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

[Mountain Momma]

Mutt hybrid?

Silkies have more flavor because all the other chickens wipe their tushies with them.....wipes all that extra flavor right into them. Concentrated chicken stock.....

I'm so glad someone remembered the first page! It's been a long time since I've seen it...still sounds like good advice to me. I'm so very glad that someone is listening out there. Let us know how your chickens are faring on the OT advice you received here and spread the word to others who have questions. We don't get tired of the same old questions....much...

 

[Beekissed]

Sure would save on roost space.....

I enjoy eating them but they need more garlic.

 

[MagicChicken]

Bee, I vote for making this thread a sticky. Would miss it if it shut down, but I admit I am struggling to keep up with 50-100 posts/day. And I mostly lurk. Can't imagine how much time you must put into it, since you answer most of the posts.

This is a reason to keep this going. This was posted in a poultry thread on facebook.

My 3 yrs old hen has laid no shells or totally deformed soft shelled eggs for months now. She's been to the vet many, many times to the point that I give her calcium injections at home when she's feeling depleted. I've tried all the tricks for increasing her calcium too - but ultimately she just has bad parts. So...the next step is to implant a hormone to try to stop her from laying period. Anyone have any experience with this?

Walt

Walt - ouch. You are right, this definitely a reason to keep this thread going. Or at least make it a sticky.

The key phrase in that post is "been to the vet..." So, I have to wonder - why did the vet recommend all the expensive treatments? Why didn't the vet just counsel that person and advise culling the bird? Oh, yeah... Most vet schools don't train vets to deal with typical pet birds, let alone chickens. Even "avian certified" vets may not have much real-life experience treating things with feathers. So when confronted with a chicken the typical urban vet will pull from the parrot bag of treatment tricks because hey, a chicken is a bird and aren't all birds the same? Treatments that make sense for a parrot (life expectancy 30-100 years, expensive to purchase) do not usually make sense for a chicken (life expectancy 3-10 years, inexpensive to purchase). And they wind up doing all sorts of extreme stuff to try to keep the doomed bird alive, when the most humane thing to do would be cull. Oops... I mean "put it to sleep." It is sad. Maybe there should be some OT common sense outreach to the veterinarian community as well. I suspect most vets would prefer not to milk all that money from a client at the expense of the animal, even when the client is begging to be milked.

FYI, the treatments that poster was describing must be standard fare in the bag of avian treatment tricks. It's almost exactly the same course of treatments an avian vet tried on my cockatiel several years ago. Which failed to save the bird but did provide me a valuable if hideously expensive lesson in the economics of maintaining an unthrifty bird of poor genetic stock for mushy personal reasons.


Quote:

Quote:
Bruce, I thought I had bookmarked your FF thread but now I can't find it. Could you re-post the link? (if you haven't already - I'm probably 30 posts behind now, since it's taken me so long to write this post ...)

Thanks to Walt, Bee, Al, and all the other OT's who have been helping to show us newbies on the straight and narrow. It's working.

Sarah

 

[bruceh]

here is the link for my thread for meat birds
MEAT BIRD'S " TELL US HOW YOU DO IT".

 

[bruceh]

here is the link for my thread for meat birds
MEAT BIRD'S " TELL US HOW YOU DO IT".

man, you think it is big enough.

also i got to be able to access this thread for some time . i am a slow reader and just started to re-read from page 1.

 

[bruceh]

Bee, I vote for making this thread a sticky. Would miss it if it shut down, but I admit I am struggling to keep up with 50-100 posts/day. And I mostly lurk. Can't imagine how much time you must put into it, since you answer most of the posts.

Walt - ouch. You are right, this definitely a reason to keep this thread going. Or at least make it a sticky.

The key phrase in that post is "been to the vet..." So, I have to wonder - why did the vet recommend all the expensive treatments? Why didn't the vet just counsel that person and advise culling the bird? Oh, yeah... Most vet schools don't train vets to deal with typical pet birds, let alone chickens. Even "avian certified" vets may not have much real-life experience treating things with feathers. So when confronted with a chicken the typical urban vet will pull from the parrot bag of treatment tricks because hey, a chicken is a bird and aren't all birds the same? Treatments that make sense for a parrot (life expectancy 30-100 years, expensive to purchase) do not usually make sense for a chicken (life expectancy 3-10 years, inexpensive to purchase). And they wind up doing all sorts of extreme stuff to try to keep the doomed bird alive, when the most humane thing to do would be cull. Oops... I mean "put it to sleep." It is sad. Maybe there should be some OT common sense outreach to the veterinarian community as well. I suspect most vets would prefer not to milk all that money from a client at the expense of the animal, even when the client is begging to be milked.

FYI, the treatments that poster was describing must be standard fare in the bag of avian treatment tricks. It's almost exactly the same course of treatments an avian vet tried on my cockatiel several years ago. Which failed to save the bird but did provide me a valuable if hideously expensive lesson in the economics of maintaining an unthrifty bird of poor genetic stock for mushy personal reasons.


Quote:

Bruce, I thought I had bookmarked your FF thread but now I can't find it. Could you re-post the link? (if you haven't already - I'm probably 30 posts behind now, since it's taken me so long to write this post ...)

Thanks to Walt, Bee, Al, and all the other OT's who have been helping to show us newbies on the straight and narrow. It's working.

Sarah

sarah there is another thread also called fermenting feed for meat birds also a great thread.

 

[bruceha2000]

Mutt hybrid?

Um, that IS one odd looking chicken

Was the bat alive? I can imagine a lot of people wouldn't think of picking up a bat, especially one that big, dead let alone alive.

 

[bruceha2000]

man, you think it is big enough.

also i got to be able to access this thread for some time . i am a slow reader and just started to re-read from page 1.

It might be big enough but it isn't a link.

THIS is a link:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/706413/meat-birds-tell-us-how-you-do-it


I'm sure there are other ways, but I created it by first searching BYC for the text you posted, clicked on the forum then copied the URL from the address line. Then in this post I clicked on the "add a web link" icon and pasted the URL in.

I'm not an OT with chickens but I am with computers

Bruce (but not bruceh

)

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
First guess? Money maker. It's all about the money with some vets..not all..but some. Just like human doctors, they didn't get into it to go broke and most didn't go into it so they can "help"...and some get into it so they can help AND make a good living. But a fool and her money? Their kind of client...

 

[Gargoyle]

This site and getting back to where you were is very tedious especially since Im on a slow computer. But Im a reader and I will make it through. It would be easier for me to just print it out. The whole ream of paper. I wonder if I can just do that and hilight the things I want to remember best...mmmm...Have a great night Bee.

If you do, first go to "preferences" at the top of the page, turn off signatures, avatars, try setting for full width, play with the other settings.

I've seen software in past years for downloading/collating forums, google a little, something might exist to make it easier.