Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Mother of Chaos]

12/08.
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*squints* What the big blue oblong with some sort of connection opening in the side? Rainwater collector?

 

[Mother of Chaos]

As it happens, something relevant in this morning's Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environ...heatwave-climate-crisis-sweden-norway-finland
Moving towards the poles may not work, even where there is land suitable for farming.

Yes, my area was repeatedly called a “climate refuge” by national publications (looking at you, NYT!), and in fact, it was historically where the wealthy from coastal North and South Carolina and Georgia came to escape swampy summers with their associated yellow fever and typhoid. (Fun fact: much of the filming for Dirty Dancing, set in a summer resort in upper NY state, was done at Lake Lure NC, 30 miles from my house.)

Floridians have owned summer homes in Western NC for decades, coming up here in May, heading cautiously home in the fall. A number of our church members are climate refugees from California’s wildfires.

Then came Helene.

Global climate doesn’t pay attention to political boundaries.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

For those who aren’t familiar with the research on what the underlying causes of global atmospheric (and oceanic) warming might be, here’s an amazing graphic from NASA that breaks out all the influences.

Changes in solar output, Milankovitch cycles (changes in Earth’s orbit and axis), volcanoes, deforestation, aerosol pollution, greenhouse gases are all modeled against the changes in average temperature, singly and in combination.

Only one matches. Guess which one?

Watch quickly, before it too vanishes from the Internet, like so much awkward scientific data has already done :

There’s no spoken narration, so follow the print info in the top left. It helps to slow down the playback speed.

 

[Labsandchickens8]

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.

Still trying to figure this all out: I went to a old school feed store, not TSC. I asked for whole grain feed and the woman said "scratch"? She didn't recommend it because of the low protein content. She sold me a bag of 20 percent protein pellets. Not what I really wanted but I want to feed the prisoners the best I can. I supplement with what I call salad every day - rotating greens such as kale, romaine, mustard, turnip and or beet greens, almost always parsley or cilantro, always sprouts that I grew (broccoli or alfalfa), then for color I cut up beets, carrots, tomatoes, cucumber. Occasionally they get blueberries, strawberries, watermelon or grapes but not a lot. Once a week they get some mealworms, sardines (learned that here), or black oil sunflower seeds with corn. Sometimes frozen peas or pea and carrots mix.
Question: what can I do better? Ordering some e fence to get them out to forage.
Picture of yesterday's salad:

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I’ve yet to find commercial whole-grain feed in the 20% protein range that is available in my area and/or isn’t incredibly expensive. Even @Perris supplements with a rotating protein snack.

One good thing about the pellets, if your chickens like them, is that they’re great for a hanging feeder for always-available dry feed. No point in fermenting them - they’re already processed.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

Question: what can I do better?

Don’t ask the feed store employees just kidding some of the old-timers know quite a bit. I would suggest finding a whole grain feed online that you want then finding a local seller of that feed. So kind of backwards. I have never discussed my feed choices with the place I buy it from currently but the stuff I use as scratch I decided on after my own research and much discussion with the owner of an old feed store. Sometimes a feed store will order in what you want. Don’t know if that helps answer your question or not

 

[Labsandchickens8]

Don’t ask the feed store employees just kidding some of the old-timers know quite a bit. I would suggest finding a whole grain feed online that you want then finding a local seller of that feed. So kind of backwards. I have never discussed my feed choices with the place I buy it from currently but the stuff I use as scratch I decided on after my own research and much discussion with the owner of an old feed store. Sometimes a feed store will order in what you want. Don’t know if that helps answer your question or not

It does thank you!

 

[Labsandchickens8]

I’ve yet to find commercial whole-grain feed in the 20% protein range that is available in my area and/or isn’t incredibly expensive. Even @Perris supplements with a rotating protein snack.

One good thing about the pellets, if your chickens like them, is that they’re great for a hanging feeder for always-available dry feed. No point in fermenting them - they’re already processed.

Yes, I do need to be able to leave them occasionally.
And yes the 20 percent was pretty pricey.

 

[BDutch]

Ofcourse this might be more exception than the rule. But I find it surprisingly easy taking care of mine. The main problem lies in you need to physically be there or have an automatic feeder to feed a specific amount twice a day. And they need a run where they can always eat plants to deal with their chronic hunger and keep them exercising. They do well as long as you don't lock them up.

Edited:

It surprises me that you have a good experience with rescues from factory farming. These little meat factories have no stimulans to walk around for food like you have been providing for yours. In general these commercial meat chickens (except organic) are kept in stables and do not go outside.

I only know about one CX I met 10 years ago. Other presumptions are from reading experiences of other people on forums.

 

[Skyeknight]

Edited:

It surprises me that you have a good experience with rescues from factory farming. These little meat factories have no stimulans to walk around for food like you have been providing for yours. In general these commercial meat chickens (except organic) are kept in stables and do not go outside.

I only know about one CX I met 10 years ago. Other presumptions are from reading experiences of other people on forums.

Honestly surprised me as well! I have been reading up on experiences here too (still am) and they are always called lazy poop and eat machines. I expected the worst with bumblefoot and all that. Definitely wasn't expecting the Hubbards to regularly jump a 1 meter high fence without problems. A big difference between here and America is that in the Netherlands they are slaughtered around 2.5 to 3 kg, while in America this seems to be way higher. The experiences of people I read on here are butchering them at a heavier weight than the Dutch poultry industrie. Whole chicken in Dutch stores is around 1.5 kg.

That's the thing with these, they NEED to go outside everyday in able to have a happy life. Keeping them inside would just result in them sitting and preening their feathers while suffering from chronic hunger. If you can't provide green pastures l, don't bother getting them. It's all about management and honestly they would actually make great pets. Sure they approach you in the hope you have food, but with mine it's more than that. They let me "preen" their feathers and they just like to sit with me.

There is a big difference between the commercial Ross 308 for international trading and restaurants etc, and the supermarkt better life broiler like the Hubbard stock. It is a bit questionable if all Hubbard chicks do actually go outside, they only have a like 7 weeks or so for all those thousands of them to go outside. My Hubbards already played, scratched for food and dust bathed when they arrived. They were scared of getting out of their elevated coop at first. While the Ross would go eat and drink but otherwise just stand or lay around and preen their feathers. I was very happy when after a few weeks I saw one the Ross play with a Hubbard! All of them learned quite quickly to go outside and discover the world. They learned various ways to eat different types of grass seeds and didn't know at first what to with insects when they caught them, they do eat them nowadays.

I love learning about them either from other people's experience or my own. I love sitting with them under a tree. I love reading threads from people who free range them and discover how active they can be. And I do think that if you think they are lazy you are managing them wrong.

Well that was quite the rant, guess I also like talking about them