Tales of Chicken Ignorance

[wishful suburbanite]

Boy am I glad for the Internet and special topic forums. I don't have any chickens of my own right now but I remember when my cousins bought a day old chick at the Lucasville, OH swap meet back when I was about middle school age. And when I think back on it I am shocked that little chick survived.

My cousins, all younger than 10, got themselves a little day old chick which the seller gave to them in a little paper bag. It peeped and peeped and peeped sliding around in that bag and so I felt bad and held it cupped in my hands instead, which I was allowed to do because I was older and deemed responsible. The poor little thing hushed up and went to sleep, its fluff getting damp from my clammy palms.

We had seen all the chick sellers using brooders but somehow it just didn't set in with us that this sort of thing was necessary. I don't know how. So a day old chick ended up spending the night in a hamster cage in a 75 degree house. It peeped and peeped. Even though I was perhaps 12 didn't mean I was completely senseless. I figured chickie was cold. I couldn't find a hot water bottle and so I filled up a Ziploc bag with warm water and set it in a plastic bowl for support. And then I set chickie on top of it thinking it would be like a little nest. I am amazed I didn't drown that animal. 0.0' I am amazed I didn't think of a table lamp.

And somehow the critter made it to adulthood, living with my young cousins. She was a white hen of some variety. She always peeped and never clucked and she was extemely tame from being handled by young children. I don't think she made it beyond a couple years old.

Hooray for the Internet and the fact that I have no excuse to do something dumb to some poor chicken if I ever get any.

Well, anyone else want to share some tales of blatant screw-ups in chicken keeping? It doesn't have to be your own.

 

[Schultz]

Our first chickens were rescues from a lady who kept 6 Buff Orpingtons in a 4x4 crate from chick til one year old, that's when we got them from her. I can tell you it wasn't a pretty sight but A year later, you would never know the girls were so mistreated!

 

[KattyKillFish]

when we lived in my Nondalton, A rural village in south-western Alaska, there was a man who would fly in every spring with little baby chicks and ducks to sell. TO EVERYDAY VILLAGE PEOPLE! we couldn't bare to see the poor not-even-three-day-old chicks sit in a cold airplane to be sold to little kids who wouldn't take care of them.
we always bought as many as we could as soon as we could. EVERY SINGLE CHILD who bought a chick ended up having a parent come to our house with a dying baby asking "OH MY GOD! WHAT DID WE DO?"

me: where were you keeping it?
them: in a box in the windbreak!
me it gets colder than 40 degrees this time of year!
them: it stinks! i don't want it in the house!
me: then WHY DID YOU BUY IT?
them: my son wanted it! he said he'd take care of it!
me: how old is your son?
them:4
me: you expect a 4 year old to take care of a baby chicken? they need special care! what have you been feeding it??
them: mushed up dog food
my mom: **takes chick and slams door in the lady's face**

mind you i was 9 through all this, and i already knew it took alot of care to keep chickens. it's crazy what people think! it sickens me! it makes me want to cry sometimes. if i ever saw this happen again, i would say a thing or two

the pilot who was selling the chicks was eventually caught and arrested. he had his pilot's license taken away. he also sold fireworks, which are illegal to take on small crafts. he kept them in THE SAME BOX AS THE CHICKS!

awful awful awful

 

[wishful suburbanite]

Speaking of kids getting chicks as though they were toys...

My mom used to tell me that when she was a kid every Easter someone would go around in a truck selling dyed chicks and ducklings and bunnies. I think her chick actually lived. She ended up with a Rhode Island red rooster. Eventually her parents killed it and fed it to her without her knowing and she still seems to be bitter about it...

Dyed chicks and any dyed fowl of any kind is illegal in my city, I've noticed, punishable by as much as jail time. But I was surprised to find that some hatcheries still offer them. I don't think they're illegal because the dye is toxic to the animals or anything, but the fact that the people who buy dyed baby animals are probably more likely to be those getting them for merely novelty.

Are dyed chicks still legal where anyone else lives?

 

[JennsPeeps]

In my county you can't buy fewer than 6 chicks, which I'm sure is to prevent people from buying novelty chicks.

 

[crzy4chkns]

When I was a kid we had neighbor a good old country boy who married a "city lady" when he was in the miltary. After his time was up in the miltary they moved out in the country. An one of my favorite stories of her frantic phone calls to her mother-in-law that was passed on down the country "party-line" went like this:
It was the Springtime and all the animals that the "city lady" and her husband aquired in the previuos fall were having babies. They had baby calves, lambs and kittens borned. One day a hen in their chicken flock hatched out some baby chicks. The "city lady" discovered the hen and chicks while her husband was at work . With her only experience consisiting of other farm animal's baby experience. After sometime of observing hen and the chicks. She frantically called her mother-in-law and said "I think there is something wrong with one of the chickens. I've looked all over the mama chicken and she has doesn't have any teats for her babies to nurse off of. What I'm to do??"

I won't even mention the shock look on her face when she was informed where the baby chicks come from.

LOL

 

[Imp]

No story here, but you're all too funny in a sad kinda way.

IMP

 

[KattyKillFish]

at triple D, a feed store here in Alaska, you can buy dyed chicks. you have to buy more than 6. they use a water-based dye during the first pip. just a tiny drop. it does not effect the hatch rate any, and i've bought a few like this and ended up with happy healthy chickens. they do it with ducklings too, but they use a powder AFTER they hatch. i've watched them do this and it seems not to hurt or stress the chicks, just confuse them a little, just like if you were to pick a chick up a bit quick.

"hey buddy, whats going on?"

i can see how some people would see it as bad, and I'm sure there ARE methods that are harmful and cruel.

chick neglect is a bad thing, and i think that you should always have to buy at least 5 at a time.

 

[Kansaseq]

I work for an emergency vet in Kansas. One very busy day, some late teens/early 20's kids came in carrying a pink chick. They said they had found this 'wild animal' in the street and didn't know what to do with it. The receptionist, a good friend of mine, was too busy and annoyed to argue with them, so she just took it (and gave it to me). He turned out to be a rooster (of course) White Leghorn. Very pretty, but started becoming a bit sneaky the older he got. I'd catch him sidling up to me when my back was turned, then would act all nonchalant. I think that's what they mean when they refer to looking at someone 'cockeyed'. He unfortunately liked to run the fenceline and challenge my pit, who eventually took him up on the challenge and won. Not sure if the roo came over the fence, or if the dog reached through and grabbed the roo,but McNugget lost that day.

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