Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[duckyfromoz]

Sad.... I bet you must totally spoil yours though MrViskers

Welcome to the Australian thread. I used to live in an area that had a lot of battery farms. I sometimes helped a neighbor collecting the eggs from their 5000 chookies.. kind of put me off wanting to eat eggs back then as a kid- all these years later I look at it in a totally different way .


I need my five acres NOW!!!!

Just got a message from a friend who breeds runners..she is selling a heap to cut down on numbers. I need somewhere to put another 50 birds quick

If only... She has some really interesting birds and I love visiting her to see them all. I will have to go over this weekend and take a few off her hands... Not that I have room - but I can find it until I can clear out a few of mine here.

 

[MrViskers]

Yes. Inghams is a poultry giant in Australia who knows what happens in those buildings.

 

[Chickenmumma]

Quote:
Ducky your birds eat better food than me!!

They'll have a fabulous Christmas!!

Welcome MrViskers! How is it living near Inghams? I'm reading an interesting book at the moment about how living near factory farms can effect the local environment. Apparently it can really suck to live nearby. The book also describes a lot of things that happen in those buildings in somewhat graphic detail... It's really sad. I'm so conscious now of never buying food with any chicken or egg products unless I know exactly where they've come from. I never want a single cent of mine to go into the pocket of those heartless monsters.

There. That's my rant.

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Quote:
I'm glad to hear Brick is on the mend.

As for my chickie I would have loved to have the hen accept it but by morning she'd decided she didn't want to be a mum anymore.

The little chickie had been all by her lonesome in the brooder till yesterday, had another two chicks hatch, one Dorking and one little black bantie mix.

Took them out last night and added them to the brooder and this morning I have two more pips! Another Dorking and another bantie egg!

These are the Dorkings I rescued when she destroyed the nest and bantie eggs I confiscated because they kept stealing more eggs each day so are due all over the place. I'm hoping to move the girl who set first tonight and slip the chicks under her. I'm just a little worried about putting a giant week old Dorking under a tiny bantie hen, I think she might realize it hasn't just hatched!

I would love your 13 acres Duckie, I've only got a couple of acres here and could really use more room. I'd love a Clydesdale horse or two and definitely don't have enough grazing here. I'd also like to get into breeding dairy goats and DH is already telling me I have to many goats (and not a single dairy goat yet!) he's afraid I'll over run the place.

 

[MrViskers]

Quote:
Ducky your birds eat better food than me!!

They'll have a fabulous Christmas!!

Welcome MrViskers! How is it living near Inghams? I'm reading an interesting book at the moment about how living near factory farms can effect the local environment. Apparently it can really suck to live nearby. The book also describes a lot of things that happen in those buildings in somewhat graphic detail... It's really sad. I'm so conscious now of never buying food with any chicken or egg products unless I know exactly where they've come from. I never want a single cent of mine to go into the pocket of those heartless monsters.

There. That's my rant.

Well it is not a growing factory It is just a hatchery but they dump all the dead chicks and egg shells into the large trash bins located at the back and it makes a putrid smell, It also attracts vermin had a few baby chicken bodies appear on the street from time to time, my guess is stray cats forage through the heap.

So all in all, I would say not to wonderful living next to a mass producing poultry factory.

 

[duckyfromoz]

That sounds nasty. Its bad enough having to deal with your own poultry waste in the form of bedding poop and an occasional rotten eg when they hide a nest- but having to find that would not be nice.

I hear the argument given to vegetarians that if people did not eat meat then so many animals would not be given the chance to even live at all- but that doesnt mean that they cannot live in comfort and well cared for until their time has come to go to someones plate.

 

[wooklet]

As a vegetarian,I actually agree with Ducky. Much as I like the idea of a meatless society I know that it is impossible to change the world,and if animals must be killed and eaten then a good life and humane end are in order. I am far more for stopping corporate greed in the form of battery farms,mass slaughter houses and cattle feed lots,than I am for a purely vegetarian society. I used to be a rampant animal activist! But realised that the majority of them open their mouths without checking facts. They are also full of arrogance for their own cause. So now I do what I can,I abhor cruelty to animals and will stand up for them if I have to. Hubby eats meat,and that's his right,and I even cook it for him and I never,ever,preach to him!

So that's my rant for the day! Have a good one!

 

[RareBreedFancier]

My two pips from yesterday popped!

Checking them out I noticed 3 more pips! This crazy staggered hatch is going nicely.

Another Dorking out and a very cute pale bantam.

Curious to see what color the bantie will be. I'm wondering if it's a splash as I have black, silver birchen, and blue bantie hens and a splash Silkie roo, crele game? roo and huge Plymouth Rock x roo are the possible fathers. I can't imagine either of the big boys would throw me a pale chick and one of the hens sitting is blue so I'm hoping for a splash pullet.

I'll comment on being vegetarian, I was for quite a while. I was advised to eat meat again as the Dr's could not explain why my iron levels were dangerously low and I didn't respond to taking iron pills.

I decided to only eat free range/grass fed/direct from the farmer meat. Now I have some land I plan to grow as much of my own food as possible, including my eggs, milk and meat. Unfortunately breeding always produces some lower quality animals and too many males so if I can't find an animal an appropriate pet home I think it's more ethical to grow them out here where they can live happy, natural lives until they are ended humanely than to purchase regular meat.

DH is still having trouble with the concept of eating my pets, he'd rather sell my animals and buy another animal already on a Styrofoam tray.

I don't think he really believed he'd be served a roo I'd hatched from and egg and grown up, he actually refused to eat them. Apparently because he knows my chickens he doesn't want to eat them. He'd rather eat factory farmed ones. So I showed him Food Inc, he really had no idea that conditions were so bad for them.

Now he'd rather I buy the free range chicken I used to buy so we are getting somewhere but I still haven't bought chicken since he refused to eat mine. I don't plan to either.

Edit: Looks like the first banties aren't part Silkie, single combs and light skin, now I really want to know how I got a pale chick. Had two more pips hatch, these two do have dark skin, I'll have a look at their combs once they are fluffed up.

 

[duckyfromoz]

I think we need to see some photos of these little new chickies of yours !!!

I am heading over the other side of Melbourne tomorrow - hopefully going to pick up a duck that was staying here for a while a few months ago. I fell in love with her- she was so sweet, and even though I have 15 or so of her babies here I really cant wait to have her back here. I really dont need any more ducks here right at the moment... But for her I am definitely going to make an exception.

 

[70%cocoa]

I think I remember you talking about that duck, Ducky. She sounds lovely and I'm glad you'll have her back!

I've got too many ducks right now too. Selling a couple of young uns to a nice lady tomorrow (if she likes them on seeing them). I've only got a 600 sq m block - even another 100 sq m would help

The Inghams experience sounds pretty unpleasant