What Should I do? (there's this rooster in a bad situation)

[Whittni]

FIRST: I'd like to say I did not get chickens or anything from these people.


So today I went with my mom to look at some chickens for sale ($4 each). There were a lot of them, around 50 or 60. Lots of hens and roosters. Just your normal chickens, leghorns, sexlinks and some mixed breeds. So they also had some ducks...most of these birds were in bad shape (missing feathers, bad toes and it got worse and worse). So the people just let me do what ever and they went inside their home. My mom went with me but she waited outside of their coops, which looked nice from the OUTSIDE.

Poor chickens! The inside didn't even have roosting sticks, poop was everywhere!!

It smelled and they sold 'fresh eggs' which obviously weren't so fresh...

"O.M.G." was the direct thought in my head, I keep my chickens and their coop really clean and this was just wrong, gross and plain nasty. Then after all of this they had an old rabbit hutch which I wanted, to put baby chicks in or a broody hen, (my Rosecomb hen just went broody, my first broody girl <3) then my mom said, "...it needs a lot of work and these people don't give a darn about these chickens." ... sorry if you are offended by that but is really is true, something was wrong with them. Chickens are my passion and I care about all of them. In fact I take notes about my chickens, their favorite foods and other notes. Seriously this was not acceptable. What should I do? (I thought call the animal shelter and report them)



NEVER MIND: I'm cutting this part out...I almost wanted to save a rosecomb bantam rooster...
WAS A BAD IDEA, COULD HURT MY OWN BIRDS...what was I thinking?


Thanks in advance!
~Whittni

 

[RHRanch]

I don't know if what you described is reportable or not... Did they have food and water? Were they molting? Were the hens being roughed up by the roosters? What do you mean by "bad feet"? Mites? Crooked toes? Were they in wet litter, or was it just dirty and dry? Did they have adequate shelter? Were they underweight? Were there any dead or sick birds?

If you think the conditions were bad enough to report these people, you would be foolish to encourage them by buying a bird from them, and they could have illness in thier flock - why risk your own birds?

 

[Whittni]

The feet had growths on them, like major deformities. They were not molting. The entire floors of the coops were covered with chicken poo. I didn't see any waterers. The smell was gross. THey had room but it was not sanitary. Lots of crocked toes, I might have seen a broken beak or two...there was a scabby looking hen, not sure what it was...it was on her leg as far as I understand... ... ...


Also: Good Point, about the one rooster.

 

[Ema]

I have in total about 60 chickens, and 11 turkeys and I clean out their pens and coop every sunday....

by tuesday everything looks terrible, smelly and poop everywhere, and my chickens are messy, they spill their food everywhere too. my 20 layers are in a separate coop from my juveniles, and there are no roos in there they looks great!! but they still make huge messes. my turkeys poop everywhere. on thursdays I sprinkle DE everywhere to dry things up and do it again on sundays after the clean out.

now my juveniles are mixed, roos and hens, some of my hens are missing feathers from the roos, I got 2 roos with crooked toes because they cannot stop getting into fights with each other.

chances are you likely visited when they were in between cleaning, go back in a few days to a week for another visit and if the conditions are still the same then I guess this would be re-portable. Never make judgement based on a first visit. Truth of the matter is a few chickens are easy to keep with no smells etc...when you get up there in numbers it gets trickier. Humidity issues and lack of venting will make these issues worse too.

I passed judgement before on someone and I could not have been more wrong about the situation. Only I never reported it, I went back a few weeks later and everything was perfect. In my case the lady that cared for the chickens had had a very long work week and her hubby was in the hospital.

Ema

 

[Ema]

Quote:
ok broken beaks is not normal either specially if there is more than one, in this case there is obviously something not right, scabby legs could be from being pecked or a disease, but I can't exactly remember what causes that. I wouldn't buy any birds from these people though, just in case. you really do not want to bring that home to pass on to the rest of your flock.

Ema

 

[Whittni]

I can assure everyone that these chickens have never been cared for, even on the first visit. This poop was encrusted on the floor, there wasn't any bedding not even egg boxes...its hard to describe this, it was like the pee and poop had been piled up like and inch deep from ouside of the wire while in their main coop, kinda like a stepping stone thing, layered up poop I guess.

Poor chickens is all I *can* say.

 

[Ema]

Quote:
yuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well in this case you are very right....things like that make me sick, poor things!!

 

[drumstick diva]

ugh I hope you washed real well and changed clothes before going to tend to your flock. Who knows what might germs might come home with you.

 

[Whittni]

Yeah, I thought of a better way to describe it, have you guys seen Animal Cops Houston or somthing with hoarders houses shown? Where it look like dirt but its the leftovers from the animals? It was like that...

 

[Whittni]

Quote:
Of coarse, I took a shower the second I got through the door.