Direction desperately needed, please!

[WalkingOnSunshine]

I always avoid trying to buy animals from places that keep so many birds together that they have to go as far as debeaking them by cutting part of their beak of the most beat up hens I've ever seen have been debeaked hens I usually get my animals from farms that are smaller and I always quarantine and take preventative measures before adding it to my birds and some animals I have bought adult that needed a home and where sick have ended up being some of the best

The hatcheries that sell started pullets debeak them because that's what the majority of their customers want. Those started pullets are destined for big layer houses, unless someone like me buys them. The debeaked hens I buy as started pullets live in the same hen house with the chicks I hatched that have full beaks. None of them are more picked-on than the others, and they all free-range just fine.

I think it's all in how you look at it. From my perspective, the pullets that I buy are lucky girls.

I know it sounds like a strange thing to many people, but I worked for the EPA and did a lot of work with farms and environmental regs, and almost without exception, it was the *small* farms that were the most polluting. The large farms had the money and the equipment and the employees and the oversight to do things right. The small farms spread manure too thickly, or in the dead of winter, or just ran it into the creek. They didn't sanitize things as well, and they didn't follow necessary standards. Just because a farm is smaller does not automatically mean better, and in my experience, it often means flat-out dirty.

 

[iguanasal]

I agree any animal
That a person does research on how to best maintain it is a lucky one but so is that farm ur supporting by buying its mutulated chicks and recommending them.As far as quarantine its simple make a small mesh enclosure and treat the bird daily all the other chickens in the flock should probably be getting caught and dewormed also any ways at least twice a year so if you are taking good care of your birds and doing research on how u can best get them to thrive I'm pretty sure you will suceed and they will. I am just saying antibiotics deworming vitamins and deliceing I just got 3 birds 2 frizzle hens with mites and one black frizzle naked neck with some yellow discharge coming from its nostrils a very small young one 2 days ago or so and I'm sure after I'm done giving them and the rest of my flock the medicine tetracycline and the lil blue pills every one will be just fine although I have these birds quarantine in a run away from the flock I've already allowed a pair that wanted to sleep in the cage where these are in and the ppl I've spoke to have all told me that is fine to treat all my birds not just the new ones

 

[Daisy8s]

i added shelter around my property to provide protection from hawks but of course they could provide weather protection as well. First, I used an old pallet to make a small lean-to. Second, I left our Christmas tree leaning against the fence. (Of course the tree will become a fire hazard in summer so I'll burn it then but for now they can shelter under it's branches.) Third, they use our picnic table for shelter. Fourth, last summer I used fallen branches to make a teepee on which I grew pole beans--my kids had fun playing inside it during the summer and because I left the string and vines intertwined on the branches it is still standing this winter. Altogether these make a series of shelters so the flock is never more than 100 feet from some kind of shelter.

But, their very favorite spot to shelter under is a big pine tree. It provides deep shade in summer, perfect duff for dust bathing, and excellent predator protection all the time. Pines grow fast--you might want to plant a few, especially the kind with low-growing, nearly solid-cover branches.

Good luck. Unfortunately some of the lessons we humans learn are at our animal's expense. Staying tuned into forums with advice from others is the best we can do in a culture where we're so far removed from the knowledge of our farming ancestors.

 

[dreamcatcherarabians]

I think one of the most valuable lessons we can take from the past is, they are animals. They're not humans, not our kids and while we love them and do our best by them, in the end, they are animals and prey animals destined to be eaten at that. They don't have a real long lifespan anyhow and because they are prey, theirs is usually quite short. Love them, be good stewards and take good, common sense precautions to protect them but realize they are not the smartest animals in the food chain and stuff will happen.

I'm a little bit of a purist, one of the reasons I started raising my own chickens was to get away from all the commercial stuff they do to chickens. I don't hold with de-beaking, I don't clip wings, or de-spur roosters and my chickens pretty much live the life of Riley because I let them be chickens. In the end though, they're gonna taste really good when it's time to eat them and right now, I love their eggs and silly antics.

 

[KatieBugg]

I think one of the most valuable lessons we can take from the past is, they are animals. They're not humans, not our kids and while we love them and do our best by them, in the end, they are animals and prey animals destined to be eaten at that. They don't have a real long lifespan anyhow and because they are prey, theirs is usually quite short. Love them, be good stewards and take good, common sense precautions to protect them but realize they are not the smartest animals in the food chain and stuff will happen.

I'm a little bit of a purist, one of the reasons I started raising my own chickens was to get away from all the commercial stuff they do to chickens. I don't hold with de-beaking, I don't clip wings, or de-spur roosters and my chickens pretty much live the life of Riley because I let them be chickens. In the end though, they're gonna taste really good when it's time to eat them and right now, I love their eggs and silly antics.

Very well put!!