CO laws on poultry care? Animal neglect in a public park, CO.

[centrarchid]

Bumble foot is something I would effort to prevent as much as treat. For the external parasites, what can be done to allow dust bathing routinely in a dry and well lit location?

 

[HensSweetHens]

As I understand it, from the website, this is essentially a Living History Museum/Park.
Such places have mission statements (should be publicly available) and they also have guidelines under which they present their "experiences" for the public.

So: are the animals housed and cared for as they would have been in the era the museum is seeking to replicate? ***If so, that's where to start.

Generally speaking, change is best approached when one works WITH an institution's principles.

I understand your set of concerns about the welfare of the chickens, but do not know enough about what is happening within the Museum/Park's structures to advise you.

It does bear noting that many chicken keepers today regard their chickens in the same framework as their canine/feline companion animals rather than as livestock or farm resources.
It is doubtful that the Museum sees the chickens as pets.

apologies for this being a disjointed reply.

Here is what I've found so far on Denver urban parks ordinances:
Some parts highlighted in yellow is what I thought were not addressed with the Golden coop system. Some are just highlighted because I needed to check on the information to be informed.

 

[ShannonR]

Bumble foot is something I would effort to prevent as much as treat. For the external parasites, what can be done to allow dust bathing routinely in a dry and well lit location?

I believe in the original post it says there were 2 dust bathing areas provided

 

[HensSweetHens]

Bumble foot is something I would effort to prevent as much as treat. For the external parasites, what can be done to allow dust bathing routinely in a dry and well lit location?

I've suggested it to my friend - the preventative methods, together with suggestions on how to block rats from digging the holes under the coop. She in turn emailed to the admin lady. So far - nothing. I am hopeful though.

 

[HensSweetHens]

I believe in the original post it says there were 2 dust bathing areas provided

Correct. They are in the open, and unusable much during winter or after snow and freeze.

 

[ShannonR]

I was able to help treat the sour crop of a hen from that coop, because my volunteer friend asked the director if she could take the hen and treat her. He approved - and later got very upset because he said he'd made a mistake and chickens aren't to be taken out of the park. I also tried to treat her two scabs of bumble foot - for ten days (one scab was healing very fast after I soaked it in epsom salt water and peeled away the dead stuff).

I am at the coop quite often and have been observing for a yeah and a half. I am not a veterinarian, but have had my own flock for 7 years and treated sour crop, bumble foot, prolapsed vent, respiratory infection, scaly mites, etc. successfully. And some things are seen from a visual examination - especially when you sit close to the chickens for a while and can reach out and touch them through the fence wooden slots.

Can you elaborate on "I think your concern is kind of misplaced." please? I am willing to be corrected, and keep an open mind about all this.

Oh, and yes, there is a sign on the pen - a list of what to give to the chickens and I've been thanked a few times by the volunteers and the admin lady herself for feeding them.
Scratch is thrown all day long by visitors into the pen area, so the vegetables I throw over to them would I guess be equally considered a lure for rats. My perspective is "the more vitamins they eat, the more resistant they are to disease/illness".

So it sounds like you have experienced your share of problems in your flock as well. Would closer observation or better care of your own flock prevent these problems, the way you seem to think it would in the park's chickens?

Just curious, but if you have your own birds, why is it, exactly, that you spend so much time with this park's flock of birds? And don't you feel like you are doing your own flock of birds a disservice by bringing all these diseases and parasites from the park's chickens home to them to suffer from as well? What, if any, biosecurity measures do you take to keep your birds healthy?

The way I see it is, you could at least prevent the spread of these issues to your own birds, by leaving the park's situation well enough alone. That is what I mean by misplaced concern.

 

[centrarchid]

I believe in the original post it says there were 2 dust bathing areas provided

Well lit and dry?

 

[centrarchid]

I've suggested it to my friend - the preventative methods, together with suggestions on how to block rats from digging the holes under the coop. She in turn emailed to the admin lady. So far - nothing. I am hopeful though.

What are you considering to be preventative measures: Prevention has been far from an emphasis on this site as a whole.

 

[ShannonR]

What are you considering to be preventative measures: Prevention has been far from an emphasis on this site as a whole.

What gets me the most, is these preventative measures being spoken about aren't helping out the poster's own chickens, based on reading the posts.

 

[HensSweetHens]

So it sounds like you have experienced your share of problems in your flock as well. Would closer observation or better care of your own flock prevent these problems, the way you seem to think it would in the park's chickens?

Just curious, but if you have your own birds, why is it, exactly, that you spend so much time with this park's flock of birds? And don't you feel like you are doing your own flock of birds a disservice by bringing all these diseases and parasites from the park's chickens home to them to suffer from as well? What, if any, biosecurity measures do you take to keep your birds healthy?

The way I see it is, you could at least prevent the spread of these issues to your own birds, by leaving the park's situation well enough alone. That is what I mean by misplaced concern.

That's a very good question. I have considered that I might transfer some of the diseases/illnesses to my own flock. But I am also very careful and disinfect as much as I can, even taking a shower + changing clothes before or after going/coming to the Golden coop. I just really care for those chickens, and after what I saw 1.5 years back in that coop, I sort of committed to bringing them vegetables (but I don't spend hours there when I go..who has that kind of time.) There is more that I could tell form what I saw, but I don't want to endanger individuals who were there, because they are not sure they want to get into all of this esp. in their age. - it's out of respect for them.

Also, things that I've dealt with were mostly non-infectious and were in the beginning years of having our flock. (I had a very rough start) so, thankfully the last about 3 years were disease free!!! except my sudden loss of a chicken - she went super fast because of a weird bump on her comb and swelling of her head. That stuff didn't effect my other hens.
The chickens in the Golden coop don't have scaly leg mites (which is very infectious). We just adopted two precious birds from our neighbors - they are about 6 months old. I've been treating them every day for the past two months with natural remedies - it's gone now!!! Little victories!
As far as bio security for my own chickens I have a few. They are not perhaps absolutely everything that's is possible to implement in a flock, but they've worked for me. I'll be happy to share more in a bit. Need to run for now. Thanks so much for your post!