BORED chickens?

[kcfuerst]

Very interesting thread. Very provocative. I'm just on the level of having invested in chickens for pest control with the added benefit that they provide food. That they have become pets is a definite plus I did not expect. Each one with her own name and personality, amazing creatures that give me immense pleasure.

I will tell you one thing however....if there comes a time when the rubber meets the road and I am given a choice of starve or eat chicken, guess what....I will eat chicken. They will have lived a fabulous life until they pass the torch to sustaining my own and they will thank me for it in the great big chicken heaven in the sky. Each one is a part of me and I them. They are pets, they are animals, they are sustenance. They will have lived one helluva nice life for their duration, however long that may be, given the current circumstances in our country.

There comes a time when we must at least glance away for a time from the clouded heavenly mountain top of the perfect world we see in our heads and face the harsh truth of reality; or at least look at it as a 'What if".

 

[Judy]

Quote:
What clouded heavenly mountain top? On what planet? Felt to me like you were trying to couch reality in acceptable terms, but....

Simple fact is, eating requires killing another living creature, or a product of a living creature which had the potential for life. Some differentiate between animal and plant versions, but this does not change the facts. (Eggs and seeds both contain... you get the idea.)

Some try to eat only leaves and such, which can keep even the plant alive, I realize. Not the way the rest of the animal/plant kingdoms work, even if some of us try to, and, not going there.

The circle of life is what it is. Life eats life, or dies. The lines we draw are in our brains, not in nature.

If you are hungry enough, you will eat your pet dog. This is not wrong. It is actually, basically, what you were saying, I think.

 

[Akane]

When I got chickens I never imagined they'd get bored. I immediately found I was wrong as soon as my chicks got a few weeks old. It's pretty easy to tell if you know various animals. They will wander around looking for stuff to do, start bothering each other more, get more destructive towards things, perform repetitive behaviors (often called stereotypical behaviors in other livestock).... One batch of chicks I raised in a room without much going on feather picked each other horribly. I moved them back out to the same room I was in like I had the other chicks and they stopped. Same brooder setup, same temperatures, same amount of feed, same waterer, but a place with stuff going on. I noticed those chicks would line up to watch every time I turned on the tv or something interesting was going on like they were desperate for anything to hold their attention. Sometimes just throwing a stick or something in the brooder for them to peck keeps them from picking each other. Chickens most definitely prefer to have something to do. All animals with even the tiniest bit of intelligence are always looking for something to do and less content if they have nothing to do. That's the state we call boredom even if you don't agree they feel it the same as we do. It's the reason animals like horses will start wood chewing, cribbing, stall walking, and other stereotypical behaviors that can be harmful for them and destructive to their surroundings. If you want you can go through and rename all the things animals feel so they are properly identified as similar but difference to us. Either way though you can't deny animals do feel something similar.

 

[Mahonri]

I have a perch up out in the run, I thought if I put a bell there for them to clang it would be fun for them.

They NEVER TOUCH IT!

What's up with that?

 

[robbdebbie]

Quote:
That is too funny. Like the bell at the top of the rope in gym class.



Maybe chickens don't get "bored" in the sense we understand, like whatcha wanna do today? Idunno whatcha you wanna do today" etc Maybe more like restless energy. Like my four year old stuck in a quiet library for over 4 hours.

 

[Emzyyy]

I mix mealworms in their food and they go crazy looking for them.

 

[alycoop]

RE: the 70's question - slight digression.

I was in college in CA in the mid-70's reading the early issues of Mother Earth news. I took a college class in "surviving off the land" in the biology section. First thing our instructor did was show us his self-composting chicken coop which was really a deep litter coop. On one acre of land he kept chickens, geese, one pig and had a terraced garden and one of those composting loos. All that inspired me.

I lived on some small acreage and let my hens free range. They came back to a converted woodshed to lay eggs and sleep. I don't recall dogs going after them - I do recall some dogs coming in and annoying the goats I had in a pen. Thinking back I have to say the hens were not at all my pets but the goats were because they were more like dogs.

I think that it's been an evolving people thing; people caring about their food and the foodsources. People were touting vegetarianism decades ago. My grandmother gave me a copy of one of her vegetarian recipe books from the 1930s. Then we went through the post WWII Spam and Wonderbread years. Now, at least where I live, the emphasis is about being "locavores". Funny because at one time ALL food was produced locally.

Back to chickens...well they keep us from getting bored. Hubby and I spend part of each evening just sitting outside watching them and actually talking.

 

[cmom]

I have been enjoying this thread. I too agree with most of these posts. If chickens are given enough room to exercise, and to exhibit natural behaviors like jumping, scratching and etc, then they should not suffer from any boredom. With boredom comes feather pecking and other vices. Chickens are prone to becoming ill if they aren't given the correct diet, and part of this diet is usually obtained from being allowed to forage even in a fairly small area. You can't beat letting them out for a little free range foraging, which allows them to exhibit their most natural behaviors.

 

[Oopoo]

Maybe it's the whole brother/sister, or sister/sister thing and they can't help but pester each other!

 

[Oopoo]

Actually, I think that the little buggers look for ways to mess with us. I've got one little miss called piquito (it's easier to say than piquita all you Spanish majors) and she waits for me to lift the door and then she breaks out and any number of the rest of them follow suit. Then they run around the yard while I try to corral them. At first it stressed me out, but since they play catch with the dogs ball when he drops it, I've found it to be amusing. Face it girls just wanna have fun!