Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Iluveggers]

I’ve learned so much on this thread, & thoroughly enjoy reading about the chickens at the plots.

 

[RoyalChick]

I believe that it is your charming, magnetic personality.

Of course that goes without saying!

 

[RoyalChick]

Tax. Chickens tilling the soil. Thank you chickens.

 

[Perris]

I'm behind on my taxes: will this do? X-rated veg in the box this week

 

[saysfaa]

...why this thread? ... range of keeping conditions, nationalities, and views ...and offset some of the more dogmatic views on feed and keeping conditions.

This is why I come. ... It is good to consider other perspectives and to recheck assumptions.

Tax is the closest to chickens I have in the last few weeks (I'm off doing a round of visiting friends and family). I realize I will probably need to file an amended tax return later.

 

[BDutch]

A couple vendors at farmers market bring in fruits from over 700 miles away. Although It's items that would be grown here, just 2 or 3 months early.

We get a lot of vegetables from Spain jn winter. About 2000 km.
But also from Maric, Peru, South Africa and other places all over the world. Many by boat but also by plain.

 

[becstalls]

That chicken in the black and white picture looks a bit of a handfull. Is that one of those extremely dangerous cockerels I keep reading about on BYC?

It was downright predatory

I would like to ask you a question if I may without causing any offense, why this thread?

No offense taken to the question. I first came upon this thread because I was poking around in the stories forum, and this thread happened to be at the top of the list. I’d seen the terms “battery hen” or “ex-battery hen” used in other places on BYC, and being in the US, it isn’t a term I hear used. I had figured it referred to “rescued” chickens from commercial poultry operations. I wanted to an answer to my suspicion, and I remembered that I had really enjoyed your article about the egg song, so I clicked on the thread.

I kept reading because you have a lot of valuable experience and knowledge, and being able to read through your trouble-shooting the problems with such troubled hens, is practically a manual for animal husbandry. Plus I just want to see what happens with these hens. The dramatic improvement they have made is wonderful.

The last reason is that, once upon a time, I was a wildlife biologist. I studied the impact of land management practices on songbirds. Before I had kids, I worked for a short while for a conservancy group that did a lot of work with local farmers helping them get grant money to learn and implement best management practices. These practices were solely concerned with the agricultural impact on the local ecosystems, but I did get to make a lot of observations on the differences in different farming attitudes and approaches. So your behavioral observations of semi-feral chickens, and introducing that knowledge into a microcosm of agriculture on the allotment is right up my alley.

Plus, you must admit that the whole situation between you and the allotment holders is a chicken-y soap opera.

 

[becstalls]

I can't help wondering why people come back month in month out to read about the not so nice side of chicken keeping.

Also, the tax system makes this one of the best threads for looking at chicken pictures.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

I would like to ask you a question if I may without causing any offense, why this thread? I've been surprised at the number of views this thread gets. Chatting is discouraged, unless it's about chickens of course. The chickens that feature in the thread are only special in their mistreatment. It's not like they are rare heritage breeds.
I turn up daily and post what is essentially a diary.

We do have really great regular contributors with a wide range of keeping conditions, nationalities, and views and I keep the thread running in part to offset some of the more dogmatic views on feed and keeping conditions.

None of the above makes you any less welcome here but I can't help wondering why people come back month in month out to read about the not so nice side of chicken keeping.

I feel that most of us are wanting to learn what we can to help us be better with our chickens.

I have gained so much information that can be applied to my chickens.

Thank yoy.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Because you give us hope for these birds.

AMEN!!!