wheat?

 

[BDutch]

When I fed commercial feed I tried this (in 2018 to be precise) and can confirm some chemical changes took place, because it stank to the rafters. I even took a photo of it

My friend started the fermented crumble with a tiny bit of natural stand yoghurt. It doesn’t stink. It smells a bit sour.
Im not sure about the next part, but this is what I recall: for maintenance she uses a bit of the water on top of the fermented crumble to start a new pot. She (C ) waits 4 days to use it.

I have send her @Altairsky ‘s info with Signal. C2 is not on BYC herself. She was too busy though with a chicken with bumble foot to read it immediately. I alarmed her last week when I saw the big pieces of wood (course shredded wood) the chickens walked on. C2 went to the vet with her who told it was not (yet) serious and she gave some anti-inflammatory medicines. C2 takes out all the large pieces of wood chips now and can lend my shredder (wood chips maker) to make small pieces. She told me all the smaller pieces dropped/have gone (composted) but the larger ones are still there.

PS not mentioning the name without permission. Therefore C2 seems appropriate.

 

[BDutch]

called 'scratch' by a lot of people on BYC, and regarded as a 'treat', OK for up to 10% of their diet, not more. I think that's nonsense, fwiw.

The mixed grains (scratch?) the agri-shops sell in the Netherlands are not a complete feed, but are good to give solely if chickens can free range in a lush environment all day.
The experts in the Netherlands say its okay to give free rangers mixed grains once a day in the afternoon during the warmer months. But it’s very important to give complete feed too from late fall till early spring when there’s not much food to be found in the garden/ fields/ woods.
In fact the mixed grains should always be supplemental. The 10% is probably a good advise for chickens who are locked up in a stable or a coop/run with a concrete floor.

 

[BDutch]

at only scratch find that their birds are FULL of fat deposits that birds on standard feed don't accumulate.

Are they talking about: sort of caged chickens?, broilers? dual purpose breeds? or backyard chickens that run around whole day to find there own feed too?
Such statement is kind of worthless without more context imo.