Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[Fred's Hens]

The mail room can make some workers go bonkers, while others find a way to accept that the mail just keeps coming and coming.

Likewise, BYC. The posters will just keep coming, in the midst of the chaos that is a public forum, where the repetitive questions, the vastness of the inane advice that continue to be given, yet, some folks do actually learn some things, at least one hopes they do. I certainly have.

 

[Ridgerunner]

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Hey Ridge, bet you saw this one...........

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/22812_29255_1-anti_hunter.jpg

No, I missed that when it was on the Disney Channel. I was busy learning how cute a raccoon is when it's riding on your shoulder.

I actually admire some of the people that post some of those questions. Like the one yesterday where her father-in-law told her you could not put two different breeds in the brooder because they would kill each other. At least she was clever enough to ask instead of blindly accepting what one old-timer said.

 

[ThePigeonKid]

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X2

 

[ChickenCanoe]

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X2

X3
There's been some very harmful old-timer information. Not here necessarily but in the world at large.

 

[seminolewind]

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Hey Ridge, bet you saw this one...........

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/22812_29255_1-anti_hunter.jpg

That news post really makes me laugh--who really had the better life and humane death?

 

[southerndesert]

You know as I watch a wide variety of replies to a question not based on fact, but on feelings add up after someone posts a question I just have to shake my head.

So very often good solid advise is overlooked in favor of a fantasy solution to the problem by a loving pet keeping noob that is sure to only lead to more issues and this happens at this forum every single day.

Used to be I would try to help out, but after being scolded for being mean and non-understanding of my chickens by someone that read another internet post by someone having kept chickens for 2 years the OP ignores several folks giving same correct advise for what they want to hear right or wrong. Heck I even got a warning for same once....

Many threads I have now learned to avoid because the poster who is looking for honest advise gets sympathy, chickens have feelings too advise with a hug instead and the folks offering a solid solution are often ignored or blasted by know it all types that are causing more harm than good in the long picture for someone trying to learn.

Least this thread is a bit different and I wish more common since would dominate some of the other forum sections as I feel much bad info is being digested by new folks trying to only do it right.

I do not dislike BYC and feel it is a great and helpful forum, but the heavy lean toward pet keeping advise for farm animals is strange to me and often so based on human emotion and feeling when just letting a chicken be a chicken will solve the issue. Seems often though just to avoid a tiff between members bad advise dominates as correcting someone causes a flood of reports to the mods from the we dislike old person mean farmer advise crowd for disrupting the vibes....

Leaning to solid factual advise whether harsh, argumentative, ugly, or sweet and loving seems more logical....

But hey that is just my opinion...

Edit because spelling not so good...

 

[seminolewind]

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I, too, have learned to watch chick's behavior when it comes to heat. Turns out they spend alot of the day away from the heat lamp.

 

[Gypsi]

Love the animal lover news clipping. My granddaughter age 11 told me something like that last weekend. And I told her a little bit about factory chicken & egg farms.

We have compromised. I have kept the cross-beaked chick, now 8 weeks of age, but I will not hand-feed or baby her. She is truly a pet, flies up on my shoulder when I go out the door if they are loose. But my granddaughter knows that her deformity will only get worse, and that in time she may suffer hunger, and she will die. Education has a price. Right now it's just chicken feed.

People keep pets for emotional reasons, reckon chickens are pets to some. Until the cross-beak none of my hens had names. I learned to give them treats to get them to come when I called.

Guess I should do some work this morning. Bills and all. This is my favorite thread, btw.

 

[seminolewind]

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I came here to read some old tried and true practices from veteran chicken keepers. The thread was headed "wisdom" not "degrade those who offer their wisdom" .

I have alot of respect for what you veterans are saying. Good advice, good conversations. I'm sure hundreds are reading the posts here, if not thousands. I wish my grandma was alive to tell her tales. When I played dress up she called me "little buff offington" I never knew why till I learned about orpingtons here.

IMO, different subject. I think that freezer camp started to be used by thoughtful people who have understood that this forum has many kinds of chicken owners, some for pets, some for eggs, some for meat. It seems less offensive to me, as a pet owner.

 

[southerndesert]

I guess it comes down to this...

I like being able to read advise from those that have been there and done that and are willing to share results good or bad instead of getting advise from someone guessing based on little experience and some posts they read. Wrong well meaning advise can cause serious issues with someones birds so if not sure shut up and learn with them and share only what you know works!

I am an OT and I am using this thread as a learning tool as much as someone with their first coop to build.

Thank you all and keep it as it is.... REAL!