in regards to chickens what has been your biggest loss?

[alldembirds]

I read a lot of posts people put up by members sadly detailing the demise of one(or more) of there favorite feathered friends and I honestly have a hard time relating. One dead bird doesn't make me blink, sadly 1000 dead birds wont surprise me at all. When I hear about a hurt bird or sick bird my first thought is kill it. I just can't relate anymore

I grew up on a commercial chicken farm raising broilers, we had 3 big old houses, when I was about 16 we built two brand new "state of the art" tunnel houses and literally 6.5 weeks after first getting birds in the new houses, literally a day or two before they come and get the birds , we had about 40,000 chickens die two days before thanksgiving( out of about 50,000). there was a computer glitch in the system and the power flashed off than on turning the heaters on and overheating all of those birds in just a couple hours in both of the new houses. We spent two full days the entire family putting dead chickens in tractor buckets than dumping them into two giant trailers that simmons sent down


Anybody else have any stories like this?

Now when I hear about poor "clucky" the cochin I just can't relate, not at all. anybody else feel this..


I see how distraught some people get when an injury / illness makes its way into the flock, I hope some of you backyard chicken keepers can reed that story and understand that everything is not over when a couple of your chickens get hurt or sick, it can and has been much worse

 

[lazy gardener]

Pain and misery is relative. Kind of like the teen ager who lives in the moment, and each event is the absolutely worst it can be, and the world is coming to an end. Yes, you've seen about the worst of it with poultry, both in sheer numbers, economic impact, and the misery of having to clean up after such an event. But, when a reader looses their little fluffy butt chicken, it's a total calamity to them, because in the moment, that may be the worst thing that has happened in their life, or even in their chicken keeping experience. You and I have different expectations for our flocks than the "chickens are pets forever" crowd. Even though I've nurtured my older gals for over 2 years now, I WILL put them in the crock pot when their days are over. And, I will regret it, but appreciate the joy I've had from them. This current generation is far removed from the cycle of life and death, and has a far different perspective. While I don't share the same sense of calamity, I can offer compassion for the pain they are feeling, and hope that they will be able to move on, and maybe be just a bit more in touch with the cycle of life and death.

 

[alldembirds]

Pain and misery is relative.

thats why I decided to post that story, I read post after post about disease and injury and want to yell "just ring its throat" but I know thats not helpful llol. I though if people would read this it would encourage more people to look at the big picture, not dwell on some little incident.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

thats why I decided to post that story, I read post after post about disease and injury and want to yell "just ring its throat" but I know thats not helpful llol. I though if people would read this it would encourage more people to look at the big picture, not dwell on some little incident.

It is totally understandable that you would not relate to the people with small flocks who see each of their chickens as individuals. Of course when chicken farmers run a business and raises thousands of chickens, they don't see each chicken as an individual. When someone only has ten chickens they may get to know them more like pets. With a smaller flock we can actually tell the birds apart and find that they have different temperaments, etc. Then they end up with names. Thus many people with smaller flocks consider the loss of a chicken more like the loss of a pet cat or dog. Although I do consider my chickens to be pets, I have kept chickens and geese long enough to not let myself get too upset when one of them dies.