Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

It's not just the keepers, Shad, it's the idiots who make the rules & know nothing about anything. I would have a rooster ~phoenix for choice~ but not only would my neighbours be unhappy, my council would crucify me. Everyone understands why I brought the cats out with me; no~one understands why I didn't just leave the chickens to be killed but they are are as much my pets & companions as the cats are.

You're right Ribh. But like many things of this nature it is the consumer/keeper that has the ability to put pressure on the bodies that make the rules to make changes to them.
The changes that are slowly coming about in commercial egg production were brough about through activist media pressure which triggered a consumer response. Left to the egg industry and the regulators nothing would change.

 

[Shadrach]

Oh yes, I am quite certain there would be a difference between chickens who free range full time, reproduce naturally and live in tribes, vs. mine who only get about 15 hours a week during the shortest days of the year and about 30 or so hours a week during the summer months. I already know where you stand and you know what my limitations are. But I have no problem with you pointing out what you don’t like about my arrangement if it helps serve your cause.

Dogs weren’t meant to be domesticated, either. Yet they live on our farms protecting our livestock, and live in our homes protecting our families. Mine even sleeps on my bed!

I have to address this.
This is a thread on a chicken site on the internet. None of what I write is a pesonal criticism. I am critical of a particular model of chicken keeping. If the reader sees elements of their chicken keeping arrangements in the content I write that is critical of a particular model then I can't be held responsible for that.
Here on BYC I am one of a very very small minority with relatively extreme views amoung a huge population of supporters of the chicken keeping model I have deep reservations about.
It makes it very difficult if people take my views as a personal criticism for me to write anything in case I upset someone.

 

[Shadrach]

THIS. Mine are companions and pets, too. Sorry about how much that makes you cringe, Shad.

It doesn't make me cringe. As Ribh has pointed out and as should be apparent from my obvious delight when a chicken chooses to sit on my lap.
The difference if there is in one is I don't see any of the chickens I have known as pets, or livestock or anything that is mine.

 

[Shadrach]

I hope it works. Should keep him safe from COVID too.

I think the chicken world is more concerened about bird flu than Covid. I wonder if we could persuade the various governments to pour the same amount of money into combating bird flu as they have Covid. Henry and his hens could be in for a nice little payout and a subsistance cheque to cover their feed bills.

 

[Ribh]

indeed; thankfully there's a drive on now to restore them, or something that works ecologically like them. Apart from what lives in and on them, they have an important role as wildlife highways between woods etc. And the chickens use them for cover in that part of the garden (though prefer to snooze in the mixed shrub borders).

I had heard but if I have remembered correctly it takes 300 years to grow a decent hedgerow so replacing them won't be a quick fix.

 

[Ribh]

Hedgerow tax...Ooops, wrong chicken.​

I meant this chicken. ​

 

[Shadrach]

They had much to gain.

At least acknowledgement is forthcoming.

Um yeah. Mine too.
View attachment 3005577View attachment 3005579

How does Little Big Shot get on with being on a lead?

 

[Shadrach]

My hens strongly disagree with me having brought in a cockerel !

I think it's very much a cultural thing, this dislike of crowing. Here people love roosters crow. There's at least 30 rooster in a village of 100 people. The old timer farmer that gave us the cockerel kept asking us every day if he had started crowing and even offered to give us another one in case he didn't. Which he did in time, of course!

I must admit if he hadn't dropped Théo on us, we wouldn't have taken a rooster, even though we have enough space. We were hesitant because of all the stories of mean roosters, either with their hens or the humans, and I was scared of having to eventually need to cull a rooster because of his temperament.

I agree. It is a cultural thing. It's something I've pointed out in the past. Also, as you point out the constant bad publicity due to trying to prise a rooster into an unsuitable keeping arrangement just exacerbates the problem.
Essentially I see the problem as this. Most backyard chicken keepers keep chickens for eggs. You don't need roosters for eggs and that is as far as many people think.
In Catalonia where free range chickens are more of the norm than the exception most have at least one rooster.
I tried at one point to get some of the chicken keepers I had got to know a little to join BYC. A few looked and despite having adequate language skills to participate the comment I got was "site is named wrong. It should be called backyard hens."
This didn't just refer to the chickens as I understood it. The vast majority of the Catalan chicken keepers were men.

 

[LaFemmeKatia]

I have to address this.
This is a thread on a chicken site on the internet. None of what I write is a pesonal criticism. I am critical of a particular model of chicken keeping. If the reader sees elements of their chicken keeping arrangements in the content I write that is critical of a particular model then I can't be held responsible for that.
Here on BYC I am one of a very very small minority with relatively extreme views amoung a huge population of supporters of the chicken keeping model I have deep reservations about.
It makes it very difficult if people take my views as a personal criticism for me to write anything in case I upset someone.

I appreciate your educational (and they are) posts on chicken keeping. I don’t take it personal because I happen to keep my chickens in what has become the usual model for modern small flocks. Even though I am limited in what I can do, it is always useful to know what the ideal would be. It is always possible to implement to even a small degree, changes that enhance life for a chicken.
And as for commercial egg production, the more we consumers know, the better the pressure we can put on them to treat chickens better.

 

[Perris]

it takes 300 years to grow a decent hedgerow

I can imagine people saying that but it's nonsense of course
There's lots of good info about them here, esp. the good practice guide for management
https://www.carmarthenshire.gov.wales/home/council-services/planning/biodiversity/hedgerows/