Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Iluveggers]

I started keeping chickens as part of a larger effort to remove myself from the industrial food chain. It’s been slow changes, but I can source almost all of my meat from local farmers, and a fair amount of my produce is either grown by me or bought locally. I eat more seasonally because I’m buying what’s available, and that includes eating fewer eggs in the winter. It’s taken some adjustment, but not in a bad way. I think not having something for a while makes you appreciate it all the more when you have it again.

Great post! Ditto here.


My tax:

 

[RoyalChick]

Actually it is me with the Legbar who pecks ankles (Dotty).
Maybe ankle pecking is a breed standard.
I think @micstrachan's Legbar (Flash I think) is better behaved.

I should have added tax. Dotty about to take up nose pecking as a new hobby.

 

[RoyalChick]

The best way to enact change with big industry seems to be to vote with your feet/wallet. One person may not make enough of a difference but when enough start demanding for things to change, then it makes a difference. More people want humane conditions for the animals that produce their food, but the food production industry is very good at finding loopholes and marketing.

“Humanely raised” “cage free” “free range” and small those sorts of labels are practically meaningless but at least it’s sort of a step in the right direction, in that it gets people thinking more about the sorts of conditions those animals are kept in.

I started keeping chickens as part of a larger effort to remove myself from the industrial food chain. It’s been slow changes, but I can source almost all of my meat from local farmers, and a fair amount of my produce is either grown by me or bought locally. I eat more seasonally because I’m buying what’s available, and that includes eating fewer eggs in the winter. It’s taken some adjustment, but not in a bad way. I think not having something for a while makes you appreciate it all the more when you have it again.

While my chickens can’t free range in small tribes because of where I live, I do my best to make sure they have plenty of space in the coop/run and that they get time to forage in the afternoon when there’s forage to be had. Are they living the perfect chicken life? I guess it depends on who you talk to. But it does mean that I’m not buying eggs from stores who are getting those eggs from chickens in far worse conditions than my flock. So I think that’s definitely a step in the right direction to ensure that the animals we watch over are treated the way they deserve. There’s always room for improvement towards the ideal, but that doesn’t mean the improvement is worthless.

You might be interested in this regarding food labels (at least in the US). It underscores the issue and is also practically helpful when you go shopping!
I try to grow my own veg and buy meat from local farmers. It doesn’t solve the problem but it helps. Buying local is increasingly popular where I live and I am lucky to be in and around small family farms.
I worry about slaughterhouse practices but have been unable to find out a lot about that. There is a local slaughterhouse a mile away but they don’t handle poultry.
https://awionline.org/content/consumers-guide-food-labels-and-animal-welfare

 

[DobieLover]

I eat more seasonally because I’m buying what’s available, and that includes eating fewer eggs in the winter.

In anticipation of low to no egg production this winter as my flock is aging, I began water glassing eggs in June. I managed to collect two 5-gallon buckets worth and we've been eating them since October. They are more fragile and watery than a fresh egg but taste the same and perform the same in cooking.
The only thing I cannot do with them is hard boil them. I tried once and it was an unmitigated disaster. So when the girls produce a dozen, I boil those. We've cut way back on hard boiled eggs in our salads but that fine with me.

 

[Shadrach]

Actually it is me with the Legbar who pecks ankles (Dotty).
Maybe ankle pecking is a breed standard.
I think @micstrachan's Legbar (Flash I think) is better behaved.

Ooops, sorry RC. Old age and all that...

 

[Shadrach]

I showed dog professionally for 34 years ... Chickens no way.. Ya know My best friend is our Post mistress. I am giving her a hatch of birds pullets .. The white pullet is going in my main coop.. Never added a single bird ..
I wanted to ask will smudge treat a son better than a cockerel that is not related ? I had a hatch of two one being the barred cockerel.

The theory is yes he should. I had about a 75% to 25% success rate, but when it does go wrong it's a total pita.
https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/28/3/760/3057961

 

[RoyalChick]

In anticipation of low to no egg production this winter as my flock is aging, I began water glassing eggs in June. I managed to collect two 5-gallon buckets worth and we've been eating them since October. They are more fragile and watery than a fresh egg but taste the same and perform the same in cooking.
The only thing I cannot do with them is hard boil them. I tried once and it was an unmitigated disaster. So when the girls produce a dozen, I boil those. We've cut way back on hard boiled eggs in our salads but that fine with me.

I froze a few batches for baking and omelets.

 

[DobieLover]

I froze a few batches for baking and omelets.

I don't have enough freezer space for that.
When egg production is up, we consume about 34 eggs a week between the two of us.

I keep the water glassed egg buckets in the basement. Once a week, I pull out what I'll need for cooking that week using a pasta ladle, which in this household is called an egg ladle. It's also what I use to lower the fresh eggs into the solution. I put them in a glass bowl to carry the upstairs then rinse them off thoroughly with cool water. When they dry, I carton them and put them in the frig.

 

[Iluveggers]

When egg production is up, we consume about 34 eggs a week between the two of us.

That is a LOT of eggs for 2 people to eat! Wow. We probably go through 2 dozen with 3 of us…

 

[RoyalChick]

I don't have enough freezer space for that.
When egg production is up, we consume about 34 eggs a week between the two of us.

I keep the water glassed egg buckets in the basement. Once a week, I pull out what I'll need for cooking that week using a pasta ladle, which in this household is called an egg ladle. It's also what I use to lower the fresh eggs into the solution. I put them in a glass bowl to carry the upstairs then rinse them off thoroughly with cool water. When they dry, I carton them and put them in the frig.

That is a lot of eggs! My consumption at peak is probably a dozen every 10 days. I only froze a dozen and I haven't used them all yet.
But my crazy Roadrunners have decided it is Spring and have started laying.