Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[no fly zone]

Just want to share that Caramel, the hen that was the subject of the discussion about going to the vet, passed during her surgery.
She is the second ex-batt I'm losing in a week to a reproductive problem : https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-a-1h45-trip-to-the-vet.1539953/post-26000995

We are now certain we won't hesitate to have the next chicken die at home.
We buried her beside Vanille.
View attachment 3203062

Losing a pet sucks, but losing multiple pets in quick succession is exponentially worse.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Just want to share that Caramel, the hen that was the subject of the discussion about going to the vet, passed during her surgery.
She is the second ex-batt I'm losing in a week to a reproductive problem : https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-a-1h45-trip-to-the-vet.1539953/post-26000995

We are now certain we won't hesitate to have the next chicken die at home.
We buried her beside Vanille.
View attachment 3203062

sorry @ManueB you really did right by her ♡ what a beautiful life you gave her ♡♡♡ and what a lucky girl.

 

[Solanacae]

Wow, take a day off to watch my nieces and I’m pages behind!

I cringed with open arms and heart
Started laying at 20 weeks and have only taken one day off so far in the 5-6+ months they have been laying. They are machines. It scares the heck out of me and I dread their fate. They are hard working foragers and first in line for food. I do 24/7 available feed + + + and just bought the $$ stuff for my flock but still worry I may not be meeting their nutritional needs. They live in the same environment as my other girls but lay fantastically and horrifyingly better.
I don't think there is any slowing these girls down so we are going for quality of life

I love your phrase ‘cringed with open arms and heart’. That is how I get when I realized the chicks I had weren’t the Buff Orpingtons I thought they were and were a production breed instead.

I feel another part of the heartache is that these breeds are ridiculously friendly and very pretty too.

Mine are definitely that way, very curious and friendly.

Yes I struggle to agree with 'only commercial feed' opinions. It just doesn't make sense to me that a bag of processed, low quality ingredients plus added low quality nutrients and synthetic amino acids can provide an 'optimal' diet for my birds. I DO feed a commercial feed as the basis of my flock diet, and I feed chick starter or gamebird to my chicks and broodies, and keep a coccidiostat on hand. However when I was semi making my own feed with crushed whole grains/legumes/meat meal and kelp, I think everyone including the chicks did better and was healthier. I liked that I could grab a handful of grain and see and smell for myself that it was indeed good and not mouldy or otherwise sub standard.

I stopped fermenting when I got ready to move and haven’t started it back up yet, but it was a home mix balanced (there’s that word again) with the help of @U_Stormcrow ’s very helpful feed calculator. I fed it as a portion of their feed, mostly as a means to give them the benefit of the probiotics/gut acidification from fermenting. However, they were very happy with it and eggshell quality in particular was better too. Poops also seemed to be less stinky but I have no way of quantifying that.

I’ve done quite a bit of reading about food and philosophies towards eating, Michael Pollan being one author that in particular changed my approach towards food and where it comes from. I forget which book, but he basically says that one of the biggest problems with the industrial food supply is that food is processed into individual parts to give it a longer shelf life, and then things like vitamins and minerals are added back in because it’s nutritionally deficient. He points out that eating a food in its whole form, like an apple vs a fortified fruit drink or whole grains vs refined with vitamins, is far more healthful than any of our food scientists’ attempts to add back in what was taken out. Commercially prepared chicken feed, which always will claim to be ‘nutritionally balanced’ is not that much different from breakfast cereal in many ways. Some formulations will be better for you than others as well. It may have everything checked off on a spreadsheet of required components, but unless you’re getting it fresh from the mill, there will be losses in nutritional value over time. I don’t care how much folic acid they put into a bag of oat-based cereal, if you stick marshmallows in there too, I’d no longer consider it anything more than candy you pour milk over. (And there is an appalling numbers of cereals here that are so loaded with sugar they should be labeled candy here in the US, not sure if that’s the case elsewhere.) @Iluveggers , my experience teaching in a high-poverty school is exactly the same as yours with regards to school breakfast/lunch, though I never took food home. The amount of wasted food is appalling - and so is the lack of healthful food.

That said, I do feed my chickens commercial feed because I’m not ready yet to feed them purely on my own feed mix. At some point I may try, but I have enough other things on my plate at the moment. I have tried out a variety of different feeds available in my area, some by necessity due shortages in availability. I’ve attached the label of one of the brands my ladies seem to like best - both in terms of seeming to like the food and also their overall appearance and egg quality while on it. I’ve never been particularly impressed with the 16% protein feeds available here, though I have bought it when I didn’t have other options. I’ll grab a picture of the label in a bit.

Sky's babies are up on the roosting bars for bedtime for the first time ever. Since the day they hatched, they had been sleeping with her in the nesting box. I remarked to my wife last night that all 3 were trying to snuggle under her, but there wasn't enough room.

There was a Sky sized space between them and the adult birds though.

I’m so sorry you’ve had so many creatures pass away in such a close period of time. That is just awful.

Partly. But what rarely gets taken into account in the feed and keeping debates is a very simple fact; the more eggs a hen lays the more feed she needs. While high production hens produce a lot of eggs, they also need a lot of feed to make those eggs.
So, much as I would like to write that it was the free ranging that had a major impact on the feed consumption, the breed of chicken also makes a major difference.
Also I find it interesting that the French Marans in Catalonia didn't lay as many eggs on average as the Marans I've read about in the USA.
The most steady layers in Catalonia were the Bantams. The eggs were a decent size as well.

I’m curious how similar Catalonian French Marans are to US Marans at this point. They probably are bred to different standards, so while they have common ancestry, they are probably quite different in many ways. Body type would be one area I’d be curious to compare. Marans are theoretically a dual purpose chicken, but I doubt most people in the US use them as such. I’ve only seen them marketed for their dark eggs, to add color variety to the egg basket.

 

[Iluveggers]

not sure if that’s the case elsewhere.) @Iluveggers , my experience teaching in a high-poverty school is exactly the same as yours with regards to school breakfast/lunch, though I never took food home. The amount of wasted food is appalling - and so is the lack of healthful food.

Just wanted to clarify, when I took the fruit for my “kids”, it was my students not my kids at home…lol. I do a unit on farming & gardening, and talk about & model healthy eating, so most of my students appreciated the extra snack in the classroom and the only fruit ever not claimed was plums. After two days if the plums were still on my table I’d take them home.

@ManueB Gosh I am so sorry. What a terrible week. I hope you are able to remember and commemorate your hens in some way.



Question for all of you. Are Easter Eggers considered a heavy-laying breed? I did add two plus an olive egger to my flock this year. My aunt had a couple and they only laid 3-4 eggs per week their first year, so I figured they wouldn’t have the genetic problems of the sex-link hybrid or high-production leghorn types. The other chicks I got were all cold-hardy heritage breeds and not known for impressive laying skills. (Marans, Faverolles, Orpington, Brahma, Welsummer, & Sussex).

 

[Solanacae]

Just wanted to clarify, when I took the fruit for my “kids”, it was my students not my kids at home…lol. I do a unit on farming & gardening, and talk about & model healthy eating, so most of my students appreciated the extra snack in the classroom and the only fruit ever not claimed was plums. After two days if the plugs were still on my table I’d take them home.

Whoops! Misread that, though I refer to my students as my kids too!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Just want to share that Caramel, the hen that was the subject of the discussion about going to the vet, passed during her surgery.
She is the second ex-batt I'm losing in a week to a reproductive problem : https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-a-1h45-trip-to-the-vet.1539953/post-26000995

We are now certain we won't hesitate to have the next chicken die at home.
We buried her beside Vanille.
View attachment 3203062

Hurts double I am so sorry !

 

[TropicalBabies]

love your phrase ‘cringed with open arms and heart’. That is how I get when I realized the chicks I had weren’t the Buff Orpingtons I thought they were and were a production breed instead.

Speaking of...

RSL X Dark Brahma. She is a total sweetie

maaaaaybe this one too

RSL's are the only single comb bird in my flock plus those yellow legs!! I only hatched a few rsl eggs and I thought that I had sold them. So glad I selfishly kept 4 of my girls for myself.

 

[Perris]

I'm so sorry for your loss @ManueB You could not have done more for Caramel, and I salute your perseverance. Remember her as she was, living a wonderful life with you.

 

[Windrider]

He points out that eating a food in its whole form, like an apple vs a fortified fruit drink or whole grains vs refined with vitamins, is far more healthful than any of our food scientists’ attempts to add back in what was taken out.

One of the easiest to understand and best (I think) food philosophies for people is simple statement "Don't eat anything your ancestor (caveman) wouldn't recognize as food." This is recognizing that humans are omnivores and hunter-gatherers; none of these fad diets and weird s**t.

While I try to eat by this, I do have a weakness for dark chocolate.....

 

[Ribh]

One of the easiest to understand and best (I think) food philosophies for people is simple statement "Don't eat anything your ancestor (caveman) wouldn't recognize as food." This is recognizing that humans are omnivores and hunter-gatherers; none of these fad diets and weird s**t.

While I try to eat by this, I do have a weakness for dark chocolate.....

Me too ~ especially if it also has nuts in it!