Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[janiedoe]

Good morning X Batts house is sick covid I am in the best shape only heaven know why ?

Sorry to hear that. I hope you all are feeling better very soon.

 

[RoyalChick]

Good morning X Batts house is sick covid I am in the best shape only heaven know why ?

Hope everyone recovers fast.

 

[Perris]

Good morning X Batts house is sick covid I am in the best shape only heaven know why ?

sorry to read this for your house Penny, but very glad to read you're in great shape. Good luck looking after the others .

 

[MaryJanet]

Now think of being a day old or hour old chick and getting boxed and sent to Hawaii from Texas... they come in beat but get revived, just as we would a sick chick, but yeah, lots of stress

Yes, and compare that to the time one of my byc friends ordered chicks that got lost in the mail and arrived unrevivable.

 

[MaryJanet]

And I am going to defend breeders/shipping a little. It is the consumer who dictates this and they do do a service. We the people do buy this way and until small breeders supply a better product for less people will choose a $5 vaccinated chick over a questionable chick from a breeder unless you are lucky enough to live next to a NPIP breeder you risk bringing things into your flock.
It is in the best interest of these large breeders for their chicks to arrive alive and well and I think that they mostly do an outstanding job of packing and coordinating their shipping as they have far many more successes. Some losses are exceptable. I say this with the opinion of someone who lives on a isolated island chain where (unfortunately) we are heavily reliant on shipping.

Sometimes the "give people what they want" line os reasoning leads to some profoundly unethical outcomes.

 

[Shadrach]

I incubate no more than 6 eggs at a time, and give them to a broody. No broody, no hatch.
I did have a new broody quit during her last week. It was a stormy night, I think she just got scared. 1 out of her 3 eggs hatched. The other two were clear.
I put the chick in with some bantam chicks that were a week or two old. He is doing great, and is as happy, as a chick without a mom can be.
The bantams were rescued from the feed store, where some had died of pasty butt. Rescuing cost me 3.79 each. They all are still living but one. Last year I bought 8 chicks under the same circumstances. One died, one is a loveable runt, and the rest thrived, as much as a chick without a mother can.
I kind of wish they would ban feed store chicks, or else make employee education mandatory.
I'd much rather have my hens raise the chicks.
I lost my older rooster a few days ago. His hatch mama made the awfullest racket when he died. He was her first chick, and they were very close. I honestly believe she, and some of my other hens are morning his loss. He was a great rooster.

I've seen hens and roosters mourning the loss of a tribe member. They don't all seem put out. I guess some are more empathetic than others.

 

[Shadrach]

I saw a lot of things that would in many keeping conditions go unnoticed. Individually the things one sees may not seem that special. After broody after broody one gets to form a view of what's going on; not always right but better informed than people who have never watched a broody hatching from laying the first egg to leaving to rejoin their tribe with her chicks.

You've reminded me of some pictures I should post.

 

[janiedoe]

I've seen hens and roosters mourning the loss of a tribe member. They don't all seem put out. I guess some are more empathetic than others.

I suppose they might just miss his protection. I noticed they are all submitting to his oldest son today. In truth, the son is probably the better rooster. He is protective, but never goes out of his way to start a fight. I still miss him though. I might be anthropomorphizing the old girls.

 

[Shadrach]

Do y'all think that there is any significance in early melting? Perhaps an early winter?
Our chickens don't generally molt until mid October, but they started last week.
Our weather has been strange. We had very high temperatures, starting in May, and lasting through July. A two month drought, then a week of floods. Now unseasonably cool (for us) weather. It's not cold, but it is cooler than average here.

I don't. I could be wrong. The more moulting hens I see the less convinced I am that we know how this works. A very often quoted farmers view is when hens moult they stop laying eggs. It's just not true. There is no biological link between egg laying and moulting. Both can be done without the other.
Nature is effected by the weather, that much is obvious. Weather alters our moods so I don't see why it shouldn't alter a chickens behaviour. It would be very difficult to understand how it worked even if enough data was gathered that said they propbably do but we don't know how.

 

[Shadrach]

I'm beginning to believe shipped chicks is an American / Canadian practice. It seems it's not done elsewhere ?

I'm not condoning it in the slightest but there are understandable reasons why some countries use this method. Land size is one. It just isn't a practical proposition for someone in the US to travel to Europe/Africa/Asia and import some chickens. It's not a lot of trouble for someone in Spain to travel to Germany say and pick up live chickens. Most people I've known who have aquired chickens have done it through a breeder or farm, and most visited the supplier on more than one occasion prior to purchase.
I don't know how far I would be prepared to travel to make sure that breeding pair was the pair I wanted. I'm going to be spending more time with them than I do with any person. A considered choice having seen the chickens and often their parents and the conditions they are kept in just seems sensible to me and that's without all the deaths and stress involved in the order by catalogue, dime a dozen approach of the harcheries.