Arizona Chickens

[maryhysong]

I was just reading on a web site how misguided we are to have chickens because the Roos. It says, we THINK we are doing a good thing. It must be PETA in the back ground. Roos are copped up, sometimes alive in commercial chick/eggers. Apparently that is alright. It says chickens still hatch boy birds. Will? Doesn't there need to be a boy bird around for a hen to lay to boy Egg? I eat chicken, all those chickens wee eat are usually girl.... 4 mo. Old deformed girls. I can't let people like that upset me.
If I get fertile eggs for one of my girls I will probably dispatch the Roos at some point, and know that they had a good life, eat well, and got plenty of dust baths. I use as much of the bird as I can, feet, heads, nick and bones in the stock pot. A life is to precious to wast. One more thing I will know that he did not suffer or traumatized at the end. If I didn't feel this way I would be a vegan.

I'm with you. chicken is food and I eat chicken. I will say that when you buy sexed pullets there are thousands of their brothers that are disposed of as day old chicks, some hatcheries grind them up alive and others ''humanely euthanize' them however they do that. Around here most boys are dinner, but they live a good life running around, not cooped in little cages or in buildings with only 1 or 2 sq ft of space. They have room to run and flap their wings. They are not stressed out when the time comes and most go quietly to their end. Having a rowdy bad boy for lunch today, he smells soooo good in the crock pot!

 

[desertmarcy]

i bought 4 fbcm's from her, beautiful birds. according to desertmarcy they weren't sq, but didn't matter to me. i know her other birds were as she won a prize at the tucson show. her blue copper maran's were phenomenal. she was selling a breeding air of blue laced red wyandottes. the rooster was great. if i was ready to start breeding then, i would have been all over them.

Hi folks, I sure want to thank you all for your kind words about my birds. I do try my best!

 

[pastrymama]

I can't believe I am happy to get two eggs today. I have 8 layers. Should be 9, but my Blue Marans from the EASTER hatch has yet to lay her first egg.

remember that dark brahma i had last year that took FOREVER to lay? finally an egg at about 11ish months, i think closer to a year. i miss my brahmas

 

[Arizonachicken]

Oh well, live and learn. How are you doing these days? Few more months to go?

Thanks for asking! I'm 25 weeks now. I'm due April 25th. Everything is going well, but if I hear any more about my "advanced maternal age" I'm going to scream!

On a weird side note...
DH has been taking care of the rooster...putting him in the garage at night and taking him out in the morning. It's amazing...he didn't want anything to do with "my" chickens until we ended up with that rooster. I hear him talking to his friends and he always says "you have to come over and see our rooster." It's weird, but I'm not complaining. I'll post some pictures of him soon. He has matured nicely and he really is beautiful. Still has a GREAT disposition, too. He doesn't crow much and has never attempted to attack or even peck a human. Thats more than I can say for some of my hens! And he's nice to the hens, except first thing in the morning. When we put him back in the run with his hens, he spends about 30 seconds terrorizing them, then he's done and will groom them and find food for them.

 

[Demosthine]

I was just reading on a web site how misguided we are to have chickens because the Roos. It says, we THINK we are doing a good thing. It must be PETA in the back ground. Roos are copped up, sometimes alive in commercial chick/eggers. Apparently that is alright. It says chickens still hatch boy birds. Will? Doesn't there need to be a boy bird around for a hen to lay to boy Egg? I eat chicken, all those chickens wee eat are usually girl.... 4 mo. Old deformed girls. I can't let people like that upset me.
If I get fertile eggs for one of my girls I will probably dispatch the Roos at some point, and know that they had a good life, eat well, and got plenty of dust baths. I use as much of the bird as I can, feet, heads, nick and bones in the stock pot. A life is to precious to wast. One more thing I will know that he did not suffer or traumatized at the end. If I didn't feel this way I would be a vegan.

From a religious aspect, the Christian based beliefs hold that all creatures that move are meant as food, with certain exceptions in the Old Testament such as camel, hair, pig and predatory birds. I believe that was changed in the New Testament to remove the exceptions as long as you bless the food over prayer. Regardless, chicken has never been an exception in any religion.

I do deplore the horrible conditions that commercial establishments keep their animals in, but it's impossible to keep up on where the different markets get their meat. Even "free range" does not truly mean free. They just have to have access to open air and sunlight. So, many are keeping them in overcrowded cages in an open roof type building.

And eggs are not sexed until they are fertile. If you don't have a rooster, it isn't a boy or girl egg. It's just an egg. In regards to the roosters, it's survival of the fittest. Whether they are killed as babies or adults, they will not survive. Ten roosters in a cage will fight for dominance, even to the death. That is the way and order of the Earth.

 

[Arizonachicken]

^ lol! Thats exactly what my boyfriend said. He's just still so small I doubt there'd be much meat on him. I'm thinking of letting him go into the big coop with the hens and adult rooster. I can't even handle my younger pullets with this turd in the mix.

I bet the hens and adult rooster will put him in his place...Or dispatch him for you. Let us know...I'm interested to see what happens.

 

[Arizonachicken]

remember that dark brahma i had last year that took FOREVER to lay? finally an egg at about 11ish months, i think closer to a year. i miss my brahmas

My SLW chicks you hatched for me are 18 weeks now (I think...I might have lost track). I'm going to have a good laugh if they lay before my Marans! By the way...they are really developing their lacing...really pretty. I'll post pics once I get to my computer, I don't think I can post pics from my iPad.

 

[Arizonachicken]

This is just a test to see if this works. I'm trying to figure out how to post photos from my iPad...sorry, non chicken related photo. If this works, I'll update my photos on my iPad...yay!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

We had a crappy day yesterday. I let my birds out to free-range at 8am, as usual, while I piddled around the yard doing chores. Went in at about 8:20 to take a shower and the phone rang. I never get out of the shower to answer the phone, but something had me answering. It was my neighbor at the end of the block asking if I was missing any chickens. He had just seen two birds running across the street to the next block over. I surely didn't think they were mine, but I raced out back to check on them. What I saw was complete carnage, feathers everywhere and my poor BO, Waldo, dead on the ground. Not another bird to be found. I ran down the street and around the corner where the two birds were spotted and found my Delaware and one of my EE hiding in some dried weeds. They let me pick them up and I quickly searched for others. Went back to my house and saw my BA standing in the middle of the yard, apparently in shock and I grabbed her up and put the three into the run. It was so crushing that more than half of my flock was gone. I searched the yard again and then looked into the back alleyway, right there in front of me was a coyote, eating my other EE. It was barely bothered by my presence and only took the bird and ran away when I hopped over the wall and went after it. So, two birds were still unaccounted. For one I had high hopes, there wasn't a single feather from Mrs. Beasley anywhere. But most crushing was the massive amount of feathers and a wing from Weegee, my CM, the top bird in the flock. I searched the yard for another fifteen minutes or so and then searched the surrounding blocks and alleyways for the next hour, but finding no trace. I just killed me thinking that she could be lost out on the street. When I gave up searching and went home to look in the back yard again, right there next to the coop was Mrs. Beasley and standing right next to her was Weegee. It was one of the few times in my life I was sure that I was hallucinating because I was so certain she was dead. But I wasn't. She lost a good portion of her feathers, including most of the flight feathers from one wing (which is why I thought I saw her wing on the ground), but escaped with no other obvious wounds. So, in the end, we were fortunate that only two birds were killed. They stayed up on the roost for a couple hours, but by late afternoon, they were anxious to be let out of the run, which was not going to happen. I think the coyote came back this morning because they still have not come down off the roost.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

You a re so right, Demosthine. The Web site referred to boy eggs, I am 75% convinced that it is a PETA member or sympathizer. Now, it is true you will always find abuouser, hoarders, and people that just do not do the homework. But, it referred to BackYard Chickens, I am confident that members of this site do their home work and take good care of their chickens. To meny of us they are pets with a bonus. For me, they are pets, they relax me, and brings me piece, and a bonus, eggs.