Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!

The temperature is 78 and sunny.

I'm late getting on today.

I had an appointment with my pain physician.

Have a great day!

 

[Pippin quail]

That's too cold for me, never mind chickens!

Oh it's too cold for me too! If all our family didn't live so close I would try to move somewhere much warmer!

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

Thank you. I have written a book. I just haven't published it yet. Initiallly I intended to tack a bit about Ex Battery hens and rescue chickens on the end but I already have so much to say on the subject perhaps another book is on the horizon.
I better pay a bit of tax for that.
A rather lovely young cockerel called Tarn, son of Ruffles. Unfortunately a weasel got him when he strayed to far from his tribe.
View attachment 2942091

I agree that a second book would be ideal. It’s a drastic change in the subject material.
The knowledge you have gained really should be shared!

 

[RoyalChick]

That is a very good point especially when it comes to me. One of the reasons I wanted to care for Ex Battery chickens is to have some idea if returning them to "proper" chicken state was feasible. It may not be, in which some guide on how to maximise their quality of life in circumstances I consider to be less than ideal but in which many chickens live may be of benefit.
Some who read this thread will already know that Shadrach is a bit of an idealist who isn't really interested in the what the human wants from the chicken and is prmarily interested in the chicken itself. I would agree my view is far from realistic; it's something I'm very aware of.
It might seem more productive and reasonable for me to take more into account the wants of the human side of the equation but currrently my view is there are enough people taking this position already and me being on the extreme pro chicken side is unlikely to upset the status quo and it's what I'm really interested in.
I do intend to put together an Ex Battery hen keeping guide. From what I've seen to date there is the animal rights type view which I don't support for many reasons and the chicken exploitation side at the other extreme which I don't support either.

Shad have you based on your experience so far concluded that rescuing ex-batts is a good, kind, humane, right (pick your word), thing to do?
From some of your earlier posts I got the impression that at least in your mind the jury was still out on that point.

 

[Shadrach]

Shad have you based on your experience so far concluded that rescuing ex-batts is a good, kind, humane, right (pick your word), thing to do?
From some of your earlier posts I got the impression that at least in your mind the jury was still out on that point.

Well, it's complicated and I haven't made my mind up yet.

 

[RoyalChick]

Well, it's complicated and I haven't made my mind up yet.

That makes sense. It is complicated for sure.

 

[Shadrach]

That makes sense. It is complicated for sure.

I have deep reservations about some of the organisations involved in these hen rescue missions.
There is a lot of stuff written in pressure articles regarding better conditions for battery hens and allowing these creatures to engage in their natural activities.
It seems to me that many of these oraganisations have very little knowledge of what a chickens natural activities are. Pear Tree Farm for example publish a mass of emotive stuff that places a rescued chicken firmly in the cute cuddly pet bracket. It's is a bit like saying to the chicken we know we've tortured you and your species and now we are going to make you our pets so we can feel better about ourselves and less guilty about what we've done to your species.
I've read a lot of the publicity published by such organisations now and my first thoughts are, if they are so concerened about the treatment of the chicken then they could at least have bothered to learn something about them, particulalry what their natural behaviour is and then made a serious effort that these creatures didn't move from one set of appauling conditions to another.
C has said "it's better than what they had" when I've mentioned my concerns about the conditions at the allotment. C has in not quite the same breath mentioned that they still lay eggs through the winter and they got the Ex Battery hens because they were cheap.
I don't think C is exceptional in this view. I think many people who take these hens want their eggs essentially and believe that taking Ex Battery hens in makes them less of an evil than they may otherwise consider themselves.
I wonder what the take up would be if none of these hens laid another egg once they had been "rescued" from the batteries.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

You're probably right.

That's always been part of why I've thought that Ex Bats might not be too bad for me, since I rarely eat eggs besides for baking. If my birds only laid once a week or less, big whoop. I'd probably get some other breeds to even it out a bit, but I don't need birds bred to lay constantly. Even the hybrids, we originally got the black and red stars because they were sexable, so we knew we wouldn't get a male, and then I got my calico princess for the same reason years later. I don't need all those eggs she lays, but she was guaranteed a female and I needed more females to balance things out

 

[Shadrach]

You're probably right.

That's always been part of why I've thought that Ex Bats might not be too bad for me, since I rarely eat eggs besides for baking. If my birds only laid once a week or less, big whoop. I'd probably get some other breeds to even it out a bit, but I don't need birds bred to lay constantly. Even the hybrids, we originally got the black and red stars because they were sexable, so we knew we wouldn't get a male, and then I got my calico princess for the same reason years later. I don't need all those eggs she lays, but she was guaranteed a female and I needed more females to balance things out

I take it you can't keep males then?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I take it you can't keep males then?

No, I can. Have over 2 dozen currently and another 6 to come this spring I'm keeping.

For our first birds (the stars), we didn't want a rooster since we were under the common fear that they would all be evil males.

And then st run bit me in the butt a few years ago so I got a calico princess and 2 sexed spitzhaubens to add more females on the off chance I kept both males from the st run batch (that didn't happen though)