Adopting humane society chickens

[lotzahenz]

When our local shelter has bunnies, if they are to be euthanized, they call me and I go get them for free. I would ask who had the chickens, most likely someone got them for the kids then didn't want them once they grew up and were noisy. They would be hatchery birds that lived isolated from other chickens. They would be fine then, but it still makes me nervous about Biosecurity, so quarantine for sure. They should be cheap or even free if it's a well run place.

 

[Carrie Lynn]

Re: Pig @ Humane Society
The Director deserved to get fired. Allowing the employee to do that is contrary to the purpose of the Humane Society. What a jerk

 

[BirdOfPray]

Quote:
If someone is interested in adopting chickens from an animal shelter, it might be worth looking into what it would take to get yourself classified (officially or unofficially) as a rescue organization.

I used to volunteer at the local Humane Society when I was a kid. They always had a few roosters, and one day I was there when they brought in a little half-grown banty hen they found running loose in a subdivision. I told them there was no way they could put the poor thing in a pen with the three or four full-sized roosters they already had, and they didn't have anywhere else to put her. We were keeping chickens at home at the time. The kennel manager talked to the director and they agreed to call me a "rescue organization" and send the chicken home with me for free as long as we promised not to eat her.

 

[cobrien]

I would be very concerned about biosecurity. Quarantine does not prevent the spread of disease, it just reduces the chances. I quarantine all new birds and still introduced a disease to my flock and it was devastating. Still, I would consider rescuing the birds but would quarantine them for a lot longer, maybe even 1 year. All shelters are different, not all require home visits or charge high prices for chickens - our local shelters do not do this, they just make sure you live in a place where roosters are allowed by law.

 

[MOChickenz]

Thanks for all the advice! Let me tell you how it went.

I went out to the humane society ranch. Found a gorgeous blue one, and a blue black one. No idea what breeds.

I have them in a seperate cage. They both appear to be healthy, and have been at the humane society for longer than a month, but I am playing it safe. They are not currently laying.

I did learn something AWESOME during this process. The blue one got out, and we had to chase it. My little German shep/border collie mix was 'helping'. We couldn't find the bird and I noticed the dog being really quiet. He had the bird cornered, and was waiting for us to come get it.

Yay!

 

[turbo13]

Quote:
Our animal shelter recently had a pig. One of the employees took it home for Sunday dinner.

Now that's funny.

Why is that funny? The pig was given a second chance,more then likely from a bad experince.to some uncareing animal shelter employee.

 

[GardenerGal]

Maybe it would help to write letters to these shelters explaining the difference between adopting chickens and cats/dogs, and the problem a high adoption fee poses. Poultry definitely is in its own league. I can see asking $120 to adopt a parrot or cockatoo, but a chicken? Crazy.

As for taking in chickens myself, I did once and the hen turned out to have Marek's (had to put her down) and my flock was contaminated. Fortunately, most of them had been vaccinated or exposed as chicks through their hens, but I did lose some really good chickens that hadn't had the vaccine.