Old Fashioned, Common Sense Chicken Keeping.

[aart]

Well, since we’ve gone from discussing chicken raising methods to ...... whatever this is now, time to moser on along.

@Blooie
Like no other thread has ever gone off topic or contained completely useless comments.

 

[Susan Dye]

I do; on a learning curve with chicks since Aug 10
Yesterday's lesson was 'don't give up looking if one's gone missing': it was apparent one was missing after someone had been round with a strimmer and mower in the area where the broody and her chicks had been having their foraging lesson. I guessed it was either annihilated by the strimmer or panicked into running somewhere other than where mum was, so looked round the whole area, finding nothing. After a while I did another circuit (their usual roosting time was approaching, broody was by the coop and apparently was focused entirely on the present not the absent) and heard a repeated loud single call (not a regular chick cheep), but whenever I got close to where it seemed to be coming from, it stopped. When it started again I finally caught sight of it on the branch of a cedar about my chest height - I'd been looking at ground level since they're only 3 weeks old - but it clearly didn't see me as a rescuer . I grabbed a bag of food and tried to get the broody come get it but she was staying near the coop . So I lured the rest of the flock with food until they arrived at the cedar; the pullet at the bottom of the pecking order saw her opportunity of course but the cockerel stepped in to protect the chick.
It took three attempts to get the chick back to the coop; on the first it dived into a hedge about half way there and then ran back towards the cedar ; on the second it got within sight of the coop and then ran away again; it didn't help that the broody was invisible in the bushes nearby, so I went and drove her out into the open - she finally started co-operating with the rescue ; and on the third attempt the lost chick followed one of the other hens to a spot in sight of the coop and mum. That hen did seem to be consciously helping, because the rest of the flock stayed by the cedar while she headed home with the chick in tow. A bit more calling and chick and mum were reunited, just in time for bed .
Such are the highs and lows of free-ranging the old fashioned way.

 

[bobbi-j]

I’ve read every post in this thread. I’ve contributed a few of my own. It’s had a lot of responses and and lot of readers. Despite all this I have no idea what the old fashioned way was, or why the new way, if there is one, is any worse.

There have been a few posts where one got the impression that keeping chickens as pets is the new fashion that some find ridiculous. We got some of our modern breeds from people who did exactly that. Some of the first breeders were nobility and well to do estate owners who wanted exotic fowl wandering around their garden and weren’t the slightest bit interested in egg production or keeping these fowl for meat.

What about other countries? I’ve travelled a bit and some of the places I’ve been their chickens are highly valued because they produce eggs. Some villages even have a young boy, or girl, whose job is to look after the chickens. A villager with 5 or 6 chickens is considered a wealthy person. Do they tend a sick chicken, oh yes, a dead chicken might feed a few at a festival but the eggs are far more important. No, they don’t take them to a vet because there aren’t any vets there. However, some villages in Pakistan, India, Thailand have a chicken ‘expert’ who tends the sick and gets paid in eggs.

How far back are we talking about when we say ‘old fashioned?

When I was a boy I spent most of my life on a farm. Chicken keeping there was a massive shed packed with tiny cages with chickens in that got fed by conveyor belt and had their eggs removed by by another. For me that’s old fashioned. Do we want to return to that?

Chicken keeping changed in the USA post war. People were encouraged to keep a few chickens in their back yards. This ‘tradition’ is still going on but it’s hardly out of necessity and hardly old fashioned.

The desire for some people to know the provenance of their eggs and meat is another factor; I certainly wouldn’t call that old fashioned, its more of a trend in the UK for foody types. How much difference actually is there between the ‘goodness’ of a chicken and its eggs kept in a yard run and fed on layers pellets compared to a commercially kept chicken kept to modern ‘free range’ standards fed on layers pellets, which you can buy most places now?
Of course, if it’s the welfare of the chicken that concerns you then you can hardly condemn people who doctor their chickens.

For many here it’s a hobby; hardly old fashioned ,and frankly not an awful lot of common sense involved when you consider the cost of chicken keeping.
There are a few who seem to think the get a few chickens and let them fend for themselves is old fashioned and hardcore. Maybe that’s possible in areas of the USA but here for example the predation rate would be unacceptably high. This site and many others would call that chicken neglect.

What about the difference between those who would and wouldn’t medicate and seek veterinary treatment for their chickens. If your chicken had value then it might seem economical and common sense. You’re then left with how you assess that value. For some it’s going to be lots of things apart from flat replacement value; not sure if there’s anything modern in that either.

Maybe it’s the ‘dime a dozen’ attitude to chickens that’s the problem. We’ve bred so many now that they’re worthless. I wouldn’t call that old fashioned. I would call it unfortunate for the chicken. ‘Modern’ thinking in the industrialised world for want of a better description is maybe we shouldn’t be breeding these human intervention dependant fowl, maybe the last 70 years or so of factory farming these creatures wasn’t the best way forward. Maybe we should take a really old fashioned view and have a bit more respect for nature and a little less arrogance ourselves. I like the really old fashioned view.

Common sense is a phrase in the title, what exactly is that? It’s going to mean different things to different people I think and in my experience its vastly over rated.
I could go on for quite a while.

So, can someone define exactly what the old fashioned common sense chicken keeping method is?

Then perhaps some could state exactly what it is they object to about what they perceive as the modern chicken keeping method?

Shadrach, you are welcome to interpret the title of this thread any way you want, and respond accordingly. I have enjoyed reading many of your posts, and read Mel's story as well. As I told you the other day, I don't mind if a thread gets derailed as long as it doesn't turn into bickering and nit-picking. Those who choose to be offended by the wording in the title are free to respond, or move on if they feel the need to pick it apart.

I said in my first post what I defined as "old fashioned". If you disagree with my methods of chicken keeping, that's fine. We all have different situations and need to do what works for us. If you disagree with how I presented my question, that's fine too. Take it as you will. I'm not going to get dragged into an argument over my wording.

 

[Shadrach]

Shadrach, you are welcome to interpret the title of this thread any way you want, and respond accordingly. I have enjoyed reading many of your posts, and read Mel's story as well. As I told you the other day, I don't mind if a thread gets derailed as long as it doesn't turn into bickering and nit-picking. Those who choose to be offended by the wording in the title are free to respond, or move on if they feel the need to pick it apart.

I said in my first post what I defined as "old fashioned". If you disagree with my methods of chicken keeping, that's fine. We all have different situations and need to do what works for us. If you disagree with how I presented my question, that's fine too. Take it as you will. I'm not going to get dragged into an argument over my wording.

't

It seems I've upset some people. I wouldn't mind if that was my intention but it wasn't.
I have absolutely no problem with how you keep your chickens, I don't look after mine much differently. I don't have any problem with your title or your subsequent definition either, or with you.
If my last couple of post have read badly........I'll try to be more careful in the future.
One or two responses got my back up. I probably should have ignored them.
So, no offense meant. I to enjoy reading your posts. Can we just put it down to a bad day and I'll leave you to it?

 

[bobbi-j]

't

It seems I've upset some people. I wouldn't mind if that was my intention but it wasn't.
I have absolutely no problem with how you keep your chickens, I don't look after mine much differently. I don't have any problem with your title or your subsequent definition either, or with you.
If my last couple of post have read badly........I'll try to be more careful in the future.
One or two responses got my back up. I probably should have ignored them.
So, no offense meant. I to enjoy reading your posts. Can we just put it down to a bad day and I'll leave you to it?

None taken.

Conversing by keyboard is hard since we can't read the tone of voice. If I'm having an off day, I'll read something entirely differently that I would if I were having a good day.

 

[angela0408]

I’m thinking this is the right thread of members to ask this question since you all seem to be very practical. I’ve taken up incubating and put any broody hen to work hatching chicks since they are not laying. They may as we’ll be doing something right? So my question is, I have 2 Dutch bantam roosters (my guilty pleasure), a silkie rooster, a bantam barred rock hen and commercial working layers. I’m hatching out the bantams, silkie/black star cross chicks seeing how much silkie I can get out of them.

Anyways, my hard nosed question is, what do you do with the male chicks. Since I’m making a sexlink with the bantams I can tell at hatch. Both silkies and bantams will not be very good eating and not worth the processing time. Do you cull at birth or wait til they are grown up. If so, best/kindest method of culling.

I hope I don’t offend anyone and sorry for the lengthy post.

 

[bobbi-j]

I’m thinking this is the right thread of members to ask this question since you all seem to be very practical. I’ve taken up incubating and put any broody hen to work hatching chicks since they are not laying. They may as we’ll be doing something right? So my question is, I have 2 Dutch bantam roosters (my guilty pleasure), a silkie rooster, a bantam barred rock hen and commercial working layers. I’m hatching out the bantams, silkie/black star cross chicks seeing how much silkie I can get out of them.

Anyways, my hard nosed question is, what do you do with the male chicks. Since I’m making a sexlink with the bantams I can tell at hatch. Both silkies and bantams will not be very good eating and not worth the processing time. Do you cull at birth or wait til they are grown up. If so, best/kindest method of culling.

I hope I don’t offend anyone and sorry for the lengthy post.

I hope for cockerels when I hatch out, so I have something to put in the freezer, but I grow bigger chickens than you do. It’s up to you when you decide to cull them. If you want to do it when they hatch, I’d say a sharp pair of kitchen shears would be the most humane way. Or, you could grow them out, process them and use the carcasses to make awesome bone broth. Your flock, your call.

 

[aart]

Both silkies and bantams will not be very good eating and not worth the processing time.

Any chicken can be eaten for the meat and/or stock or soup.
There is actually a market for silkie meat within some Asian cultures.
People eat quail, so a small carcass does not preclude size from meat harvesting.

That said, we know what happens to male hatchery chicks, and I've found out that there is a market for frozen rodents and chicks in the raptor and snake communities.

 

[danceswithronin]

I like to think I'm a delightful eclectic mix of animal husbandry habits.

I love dogs, but I would shoot a stray dog in a heartbeat if it went after my livestock. I'm protective of my chickens against predators, but I won't trap natural predators like possums or coons for doing what they have to do to survive. I will cull a deformed chick or chronically ill chicken with no remorse if I think euthanasia is going to be the ultimate result anyway, but I'll also spend several hundred bucks at a vet if I think the situation calls for it and a chicken can be saved.

I like hand-raising and taming every chick I get, but I also don't feel bad when I resell them to someone else.

My family was shocked when I said I'd be willing to cull any rooster that came out of my straight run chicks if I couldn't rehome it quickly enough, but the way I feel about it, it's kind of hypocritical to be squeamish about killing an animal and then turn around and support the factory farming system by eating factory-farmed meat from the grocery store, which (if you've ever watched the documentary Earthlings) is basically hell on earth for animals.

I don't mind killing my animals myself if I have to, because that means I know it was done humanely. Luckily I haven't been put in that situation yet. I'd raise meat chickens if I could but you need too many for it to be efficient in a suburban environment, and besides that they stink compared to layer flocks.

 

[angela0408]

Any chicken can be eaten for the meat and/or stock or soup.
There is actually a market for silkie meat within some Asian cultures.
People eat quail, so a small carcass does not preclude size from meat harvesting.

That said, we know what happens to male hatchery chicks, and I've found out that there is a market for frozen rodents and chicks in the raptor and snake communities.

Oh, now that’s a good thought. I hate to be wasteful, and I’d rather see things being put to use. For the silkie Roos, at what age would you process them do you think