How about you just leaving your chickens alone?

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I respect all life and eat no animals personally. My dogs don't wear clothes and my chickens choose what to do with their days, they also wear no clothing.

Joe the OP, was stating that people should just let their chickens be chickens, and to stop micro managing their lives, he also is upset because he lost his dog. So some respect for him and how he feels about his dog needs to be given.

I've had some good conversations with my chickens and enjoy their company and antics. What others want as pets and companionship isn't my business.

I believe nature dictates that predators don't eat other predators, they only kill them, unless they are starving. So for humans to eat another predator is unnatural. That is why most people don't eat dogs.
 
I like all animals. I like some of them on a plate. I am a predator. I happen to eat predators. I consider bobcat one of the best tasting meats there is. Very similar to veal. I have heard that mountain lion is also good, to those who wish to eat it. As someone well versed in biology, I know of no natural law that this violates. Predators eat other predators all the time.

The point is, that it isn't for anyone to decide how someone else makes a pet of, or conversely, consumes their animals. To do so is to succumb to the powers of madness displayed by those who would have none of us keep a pet or eat an animal of any kind.
 
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I was just about to start a thread about this!

Since I let my chickens live a natural 100 percent free range life they are really healthy, reproducing like crazy.. I have a population explosion now!

I have lost no birds for about a year since they live 'wild'. I had about 10 birds and now I have lost count.. but easily over 50... all ages and sexes.

When I kept the birds in the coop.. I had roosters fighting, hens attacking chicks, bad hatch rates, lots of fowl pox and other diseases. It seemed to go from one disease to the next with my flock.. and cost me a lot for medication. I got through so much feed too. The coop was big, well ventilated and dry.. I kept is clean and dusted for mites etc... it was hard work.

I lost many birds to predators when they were in the coop.. The chickens were trapped in the coop and run when a mongoose or dog would break in.. and they were easy to catch and kill with no chance to escape.

I was going to give up keeping them after several months of diseases and predator attacks, 2 costly coop rebuilds and the heartache of nursing sick birds which usually died.

One night I got home late after dark and the coop door had blown shut so the birds could not get inside.

I shone the torch around and spotted them high up in the mango trees.

Ever since that day they live 24 / 7 outside the coop.. and since then I have not had any disease with them.. only one cut its eye.. and that healed with no treatment. None of the roosters (must have about 10 now) are fighting.. the hens are all in perfect feather condition and there are big swarms of different sized chicks running about everywhere.

My feed bill has reduced to next to nothing.. they find most of their own food on my land.. which is a big fruit orchard. I have no coop, feeders or nestboxes to clean out... the chickens drink from the lake.. and I throw feed on the concrete area near the old coop. They nest in their own secret places.. usually under bushes.. sometimes up in the trees in old bird nest.. and even in old flowerpots.

They are really alert to predators.. doing all their natural alarm calls and behaviours.. and I have not lost a single one.. even a tiny chick!

There is plenty of cover for them..dense thorny bushes, log piles, and scrap wood and 'junk'. They have about 100 trees to choose to roost in.. but they always use the same one. The go right up into the top most branches. I am always surprised how very young chickck can scrabble and hop their way up.. I have seen them climbing vertical tree trunks.. grabbing hold of the rough bark with their feet.

Now I have so many of them.. I can afford to loose a few to a snake or mongoose.. and dogs have no chance to catch them now.

I am lucky to live in a hot climate... I would not do this in a place with ice and snow in the winter.

Now I am going to have to decided how to stop them breeding... have to go nest hunting this week!


I loved your post. My 3, now an additional 7 - 3 weeks old offspring, are shut up in the coop at night. Not the chicks they are still in on the enclosed porch. They have always free roamed all day. We have a huge yard with plenty of shrubs & honeysuckle on 3 sides of the fence. I have had them almost 2 years & have never had any health issue. They are beautifully feathered & just shine in the sunlight. They have been nothing but a pleasure. I love to see beautifully bred animals, beautifully conditioned, enjoying life...as mother nature intended.
 
Sure, I'm not vet but I've healed deep flesh wounds all the way down to the muscle, cared for chickens with missing toes, and mended torn combs. I've heard of others doing as much as healing broken bones and fixing slipped achilles tendons. Thing is, it seems most vets don't take in chickens, so we have to be our own vets. Some do, and if your chicken is very precious to you, I see no shame in going to get help with a broken bone or anything else too tricky to take care of on your own.


According to the Oxford dictionary, a pet is "A domestic or tamed animal kept for companionship or pleasure." Many people have tamed their chickens; I once had a rooster that would follow me around the yard. It just takes some love and affection. And these birds definitely give a lot of us pleasure. Who doesn't love watching chicken antics?

A lot of people on here want advice for their livestock, which is an absolutely great thing. I love local farms and buy as much of my produce there as possible. But then there are a lot of us who are on here because we adore our pets and love talking about them to others and want help from others when we notice our birds' eyes aren't clear and alert, their droppings are an abnormal color, or when what we thought was a perfectly healthy bird drops dead, out of concern it may affect the rest of the flock.
 
I agree with you also. Over the years I would not even want to know what my total would be on vet bills. What I think BBQJoe was referring to, or how I read it, was let them be chickens. Stress is the biggest determent to animals, all animals. When you take them from how mother nature intended them to live ....you are stressing them. Mother nature did not intend horses to live in stalls, dogs to live in crates, anything to be in unnatural living conditions. The young especially have to have plenty of feed & exercise. They have to develop & learn. I never had a horse learn or condition anything, except bad habits, from being in a stall. I never had a dog learn anything from being in a crate, etc. If they are not fed at the same times everyday...it stresses them. The point I thought BBQJoe was making & that I whole heartily agree with is to put the least amount of human stress on any animal as possible & you will have the happiest, healthiest animals.
 

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