Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

one certainly doesn't want to make a posted issue of them.

I think I see a big red button labelled Do Not Push

 

[Perris]

There are topics, in fact I have a list of such topics, that are prone to getting very badly informed advice on.

Are you going to share it with us? Or just tease?

I'll start: if your chicken won't eat the bagged processed chicken feed you bought for it, stop giving it anything else to eat until it does

 

[kattabelly]

Tough, tussocky and resilient grass
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/plants/grasses-and-sedges/cocksfoot-grass/

Yep. Great place to hunt for bugs and old grass seeds once you get past this year's old growth and into the rotting, peaty thatch underneath. And a brilliant hiding place - the amount of times I've thoroughly checked a patch of it, only to find an enormous pile of eggs just a few days later

Grass tax:

"Has it stopped raining yet?"

 

[fuzzi]

It can't be rehashed enough. It isn't like this everywhere in the world.
There are fairly obvious reasons why BYC is like this. One probably doesn't want to look too deeply into these reasons and one certainly doesn't want to make a posted issue of them.
Unfortunately it's not just the rooster issue. There are topics, in fact I have a list of such topics, that are prone to getting very badly informed advice on.
Change comes slowly, especially if one is trying to address topics that are cornerstones of the establishment.
Most of my articles attempt to offer an alternative view. Judging by the response to them, not everyone is taken in by the establishment's view.

There is one thread in particular that I wish I had used video to demonstrate the point I was trying to make regarding rooster behaviour.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/cooperative-behavior.1288804/

I enjoyed the reread.

 

[RoyalChick]

Are you going to share it with us? Or just tease?

I'll start: if your chicken won't eat the bagged processed chicken feed you bought for it, stop giving it anything else to eat until it does

Oh come on - I haven’t seen anyone say that!

 

[Shadrach]

Oh come on - I haven’t seen anyone say that!

I have. It's often followed by, "they'll eat it once they get hungry enough."

 

[RoyalChick]

I have. It's often followed by, "they'll eat it once they get hungry enough."

Weird thought process.
I see more of ‘my chickens don’t eat the feed I give them what is a better feed to buy’ without considering that the chickens have been free ranging all day and are likely stuffed with grubs and other yummy stuff.

 

[kattabelly]

I have. It's often followed by, "they'll eat it once they get hungry enough."

To be fair some of the time that's in response to something like "my chickens will only eat this one treat food and nothing else, how to I get them to eat their regular feed?"

Which opens up a whole other can of worms about what's classed as a treat and how much is ok to give, of course, but I do think that's something that needs to be done differently and more carefully for chickens that are kept in a fairly sterile run and don't have access to a range of plants and other foods to choose from themselves.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

To be fair some of the time that's in response to something like "my chickens will only eat this one treat food and nothing else, how to I get them to eat their regular feed?"

Which opens up a whole other can of worms about what's classed as a treat and how much is ok to give, of course, but I do think that's something that needs to be done differently and more carefully for chickens that are kept in a fairly sterile run and don't have access to a range of plants and other foods to choose from themselves.

Or “I give my chicken 5 kinds of treats a day but they aren’t eating their layer pellets” lol.

 

[Perris]

To be fair some of the time that's in response to something like "my chickens will only eat this one treat food and nothing else, how to I get them to eat their regular feed?"

Which opens up a whole other can of worms about what's classed as a treat and how much is ok to give, of course, but I do think that's something that needs to be done differently and more carefully for chickens that are kept in a fairly sterile run and don't have access to a range of plants and other foods to choose from themselves.

It is commonly assumed that bagged feed is fine, though some have started to recognize that old feed may not be exactly tickety boo. Quite a few note the powder/dust at the bottom of their bag, sometimes with comments that the birds won't eat it. Bagged feed comes off a production line, which is a bit like a feed line in a chicken shed. The shortcomings of that don't get much attention, but here was a recent piece on it:
https://phys.org/news/2025-10-key-indicator-nutrient-chicken.html
The widespread assumption that all bagged feed is the same (and is fine, as a backstop at least) needs as much attention as do the 'treats' (which sometimes means real food but is often likened to junk).