Wow! I am shocked and amazed at the support this subject has raised!
I was definitely prepared to get crucified for this topic.
I've given it a lot of thought over the past few years I've been a member and realized that there were fewer and fewer threads that I could read without extreme frustration. All these posts of pleas for help with rehoming unwanted birds, should I cull my sick and dying bird~but I can't face it, the neighbor's dog ate my flock, my chickens are eating one another....well, it was downright disheartening to know that people read on this forum but
do not seem to learn. Raising chickens is very close to my heritage and my heart and I love to share information and stories about chickens...I think they are among the most charming farm animals and provide so much education and fun for young children. Not to mention they are useful, beautiful and easy to keep. All of these reasons are why I feel such concern over the topic of discussion. Any old country person would....we were raised very closely with animal husbandry and love to see it done right. Not right in our eyes...right in a moral sense, in an ethical sense, in a sustainable sense. We don't like to see or hear about suffering any more than do more urban folks, particularly when it is so easy to avoid if one exercises good sense and aforethought.
spiritdance, of course I didn't mean that there are no other ways to free range effectively and your donkeys and electric fencing seem to be good flock protectors. Some folks use llama, some turkeys or geese. What I meant was that some type of protection other than a roo is needed when free ranging....tree cover, creating hides for an easy get away, good fencing options....you name it, it has to be better than a kiss for luck and hope you survive. Losses are accepted...I only free range, myself. I feel chickens are actually more vulnerable in a penned situation and you see just as many threads about them being snatched out of pens and coops as you do with free ranged flocks.
You have to admit that an electric fencing and donkeys aren't exactly a whimpy defense against predators!
BigDaddy'sGurl~Someone who has a good market for incubated chicks and are selling them are also obviously not the ones meant by this thread. I don't find it a bit irresponsible to make money providing chicks for sale....hatcheries do it and we buy from them. Same thing. The "slamming" to which you refer~and slamming is a pretty harsh word for simple TRUTH~ is for those who incubate without a thought of where those extra chicks will be placed and just hoping they will find someone or somewhere to rehome the ones they aren't planning on keeping. It is no different than breeding dogs and cats and hoping you can place those extra animals...then taking them to the pound when you cannot. Uncertain futures for animals that you had a hand in creating....I don't call that responsible. I can't imagine anyone would.
speckledhen ~ I think the issue here is intent. If you raise birds with the express intent to sell, or give to someone particular, the extras, then that is no different than anyone raising livestock and selling offspring. I don't find a thing wrong with that....but...you will rarely find a farmer who breeds his livestock with no market in place and ready for his calf crop, lamb crop, etc.
If there were a general livestock market out there that were avaible for chickens and one could generate money by breeding and consequently selling those birds as an established business....I'd say, breed to your heart's content. Those birds will obviously be utilized for meat on someone's table and not be placed in a cock fight, set out in a field to "fend for himself", placed in a cage for years, or become a pet that attacks its owner and needs to be rehomed...once again. They could...anyone can buy an animal at a livestock auction, but I feel it would be less likely. Most folks who go to livestock auctions are there to either sell or buy as a business.
But there is no market for extra roosters, are there? This thread is about having a plan. I don't really care if the plan is to rehome. But attempting to rehome over and over with no thought of "maybe I should just stop"? Selling is one thing. Rehoming free birds because you just cannot stop getting or hatching more chickens and writing desparate pleas on BYC for ideas on how to rehome yet another unwanted roo or duck is~ just in my opinion and that can be taken or left, as you desire~ irresponsible. It is no different than the folks who do not spay or neuter their animals and then have to find homes for the unwanted offspring....how can that be any different in
anyone's eyes?
I've rehomed a few retired hens myself and found it to be a big mistake...and I knew these people. Very sweet and well intentioned but with no idea whatsoever as to how to keep a chicken....just asked me if I would give them some old hens for pets. They had no plan, just wanted them. The hens are now dead by predation and I could kick myself over and over for letting them die in a violent and unplanned way. I'm not saying all rehomed homes are like that, but I'm willing to bet that a good many are. I can tell simply by reading the thousands of posts on BYC from people who didn't plan, just wanted a pet and came back crying about dead, sick, unwanted birds. It happens enough on here to prompt me to start a thread such as this....
This thread is not about slamming, it is about information, a plea for responsible breeding, handling and managing the chickens, ducks, quail, turkeys in our care. As adults we know what the term responsible pet ownership means...actually, it gets driven down out throats by all the animal lovers out there on a daily basis. There seems to be a little hypocrisy, though...people want to call their chickens pets but do not seem to think they should be treated like their other pets. Let's keep those extra ~ "unwanted" but previously wanted or you would not have hatched, bought or accepted, birds~ out of the shelters, off the hoarder shows, out of slasher videos and pics of torn up, unprotected animals, shall we?
