Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[TropicalChickies]

Totally agree
I grow almost all my onions and potatoes. All my garlic, chard, and kale. Some of the other veggies.

I grow all my eggs and poultry meat , I mainly eat poultry.
In the past I traded turkey eggs for pork and beef. I'm still using that meat.

Good for you. I'm sure you are healthier and more independent as a result. Finding common ground is my favorite thing.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Post away but don't forget the tax!

Beats the crap out of how many smarties can you count.

Oh yeah! Tax!

Here's my senior ladies, Butchie and Cleo, giving me the stare. (Cleo on the left just had a bumble scraped out, hence the shoe)

And here's young rooster Lucio, keeping the paparazzi (me) away from his lady love

I'm right alongside you, albeit on a much smaller scale and primarily concerend with trying to change peoples view of the chicken. My allotment plot is going to I hope, head in that direction, with fruit bushes, chickens weeding and feeding and crops suitable to the environment rather than, "oh that would be cool to grow."

Yeah, I was just talking to a woman up north who had a cocoa bean tree in her sunroom. And a banana plant. Both are stunted and dying. I'm like, why? ....

 

[no fly zone]

Now, there's an idea.

As a farmer, I'm part of a movement back towards agroforestry -- growing good in diversified ecosystems with an emphasis on perennial tree crops -- in plain language, food that grows from trees year after year. Berry shrubs and herbs grow in the understory and forest-adapted animals like chickens, turkeys, and landrace pigs complement and enhance the ecosystem AND the food stream.

Instead of these massive fields of GMO wheat, corn and soy dominating landscapes and wiping out biodiversity, agroforestry allows humans and nature to cohabitate -- even better, by doing it humans realize they are part of nature. Different forms of agroforestry were found all over the world. Pigs rooting for morels under chestnut trees in the Mediterranean. Cocoa growing under banana and jackfruit trees like we do here in Ecuador. Of course, indigenous groups around the world all have their own names for their ancestral agroforestry practices.

I bring it up because the most interesting and difficult part of what I do is having to explain to people that a tree -- like a chicken -- isn't just a source of "output" in terms of food or revenue. A tree creates rain, cools the air, sequesters carbon, makes fertilizer (mulch) prevents erosion, and with other trees creates and feeds a whole universe of underground life.

Chickens also aerate soil, fertilize, and to me, more than anything else, can teach humans how to steward and keep watch over other living beings with respect to their feral nature, their own variety of intelligence. An agroforestry farm and a free range chicken arrangement have much in common: they both occupy the liminal space between wild and domesticated. The benefits to humans of embracing and working in this space are vast.

Preach!

 

[Molpet]

Tax

 

[Shadrach]

Oh yeah! Tax!

Here's my senior ladies, Butchie and Cleo, giving me the stare. (Cleo on the left just had a bumble scraped out, hence the shoe)
View attachment 3485444

And here's young rooster Lucio, keeping the paparazzi (me) away from his lady love
View attachment 3485447


Yeah, I was just talking to a woman up north who had a cocoa bean tree in her sunroom. And a banana plant. Both are stunted and dying. I'm like, why? ....

Was the bumble foot treatment successful?

 

[Shadrach]

Four and a half hours today. Lovely afternoon. Dry and warm with quite a bit of sunshine.
Henry headed straight for his bath spot on being let out. Carbon and Ella fussed over him picking out damaged quills and getting him looking more presentable. Henry chuntered away to himself as he rolled about looking like he was enjoying every minute.

We were out on the allotment for four of the hours and Henry did a lot of digging along side me. We spent quite a lot of that time complaining to each other that it didn't really seem fair that we dug and the hens just dived on anything remotely edible without even considering that we might like a snack from time to time. However, the excercise is good for both of us.

I got some more clearing done around the raspberry bushes at the bottom of the plot and moved the gooseberry bush I'm very much hoping will survive the shock.

Once the sun had dropped behing the trees Henry went and had another bath.

Heading home.

 

[MaryJanet]

Interesting. I fear it will result in greater importation of eggs from countries with even worse conditions for the hens (eg de-beaking allowed unlike Germany).

That's what I was thinking too. It creates markets elsewhere.

 

[MaryJanet]

Let me get this straight. They can sex eggs after two weeks and discard the male eggs. But, that is still not good enough because they are killing a two week old embryo? The animal welfare movement has gone too far. They might as well just outlaw meat and dairy products that are not grown in a Petri dish

I don't know if embryonic sexing technology is an affordable option in Germany? I imagine the IP is tightly defended and the licensing optimised for economic return rather than animal welfare.

 

[MaryJanet]

Now, there's an idea.

As a farmer, I'm part of a movement back towards agroforestry -- growing good in diversified ecosystems with an emphasis on perennial tree crops -- in plain language, food that grows from trees year after year. Berry shrubs and herbs grow in the understory and forest-adapted animals like chickens, turkeys, and landrace pigs complement and enhance the ecosystem AND the food stream.

Instead of these massive fields of GMO wheat, corn and soy dominating landscapes and wiping out biodiversity, agroforestry allows humans and nature to cohabitate -- even better, by doing it humans realize they are part of nature. Different forms of agroforestry were found all over the world. Pigs rooting for morels under chestnut trees in the Mediterranean. Cocoa growing under banana and jackfruit trees like we do here in Ecuador. Of course, indigenous groups around the world all have their own names for their ancestral agroforestry practices.

I bring it up because the most interesting and difficult part of what I do is having to explain to people that a tree -- like a chicken -- isn't just a source of "output" in terms of food or revenue. A tree creates rain, cools the air, sequesters carbon, makes fertilizer (mulch) prevents erosion, and with other trees creates and feeds a whole universe of underground life.

Chickens also aerate soil, fertilize, and to me, more than anything else, can teach humans how to steward and keep watch over other living beings with respect to their feral nature, their own variety of intelligence. An agroforestry farm and a free range chicken arrangement have much in common: they both occupy the liminal space between wild and domesticated. The benefits to humans of embracing and working in this space are vast.

So good to read this.

 

[MaryJanet]

I have been told that in order to feed the over population of people, intensive monoculture farming is needed.

I don't think that removes any of the triumph from what @TropicalChickies is doing.

People need to stop having such large families, but conveying that awareness to everyone is almost impossible.