Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

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The girls were out a good portion (about 4-5 hours) of the day again.
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Perris said:
Shad, I just discovered this https://ediblebristol.org.uk/ what a wonderful idea!

do you know it? Might the girls' eggs go toward it if none of the allotment holders are interested in them?
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Strangely, the allotments are part of this. It just isn't working there. There are a few well organized and productive plots around Bristol. The allotments I go to unfortunately are not amoung their number.
The problem is essentially the keeping of livestock/pets/other creatures, call them what you will. Neglected or badly managed ground will recover, even at the hands of the most ill informed and inept gardener/grower; live creatures wont.
 
While I'm on the subject.
The "getting" of other creatures is probably the greatest mistake most people who have this dream of a smallholding and self sufficiency make. It doesn't seem to matter whether they have farming experience or not in amny cases.
As soon as livestock are introduced the level of commitment and management changes drastically. There are no days off. The needs of the other creatures have to be met and their needs are many; housing, feeding, health care, at the bare minimum. This all costs money and requires a skill set not many people who wish for this dream have.
The problem was much the same in Catalonia; dreaming and reality are worlds apart. Someone has to take care of the livestock 24/7. In the UK it's mostly the middle classes who have never sunk a fence post, built a chicken coop, or a sheep/goat shed/milked a cow or goat who fall for this dream unfortunately. Most that I've come accross want a social life to go with their non manual jobs, take holidays, have the ability to come and go when they please. All that stops when you have other creatures to care for; or at least it should if the creatures are not to be neglected.
Some people do get chickens for example, build a coop and run and then do little more than collect the eggs and provide feed and water.
To make full use of chickens say, they should be able to get on the land you intend to grow on. They'll turn the soil, eat many of the pests and manure the ground. Many people think eggs and no further when it comes to chickens but on the well run small holdings eggs are just a bonus. It's all the other benefits of keeping chickens and all the ways to reduce the cost of keeping them that get overlooked. It's very hard to make just the eggs a profitable concern with chickens. I've read that people do, but I have my doubts that the full cost, including time, health care, and coop and run building and maintainance are taken into consideration.
 
Shadrach said:
Strangely, the allotments are part of this. It just isn't working there. There are a few well organized and productive plots around Bristol. The allotments I go to unfortunately are not amoung their number.
The problem is essentially the keeping of livestock/pets/other creatures, call them what you will. Neglected or badly managed ground will recover, even at the hands of the most ill informed and inept gardener/grower; live creatures wont.
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Could the umbrella organization help you with meeting the poultry's needs? With materials, or labour, or both?

I realize I'm way behind on my taxes; the weather's been so awful I've hardly taken a photo for months! But today is sunny, despite 3rd named storm here in 5 days (!!!), so here's young Phoenix, who I'm sure will challenge Chirk for the throne in due course; he challenged Sven yesterday... fiery Spanish genes there!
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Shadrach said:
While I'm on the subject.
The "getting" of other creatures is probably the greatest mistake most people who have this dream of a smallholding and self sufficiency make. It doesn't seem to matter whether they have farming experience or not in amny cases.
As soon as livestock are introduced the level of commitment and management changes drastically. There are no days off. The needs of the other creatures have to be met and their needs are many; housing, feeding, health care, at the bare minimum. This all costs money and requires a skill set not many people who wish for this dream have.
The problem was much the same in Catalonia; dreaming and reality are worlds apart. Someone has to take care of the livestock 24/7. In the UK it's mostly the middle classes who have never sunk a fence post, built a chicken coop, or a sheep/goat shed/milked a cow or goat who fall for this dream unfortunately. Most that I've come accross want a social life to go with their non manual jobs, take holidays, have the ability to come and go when they please. All that stops when you have other creatures to care for; or at least it should if the creatures are not to be neglected.
Some people do get chickens for example, build a coop and run and then do little more than collect the eggs and provide feed and water.
To make full use of chickens say, they should be able to get on the land you intend to grow on. They'll turn the soil, eat many of the pests and manure the ground. Many people think eggs and no further when it comes to chickens but on the well run small holdings eggs are just a bonus. It's all the other benefits of keeping chickens and all the ways to reduce the cost of keeping them that get overlooked. It's very hard to make just the eggs a profitable concern with chickens. I've read that people do, but I have my doubts that the full cost, including time, health care, and coop and run building and maintainance are taken into consideration.
Click to expand...
This idea of "let's get some chickens (ducks, geese, goats, sheep, rabbits, ect.)!" expanded rapidly in my area with the the start of the pandemic. All of a sudden everyone needed to feel like they lived on a farm. Soon the prime question people asked you once they figured out that you have animals was "how do I take a vacation even though I have chickens and (fill in the blank)?" A couple of months later, the local newspaper ads are full of people trying to get rid of their pandemic animals once they got old enough for the cuteness factor to wear off. Or a favorite of mine is "I got Fluffy to butcher but he's too cute. Free to a good home." The issue has become so prevalent that there is an animal sanctuary being built 10 minutes down the road. The cycle just keeps repeating. Unfortunately I don't think people ever learn.
 

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