Should I get rescue chickens from a battery farm or free range farm???

[JohnPeel]

You know, I had never even given a thought to the idea of killing them when they stop laying. Or that they will stop laying for that matter. But thinking about it, there would be really no point keeping egg laying chickens if they don't lay eggs. This would mean they would be just pets. Could I afford or want to keep chickens just as pets, with nothing back other than a funny walk or silly way about them? Hmm, I don't know, but I find it hard to think that I would kill one of the poor critters either. Is that what you all do? Is there really any meat on these poor things?

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

I doubt there would be much meat. Defiantly more after a year or two in your care than before you got them. I have never rescued battery hens before but it seems the best balance between kindness and economy.

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

There's deffinitely not a lot of meat on the layer breed hens, some do have more than others though. Like most heritage breeds will have more meat than say a breed that is for strictly laying eggs. I have both red and black sex links in my flock and the black sexlinks are much larger than the reds. My mother has some Wyandotte crosses that lay decent but have huge bodies that'll be better for meat.

I don't butcher my older hens, I have a large asian community near me that are happy to buy my spent hens. If I did not have this avenue, I would butcher them to make soup and stock out of them. I raise meat birds also, so I would not keep the carcass for roast chicken or something like that.

Honestly, if I just continued to feed all my spent birds, I would be completely broke in a matter of a month or so. Its tough but egg selling is a business and I have to at least break even.

 

[KnobbyOaks]

I've been giving a lot of thought to those hens who no longer lay at break-neck speed. My train of thought is justifying keeping them. To me pets are part of the family, you name them, you love them, you care for them. If it's a business and cull them when they're no longer productive, then how is that any different than a battery hen, other than they live under better conditions (the wealthy vs. the poor)? The fact that they don't just stop producing eggs cold turkey makes it easier to justify. They probably don't eat as much as a producing hen, maybe they'd be first on the list to be free-ranged everyday. I don't know the answer to these questions and probably won't know what the verdict on them will be until I'm faced with it.

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

Everyone has differing opinions to this subject. To some people, chickens are pets and to others chickens are livestock. I live on a farm, thats the way things are done on a farm. I am not saying it is the right way or the wrong way, it's just a way to scrape by. I take pride in keeping my hens and meat birds healthy and happy.

 

[KnobbyOaks]

Everyone has differing opinions to this subject. To some people, chickens are pets and to others chickens are livestock. I live on a farm, thats the way things are done on a farm. I am not saying it is the right way or the wrong way, it's just a way to scrape by. I take pride in keeping my hens and meat birds healthy and happy.

And I think that's the way it should be and if I ever decide to make it a way to make money as opposed to "sharing" with others, I'd probably figure out how to slaughter my birds too. Your way is not wrong, it is right. My next step toward that would be to get a rooster, LOL.

 

[ramirezframing]

most chickens don't live to 11 or 14 years old, I got lucky with them and decided to put them in "retirement" by letting them free range all day and put them up at night, til they passed. But most will just be found dead of no apparent cause in the coop, while still producing eggs at some rate. This is what I have learned through 20 plus years of birds of all kinds.

 

[KnobbyOaks]

Thanks for another insight.

 

[JohnPeel]

"found dead of no apparent cause in the coop, while still producing eggs at some rate" Still producing eggs after being found dead is some going. I hope mine do that. Just kidding of course.

I am not intending on having them as a business, just to have around the garden to hopefully let out of the run into the orchard to scratch all the bugs from around the apple trees, and to give us some eggs. We don't eat many eggs, maybe 10 a week. I think that's why we only a few chickens, maybe 6. That's only about an egg and a half a week each, although the half egg might make a mess of the nest box.

So a battery hen may only live a couple of years, while a hen raised from a chick could live 10 years of more? That's good going.

 

[JohnPeel]

Well its 19 Nov 12 and we have just had a phone call to say that we can't have the rescue chickens because they have a health problem and will all be destroyed. That is sad. But they said once the new chickens arrive in the first week of Jan 13, we can have some of them. We will still be rescueing them of course, because they were destined for a short life of forced egg laying and then killed in just 18 months. At least they might live a long and happy life with me, and produce a fair number of eggs too, all being well. They are ISA Pullets or something like that, what that means I really have no idea. But I am looking forward to it. I have been clearing the forest of scrub at the back of their coop so that foxes wont be able to sneak up on them, I hope.