Sitting with a cup of coffee. (coffee lovers)

[ronott1]

Good Morning everyone!

I wanted to share something that I fear might be a bad situation for backyard chickens in years to come.
I was having dinner at my sisters house yesterday and my niece, who is 14, asked her if she could have a chicken. I told her, no, you can't have just one chicken as they are flock animals and you need at least 2, preferably 3. This request was prompted by the chicks that she saw for sale in the mall at the pet store. Now, I'm all for people raising them for eggs, food, pets, etc. and I hope more people start, I'm just afraid that now with chicks being sold at the mall, there is going to be a bigger problem with abandoned chickens than there are rabbits at easter.
I hope I am wrong, and I hope that the people buying chicks at the mall are prepared and have done some research and don't pick them up on a whim due to extreme cuteness.
I told my niece if she is serious about having them, she can come over and help with mine to see what's involved in their care before she gets them.

I just hope we don't need a chicken rescue group here in the next few years because there are enough other animals needing rescue, we don't need to add to the problem.
Thanks for letting me vent!

It is already a problem--and is worse at Easter when lots of little chicks are given to children. Those often do not make it more than a day or two.

 

[perchie.girl]

Good Morning everyone!

I wanted to share something that I fear might be a bad situation for backyard chickens in years to come.
I was having dinner at my sisters house yesterday and my niece, who is 14, asked her if she could have a chicken. I told her, no, you can't have just one chicken as they are flock animals and you need at least 2, preferably 3. This request was prompted by the chicks that she saw for sale in the mall at the pet store. Now, I'm all for people raising them for eggs, food, pets, etc. and I hope more people start, I'm just afraid that now with chicks being sold at the mall, there is going to be a bigger problem with abandoned chickens than there are rabbits at easter.
I hope I am wrong, and I hope that the people buying chicks at the mall are prepared and have done some research and don't pick them up on a whim due to extreme cuteness.
I told my niece if she is serious about having them, she can come over and help with mine to see what's involved in their care before she gets them.

I just hope we don't need a chicken rescue group here in the next few years because there are enough other animals needing rescue, we don't need to add to the problem.
Thanks for letting me vent!

all ready happening.... in some parts of Florida for example. And Ducks too... people think now that fluff half grown duckling can survive at the local lake. or pond. Easter brings them out ... Most responsible retailers refuse to bring in chicks at Easter time. And the hatcheries either wont sell or will bump the price up to discourage people from buying them and selling them say on Craigslist.

So in Pet stores not surprising... If they do it right it could be a money maker for all those other products for chickens. Leashes, diapers, special custom coops.... Feed, little bags of bedding.....

I used to work in a very large pet store in the seventies. We would buy a bale of shavings for five bucks.... Bring it in and sit and scoop it into the big bags like for ice.... and sell them for a dollar a piece, for hamster and mice and rat keepers. One bag of shavings could fill about sixty of those ice bags.... Same went for bags of feed... bird seed.... specifically. Wed repackage a bag of parakeet into dollar bags... weighed of course.

Even now places like ARCO... We had an ice maker in the back room. One of our jobs was to fill those ice bags and staple the tops... We sold them for two bucks... I could fill fifty of them in an hour and load them into the freezer. I made 10 dollars an hour. so it cost the boss 20 cents for labor and next to nothing for the water and bag and ice machine.... We sold out almost every day in the summer. This was in 2001.

deb

 

[Phoenixsw]

And I remember watching an episode of Dirty Jobs in Miami where they were trying to catch chickens people had just released and were basically free range in the city.

 

[perchie.girl]

And I remember watching an episode of Dirty Jobs in Miami where they were trying to catch chickens people had just released and were basically free range in the city.

They are considered Landrace now.... all the chickens have interbred to make one.... Very adapted to the climate and excellent foragers.
Not simply relesed they have been in the florida area for a very very very long time

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landrace

The method of release was usually hurricanes.... Just like pythons that are taking over the everglades.... and Iquanas.

deb

 

[Red Riding Egg]

My yard can attest to the impulse buying in the spring and especially Easter, as I take in a lot of unwanteds. In fact have 5 more ducklings and two drakes coming today or tomorrow, (khakis) and the 6 juveniles in the pool now were someone's boyfriend's impulse buy at TSC (mallards... why mallards?? lol). As for chickens, if kept outside, yes flock animals, but I've known a handful of people that have a very happy solitary house chicken. Guess it really depends on what they want out of it. I wouldn't worry too much about the mall selling them, it's nothing they can't get somewhere else...

Is there like a community vat of coffee or something around here? my edges are fraying lol

 

[ronott1]

My yard can attest to the impulse buying in the spring and especially Easter, as I take in a lot of unwanteds. In fact have 5 more ducklings and two drakes coming today or tomorrow, (khakis) and the 6 juveniles in the pool now were someone's boyfriend's impulse buy at TSC (mallards... why mallards?? lol). As for chickens, if kept outside, yes flock animals, but I've known a handful of people that have a very happy solitary house chicken. Guess it really depends on what they want out of it. I wouldn't worry too much about the mall selling them, it's nothing they can't get somewhere else...

Is there like a community vat of coffee or something around here? my edges are fraying lol

Welcome!

See, never ending coffee!

 

[Red Riding Egg]

wooohoooooo!!! thank you! lol

And now I'm off to pick up some new (to me) hens!

 

[perchie.girl]

HEY.... sorry I forgot to welcome the new people.....

Welcome everyone!!!

deb

 

[chickisoup]

Hi all to all the new coffee drinking friends!

Well, everything is all done on the place in record time and with top quality!!! Roof done, windows in AND the satellite tech showed up when he was supposed to, called ahead, was happy to replace the old dishes (plural) with a single new dish and was able to do a "macGiver" (they didn't have an "official" mount to attach it to a wooden pole) and mount it on the pole that DH had put up instead of putting holes in the new roof and he did the entire install and alignment in less than an hour and totally for free!

So far so good with my "girls". Nobody else showing any signs of sickness so far

I'm down to 3 Aussies and my last little red sex-link. I really need to replace my lost birds because I was already short before I lost my two sweeties but I don't know if I dare or watch my girls and just wait till spring. Culling my remaining girls is just not an option for me. I'm definitely closing my flock anyway until I find out for certain somehow if I do have Marek's in my flock. What a mess. Why can't I just have a vet that will see poultry???

 

[Alaskan]

that sure is stressful...

I always think the worst with my chickens, I am always so scared that they will get one of the big nasty illnesses.