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

[al6517]

Quote:


No I don't want to call it rehab or rescue or anything like that, seems way to warm & fuzzy for me

Just not wanting to see them go to waste or die a painfull long death. Just want to do what is right for the right reasons, then have a BBQ LOL. There is a side of me that when the world goes to hell in a handbasket and the huggers are starving and want to eat, I would say sure I will make you this nice big juicey chicken dinner, so here it is.......... now chop it's head off and gut it out then you can eat. I just want to see the look on their faces when forced to confront reality or starve.

 

[stonykill]

. There is a side of me that when the world goes to hell in a handbasket and the huggers are starving and want to eat, I would say sure I will make you this nice big juicey chicken dinner, so here it is.......... now chop it's head off and gut it out then you can eat. I just want to see the look on their faces when forced to confront reality or starve.

 

[therapydoglady]

Having grown up in foster care for the biggest part of my life and being "rescued" myself, I'd like to put my .02 worth in here. My mother-in-law, Therapydoglady, did rescue work all the time. She rescued and rehabilitated all kinds of animals (and LOTS of people, too) and gave them a purpose in life. Now, in the animal world, a lot of time that "purpose" wound up being meat in the freezer for her family and whoever else she had with feet under her table shoveling food into their mouths with Beekissed's son's "grain shovels." When someone would protest about the "hardness" of this life, she'd ask them where the he__ they thought the meat at the store came from...a steak tree? a porkchop bush? On one occasion, a "borrowed child" had partaken (and greatly so) of backstrap and gravy with home made biscuits, but when he found out that it was venison, protested loudly about murdering animals and was invited to be a vegetarian as long as he lived in her house. Didn't take that growing boy long to decide that life and truth is sometimes hard, but when pushed to that realization, sure goes down good with gravy and a home made biscuit!

In my opinion, that's what this life we have chosen is all about. Life well lived. Death as necessary. It is all about balance. Self reliance. Self sufficiency.
And while I may not enjoy the task of taking a life, I do know that sometimes it is necessary...from a standpoint of either feeding our families, or ending suffering, or preventing the spread of disease. And thank goodness for people like that!

Brie

 

[caj1985]

Having grown up in foster care for the biggest part of my life and being "rescued" myself, I'd like to put my .02 worth in here. My mother-in-law, Therapydoglady, did rescue work all the time. She rescued and rehabilitated all kinds of animals (and LOTS of people, too) and gave them a purpose in life. Now, in the animal world, a lot of time that "purpose" wound up being meat in the freezer for her family and whoever else she had with feet under her table shoveling food into their mouths with Beekissed's son's "grain shovels." When someone would protest about the "hardness" of this life, she'd ask them where the he__ they thought the meat at the store came from...a steak tree? a porkchop bush? On one occasion, a "borrowed child" had partaken (and greatly so) of backstrap and gravy with home made biscuits, but when he found out that it was venison, protested loudly about murdering animals and was invited to be a vegetarian as long as he lived in her house. Didn't take that growing boy long to decide that life and truth is sometimes hard, but when pushed to that realization, sure goes down good with gravy and a home made biscuit!

In my opinion, that's what this life we have chosen is all about. Life well lived. Death as necessary. It is all about balance. Self reliance. Self sufficiency.
And while I may not enjoy the task of taking a life, I do know that sometimes it is necessary...from a standpoint of either feeding our families, or ending suffering, or preventing the spread of disease. And thank goodness for people like that!

Brie

 

[galanie]

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.
.

That reminds me Al, I have a silkie with a straw stuck in it's foot. Do I need to remove the diaper to treat it?...

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Wouldn't it be interesting, if this life turned out merely a platform from which, you can show God exactly how you'd like to be treated by how you treat the sick, the injured, the stupid, you come in contact with? At what point is an animal suffering too much and needs put down, at what point is treating it merely too inconvienent for you. From the rabbit comment bee, I thought you most likely to be eaten by lions in the next life...maybe you've had a change of heart. Maybe your just joking sideways about the broody substitute, but even orphans like a mama. Here is how I teach the orphans to nest up at nighte

 

[normanack]

I really don't like ascribing human emotions to animals, but that picture has me melting with the sweetness and care with which your hand is gathering together the helpless wee babies.

 

[seamsewnice]

Beekissed, Just thought you might be interested in some of the information that I have, to a question I posed way back on page 336 of this thread. I asked about some of the ailments I was experiencing in my flock, and I was very grateful for your input. Just to let you know I did have the rooster necropsy done back in June sometime. Several things were found at that time. For instance it was found he had coccidiosis, feather eating lice, and Mareks. The story doesn’t end here tho. In my inexperience when getting my first birds I was anxious to try out some before actually buying a flock of 25 or more day olds. So I began searching on the Internet for possible places to buy some birds. I found a ‘great’ website not too far away so took a drive there and had a look, not knowing what to look for when buying a bird I bought some birds just to try it out. I should have known that when they got a string on which a key was tied and swung it over the bird to find out what sex it was that I really should have walked away. Anxious to get started in the poultry hobby I decided to give it a go, but only wanted hens to start. Well, let’s just say the string thing with the key didn’t work at all and ended up with 2 roo’s (one very violent and aggressive, at that). Was told that if they turned out to be Roo’s then I could exchange them, but in reality when I called back, they didn’t return my call! I can trace everyone of those ailments back to this very beginning. However, later my friend and I were going to go through with the order from a “real” hatchery and she ordered some 100 birds which we split up several directions. All the birds healthy and survived till I mixed them with the older crew and then casualties started to occur.

The older crew within the first few days had blood in their stools, later I noticed bugs crawling on them, then as time went on the Mareks started to become apparent. It wasn’t until I moved them to my old coop that I had them begin to die, so I began to think maybe it had something to do with the coop, the grounds, or the like. Now it’s been 2 ½ years since all this started out and I had lost numerous birds with paralyzes.


Now my friend has had none of these issues, and her remaining birds have multiplied enough so that she is selling point of lay birds etc. We talk from time to time and her chicken math seems to be getting way out of control. However, she had a customer come along to buy some birds. The customer explained she had bought some birds at this place where the woman swung a string with a key on it to sex them and 5 of her ‘hens’ turned out to be roos! Not to mention when they had a necropsy done on one of the birds it to had Mareks. She said it sounded too much like my story exactly. So I feel some of my issues have been explained. Of the original 4 birds that I bought at that place none are living, two were roo’s one roo was a sex link I later found out (which died of unknown ailment), one she claimed was a Wyndotte (meanest roo I’ve had to deal with), Buff Orpington hen that didn’t grow and died at about 9 weeks, the only one that survived till this year was a barred rock hen, which last fall displayed the paralyzes but seemed to recover, but ended up dying when summer got real hot, when it did die was nothing left of it, light as a feather when I picked it up. Needless to say, I had a very bad experience with my first birds and can trace most of the ailments back to those first four birds I got! Thought the story might save some other person from experiencing the same problems I did just by posting this information. Lesson learned. It was recommended to me that in the future if I do get day olds again that they should be vaccinated for Marek’s (since it is in the vicinity), that I should also feed them medicated food (because of the coccidiosis). Of my original 25 birds I think I have about 6 left, so you can see I had a large loss. I did buy more day old last spring 21 and lost several (7) to the coccidiosis (from info I have read coccidiosis remains in the area if there isn’t a break from it) and lost a few to unknown causes but still have about 11 of them which are laying great. I will be watching your newest thread of how to deal with the ailments with interest because in my inexperience ( I don’t like using meds either) I hung on to many of the ailments longer than I should have.

From reading your new thread I see some changes I will need to make in my animal husbandry and some alternative ways to handle them, really enjoy reading your posts.

 

[capayvalleychick]

To those of you OT who use broody hens to hatch eggs & raise chicks, I could use some advice. I started a thread on the subject, here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-have-successfull-broody-hatches#post_9674327

Thanks!

 

[JulieNKC]

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.

I love this post! It's sad how many people "love" their chickens so much they'd rather eat chicken from the store (since we all know no chickens were harmed there

). The same people will take an obviously sick, contagious bird and try to nurse it back to health, while the poor bird suffers for days or weeks before dying a slow, undignified, painful death and exposing the rest of the flock to illness. I think it's far kinder, and more loving, to provide proper care, and a proper end.