Battery chickens
Discussion
EvoBarry said:
Japveesix said:
EvoBarry said:
Good on you for doing what you can, I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. Unfortunately I think if I brought some home nature would soon follow its course and my two adult cats would have a feast on their hands 
Unless you have some seriously badass bengals or similar then I'd be amazed if they'd have a hope against a flock of 3+ chickens.My cat is big (he's definitely king of the road) and he goes well ought of his way to avoid the chooks
Chickens can hold their own against many things, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXYjPHujPho&fea...
I wish you lived by me, I eat alot of eggs each week. A friend of a friend at work sells lovely free range eggs, he has about 20 hens.
I pay £2.20 for a dozen and I have to return the boxes. Only thing ive noticed between supermarket free range and his free range, is his eggs, the yolks are a really dark orange colour.
I pay £2.20 for a dozen and I have to return the boxes. Only thing ive noticed between supermarket free range and his free range, is his eggs, the yolks are a really dark orange colour.
EvoBarry said:
Japveesix said:
EvoBarry said:
Good on you for doing what you can, I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. Unfortunately I think if I brought some home nature would soon follow its course and my two adult cats would have a feast on their hands
Unless you have some seriously badass bengals or similar then I'd be amazed if they'd have a hope against a flock of 3+ chickens.My cat is big (he's definitely king of the road) and he goes well ought of his way to avoid the chooks
My parents keep about 8-12 chickens of all sizes and types and my 9 year old, 7 stone golden retriever doesn't bat an eyelid as he wanders through them and they are just as indifferent to him. I find it fascinating to watch considering how terratorial he is yet he doesn't give a hoot about chickens!
Sorry, 40kg is around 7 stone not 9.
Edited by remedy on Sunday 4th July 17:18
EvoBarry said:
Good on you for doing what you can, I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. Unfortunately I think if I brought some home nature would soon follow its course and my two adult cats would have a feast on their hands
We have 3 cats, all of which are prolific hunters & all of which are s
t scared of any of the chickens we have had. FunkyNige said:
working class said:
the yolks are a really dark orange colour.
Even in winter? The school I used to work at had chickens and I used to take the eggs home, but they were only orange in the summer months when they were grass fed (and they tasted so much better!).working class said:
Only thing ive noticed between supermarket free range and his free range, is his eggs, the yolks are a really dark orange colour.
A story not related to our hens. A few years ago I worked with a chap who kept hens who said that when he saw them eating dog poo (bowdlerised text) he new the yolks would have a deeper colour!Edited because of the censor
Edited by FlossyThePig on Monday 5th July 08:13
I try to buy products that have been produced from good enviroment but sometimes my budget won't stretch to it and i buy the cheaper stuff.There is a big difference between the quality ot the products but the cost difference is not that great a margine so i able to buy more from my local farm shop than my local netto.
Jasandjules said:
FlossyThePig said:
A story not related to our hens. A few years ago I worked with a chap who kept hens who said that when he saw them eating dog poo (bowdlerised text) he new the yolks would have a deeper colour!
And he still ate them?If they are really free range (as my few are) they will eat anything.
Road-kill especially with maggots, live mice/voles, sheep afterbirth and all sorts of dung flies seem to top the bill.
Their eggs are really beautiful to eat!
Basically they are pretty vicious especially as a group. I saw my neighbour's lot kill a hen pheasant that came too close.
Japveesix said:
EvoBarry said:
Japveesix said:
EvoBarry said:
Good on you for doing what you can, I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. Unfortunately I think if I brought some home nature would soon follow its course and my two adult cats would have a feast on their hands
Unless you have some seriously badass bengals or similar then I'd be amazed if they'd have a hope against a flock of 3+ chickens.My cat is big (he's definitely king of the road) and he goes well ought of his way to avoid the chooks
Chickens can hold their own against many things, see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXYjPHujPho&fea...
Ours will happily go for the pheasants & crows that come into the paddock to nick their food. Cats have never stressed our birds out. Our original birds are about 3 years old & still lay 6 eggs a week each. The only time it got a little dicey was when we had Geese in the paddock as well - it kind of turned into gang warfware, with the chickens ending up victorious unless the the geese could corner a single bird.
We ate the Geese, so that solved that little dilemma.
remedy said:
EvoBarry said:
Japveesix said:
EvoBarry said:
Good on you for doing what you can, I'm a sucker for this kind of thing. Unfortunately I think if I brought some home nature would soon follow its course and my two adult cats would have a feast on their hands
Unless you have some seriously badass bengals or similar then I'd be amazed if they'd have a hope against a flock of 3+ chickens.My cat is big (he's definitely king of the road) and he goes well ought of his way to avoid the chooks
My parents keep about 8-12 chickens of all sizes and types and my 9 year old, 7 stone golden retriever doesn't bat an eyelid as he wanders through them and they are just as indifferent to him. I find it fascinating to watch considering how terratorial he is yet he doesn't give a hoot about chickens!
Sorry, 40kg is around 7 stone not 9.
Edited by remedy on Sunday 4th July 17:18
Update on operation Chicken rescue:
The girls have settled in really well & are thoroughly enjoying their first taste of freedom. They are still living in their coop most of the time, but we are letting them out into the paddock in the evenings to have a bit of a run around. They are perking up incredibly quickly, although do still look a real rag tag bunch with no feathers! Come Saturday, they will be free to come & go as they please. We just have to manage their introduction to our other chickens so that there isn't gang warfare!
We are getting around 7 eggs a day from the new bunch and the quality is improving as each day passes as they flush the crappy food they used to be fed out of their system & de-stress.
I'm no soppy sod, but it is extremely rewarding watching an animal have a really good second chance at enjoying their life. They spend much of their time stretching what's left of their wings out & sunbathing or running around flapping as much as possible.
The girls have settled in really well & are thoroughly enjoying their first taste of freedom. They are still living in their coop most of the time, but we are letting them out into the paddock in the evenings to have a bit of a run around. They are perking up incredibly quickly, although do still look a real rag tag bunch with no feathers! Come Saturday, they will be free to come & go as they please. We just have to manage their introduction to our other chickens so that there isn't gang warfare!
We are getting around 7 eggs a day from the new bunch and the quality is improving as each day passes as they flush the crappy food they used to be fed out of their system & de-stress.
I'm no soppy sod, but it is extremely rewarding watching an animal have a really good second chance at enjoying their life. They spend much of their time stretching what's left of their wings out & sunbathing or running around flapping as much as possible.
I like a full-meat and eggs diet but I don't like to think there's any unecessary suffering between the farm and my plate, so good on you for rescuing them and highlighting it on here.
I buy free-range where the wording on the box states the chickens are free to roam indoors and outdoors. I take that "promise" as it's delivered and hope I'm not being lied to.
I also buy shampoo that hasn't been tested on animals too, but I only buy beer that has been thoroughly tested on chimps and beagles.
I buy free-range where the wording on the box states the chickens are free to roam indoors and outdoors. I take that "promise" as it's delivered and hope I'm not being lied to.
I also buy shampoo that hasn't been tested on animals too, but I only buy beer that has been thoroughly tested on chimps and beagles.
That's really good of you
I never buy 'cheap' eggs, meat etc and always try and buy organic or free range in the hope that the animals will have had a better life.
My friend lives on a farm and her brother farms chickens and showed me the pen the other day it was just a massive warehouse full of chickens there was no space to move at all, though they had plenty of food and water and the place was well kept, it still made me sad that they had no space to move, there was 30k in there!! They are the chickens that go to tesco value, kfc etc.
I never buy 'cheap' eggs, meat etc and always try and buy organic or free range in the hope that the animals will have had a better life.
My friend lives on a farm and her brother farms chickens and showed me the pen the other day it was just a massive warehouse full of chickens there was no space to move at all, though they had plenty of food and water and the place was well kept, it still made me sad that they had no space to move, there was 30k in there!! They are the chickens that go to tesco value, kfc etc.
schmalex said:
I'm sure that if the general public saw the condition of battery chickens, the market for cheap eggs would disappear overnight, as the birds looked so sad when we collected them, it really made you stop & think. However, give them a couple of weeks & their combs will be up & their feathers will start to come back.
I'm pretty sure there was whole famous cheif campagne for free range eggs on tv a while ago, it got quite a lot of publicity. It didn't make a massive differance. I have been in both battery and freerange sheds, but at the end of the day as a skint student the cheap eggs normally win over.
HFW and JO were involved in a project about Free range chickens and eggs last year. I was already on board with Free range but I think the main focus was to change the supermarkets to all free range (or at least higher welfare).
Some of the footage was horrible.
I'm getting 2 chickens on the 19th
Some of the footage was horrible.
I'm getting 2 chickens on the 19th
LOL. Spot is fine now. No more parading herself for all and sundry. The latest cat related disaster is Spot & Sparkle's daily slaughter of around 10 - 12 birds. mice, voles & shrews, which they then kindly place on my 6 year old's bedroom floor.
We got the chickens from the Battery Hen Welfare Trust - http://www.bhwt.org.uk/
Our local re-homing centres were either Southampton or Guildford, so we went for Guildford as I know a good pub just down the road from where we picked them up from for a pre-collection lunch. However, looking at their website, they do have a few places in the South West (Bristol, Midsomer Norton & Brent Knoll).
ETA. I'll try to get some pics up over the weekend.
We got the chickens from the Battery Hen Welfare Trust - http://www.bhwt.org.uk/
Our local re-homing centres were either Southampton or Guildford, so we went for Guildford as I know a good pub just down the road from where we picked them up from for a pre-collection lunch. However, looking at their website, they do have a few places in the South West (Bristol, Midsomer Norton & Brent Knoll).
ETA. I'll try to get some pics up over the weekend.
Edited by schmalex on Thursday 8th July 12:16
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