Interesting find about what chickens prefer to eat - not what I expected

a reply to: oldcarpy

...you don't even bother calling cops here, you phone a mate for a faster response.
British legion charity collection box was stolen recently, two women from the store chased the thief then half the pub across the road followed. He got a beating, a bad beating. No cops were called, and matey will think twice about stealing from a charity again.

a reply to: oldcarpy

Hours for an ambulance? Wow... might as well drive yourself!

As for the police here... unless it's an emergency, someone from the Sheriff's Office will show up eventually. If there's a dead body, probably with a couple hours. Otherwise, within a couple of days.

That's actually why we are so dead-set against gun control. We have no police to speak of when something happens; we have to handle it ourselves. I have no intention of facing down a boar or black bear or mountain lion without something at my side that goes "bang." And the two-legged critters can be the most dangerous of all.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

Drive yourself whilst having a heart attack.

a reply to: TheRedneck

I get the difference. We don't really call people slickers, here - we call em "townies". They'm don unnerstaaaan our cundry ways.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Gun control - best not go there but I do understand that things are different in the US to over here. We don't really want or need them but it gets me riled when Yanks come on here and tell us Brits we should all have guns. Our countries are just so different.

Back on topic, eggshells in our girls' diet helps them lay better eggs - sometimes we get soft ones. We tried grit in their pellets but they just leave most of it.

a reply to: oldcarpy

Best thing I have found here to harden the shells is bugs. If we feed them, the shells seem to get softer (actually had one break where she laid it a while back) because they quit eating bugs all day. Of course, we also let them have the broken shells.

Never feed a chicken bread, though. They love it, and it'll fill them up so much they won't eat much of anything else. In the meantime, those eggshells will be as thin as paper, if they even keep laying. Bread just doesn't have enough nutrition in it for them.

TheRedneck

a reply to: oldcarpy
Plenty of firearms in my parts, legal and illegally held.
I've never thought of getting one because the average robber is unarmed. Burgling while carrying a weapon carries a much greater sentence on conviction so most are unarmed. I have my sharpened plastering trowel and a wrecking bar just happening to be casually laying around within reach which I would use as defensive incidental tools under reasonable force law if a burglar came into my house.

On-topic, I miss raising chickens, they are crazy creatures, each with character...well until I killed them to eat them lol
EDIT
Gotta walk down the hill to town now, catch you guys later, it's been an interesting afternoon of chat.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

My Gorilla bar is handy at all times at home.

I could not eat any of ours girls.

Our escaped feral cat is showing interest in coming back in. He sits by the back door slowly blinking at me (it's a cat thing - if you stare at a cat they take it as a challenge and vice versa) and when I open the door instead of backing off he now comes towards me. I put out my hand and at first he hissed, then batted me with claws out, then with claws in but now he comes up for a head bump. This has all taken 6 months from full on feral but it's worth it.

Other cat is not so keen on any of this but they will sort it out. At least feral cat was "done" when the RSPCA had him as a rescue cat, otherwise he would be out fighting all the time. He's a big softie but it has taken ages to win his trust. We don't know his history, but he must have had a hard time of it.

So, not planning on shooting him.

a reply to: oldcarpy
Does the feral cat not go for the chickens then?
My mates barn cats play with his chickens, chase them around but not to eat.
They keep other cats away fiercely territorial.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Right, don’t feed chickens bread it gives them massive sh#ts, like huge nasty yellowish white runny poo. Not healthy for them. Bugs and certain feed, corn justfattens them up.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

No, if a cat gets too close to our girls they get a peck on the nose and soon learn to back off.

When we had three cats a Pheasant landed in our garden and the three of them were all hunkered down around it and looking at eachother in a "Dunno, it's a bit big, what do you reckon?" sort of way. They left it alone.

Feral cat came up to me and let me stroke him last night so every day he is getting more trusting and affectionate. Not really feral anymore, is Carl.

Dogs will instinctively "run" cattle in a pen, and will run them to death. If a steer is worth $750 on the hoof, how many cattle is the neighbors dog allowed to kill? Especially when you've warned the neighbor previously, and he says that the dog just wants to play. And that is the source of your future paychecks.

asking for a friend.

a reply to: oldcarpy
Haha cool story man!
My ex wife's cat caught a weasel the other day, big old cat but an impressive catch.
When I had my hens the cat stayed clear because the cock was hard as #, used to chase the cat away lol

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

A cat versus a rooster is one of things we call down here "rooster wins." But against a hen? Different story. That cat caught a weasel, which would easily be able to take down a hen.

The thing a lot of people forget is that cats are lazy... they're not going to go hunting for real as long as they have food available for just meowing. They'll chase, and if the prey is small enough, they'll catch... ours cats over the years have caught mice, rats, lizards... and never ate one (maybe a nibble here and there). They just caught it out of instinct, but they really weren't interested in it for food.

I saw ours one night when it was inside the house (before we moved to this house) chasing something around, leaping and twisting in midair. I finally realized it was a bird that had gotten inside and was desperately trying to get away from the cat. Finally it tried going down the hall, the cat followed, I heard a commotion, and the cat came back out of the hallway with a bird in its mouth. It carried it around, played with it a while (until we could get it away), and then forgot about it and went to sleep.

But let a cat go without food for a week or two, and it changes its behavior greatly. When it gets serious, a cat can take down a full grown hen and will eat most of it. They're starving and they still have that predatory streak when they need it, as opposed to Fluffy who is well fed and just wants to play with her food instead of eat it.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck
Totally agree mate
My semi feral cat becomes a hunter within 6 hours of food. She eats everything of a mouse except the tails, I could make a necklace and a belt if I kept all the tails she's left for me on the kitchen floor lol

I was reading the other day that if you die and your cat is stuck in then within a day or two they'll eat you starting with eyes. Dogs apparently wait a couple of weeks then start eating your feet or hands.

Nature is brutal and domestication goes out the window once starvation sets in.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

I've heard stories of the "crazy cat women" who died and were eaten by their cats ever since I can remember. It's apparently a very common tale. Usually people who keep vast numbers of cats do so because they have little human contact, and thus can die and not be found for some time.

Most people, I am convinced, do not know what hunger is. In my younger years, I hit some bad times and had to go a week without food. I was hungry a half day after running out, but then it went away. After three or four days, though, it was replaced with something most have likely never experienced. It wasn't the same; this was more like my body demanding that I find food, as urgently as though I would try to avoid urinating for a couple of days. It wasn't a request for me to find something to eat; it was a demand!

I had my mind to combat the feeling; animals don't. All of the niceties and cuteness go out the window. Anything that moves, used to move, or might move in the future is food. The only question is, can you bring it down without it killing you first? Cause if you pass up a meal in that condition, you might well be the next meal for something else.

TheRedneck

Our cats always ate all of the mouse except a bit that I think was the liver or something. Our Jones used to wake us up crunching on their skulls under our bed.

Talking of cats and chickens, I had a nightmare about being chased by a giant chicken. It knocked me down and jumped on my chest and was just about to kill me which is when I woke up and Jones then jumped onto my chest. Scared the life out of me.

a reply to: oldcarpy

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

That was completely mental!

Not sure if it's their preferred food but when we had chickens years back they got all the peelings from vegetables and they went into a feeding frenzy over it. Things like pea shells, potato skins, leftovers etc as a daily treat in addition to the standard pellets and the eggs they produced were the best in terms of colour & flavour. They were also in a large enclosure with plenty of plants and bugs which might have been a factor as well.