Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

there has been some drama when people have been told that they will lose in part or completely their growing plot because they haven't looked after it over the year and the plot hasn't produced anything worth talking about because it hasn't been tended. As a committee member and because I am there daily I've been dealing with the brunt of the drama.

that can't have been pleasant. Did you have to fire many?

Anyway, glad to discover you were afk just because you were busy people tending, rather than e.g. enduring a health relapse

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!
Tea is ready.

Temperature is in the 80s partly sunny 50% chance of rain.

Have a great day!

 

[Shadrach]

that can't have been pleasant. Did you have to fire many?

Anyway, glad to discover you were afk just because you were busy people tending, rather than e.g. enduring a health relapse

Only one. A couple of others have been given a time period to make some improvements.

 

[ManueB]

Two and a half hours. Warm and sunny.
It's the end of the field group membership year and as one might expect there has been some drama when people have been told that they will lose in part or completely their growing plot because they haven't looked after it over the year and the plot hasn't produced anything worth talking about because it hasn't been tended. As a committee member and because I am there daily I've been dealing with the brunt of the drama.

Sorry to hear that. I hope not renewing one of the membership will convince the others to be more active. Maybe some of those people had good reasons ? Life can sometimes throw curves.
How do people actually get to know about the allotment and the possibility of getting a plot ? Are they mostly friends of people already there or is there some kind of advertising other than the open day at the field ?

I swept this out yesterday. Mostly white feathers from Henry and Mow. Mow who has been adverse to eating much apart from what she can forage has become ravenous for drain tinned mackerel, chopped nuts and has taken to snacking on the feed I leave in the coop overnight before she settles down to roost. I had to refill one bowl this evening which she ate almost a third of before settling down. I'll take extra mackerel tomorrow.

View attachment 3946119
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Good that miss Mow has an extra appetite for what you bring. Do you have a bin over there ? Empty mackerel cans can make one's bag smell pretty gross. Don't ask me how I know.

Jenni and Winkler 2020 cont. Chapter 4: this is on the effects of environmental conditions during moult on plumage quality.

First point of importance here is that (as of when the book was written, so up to 2020) there are no studies of this in large species that retain their primary feathers for up to 3 years, and for whom feather quality is of particular value; the studies that have been done looked at small passerines like sparrows and tits. So what follows may not be representative for galliformes in general and chickens in particular.

With that caveat in mind, main conclusion is: fast moult speed seems to have a strong negative effect on all aspects of structural feather quality (size, resistance to wear, insulation properties etc.). Some birds sometimes skip breeding entirely in a given year in order to have a good moult and restore plumage quality (rather than rush it after raising a brood) e.g. middle-sized albatrosses. The other thing they stress is that plumage quality is a product of conditions during the moult period. Those conditions have far reaching carry over effects, because that plumage has a huge impact on the bird's life for the rest of the year or three, until those feathers are replaced in a subsequent partial or full moult.

Other significant findings that caught my attention are: Food shortages in general, or lack of particular nutrients required during moult, may have one or more consequences: it may cause a delay or interruption to the moult; may lead to feather production at the expense of body reserves (drawing what's needed from other body tissues); may reduce the number of feathers grown simultaneously or the feather growth rate, thereby extending the moult; and/or it may reduce the feather quality.

The birds studied prioritized their normal moult timing and intensity at the expense of body reserves and then feather quality. Even severe malnutrition does not normally stop the onset of the process, and moult may proceed even until death by malnutrition.

NB Defects in feathers caused by particular nutrient deficiencies "are rarely observed in free-living birds", p. 153, but "in free-living birds, evidence that habitat quality or food availability affects plumage quality is scarce", p. 154.

There are 3 kinds of malformation in feathers; the terminology used for them here is (i) pale or pallid bands, (ii) fault bars, and (iii) feather holes. Pallid bands, typically a few mm wide, have reduced pigmentation, and seem to be produced by malnutrition. A fault bar, about 1mm wide, is a translucent line across the entire vane or just part of it, where the barbules are reduced or missing, and seems to be caused by acute short-term stress events such as handling, fear, or sudden cold impacting the growth in the follicle. Fault bars compromise the integrity of the vane and are typically where a feather will break. Holes are the result of bacterial decomposition or chewing lice. See attached photos for illustrations.

The term 'stress bar' is not used in the book. Regarding stress, it was pointed out in chapter 3 that a normal moult down-regulates corticosterone production; lab experiments that injected abnormally high doses of this stress hormone into birds (some of whose feathers had been plucked in order to study regrowth, so outside a normal moulting period and processes) did compromise replacement feather growth, but naturally occurring corticosterone concentrations do not interfere with feather growth or quality.

My chickens have began moulting and yesterday I found a feather from my rooster with something that looks very similar to the fault bars described, like I mentioned seeing before on some of my chicken's feathers. What do you think?

I'm almost sure I can exclude malnutrition in my flock since they get a choice of many different types of food and I check they all get to actually eat.

 

[Perris]

Sorry to hear that. I hope not renewing one of the membership will convince the others to be more active. Maybe some of those people had good reasons ? Life can sometimes throw curves.
How do people actually get to know about the allotment and the possibility of getting a plot ? Are they mostly friends of people already there or is there some kind of advertising other than the open day at the field ?

Good that miss Mow has an extra appetite for what you bring. Do you have a bin over there ? Empty mackerel cans can make one's bag smell pretty gross. Don't ask me how I know.

My chickens have began moulting and yesterday I found a feather from my rooster with something that looks very similar to the fault bars described, like I mentioned seeing before on some of my chicken's feathers. What do you think?
View attachment 3946966
I'm almost sure I can exclude malnutrition in my flock since they get a choice of many different types of food and I check they all get to actually eat.

yes, I'd say they are fault bars. Easily caused apparently; handling a common cause and even sudden cold can impact the growth. And since the growth happens in a circle inside the follicle, when the feather grows out and unfurls, the growth hiccup looks like a fine line across the vane.

The pallid bands from malnutrition can be confused with bleaching on old feathers, and they are much wider, because the cause forms over a significantly longer term. Fault bars record short sharp shocks.

I notice also in your photo the fraying at the edge - that's a really worn feather you've got there!

edited to add: roos treading hens when they are in the process of moulting must cause a lot of fault bars, as well as hurt. No wonder the hens are very keen not to mate at this time!

 

[Perris]

Empty mackerel cans can make one's bag smell pretty gross. Don't ask me how I know.

 

[Shadrach]

18/09
Dry with sunny spells.

Mow snacking on the overnight feed before roosting.

 

[Shadrach]

Maybe some of those people had good reasons ? Life can sometimes throw curves.

There are no good or bad reasons; there are just reasons. At some point in the recent past reasons have come before facts. The fact is in these cases they haven't maintained their plot to the required standard. They have a year in which to achieve this standard and the standard is not difficult to achieve. It's a bit like an exam, you pass or you fail. A very unplopular view these days it seems.
Take my case for example; I either can or I can't ensure the chickens get cleaned out, fed and watered, either by myself or someone acting on my behalf. The chickens will not be interested in the reasons I succeed or fail.
It seems that failiure is no longer a possiblity that we are prepared to deal with which is pretty stupid if everyone is a success no matter what their performance is. Failure is I've found the best teacher of the two and the ackowledgement of that failure helps to keep self delusion in check.

Word of mouth is usually how people get to know about the field.

 

[Shadrach]

Dry, warm with sunny spells though not very many.
Sylph. I think she's a lovely looking pullet. She thinks I'm quite lovely for a grumpy old git it seems.

Mow snacking before roosting again.

 

[BDutch]

Sylph. I think she's a lovely looking pullet.

She sure is.

She thinks I'm quite lovely for a grumpy old git it seems.

she knows you bring the food.