Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[galefrances]

....

Since this won't cost me anything but $30 in laying mash for this winter's feed and there are only 13 birds to feed, I decided to see what will happen here. After a small time period with a little fermented feed to get their bowel flora recultured, can these birds turn around their poor health on normal chicken food...foraged foods only? Can fresh, clean, balanced soils and living conditions get birds with already hardy genetics back to a healthy life?

I have the time, it won't cost me hardly anything and I am curious...that's all it took. I may wind up killing them all in the end, when their meat will be healthy enough to actually eat. Right now I wouldn't eat their eggs or their meat, so killing them would be a little wasteful.

Different time in my life, different goals, different place to raise chickens....I'm a fool for learning something new and I learn best in a hand's on situation. I'm going to see if this small flock can get back to normal without spending much money or time on their recovery. Should be interesting!

Sorry Bee, I just don't buy it. I think you're a kind loving soul with a big ol' soft heart for your chickens.

 

[Beekissed]

Sometimes...just sometimes..I'm a big, ol', mushy mess of soft, gooey love and emotion. I couldn't be a nurse without that gooey center...takes a real crybaby to feel other people's pain and suffering. I feel that way about animals too but usually I can prioritize it and see what needs to happen in a practical and economical light.

These old birds have paid their dues and should have had a good life and a good end, quick and merciful. I'm going to get their good life back and then we'll sort out their ending. Birds that had a good life taste so much better than those that didn't...didn't you know that?

Mostly I'm just royally PO'd about what happened to them and I'm going to right this wrong....so many times in this world I just get to be mad~ but am helpless to change anything. This time, I'm going to fight stupidity, laziness and selfishness for a little bit. Gives me something to do in my old age....

 

[knjinnm]

I looked up canker in chickens, and that is EXACTLY what it is.....
Thanks,
Brie

Hi All,
Several years ago I had a three week old pigeon squab which developed canker in her mouth at her throat. A retired doctor friend also into pigeons advised me to swab it with iodine, my reaction was isn't iodine poisonous? His comment ... she will die if you do nothing, so I swabbed the canker with iodine. A few days later the canker lifted off, wow was she hungry so I hand fed her, taught her how to peck at peas, wheat and corn by tapping my finger next to the seed, finally she caught on.
Moral of my story, do not hesitate to treat a bird before it is to late.
Joe

 

[thedragonlady]

Sometimes...just sometimes..I'm a big, ol', mushy mess of soft, gooey love and emotion. I couldn't be a nurse without that gooey center...takes a real crybaby to feel other people's pain and suffering. I feel that way about animals too but usually I can prioritize it and see what needs to happen in a practical and economical light.

These old birds have paid their dues and should have had a good life and a good end, quick and merciful. I'm going to get their good life back and then we'll sort out their ending. Birds that had a good life taste so much better than those that didn't...didn't you know that?

Mostly I'm just royally PO'd about what happened to them and I'm going to right this wrong....so many times in this world I just get to be mad~ but am helpless to change anything. This time, I'm going to fight stupidity, laziness and selfishness for a little bit. Gives me something to do in my old age....

Go Bee! We old birds really DO love these critters, no matter what we say out loud sometimes.You know in your socks that these birds can be saved, or you would have given them a merciful end. Behind you 10000%.

 

[al6517]

Quote:
Saving good birds or any good farm animal for that matter that has given you good service and productivity, ones you bred, ones you cared for and culled to excel on the farm. Bringing them back is something country folks do on a regular basis, we don't cry, we don't fret, we don't get intimidated, we just get our A33es in gear and do what needs to be done because it's the right thing to do. BTW we country folks call that good animal husbandry, good care and a good result, no huggy pie kissy poo just good old fashion doing what it takes. You know this is no sweat off your brow Bee, you can bring them back before Christmas without batting an eye, rest them over winter, fatten-em up and come sprang you'll be back in the saddle.

Do you really want to start another thread/disscussion for god knows who to post things all day saying their silkie has piece of straw stuck in their foot, OMG what should I do ??. LOL that ain't you, and there ain't no working with those folks who don't understand animals enough to prevent care and cure sensibly. So yes I do understand the diaper/apron house.rescue chicken folks need a shoulder to cry on, but do you really need that headache. As soon as you tell them the cure they will ridicule you for your insensitivity because your advice is to reality based, see where I am going Bee LOL.

I too picked up a few birds from a friend a few weeks back that he gave me cause he ran up on hard times and all, I took them seperated each one in an individual pen by itself, (12) in all, and have been nursing them back to health. They were thin, demaciated, flee biten old raggedy pure LF Cornish. They are coming around very well and chances are they will make it just fine, he doesn't want them back and their nowhere good enough to keep for my program, so as they get healthy they will make fine soup or fried chicken. Do you thing the huggers can do this ??............. yea right......... that's what I said LOL. But (WE) save them and care for them because it's right, then we eat them and they taste good, country folks do what's right because it needs to done, not because we can we can be a hero at some blue blood dinner party with our story of how we saved the world through a few chickens LOL.

We cared for them, brought them back from the dead, we didn't give them names or cute identities and then decide to have them live in our dinning rooms on my favorite chair, because we are the 1%er's of the chicken kingdom. Yea that's right LOL I went there, if we eat our lovely gracey we are scorned online but in our country world, it's just life plain and simple.

 

[Beekissed]

Saving good birds or any good farm animal for that matter that has given you good service and productivity, ones you bred, ones you cared for and culled to excel on the farm. Bringing them back is something country folks do on a regular basis, we don't cry, we don't fret, we don't get intimidated, we just get our A33es in gear and do what needs to be done because it's the right thing to do. BTW we country folks call that good animal husbandry, good care and a good result, no huggy pie kissy poo just good old fashion doing what it takes. You know this is no sweat off your brow Bee, you can bring them back before Christmas without batting an eye, rest them over winter, fatten-em up and come sprang you'll be back in the saddle.

Do you really want to start another thread/disscussion for god knows who to post things all day saying their silkie has piece of straw stuck in their foot, OMG what should I do ??. LOL that ain't you, and there ain't no working with those folks who don't understand animals enough to prevent care and cure sensibly. So yes I do understand the diaper/apron house.rescue chicken folks need a shoulder to cry on, but do you really need that headache. As soon as you tell them the cure they will ridicule you for your insensitivity because your advice is to reality based, see where I am going Bee LOL.

I too picked up a few birds from a friend a few weeks back that he gave me cause he ran up on hard times and all, I took them seperated each one in an individual pen by itself, (12) in all, and have been nursing them back to health. They were thin, demaciated, flee biten old raggedy pure LF Cornish. They are coming around very well and chances are they will make it just fine, he doesn't want them back and their nowhere good enough to keep for my program, so as they get healthy they will make fine soup or fried chicken. Do you thing the huggers can do this ??............. yea right......... that's what I said LOL. But (WE) save them and care for them because it's right, then we eat them and they taste good, country folks do what's right because it needs to done, not because we can we can be a hero at some blue blood dinner party with our story of how we saved the world through a few chickens LOL.

We cared for them, brought them back from the dead, we didn't give them names or cute identities and then decide to have them live in our dinning rooms on my favorite chair, because we are the 1%er's of the chicken kingdom. Yea that's right LOL I went there, if we eat our lovely gracey we are scorned online but in our country world, it's just life plain and simple.

No, my dear, sensitive, diplomatic friend, Al...I do not want to join the chicken huggers and drink the Kool-Aid.

Yes, I will continue to kill the birds when the time is right.

I can't believe that you are doing rehab too! Oh, the shame...how the mighty have fallen, you and I.

Instead of culling these birds, we are going to try our hands at bringing them back to a right life, a healthy life and a great existence....right before we kill them and eat them.

 

[normanack]

Everybody's got to eat. Caring for our animals before we eat them -- and enjoying them both on the grass and on the table -- seems to me that's as high a love (or higher) than many others.

 

[Beekissed]

Oh, how right you have it! The past several years I've come to realize that what I think is love is vastly different than what most folks see as love. I know many, many people who call themselves "animal lovers" but I see a big discrepancy somewhere in the picture. Either I don't know what love is anymore..maybe never did...or "love" has changed vastly into something I do not recognize.

I have family, co-workers...well...nearly everybody I meet that seems to think that I'm cruel and they are compassionate. They will let an animal suffer so long that I beg to help them end its life but they will turn around and call me a murderer(yes, that exact word from one of my sisters) because I killed and ate the excess roosters she incubated, didn't want, and gave to me. She knew I was going to kill them and eat them...told her right up front that this would happen. She calls the next morning and tearfully asked me if I had killed them. Called me a murderer when I confirmed her worst fears.

This behavior is not an isolated incident...I could go on for hours about the horrors and sufferings that take place on her farm and at other homes I've known. Six years have gone by and she still refers to me as a murderer. This gal has had 3 abortions that we know of and I'm the murderer. Go figure.

Life has taken a decided turn for the weird when normal farm folk are considered cruel when they eat what they've grown for food.

 

[stonykill]

Life has taken a decided turn for the weird when normal farm folk are considered cruel when they eat what they've grown for food.

love this line. Title of a chapter????

 

[featherz]

Life has taken a decided turn for the weird when normal farm folk are considered cruel when they eat what they've grown for food.

I don't eat my chickens (vegetarian), but I am considered cruel by meat eaters because I have put down chickens that are too ill - I put down a chicken with horrible wet fowl pox and the peeps at work think that is just the most horrible thing in the world, all while chowing down on chicken for lunch. I asked them if I raised chickens for food, killed them, dressed them and put them in plastic wrappers would they still consider that odd?