Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[TheFatBlueCat]

I enjoy that we can discuss how we feel about philosophical discussions like this.
I wish I was skillful and brave enough to process my own cockerels. It's a goal for the future. For now I am content that their life is respected and appreciated.

In New Zealand we do not have hatcheries (except for commercial layer/broiler). Yes, this makes getting certain breeds difficult or impossible, but the breeders maintain the breeds to a high standard. I've been quietly horrified by some of the 'breeds' people claim to have from hatcheries when seeing photos on this site in general.

In my belief system I respect, appreciate and am grateful for all life. And by all life I mean, animal, plant, insect, microscopic and ecosystem. I mean rivers, oceans, forests and grasslands. The way I see things, nature seeks balance, death serves life and life serves death. Life can't be without death. I try to approach all my human impacts on the world with this mindset. I don't always succeed. But a plant is no less worthy of life to me than any other being. That doesn't mean I'm not going to eat the plant. It just means that I respect and honor the place that plant holds in the ecosystem. For example, in my garden I seek balance, if I'm having pest or disease issues, I have ecosystem balance problems, not pest and disease problems.

I look at my flock as a unit, the individuals are entertaining and important, but like a hive of bees or a nest of ants, or a forest, the flock is the whole I seek to maintain in balance.

Nothing that is alive can continue to be alive without the death of other living things to sustain that life. And in turn, when that living thing dies, it serves new life. That doesn't mean I think it's ok to eat things raised in a disrespectful manner, but plants and the soils can be disrespected too. Often, eating meat raised with honor and respect is less impactful on other life than eating vegetables or grains.

Thanks for making such a cool thread where we can discuss these issues in a calm and respectful way @Shadrach

 

[pennyJo1960]

Morning or afternoon X Batt's I have to vent my main trigger was tripped.
Another thread of folks I respect took a dog they had to pound because it killed a chicken or chickens.
Would they do this to unruly Children?
I have no respect to the person. I am pretty livid about this.
Tax

 

[GregnLety]

That's sad to hear as most dogs can be rehabilitated.

Morning or afternoon X Batt's I have to vent my main trigger was tripped.
Another thread of folks I respect took a dog they had to pound because it killed a chicken or chickens.
Would they do this to unruly Children?
I have no respect to the person. I am pretty livid about this.
TaxView attachment 3222075

I have 2 that have killed chickens but now they don't pay them no mind.

 

[Aunt Angus]

Morning or afternoon X Batt's I have to vent my main trigger was tripped.
Another thread of folks I respect took a dog they had to pound because it killed a chicken or chickens.
Would they do this to unruly Children?
I have no respect to the person. I am pretty livid about this.
TaxView attachment 3222075

I know the person to whom you are referring. She is devastated all the way around. She did it primarily to protect the rest of her livestock. While I disagree with her decision, it was not made lightly or out of malice. I feel similarly about roosters who are killed to be eaten or because they are "unneeded", but I do not judge. I hated seeing dogs for sale for meat in Asia when I was there, but I did not judge. I felt the same when I saw farmed horse meat in some parts of Europe. Folks shoot dogs pretty frequently when they kill livestock. I hate the decision. Not the person.

 

[Shadrach]

I feel the same both for the cockerel and the values, though mine aren't religious, and I don't think I'm doing very well .

Gaston crowed for the first time this morning and I don't want him to become anybody's supper. I fully respect the choice of turning them into nourishment but I'm not able to do it.

That was an awful lot of effort for a bit of a squeak!

 

[Shadrach]

I do the math in a simple way: I keep a spreadsheet with one page for egg record, one for income, and one for outgoings, on an annual basis. By selling surplus eggs at 1.50 for 6, I've been able to cover my costs (including some capital expenditure and hatching eggs, but not coop purchase; I expect to get most of that back when, ultimately, I have to give up chicken-keeping for whatever reason and sell them on ebay or whatnot) for 4 years now. And that doesn't take into account any eggs we eat (so they're 'free') or new birds, when home bred. Given how much a sack of grain has risen in that time, and demand (far outweighs my ability to supply, so customers have to take turns getting cartons at this time of year, and they're grateful for any, whenever) I may need to raise the price next year, but I'll hold it down if I can, when the year's accounts are finalized.

I have kept cost records in the past; I had to.
The farm I worked on in Hertfordshire made a profit with 500ish chickens.
The tribes in Catalonia would have paid for their feed costs if some system for selling the eggs had been in place.

Obviously these days if it came to money I would be running at a bigger loss than C.
I don't really care about the cost of the allotment chickens. I didn't care much about the cost of the tribes in Catalonia come to that.
I just couldn't put a value on the enjoyment I've had through trying to look after chickens.

 

[MaryJanet]

I enjoy that we can discuss how we feel about philosophical discussions like this.
I wish I was skillful and brave enough to process my own cockerels. It's a goal for the future. For now I am content that their life is respected and appreciated.

In New Zealand we do not have hatcheries (except for commercial layer/broiler). Yes, this makes getting certain breeds difficult or impossible, but the breeders maintain the breeds to a high standard. I've been quietly horrified by some of the 'breeds' people claim to have from hatcheries when seeing photos on this site in general.

In my belief system I respect, appreciate and am grateful for all life. And by all life I mean, animal, plant, insect, microscopic and ecosystem. I mean rivers, oceans, forests and grasslands. The way I see things, nature seeks balance, death serves life and life serves death. Life can't be without death. I try to approach all my human impacts on the world with this mindset. I don't always succeed. But a plant is no less worthy of life to me than any other being. That doesn't mean I'm not going to eat the plant. It just means that I respect and honor the place that plant holds in the ecosystem. For example, in my garden I seek balance, if I'm having pest or disease issues, I have ecosystem balance problems, not pest and disease problems.

I look at my flock as a unit, the individuals are entertaining and important, but like a hive of bees or a nest of ants, or a forest, the flock is the whole I seek to maintain in balance.

Nothing that is alive can continue to be alive without the death of other living things to sustain that life. And in turn, when that living thing dies, it serves new life. That doesn't mean I think it's ok to eat things raised in a disrespectful manner, but plants and the soils can be disrespected too. Often, eating meat raised with honor and respect is less impactful on other life than eating vegetables or grains.

Thanks for making such a cool thread where we can discuss these issues in a calm and respectful way @Shadrach

To my mind, this is a very sophisticated view and highly attuned to nature.

 

[Shadrach]

Life is harder for cocks than hens, even without humans deciding who lives and who dies.

That is a truth I don't believe I've seen written on the boards before.
When I see these rooster bashing threads I just want to keep these people with me for a month and show them exactly what these useless roosters do for their hens. Seriously, it's like being sentenced to a life time of mall shopping with your wife (if applicable) or in my case my eldest.

 

[Shadrach]

Does that mean you're opposed to ending the life of a healthy cockerel if it's not eaten?

I have an agreement with the avian vet who sees the hens for me. If ever a cockerel is hatched at my house, he'll humanely euthanize it for me. He said any cockerel that spends its early life in my backyard has already won the lottery over and over compared to those in our industrial food chain.

I know many of you would see this as wasteful. Before judging me harshly, roosters are problematic in my local council because of the noise and the chickens are my pets and friends. I don't have what it takes to eat my pets.

If someone prepared the corpse for you would you eat him?

 

[GregnLety]

That's sad to hear as most dogs can be rehabilitated.

I have 2 that have killed chickens but now they don't pay them no mind.

If an adult Husky can be rehabilitated then any dog can. ❤