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Last night I went to the regional permaculture group, because they had an avian doctor there to talk about chickens and the health issues they face.
She had pictures. They were rather graphic.
It was at once fascinating and slightly horrifying. So many things that could go wrong! And chickens, being largely perceived in our capitalist economy as productive birds, to be given the chop when they no longer produce, do not have the same range of medical attention that, say, companion animals such as cats, dogs, and even the parrot family of birds. It's just not considered economically feasible, and so many of the options for even basic things like antibiotics and antivirals and vaccines are "off-label" which basically means they work but the issue of retention in the animal's flesh and blood hasn't been tested (which is a concern for both meat birds and layer birds).
However, the vet noted that she's mostly treating 'companion pets' - ie. birds that people are personally attached to rather than ones for production of eggs. So she'll tell the people who come to her with their birds about the off-label and warn them about the possible issue of medication retention in flesh and blood. Because these are things you have to think about when you're doing home-laid eggs.
Anyway, I should probably worm my chooks. Which means we'll be out a few days of eggs (and possibly some days of chook poop - maybe it could go in the long-term compost) but at least means that they'll be clear of worms. I'll have to look at the options for using eggs laid while chooks are on medication. Into a long-term compost, perhaps?
But if I worm them, I'm gonna have to move them off the current bed, though, and I don't really want to put them anywhere else right now. Maybe in front of the shed/arrowroot? Except that I was hoping to keep the sweet potatoes going through the winter.
Anyway then I came home to a FB post on a backyard poultry group where a guy wanted to know what was the best way to kill off his chooks which hadn't been laying for 3 months. We're just heading into winter; most non-layer breeds are heading into moult, and he was going to axe five chooks for being unproductive!
There were a LOT of comments about this. He was quite surprised at the number of comments and eventually turned off commenting, because apart from all the people inquiring age and type of the birds, to say nothing of how quickly he was going to kill them, there were a few expressions of disgust that he was just going to kill them because they hadn't been producing eggs.
Several people offered to take them off his hands, can't remember if he was going to take them up on it, though.
I think the main things I took away from the vet's talk, though, was too look after my girls (egg-layers) with love and care and all the necessary nutrients for as long as they're alive, which probably won't be very long - egg-layers last maybe 5 years?
--
To do before going away for the weekend:
1. divide chook feed into servings for easy feeding, also divide 'snacks' up into containers.
2. replenish their water
3. add more mulch to their pen
She had pictures. They were rather graphic.
It was at once fascinating and slightly horrifying. So many things that could go wrong! And chickens, being largely perceived in our capitalist economy as productive birds, to be given the chop when they no longer produce, do not have the same range of medical attention that, say, companion animals such as cats, dogs, and even the parrot family of birds. It's just not considered economically feasible, and so many of the options for even basic things like antibiotics and antivirals and vaccines are "off-label" which basically means they work but the issue of retention in the animal's flesh and blood hasn't been tested (which is a concern for both meat birds and layer birds).
However, the vet noted that she's mostly treating 'companion pets' - ie. birds that people are personally attached to rather than ones for production of eggs. So she'll tell the people who come to her with their birds about the off-label and warn them about the possible issue of medication retention in flesh and blood. Because these are things you have to think about when you're doing home-laid eggs.
Anyway, I should probably worm my chooks. Which means we'll be out a few days of eggs (and possibly some days of chook poop - maybe it could go in the long-term compost) but at least means that they'll be clear of worms. I'll have to look at the options for using eggs laid while chooks are on medication. Into a long-term compost, perhaps?
But if I worm them, I'm gonna have to move them off the current bed, though, and I don't really want to put them anywhere else right now. Maybe in front of the shed/arrowroot? Except that I was hoping to keep the sweet potatoes going through the winter.
Anyway then I came home to a FB post on a backyard poultry group where a guy wanted to know what was the best way to kill off his chooks which hadn't been laying for 3 months. We're just heading into winter; most non-layer breeds are heading into moult, and he was going to axe five chooks for being unproductive!
There were a LOT of comments about this. He was quite surprised at the number of comments and eventually turned off commenting, because apart from all the people inquiring age and type of the birds, to say nothing of how quickly he was going to kill them, there were a few expressions of disgust that he was just going to kill them because they hadn't been producing eggs.
Several people offered to take them off his hands, can't remember if he was going to take them up on it, though.
I think the main things I took away from the vet's talk, though, was too look after my girls (egg-layers) with love and care and all the necessary nutrients for as long as they're alive, which probably won't be very long - egg-layers last maybe 5 years?
--
To do before going away for the weekend:
1. divide chook feed into servings for easy feeding, also divide 'snacks' up into containers.
2. replenish their water
3. add more mulch to their pen
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For what it's worth, I think it's perfectly fine to kill your chicken to eat, because you're hungry, or it is otherwise a calm, sensible solution. But for not laying eggs in a season that has chicken not lay eggs...
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There's a post up now taking to task the people who criticised him. Which, fair enough. I asked about the age and breed of the birds myself, because that can make a difference to how many eggs they lay, and whether they're still laying.
It's a bit of an odd group, truth to tell - people with, say, 50-100 chooks in rural areas, alongside people like myself with backyard chooks that happily scratch around in about 5sqm. However, I think there's an element in the group that we're keeping chickens for eggs at least in part to give the chooks better lives than they get in cages/battery - to make them more than just commodities; living beings who should get to enjoy their relatively short life as much as possible. And the guy wanting to axe the birds just because they'd stopped laying in winter felt contrary to that purpose, if that makes sense.
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(Well, depending on whether you acquired the chicken to be an egg layer or to be a pet. The rules are different for pet chickens.)
But, yeah, if it's only a temporary, seasonal thing... o.O
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I could be wrong. But there's also the 'vibe' of the group which I described in my reply to monanotlisa - the feeling that we're in this for the chickens as well as the eggs. And I think that the tone of his post (if not the post itself) violated that social norm, which is why people were so upset about it.
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no subject
*shudder*