rescue chickens

[Geoff]

Eating badgers??? I have heard of some nutters picking them off the road and eating them. You would get nicked if you shot one. Shooting deer, well its a darn site more humane than dragging whatever it is off abbatoir and killing it. Also good use of woodland resources. As we killed all the wolves off we take place of natural predator of deer (it being a herbivore). Note I am not in favour of the overpaid toffs who go trophy hunting for stags. Killing for food is one thing but killing for fun???
Supermarkets - giving the consumer what they want? The supermarkets give us what they think will sell and give them the most profit. They only sell organic cause they realised that yes people wanted it and it might be a good idea to go along with it. Many supermarkets had to be dragged kicking and screaming to sell chicken that was bred in a more humane way - and that is a case in point. Would you prefer to eat a chicken that is damaged and injured by sitting in its own urine to one that was healthy? You wouldn't want a vegetable that had been cosmetically treated to hide its blemishes so why accept it for meat or other products.
It annoys me that we accept sub standard food. On the continent the quality of food in supermarkets seems to be better - the consumers would just not accept the rubbish that we get offered. Its a sad state of affairs when we think that people on low incomes have to accept rubbish food.
Basically I think the quality of food offered in this country is appallingly low and as a nation we all deserve better. Fresher, higher quality, better tasting and better nutrition. Its not just about cost it is also about the fact that we accept it and a few very large companies completely dominate the market. In my town we have one of the worst. It suits them to peddle s****t. They always say they are thinking of their customer......not their huge profits.
Pete - you don't mean to say you cooked their pet rabbit? Like in the film? Have they all turned vegetarian now?

 

[jon]

.
A chicken can live for 6 or 7 years, so it is an admirable thing to give ex-battery birds a good life for a while

The hybrids they keep in battery cages don't live any longer than about 3 years maximum. I have kept them from the point of lay pullet stage several times without them ever entering a cage. they are basically egg laying machines and they burn out quickly. I had a Maran lived to 8 years old.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Badger ham was once a common food.I quite agree with not shooting the deer for trophys as the toffs do,or shooting them for fun,but shoot them for money,and to keep the numbers down,lack of wolves.
Just out of interest,who's going to nick you if you shoot a badger,the same one's who catch all the one's nicking the hives all over the country,joke. Do you really think that a lot of the badgers found by the roadside have been run over? really?

 

[shonabee]

Supermarkets - giving the consumer what they want? The supermarkets give us what they think will sell and give them the most profit.....Basically I think the quality of food offered in this country is appallingly low and as a nation we all deserve better.

I totally agree with you in that many consumers will buy and eat any old tat so long as it's cheap. But if people didn't buy e.g battery eggs and chicken them then they wouldn't sell and therefore wouldn't give the supermarkets any profit.
They treat their suppliers so badly that whilst it can take a long time for a farmer to change from one production system to another the supermarkets will move much more quickly.

Don't know why I've ended up with smillies at the start and end of Geoff's words quoted above: apologies for that!

 

[planbee]

You all seem to have the wrong idea about food.

Some of you appear to be under the impression that eggs come from chickens, that's total rubbish!

Eggs come out of plastic boxes, and you get the boxes from the Supermarket.

There are 6 eggs to a box, or 12 to a box, or 18 to a box; occasionally you can get a "10 egg box".

The boxes are all piled up in the Supermarkets, they have already been killed - you buy the size you want, take it home, open the box, and use the eggs - simple!

Some people will have you believe some old rammel about milk coming out of cows!

Now, Cowes is a place in the Isle of Wight, and far too small to supply all of the UK's requirement of milk.

Milk, like eggs, comes out of plastic, but bottles this time, and they come from the Supermarket - buy a plastic bottle, it is already dead, take it home, open bottle, pour the milk out, not rocket science, is it?

Meat - yes, you got it, comes from the Supermarket, but in tray shaped plastic this time, with a thin film of plastic over the top.

Buy it, take it home, you know the rest.

The answer is plastic, see, everything from the Supermarket is plastic, plastic, plastic!

John

 

[JCBrum]

Well said Planbee, ...reality lives, Orwell and Chekov would have applauded you, and so do I.

I'm off to keep my aspidistra flying. JC.

 

[Geoff]

I suppose we here are all fortunate. Most of us produce top notch honey (well better than the blended stuff usually sold) or hopefully when my ladies start working for a living instead of eating my sugar and making weird shapes with bees wax. And many of us grow our own fruit and veg. We are the lucky ones.
They did catch some badger diiggers round here. Being a country area outsiders stick out like a sore thumb and I think it was local tip offs so the wildlife PC nicked them. Don't think they got what they deserved when they went to court, castration isn't yet in the statute book.
The local farmers aren't too keen about people killing things on their land either. They might get fed up with badgers at times but most would be pretty angry if they found someone digging them out.
Planbee i remember years ago when i took some lettuces to work cause people wanted to buy my produce. They were lovely lettuces, picked minutes before, without the use of chemicals, and absolutely fantastic in appearance.
One lady came the following day and said that the lettuce was lovely when they had it for tea, it was so crisp and fresh but she had to tell me that when she opened it up she found two greenfly.
I asked her whether the greenfly were alive and when she said yes I said that she was very lucky. It would have been awful to open up a lettuce and find two dead greenfly. I don't think she ever understood the significance of that.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Never heard of any badger diggers down this way,cruel pastime,but there were a couple of guys going round for a few years trapping them in wire cages and shooting them,using peanuts for bait,the farmers went out of there way to help them,think this has stopped now though,not sure,traps used to be all over the place,but not seen any lately.

 

[JCBrum]

It is amazing how pre-conceived are our attitudes over matters such as food and housing and how insular we can become in our thinking.

A few years ago, through my work, I interviewed some illegal immigrant refugees from Africa. They had been detained and temporarily housed in the city centre in social services B&B accommodation. After a few days it was decided to re-house the families, whilst awaiting deportation, which apparently was subject to appeal and was likely to take many months at least.

They were re-housed in unused Army barracks married quarters in a country district with beautiful countryside all around.

They were deeply offended and complained bitterly that they were being treated very badly, with great disrespect, and like sub-class bad people.

According to them only worthless poor people lived in country villages, they were forced to grow their own food, and were the prey of all the dangerous animals which lived in the fields and woods around.

Proper people, they said, lived in the towns and cities where they were safe, and there was no mud, and they bought their food from shops. Why shouldn't they have those privileges ?

JC.

 

[Hombre]

Hi JC, I hate to think what your immigrant types thought about the ferocious military families that previously occupied the accommodation they were allocated.

We now know what privations the dwellers of those big country houses have to put up with, and here we thought that they were among the privileged. It must be sheer hell around Pattington and the likes where the hoy paloy have to fight off the local fauna.

Planbee, I have a Queen and a drone, where can I buy a "plastic"? A honey one - I already have ones for milk, margarine, squash, meat and eggs, although I thought the squash one might have moved yesterday, so I am keeping my eye on it in case it isn't really dead.

PS you don't even have to work here to be mad, but it certainly helps the humour.

 

[JCBrum]

where can I buy a "plastic"? A honey one -

Hi Hombre, I think Thornes do a "plastic" for honey. I think it's in the shape of a bear.

No doubt it's to signify the dangers of its origin to village dwellers.

JC.

 

[planbee]

Geoff,

You should have charged extra for the flies!

John

 

[Ixy]

Hi,

I'm new and poultry is more my thing than bees.

What people fail to realise with exbatts/buying hybrid pullets/buying table chicks is that they all come from what is essentially one huge company. Think of every argument in the book you like about hybrids being the only way possible for you but once this composite company swallows up all the rivals it's currently 'joined with' - and my money's on Hendrix Genetics - they will essentially own every commercial chicken - GLOBALLY. what will happen to our cheap food then? Nobody, even most smallholders who hate tesco so much for what they do, considers this as being a problem. Tesco at least have a decent amount of rivals, and are not global yet. as long as we still buy hybrids, they will still control our ability to feed ourselves the only difference being that your hard earned dosh goes straight to hendrix genetics and skips tesco.

DON'T BUY HYBRIDS. from anywhere, in any form. A pure breed needs your support, if we don't breed them in our backyards, nobody will. whereas the industry will breed generic brown and white hens in their millions each year til they stop being profitable. Yes, they need pure breeds to do this, but they are a handful of breeds, and twisted versions at that - the rhode island reds used for example would be no good for eating, only for laying. A pure breed will last longer, look better and provide a decent meal. They also reproduce themselves and negate the need to go running to a big hatchery. For most you wouldn't even need to buy an incubator to feed your family.

 

[JCBrum]

Sound sense Ixy, I was thinking of getting some Wyandottes or Minorcas but I know nothing much about poultry. If I wanted to keep say a dozen, what would you recommend ?

JC.

 

[darrenperrett]

We`ve got 20 something chickens, a mixture of Blue Marans, Light Sussex and Black Rocks.
We started with a few rescue chickens but we were forever nursing them for scaley leg or feather plucking etc. It`s nice to rescue them but they are past there best when you get them.
Darren.

 

[Floss]

There is no such thing as "cheap food" in the real sense. It comes with a very high tariff in the long term with impact on public health and food quality.

I have kept ex batts for 3 years now and yes, they can require some care and nurturing but they are happy little souls and, I believe, relish what natural time there are given by people who want to rehome them. Charities like the BHWT are clear that they do support british farmers and recognise how difficult these times are. Many people do not know where their food comes from (and many probably don't care) but this attitude is impacting on public and animal health on a global health. So, as the british battery farms start to reduce in number if a few people want to look after these hens and give them a home, great and those who don't, I agree, the pure breeds also need our help too! It depends why you want to keep hens I guess.


Mr tesco certainly needs no help - not from me anyway - I know where his food comes from and choose to shop elsewhere!

 

[Ixy]

Sound sense Ixy, I was thinking of getting some Wyandottes or Minorcas but I know nothing much about poultry. If I wanted to keep say a dozen, what would you recommend ?

JC.

Of course i would say ixworths but you have to go with your heart. If you really want to feed yourself 'utility' is the word you are looking for - you can find a list of utility breeders in the practical poultry magazine's utility breeder register. They keep egg records so you know what you are getting. Most of the show breeds are now more fluff than meat and barely lay an egg lol

beadon what pure breed (no such thing as pedigree in chickens...yet) hens do you have? i found my ex batts and hybrids exceptionally dull and stupid compared to pure breeds. I can't pretend ixworths are the brightest bulb in the box but they are docile and friendly - bantams and game breeds are certainly clever!

 

[Brosville]

I agree and disagree pretty much equally - the last thing on earth I want to see is the world being completely populated by the products of "Chicken corp.Inc", but having kept some thousands of them as free-range hens, they are neither as stupid or useless as many people suggest, and especially for the impecunious, it is a delightful hobby to keep a few ex-battery hens, rather than see them go off to an early (and usually entirely ghastly) early demise, and at a "price" of 50p a bonce, they are very cheap.
I've also kept "pedigrees", and agree that they can also be delightful, but the breeders are often ludicrously greedy at the prices demanded - if price is no object, I'd probably go for crossing Rhode Island Red with Light Sussex (to give the classic wartime dual purpose birds - hens are good layers, cocks fatten well for the table). If you want "chocolate" coloured eggs, and have deep pockets for the enormous feed bills, Cuckoo Marans - if you have kids, make friends with a breeder of "show" bantams, and buy their "not quite prize-winners" and produce loads of diddy eggs - they are usually great characters too!
Me? - a bit late in the year, but I'm going to be knocking up a small hen house in the next few days, for a few refugees from a commercial operation.....

 

[Ixy]

I think ex batts are just about the worst thing a backyardkeeper could get. At first, they produce more eggs than you can use. Then, once you are too attached to them to kill them, they don't lay many at all (but still eat the same). Then they start dropping off their perches for no apparent reason, which is heartbreaking. My pure breeds on the other hand...well, I've lost 2 adult birds since I started with this breed 3 years ago out of goodness knows how many I've kept.

I think people mistake intelligence with friendliness, which ex batts have due to never having lived in the real world. The element of fear other breeds have keeps them safe. Just to list three of the ends that any of mine have come to

1. crushed by a cow - just didn't get out of the way
2. choked on a rag that was obviously much too big to eat (?)
3. crushed by a falling door

pure breeds that have met silly ends = none.

we have 30 ex free range brown hens wandering around here much against my will - they arrived in march and we've lost 6 already. I also notice that despite being completely free range in as many acres as they'd like their shells are much thinner than my pure breed's eggs - you only have to tap them on the side of a bowl and the whole shell collapses in your hand. the yolk doesn't seem to have much will to hold together either. annoying for frying. They also eat a helluva lot of their own eggs. My pure breeds are on the same food with less range and have really tough shells and eggs that are mostly yolk, and I've never ever had a pure breed egg eater. I'm sure shell thickness/quality affects keeping qualities too. Why go to all that trouble for a poorer quality egg?

for every ex batt in a home, a place could have been given to a pure breed. For every ex batt NOT given a home, there will still be many bred to replace it. For every pure breed chick not given a home....nothing will be bred to replace it. more and more breeders will drop out. Knowledge will die off. pure breeds are the domain of the backyarder, they are ours and if we don't value them they will be gone when we get tired of messing around with hybrids. battery farming is over, legislation will kill it in this country in 2012. That job is done - OUR chickens need us now.

 

[BKF Admin]

I am in the doghouse at home today.

My wife has a few araucana bantams in her flock and ask me last night to reduce numbers by removing a few cock birds.

I was up early first light this morning and managed to get her best egg layer involved in the proceedings.