Thinking about starting a 'chicken rescue'.....

[InterestingChickens]

Please note: I wouldn't have my original hens anymore so please don't talk about quarantining and "not worth risking your quality flock". Thank youuuu

Without quarantining, new birds that may not have disease would then be exposed to disease. Let's say one flock has dry pox, over time they eventually got immune to it. While this other flock dose not have immunity to it, but may have immunity to another disease, this would then work in a circular pattern. With possibly many birds passing away in the processes.

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Hi @cluckmecoop7 , i read through this entire thread, then went back and read your very first post again. Are you saying you want to donate your current chickens to your church, then possibly rescue some hens off of craigslist to also live at the church, while you meanwhile get new chicks to live at your own place next spring?

I appreciate that your heart is in the right place, but for all the reasons others have mentioned, i agree it really isnt a good idea. Eventually sooner or later (probably sooner), the random chickens you rescue off craigs list or other venues Will bring diseases, not just Mareks but many incurable respiratory diseases too. Mites, worms, etc are curable, but many poultry diseases are not. This will lead to much stress and heartbreak and probably endanger the whole flock of "church chickens."

I assume your own flock members are healthy and disease-free. Can you donate just your own chickens to the church, where you can visit them on Sundays? "Chicken rescue" isnt really comparable to "mammal rescue", due to the many incurable but often hidden diseases poultry carry. Ex-battery hens might actually be a better cause as far as "rescue." Although battery hens leave their cages in extremely poor physical shape, they usually dont carry diseases, internal/external parasites, etc. But ex-battery hens still need separate living quarters & lots of time and attention as they recover.

Again, i dont intend my input as criticism, & do appreciate that your heart is in the right place.

 

[The Moonshiner]

So you're gonna have someone else take in your chickens so you can take in someone else's?
Am I missing something?

 

[Painted Calls]

I'm now wondering if I read the first post wrong.

The way I read it was that Cluckme wanted to give her current flock to her church. Then start a chicken rescue.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I don't have a rescue, but sometimes I take back chickens I have given away in the past. My last bunch 3 hens from one lady (older hens), 2 hens from another lady (one year olds), and 2 more from a friend. (One old one young) I have kept them in diff pens.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Thanks for your input everyone To be clear, I'm NOT gonna keep rescuing and adopting them out. *IF* I did this, I would get a set of in-need-of-home hens from craigslist and that would be it. None of this coming and going stuff. Maybe a while later (if they get old and die or something) I'd rescue another set and do it again...but not this active/public chicken rescue. This was a misunderstanding, no offenses.

 

[NatJ]

Please note: I wouldn't have my original hens anymore so please don't talk about quarantining and "not worth risking your quality flock". Thank youuuu

So all of your current chickens would move somewhere else.

Then you would get one set of new hens, from one source, who may or may not bring diseases.

But since those new hens would be the only chickens on your entire property, there would be no other chickens, so no need to quarantine.

I can see how that would work, and at least you would only be dealing with the risks of getting chickens from one source and not mixing them with any others.

But if you get new chickens from more than one source, you might need to quarantine different new groups from each other (otherwise each group can trade diseases and parasites with each other group, and you have to treat more chickens for each kind of problem.)

The idea doesn't appeal to me personally, but that's not really what you asked.
If you choose to do it, I hope it goes well for you

 

[Weeg]

Interesting thread, I think its a great idea! Your heart is in the right place, and you would be saving a bunch of other hens off of CL, and your current flock would have a happy life, but, theres always a but.
I'm not going to repeat what other people have said, but to sum it up, I agree that you don't have to proper quarantine facilities to bring in new hens, @TheOddOneOut explained it perfectly.
I also understand your reasoning to donate your hens, and save some more. You want to do this so you can save the lives of some CL hens, and I believe your thinking more about the hens than yourself here. This makes sense.
But, I have to agree with everyone else, for the reasons they listed.

To add, I think that if you still wanted to do this, go for battery hens! They're vaccinated, kept away from other birds, and badly need homes way more then CL hens do.
The down side is that they probably won't be layman anymore, and you wouldn't be getting eggs. Maybe this does't matter, maybe it does.

Overall, its a great idea, and can definitely be done, but I think you'd find that its more work then you expect. Keep thinking about it, and as long as you fully understand everything that is going to need to be done, and you think you can make it work, and have a budget to maintain it, go for it! Just make sure you understand exactly what your getting into.

 

[Weeg]

Thanks for your input everyone To be clear, I'm NOT gonna keep rescuing and adopting them out. *IF* I did this, I would get a set of in-need-of-home hens from craigslist and that would be it. None of this coming and going stuff. Maybe a while later (if they get old and die or something) I'd rescue another set and do it again...but not this active/public chicken rescue. This was a misunderstanding, no offenses.

Ohhhhhhhh! This makes sense.
Got it now.

 

[cluckmecoop7]

Thank you so much for the kind replies and understanding! There actually is a factory farm near me....but I have no clue how to get a couple birds from it?