Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

It is, they are, a drop in the ocean. All those little drops are what makes the ocean.
Getting a few hens of ones own that are not production hens and pretenting one is waging a war against the large commercial concerns doesn't have any impact on the commercial producers. It just makes the person who bought the hens feel better.


In general I agree with this but not because of the financial cost. A life is a unit thing. One unit is worth exactly the same as the next. An elephant doesn't have more life than a chicken, or a human.
If one is going to take the view you've described then logic dictates that one would apply this to humans as well. It's not a view I would take just because it happens to be an Ex Battery hen and therefore worthless.

Those who do spend large amounts of money to save their chickens lives I have a great deal of respect for. I don't have that sort of money and I'm limited to what's affordable and practicable in the circumstances I have.
As I mentioned at the start of this thread, I will house and care for these rescues and Ex Battery hens as best I can and that will include treating those illnesses and pathogen/pest problems to the best of my ability. If I could find a vet like Gloria I had in Catalonia I would take the chicken there in a heartbeat. I can't here. I can't even find a vet locally that I have the slightest confidence in. It seems from what I've found so far I know more than the vets I've spoken to but I don't have the equpment and drugs.

I hope you understand that I love it that you and other people care so much for these rescues.
Maybe my view on vets is rather strange because I had a few traumatising experiences as a child with vets. Because of it , it’s hard for me to trust vets (in general).
I have been reading about vets that are great with BY chickens. I don’t know any. On the other hand, I have been reading a lot of /threads on another forum, were a person with a sick chicken gets prescribed antibiotics while the vet is not sure what the problem is. This is something I will not encourage. Because it’s not good for (human) health care in general.

I do respect repect people who try to give the max. life for their chickens too , but find it hard to respect farmers who end the life of 1000s chickens every month because its economical sane to do so.
I do respect people that refuse to eat chickens and eggs from factory farming. IMO a chicken life in factory farming should have the same value as a chicken life in somebody’s backyard.

Tax for having an awkward opinion on vets and factory farming.

 

[Shadrach]

Another lovely day. 21C for a while! Just about right for me. What's more, no rugrats at the allotments although there were two or three full sized for a while.

The view from my kitchen window at the flat. There are usually pigeons or crows in the tree.

My daughter and her husband have bought a van. We went to a local hardware store to get the rest of the wood for the extension gate and the shade shelter plus a few other items they needed. Wonderfull not having to get things to the allotments bit by bit on the bus.
3.5 hours today. Everybody got out for a while, then one disappeared. Who isn't in the pictures? Yup, Fret is sitting. I just knew she was winding up to it. She's got 4 eggs. Whether they are fertile remains to be seen but she's sitting and was sitting when I closed them up for the night.

Henry having a bath. I've probably lost a spinach plant. Take a look at how fine the soild is after he had scraped it out of the hollow he dug. Carbon spent quite a while getting him looking presentable. When I picked him up to put him on the ramp to the coop tonight his feathers felt noticably softer.

This is my plot. I've got the larger section one side of the fruit bushes planted.

This is the other side. The plot stops where you can see the grass has been cut in one of the pictures.
I was going to leave tackling this section until winter but I'm already partway into it on one side so I'll see if I can at least get the secrion for herbs dug out.

 

[Shadrach]

I hope you understand that I love it that you and other people care so much for these rescues.
Maybe my view on vets is rather strange because I had a few traumatising experiences as a child with vets. Because of it , it’s hard for me to trust vets (in general).
I have been reading about vets that are great with BY chickens. I don’t know any. On the other hand, I have been reading a lot of /threads on another forum, were a person with a sick chicken gets prescribed antibiotics while the vet is not sure what the problem is. This is something I will not encourage. Because it’s not good for (human) health care in general.

I do respect repect people who try to give the max. life for their chickens too , but find it hard to respect farmers who end the life of 1000s chickens every month because its economical sane to do so.
I do respect people that refuse to eat chickens and eggs from factory farming. IMO a chicken life in factory farming should have the same value as a chicken life in somebody’s backyard.

Tax for having an awkward opinion on vets and factory farming. View attachment 3514022

What I like about this thread is the diversity of opinions. Being a thread centered around Ex Battery and rescue hens I expect lots of pro save them views. You may remember at the start of the thread that I wasn't at all sure people should be saving them. I've learned a bit since then. My views have changed as one might expect with such a high level of exposure to them.
What I still have is deep misgivings about the organisations that do the initial rescue and those have got deeper as the time passed and my knowledge of such organisations improved.

 

[Molpet]

hard to respect farmers who end the life of 1000s chickens every month because its economical sane to do so.

Most big companies do things because of economics , that aren't good for any other reason.

 

[MaryJanet]

I'm just going to chime in with a few vet stories. I'm relatively new to keeping chickens and haven't spent 5+ years learning to become a vet or even 2 years learning to become a vet nurse, so I have no veterinary skills and no veterinary knowledge. However, I have a bachelor's, a masters, and a phd, so I know how much learning is involved. Therefore, the vet plays an important role in keeping the flock healthy.

The first hen who needed vet support had coccidiosis, she needed no antibiotics and a relatively easy fix. She was killed in a fox raid. She was an ISA Brown with a clipped beak who came to live at my house when she was a pullet.

The one after that had eyp. She had antibiotics, and was eventually euthanised. She was a stray found wandering the streets, I guessed she was an ISA Brown and her beak was clipped too.

The one after that had hepatic lipidosis from too many treats which took some time and surgery to diagnose. I don't recall her ever having a course of antibiotics, but I'd have to check the thread to be sure. Because of this, the whole flock are on a prescribed diet. She continues to thrive. She's a cross-breed.

Then there's the one with a chronic bacterial infection. Because of her, the whole flock has lincospectin in the water every now and then, and she has a course of clavulox injections every now and then. She's a Barnevelder.

(An important point is that we live in South Australia where the use of antibiotics by vets is regulated. Different types of antibiotic are controlled at different levels. Lincospectin has no egg withholding period, clavulox does. So the risk of harm to humans is controlled by the regulators decisions and the prescription of clavulox goes into the regulators register. Sometimes vets have to explain why they prescribed it.)

After that was a big Australorp with a slow crop. By now the vet knew there was a bacterial problem within the flock, so his first diagnosis was bacteria. She had a course of clavulox, while worsening. In the end, images and a surgery revealed a hernia which had accumulated a protective fat lump which had obstructed the gut. She continues to thrive.

The one with the chronic bacterial problem continued and continues to struggle but her quality of life is not yet so bad that I'd consider euthanasia. But I imagine that's how she will end up.

Then there was a little Dorking pullet who didn't thrive. He taught me how to crop feed her, which I did 4 times daily over Christmas and New year's while they were closed for holidays. I failed her somehow (I have my suspicions) and she was euthanised on January 2.

Most recently of all is an ISA Brown with a case of eyp, with a full beak. She has just completed a course of lincospectin followed by a 12 day course of clavulox injections. The whole flock are now on probiotics in the water and the evening mash. She has a follow-up Wednesday evening.

I don't do injections, so it's a 40 minute drive to reach the vet and 40 minutes back again for each consult and each injection.

He has an avian veterinary qualification, so does the young vet who works there.

Every now and then the treatments and consults are free. I don't know why, it's just something he does.

It's a tough job. I deeply appreciate his time and expertise. If it weren't for Dr Mark, the flock would be in quite poor health.

4 hens have never needed veterinary intervention.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to show the diversity of chicken health problems Dr Mark has helped us with and the one time he correctly prescribed antibiotics given the weight of evidence, when it wasn't what the hen needed.

From L to R: never had a health problem, chronic bacterial infection, hernia, hepatic lipidosis.

Top hen has eyp, bottom hen has never had a health problem.

These two have never had a health problem but their friend the Dorking didn't make it.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I hope you understand that I love it that you and other people care so much for these rescues.
Maybe my view on vets is rather strange because I had a few traumatising experiences as a child with vets. Because of it , it’s hard for me to trust vets (in general).
I have been reading about vets that are great with BY chickens. I don’t know any. On the other hand, I have been reading a lot of /threads on another forum, were a person with a sick chicken gets prescribed antibiotics while the vet is not sure what the problem is. This is something I will not encourage. Because it’s not good for (human) health care in general.

I do respect repect people who try to give the max. life for their chickens too , but find it hard to respect farmers who end the life of 1000s chickens every month because its economical sane to do so.
I do respect people that refuse to eat chickens and eggs from factory farming. IMO a chicken life in factory farming should have the same value as a chicken life in somebody’s backyard.

Tax for having an awkward opinion on vets and factory farming. View attachment 3514022

There's no such thing as an awkward opinion. It seems like everyone here is quite mature about people having different feelings about certain issues. I personally enjoy being challenged to think about or articulate why I feel one way or another. And that doesn't happen in an echo chamber.

Adorable chicks.

 

[Perris]

I haven't paid tax in a while, so here's one of the birthday boy - 4 today! - in a tender moment with his mum this morning

If you are wondering what they're up to, she was cleaning behind his ears, and everywhere else under the hackle that he couldn't reach to preen for himself.

 

[MaryJanet]

I haven't paid tax in a while, so here's one of the birthday boy - 4 today! - in a tender moment with his mum this morning
View attachment 3514484
If you are wondering what they're up to, she was cleaning behind his ears, and everywhere else under the hackle that he couldn't reach to preen for himself.

Such a special moment.

It looks like his spurs are quite short in that photo. Do you keep them short or did they never grow?

 

[Perris]

Such a special moment.

It looks like his spurs are quite short in that photo. Do you keep them short or did they never grow?

they're entirely natural. None of my roos have problematic spurs (thankfully), so I've never had to do anything to any of them.

 

[MaryJanet]

they're entirely natural. None of my roos have problematic spurs (thankfully), so I've never had to do anything to any of them.

Mary the Australorp hen has longer spurs than he does.