Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Doing a bunch of annoying maths, I discovered my 16 chickens were supposed to be eating, if confined, 4 lbs a food a day.

So much to their complete chagrin I wanted to see how much they actually ate - and this was several weeks ago, before spring really sprung well here in NC.

I let their food bin go empty and only gave them 4lbs in the feeder in the morning. (They really hated me for making them wait to eat when I got my butt outside a couple hours after dawn)

They free range from 2 hrs after dawn until sunset. So I was very curious about how much they would actually eat.

Less than 3lbs, way less. I didn't actually pour back the food left in the bin at roosting time to measure (I should have, but hey I'm not a scientist at all)

It's a MASSIVE amount of food they are getting from forage and I am so happy about it.

But now I am having chicks growing and seriously for real run out of 80lbs of food in ~10 days FML

But I'm working on tripling my flock so there is that

Sorry Shadrach, this was related to your post about forage and food amounts - hope it was okay!

It's interesting because I can't find any proper studies n the contribution of forage for hens that also get fed commercial feed, or even homemade feed.
Of course bieng there are so many different ground conditions to take into account it's hardly surprising. The tribes in Catalonia ate almost two thirds less supplied feed one year during the spring and early summer.
In the pictures to follow the field lot were on this abandoned plot for over half an hour. They even found something of interest under the lavender bush which they've not shown any interest in before to my knowledge.
They found the horseradish plants I've been looking for with the intention of transplanting. All the commercial horseraddish I've found is too weak with loads of sugar.

 

[Shadrach]

At least, your country’s voters and legal system care, even though marketers are loath to comply. I don’t think that anything like this would even get on the ballot here.

Unfortunately when it comes to elections such issues don't feature in the manifestos. I'm not seeing a lot of words to action on this subject. There have been a few minor improvements in what's specified as adequate for laying hens (it's called cage enrichment) but the regulations are not well enforced.

I'm about to pay £40 for a Light Sussex cockerel that's ranged from dawn till dusk, killed at three months old; lucked, gutted with all the bit included in the price. That's cheap from a friend. That £40 would have been soaked up in feed alone.
Tell someone you paid £40 for a chicken carcass around two thirds the weight, if that, of a Cornish X and they'll roll about laughing and suggest you see a mental health professional.
I haven't had what I think chickens should taste like since I left Spain. This friend has got eight cockerels to eat so far this year. Like me, he won't entertain rooster flocks.

I've been selling most of the eggs this year. I ask for £2 per half dozen. A couple of my regular customers give me £3 even though I ask for £2. £5 for six eggs might just be a more realistic price. I can't see people paying that.

 

[Shadrach]

Three hours today, one hour in the extended run, the other two out on the field. Dry and mild.

 

[Molpet]

Unfortunately when it comes to elections such issues don't feature in the manifestos. I'm not seeing a lot of words to action on this subject. There have been a few minor improvements in what's specified as adequate for laying hens (it's called cage enrichment) but the regulations are not well enforced.

I'm about to pay £40 for a Light Sussex cockerel that's ranged from dawn till dusk, killed at three months old; lucked, gutted with all the bit included in the price. That's cheap from a friend. That £40 would have been soaked up in feed alone.
Tell someone you paid £40 for a chicken carcass around two thirds the weight, if that, of a Cornish X and they'll roll about laughing and suggest you see a mental health professional.
I haven't had what I think chickens should taste like since I left Spain. This friend has got eight cockerels to eat so far this year. Like me, he won't entertain rooster flocks.

I've been selling most of the eggs this year. I ask for £2 per half dozen. A couple of my regular customers give me £3 even though I ask for £2. £5 for six eggs might just be a more realistic price. I can't see people paying that.

I figured out feed cost of $7 USD per lb of my meat mutts. At 16 wks dress out 5-7 lbs

 

[fuzzi]

If you can find someone local already raising/selling, you can help by buying from them

And build a third coop?

 

[BDutch]

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-...n-uk-supermarket-animal-welfare-b2737345.html

I could only read the intro bc its behind a paywall.

No chickens, no tax.

 

[Molpet]

another freezer
Guy near me raises CX and sells frozen.
They have a better life than the store CX

And build a third coop?

 

[L-plate chicken mum]

I could only read the intro bc its behind a paywall.

No chickens, no tax.
View attachment 4108704

Me too on paywall

 

[Shadrach]

I figured out feed cost of $7 USD per lb of my meat mutts. At 16 wks dress out 5-7 lbs

Around the same as my friend except he's processing this lot at three months. He usually waits until six months to nine months. It's just that this year he had a hen go missing and she showed up with eight chicks, marched the lot into the her tribes coop and set up base on the floor in a corner.
He's got his property fenced with six foot heavy duty stock net, first two feet covered with a double fold of chicken wire, two strands of barbed wire at the top, six inch gap on a cranke post, making the fence around seven foot high (it's a farm so he's allowed to do it), dug in skirt and pulse electric current fence of an undisclosed voltage on the outside. It's been a very effective and compared to many fences, very cheap. He was complaing that the price of the materials he needs to fence another acre is almost three times the price of the last acre he did, some ten years ago.

I'm very envious in a friendly manner. He inherited the farm with a main house and a farm labourers cottage (think very very small) He's disabled from injuries he got fighting some war or other. He sold the main farmhouse with some of the land and moved into the labourers cottage. Another farmer does the crop planting and field managment and my friend keeps chickens and goats.
He's got a small tractor and a skid steer that he can drive and a decent tool set for them both.
I think getting electricty to the cottage was expensive and making the cottage comfortable and fencing the boundry between him and the people he sold the farmhouse to (apparently he had to do this) burnt most of the money he made from the slae of the main house. It wasn't in the best of states whe he sold it.
He assures me with a wry grin that he hasn't made a penny profit farming.
I think the section he has for chickens is five acres now. That's a lot of fencing. There are things he just can't do. He can't walk far and can only bend about half the distance the avergae person can. So, he has to pay for help with major projects. His chickens have a great life and while he's not a sentimental man you can tell he adores his chickens, even the ones he eats.

 

[Shadrach]

Sorry about the paywall chaps. Nothing I can do about it.