Hihamburger
Songster
- May 1, 2018
- 179
- 260
- 167
I apologize for the length of this post. I am fed up with this situation. Absolutely fed up with it. So, if this is a rant, I'm sorry.
I feel like when you purchase a chicken, no matter your intentions, you should be willing to give it the best life possible and to care for it as such. Now, with that in mind, sit down and hold on tight, it is going to be a bumpy ride.
We have 36 or so chickens. 3 or 4 of which I purchased with my own money and a couple of which my sister bought with hers. I no longer live at home and have tasked my sister with ensuring that my chickens would be well taken care of. (I moved to an apt, and cant take them with me, so sad!) And, my parents seem to have no care in the world about the chickens. They aren't preparing for winter (I'm in NC, and in my area, we usually get quite a bit of snow and plenty of cold wind and rain!). And, when one of our chickens doesn't lay every day (because she is a Chantecler), my mom gets angry and wants to kill her because that means she isn't worth anything since she can't lay an egg a day like a production layer. And, to top it all off, they don't seem to care about the well-being of the chickens!
Yes, they feed them and ensure that they have water. But, I feel doing the bare minimum is not acceptable in this case. These chickens free-range, and have since they were around 1 month old. After one of the chickens got killed by a hawk, I advocated that we no longer allow free ranging due to size and the lack of a full-grown rooster to protect them. My pleas fell on deaf ears. They didn't care, and instead simply responded with: Well, that's to be expected. Honestly, I'm surprised we haven't lost more to hawk attacks. Then, very recently (within the last hour or so), my sister texted me and said that one of our chickens got hit by a car. (These chickens show no fear and regularly cross the road to go into a large field across from our house-- they have been slowing traffic down on our small back road for about a week or two now). However, only now are they simply considering building them a run due to another death. But, even this they are simply considering and might do it - eventually. And, I know some people separate cockerels from hens (from what I've read, it is usually due to aggression issues?), and my parents did that with two of ours. They stuck a small sebright cockerel in with a large black Australorp cockerel (the size difference was HUGE). They put them in a small coop (large enough for about 5-8 normal hens) and gave them a small run of about 16-20 square feet. Then, they never interacted with them. The hens still free-ranged and would walk far from the two boys. Eventually, the Australorp cockerel got very skittish due to low human interaction and started to flog the Sebright. This prompted my dad to go and try to separate the two via an insert into the run/coop area? It never came to fruition, because the cockerel (being scared of people now), jumped out from my dad's reach and accidentally scratched him. So, they killed the Australorp because "he was noisy and getting aggressive". I felt like this end was entirely preventable and unjust to the Australorp. Fearing for the life of my Sebright (who up until that point, had shown many good signs of being a good rooster by leading the hens to food and protecting them), I ended up giving him to a friend (Where he is now happily living with 10 hens and loving every minute of it!). My sister owns a Silkie cockerel (very lovely little boy) that they have now locked in the same coop where the Sebright and Australorp used to reside. I don't want him there during the winter because while I know Silkie's are cold hardy, I don't know if they will be alright alone. And, this coop is raised off of the ground and doesn't have a real floor, its floor is a hard-wire mesh. So, wind can easily come in and I'd imagine there is quite the draft. They don't even shut the door at night because the coop has a run attached to it made of chicken wire. So, that's good enough. Honestly, at this point, I feel like they are trying to get him killed. If I suggest letting him free-range with the girls, my mom will whine: I don't want fertilized eggs. I don't want to hear him crowing. I hate roosters, they're terrible. They're no good for a flock. There isn't any benefit to having a rooster!
When I argued that they could protect the flock, like from a potential attack, she cited: Then why didn't they protect Ophelia from the hawk?!
Not only did that hurt my feelings because I loved Ophelia (she was one of the Golden Comet's that I decided I liked the best, sweet little girl). But it was also a flawed argument. Because when that happened, they were all about a month or two old. The Australorp was still small, and only was beginning to make me question his gender. And, the Sebright was, well, a Sebright! He was TINY! He still is small! They could have done absolutely nothing to prevent that attack, they were too small and definitely not mature enough to know they need to protect the hens.
Maybe I'm a bit too attached and emotional, but, that to me shows a disrespect for the life of these animals that we have essentially pledged to protect from such dangers! Do y'all have any suggestions as to what to do in this situation? I'm pretty much powerless as not only do I not live there, but in their minds, they are the experts despite doing no research on these chickens (I'm the one who has) and this is their first time ever owning chickens. Ever. They refuse to listen to advice from people who have owned chickens for longer, and they refuse to listen to anything that does not go along with what they think.
I feel like when you purchase a chicken, no matter your intentions, you should be willing to give it the best life possible and to care for it as such. Now, with that in mind, sit down and hold on tight, it is going to be a bumpy ride.
We have 36 or so chickens. 3 or 4 of which I purchased with my own money and a couple of which my sister bought with hers. I no longer live at home and have tasked my sister with ensuring that my chickens would be well taken care of. (I moved to an apt, and cant take them with me, so sad!) And, my parents seem to have no care in the world about the chickens. They aren't preparing for winter (I'm in NC, and in my area, we usually get quite a bit of snow and plenty of cold wind and rain!). And, when one of our chickens doesn't lay every day (because she is a Chantecler), my mom gets angry and wants to kill her because that means she isn't worth anything since she can't lay an egg a day like a production layer. And, to top it all off, they don't seem to care about the well-being of the chickens!
Yes, they feed them and ensure that they have water. But, I feel doing the bare minimum is not acceptable in this case. These chickens free-range, and have since they were around 1 month old. After one of the chickens got killed by a hawk, I advocated that we no longer allow free ranging due to size and the lack of a full-grown rooster to protect them. My pleas fell on deaf ears. They didn't care, and instead simply responded with: Well, that's to be expected. Honestly, I'm surprised we haven't lost more to hawk attacks. Then, very recently (within the last hour or so), my sister texted me and said that one of our chickens got hit by a car. (These chickens show no fear and regularly cross the road to go into a large field across from our house-- they have been slowing traffic down on our small back road for about a week or two now). However, only now are they simply considering building them a run due to another death. But, even this they are simply considering and might do it - eventually. And, I know some people separate cockerels from hens (from what I've read, it is usually due to aggression issues?), and my parents did that with two of ours. They stuck a small sebright cockerel in with a large black Australorp cockerel (the size difference was HUGE). They put them in a small coop (large enough for about 5-8 normal hens) and gave them a small run of about 16-20 square feet. Then, they never interacted with them. The hens still free-ranged and would walk far from the two boys. Eventually, the Australorp cockerel got very skittish due to low human interaction and started to flog the Sebright. This prompted my dad to go and try to separate the two via an insert into the run/coop area? It never came to fruition, because the cockerel (being scared of people now), jumped out from my dad's reach and accidentally scratched him. So, they killed the Australorp because "he was noisy and getting aggressive". I felt like this end was entirely preventable and unjust to the Australorp. Fearing for the life of my Sebright (who up until that point, had shown many good signs of being a good rooster by leading the hens to food and protecting them), I ended up giving him to a friend (Where he is now happily living with 10 hens and loving every minute of it!). My sister owns a Silkie cockerel (very lovely little boy) that they have now locked in the same coop where the Sebright and Australorp used to reside. I don't want him there during the winter because while I know Silkie's are cold hardy, I don't know if they will be alright alone. And, this coop is raised off of the ground and doesn't have a real floor, its floor is a hard-wire mesh. So, wind can easily come in and I'd imagine there is quite the draft. They don't even shut the door at night because the coop has a run attached to it made of chicken wire. So, that's good enough. Honestly, at this point, I feel like they are trying to get him killed. If I suggest letting him free-range with the girls, my mom will whine: I don't want fertilized eggs. I don't want to hear him crowing. I hate roosters, they're terrible. They're no good for a flock. There isn't any benefit to having a rooster!
When I argued that they could protect the flock, like from a potential attack, she cited: Then why didn't they protect Ophelia from the hawk?!
Not only did that hurt my feelings because I loved Ophelia (she was one of the Golden Comet's that I decided I liked the best, sweet little girl). But it was also a flawed argument. Because when that happened, they were all about a month or two old. The Australorp was still small, and only was beginning to make me question his gender. And, the Sebright was, well, a Sebright! He was TINY! He still is small! They could have done absolutely nothing to prevent that attack, they were too small and definitely not mature enough to know they need to protect the hens.
Maybe I'm a bit too attached and emotional, but, that to me shows a disrespect for the life of these animals that we have essentially pledged to protect from such dangers! Do y'all have any suggestions as to what to do in this situation? I'm pretty much powerless as not only do I not live there, but in their minds, they are the experts despite doing no research on these chickens (I'm the one who has) and this is their first time ever owning chickens. Ever. They refuse to listen to advice from people who have owned chickens for longer, and they refuse to listen to anything that does not go along with what they think.
