Dumbest Things People Have Said About Your Chickens/Eggs/Meat - Part 2 : Chicken Boogaloo.

[chickendreams24]

Lol I have two SS Felicity, and Merida(from brave BC she survived a predator attack and was tailless for a month because of it) lol they are hatchery stock but I believe Merida to be a pretty good specimen. She's stunning and also a good layer. They're so sweet and calm they're awesome! They're just starting to lay more and more regularly and I'm thrilled.

My chickens also have me very well trained. For instance before my coffee this morning the dogs were taken out and the flock was fed and watered and let out and the rest of the morning chores were done. I then went inside and fed the dogs just to go back out and do some more chores. I also caught and moved the largest 10 cockerals from the juvenile coop to the adult coop. Took my juvenile salmon favorelles pullet from the adult coop and put her in with the chicks bc shes so submissive she waa getting picked on by the ten cockerals (she won't go outside hardly ever) all before going inside. Coffee consumed I went out and threw hard boiled eggs for the flock and made sure everyone was alright. Then I could finally eat.

 

[PeepersMama]

Are you planning on eating those boys? Unless you have 100+ hens you probabbly should.

 

[cutiechook1]

X2! That many is not necessary!

 

[RooChick]

I told a guy I work with that my hen laid her first egg and then he said to me:
"Hatch it out!"
Then I said: "I can't, I don't have a rooster"
Then he said: "Do you need a rooster ? Don't eggs hatch into chicks ?"
Then I said: "Yes, but you need a rooster first"
Then he said: "Well, what happens to eggs if there's no rooster ?"
Then I said: "You collect and eat the eggs or if you don't collect them, it will rot or a snake, fox or some other creature will eat them"

 

[PeepersMama]

Doesn't he know how the circle of life starts>!?!?

 

[chickendreams24]

Lol I have two SS Felicity, and Merida(from brave BC she survived a predator attack and was tailless for a month because of it) lol they are hatchery stock but I believe Merida to be a pretty good specimen. She's stunning and also a good layer. They're so sweet and calm they're awesome! They're just starting to lay more and more regularly and I'm thrilled.

My chickens also have me very well trained. For instance before my coffee this morning the dogs were taken out and the flock was fed and watered and let out and the rest of the morning chores were done. I then went inside and fed the dogs just to go back out and do some more chores. I also caught and moved the largest 10 cockerals from the juvenile coop to the adult coop. Took my juvenile salmon favorelles pullet from the adult coop and put her in with the chicks bc shes so submissive she waa getting picked on by the ten cockerals (she won't go outside hardly ever) all before going inside. Coffee consumed I went out and threw hard boiled eggs for the flock and made sure everyone was alright. Then I could finally eat. More later guys have to get going.

 

[ChickenGoesRuff]

@Chicken dreams and all whom replied about the roosters:
# of hens is also sorta subjective in terms of rooster temperaments. I currently have 4 roosters living in harmony with 5 hens, none of whom are developing "barebacks" or being mistreated. But again, Depends on the roosters... Just my 2 cents on the issue.
(1 year old BA, 2 year old IB, 2 year old Silkie, a 3 year old IB, and quite possibly a 13 week EE mix) - all from different batches of chicks, I just got the 3 year old 2 months ago. I've had over 14 roos/cockerels with between 10 and 50 hens. The roos would often band together and roam in a pack looking for treats, and a few of the more aggressive hens would join in, no problem.
--Again, just my experience on the topic, not saying anyone is wrong or right, but showing a dissenting (hopefully un- or very minimally- biased) opinion.

 

[PeepersMama]

I remember on the first thread (before i became a member), someone said you need to feed different colored food to get different colored eggs (or something like that). The person was like, "soooo, feeding time would sound like this - "fluffy, stay out of Matilda's food! Choco, don't eat Angel's food, you are supposed to lay dark brown eggs, not white!" I laughed SO HARD

 

[ChickenGoesRuff]

That was the first one I read when I started too! Lol, small world...
Some of my neighbors (they live in Chicago, but have a summer house down the road) have 2 little girls who love to visit the chickens and 'help' collect eggs. When they visited after my EE started laying, it happened to be the same day that the chickens got spinach. My EE is the only one that likes it, and those little girls' faces when they thought they connected the dots to the green egg... (All my other birds at the time laid white eggs- but I guess it WAS snowing..

)

 

[chickendreams24]

@Chicken dreams and all whom replied about the roosters:
 # of hens is also sorta subjective in terms of rooster temperaments. I currently have 4 roosters living in harmony with 5 hens, none of whom are developing "barebacks" or being mistreated. But again, Depends on the roosters... Just my 2 cents on the issue.
(1 year old BA, 2 year old IB, 2 year old Silkie, a 3 year old IB, and quite possibly a 13 week EE mix) - all from different batches of chicks, I just got the 3 year old 2 months ago. I've had over 14 roos/cockerels with between 10 and 50 hens. The roos would often band together and roam in a pack looking for treats, and a few of the more aggressive hens would join in, no problem.
--Again, just my experience on the topic, not saying anyone is wrong or right, but showing a dissenting (hopefully un- or very minimally- biased) opinion.

I didn't actually say anything about the roosters. In fact I rather agree with that the most important thing as to how many can be safely kept in a flock is temperament. We have grown out all of our cockerals this year from our hatches and some hatches of some friends. While not economical in this day there is something to be said for the meat of a non-cornish cross bird. The boys all get to live good lives and if they get to be too much they are placed into a large grow out pen to finish out until they're processed. Our boys don't fight and rarely are there any skirmishes. They rarely even raise their hackles at one another. Our hens are not bare backed and aren't tormented, any cockerals that seem too rough are banded for processing and if necessary moved to the grow out run to protect the girls. Only the gentlest cockerals with the hens make it into our breeding programs. We have about 50 pullets and hens and have had more that 20 cockerals roaming the farm with them daily as they free range. We are down to a much fewer number and are continuing to raise up cockerals. This is a way for us to be self-sustaining and give these boys good lives followed by a quick and gentle end each cockeral we process is soothed beforehand as it not only makes for better meat but is also the humane thing to do.

There is a resurgence in the desire for heritage bred meat birds and I only hope that this might mean less chicks getting killed for lack of being wanted/worth raising. I have been informed from a friend from a foreign country that they do not dispose of unwanted chicks but that they are taken and grown out for the meat industry. We should be so lucky to achieve such a system.

By the end of growing out the cockerals from this entire years hatches we will have about 50-60 cockerals in the freezer. Their taste is incredible when compared to a Cornish cross and although they don't have as much meat on their bones they also don't have the leg problems, free range readily, don't need feed restriction, can breed and act normally like chickens, and they don't randomly die of heart failure. They're not worn and ragged when we go to process them. They don't have breast blisters from laying too much they're fully feathered and they are not peeping when we go to process them. I would take that trade any day. They live much happier healthier lives their bodies have time to grow naturally and they develop flavor.

So often I've had the discussion about raising our own birds and how it's horrible and murderous. I mention what the commercial birds face as a life. I speak of the horror. Often the response I hear is, "Yeah, but I don't see it."

It pains me knowing that there are people out there that know of the horrors I mention and are unfazed by them. Simply because they don't have to look at them. We hatch chicks and sell them as straight run or hold them until they're sexable and we keep the boys back. We order straight run when we order from hatcheries. We have thought about ordering one of the large discount batches of cockerals but we don't yet have enough large enough grow out pens to accommodate a 50 cockerals order.

Do I think many people keep too many cockerals and roosters and don't care or don't see the suffering of their hens and pullets? Absolutely. We pride ourselves on keeping our flock in great health and beautiful feather. A big part of this is monitoring the flock to be sure there aren't too many cockerals and that the hens aren't being bullied.