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Just to update,
The hens are well.
I like my hens and I am keeping them as pets for the rest of their days.
These birds hanging out near my garden (in a nice sized coop) and by an umbrella table where I often sit really relaxes me.
What more could a guy want?
Well maybe some eggs but I am just fine with what I am blessed to have.
I guess I was just having a hissy Andy period when I posted this.
Dragonmam, sorry to hear about your pet.
I too am known for doing things that make no sense to some others.
Sometimes you just have to follow your heart.
Thanks all.
Andy.
Well if you can arrange for the hens to get into your garden area and eat up the bugs, they are still "working" for you in a sense.
People do need to understand that actually farming for a living, or at least part of a living, you can't afford to keep around (significant quantities) of older animals who are not producing anything economic. If you do, the people who don't will eat your lunch with a better product at a lower price. I'm not addressing this to you Andy, just saying for the general collective readership, particularly people who have not lived in the country for long. Or ever.
I have about 2 dozen head of cattle in my pasture, including one old Brahma cow that must be 12 or 13 years old. The cattle owner gal considers "Diamond" a pet. I am OK with this, she's paying the same pasture rent for Diamond as for the younger cows who are producing calves. This is a nearly hobby scale operation, the cattle owners and I both have other and more significant sources of income than the pasture rent or the end of season cattle sale.
Out in the wild, things are even less sentimental.
I understand economics, I also understand my farm isn't a business, and I enjoy affording my animals a few sentimental luxuries like retirement for old hens and old cows who produced many babies.
We even named our beef cow, but we named her Pot Roast.
Chickens can be surprising in their personalities. We had hens years ago. And then one of our dogs (a chicken-killing dog who we kept away from the hens) gave birth to a litter. Imagine my surprise when I kneeled down to look into the straw bale house I had built for the dog to find a live chicken in there with dog and the litter. And she pecked my hand sharply when I reached in to take a look at the pups.
And the chicken-killing dog made absolutely no move to the chicken. That chicken stayed with the pups as they grew and was a baby-sitter the dog seemed happy to have. The pups snuggled up to her, under her wings.
The pups were probably about 5 weeks old when my husband and I spent the day at a rodeo and when we came back, I followed a trail of chicken feathers all around the house to the rear, where I found the poor hen.
I guess being a baby-sitter had run its course. I did feel terrible. It was interesting in another way that the dog was smart enough to keep that chicken alive as long as it suited her. It also gave me a whole new appreciation of chickens, the chicken being such a faithful "parent."
I used to get frozen hen in the supermarket,the meat is a bit tougher but much more tastier than the reguiar chicken.
they are bigger and back then ,cheaper.
where do I find them now?
I used to get frozen hen in the supermarket,the meat is a bit tougher but much more tastier than the reguiar chicken.
they are bigger and back then ,cheaper.
where do I find them now?
Years ago I worked with a poultry virologist and was sort of sad to learn that they're called "spent hens."
As far as not wanting to kill them, do you even know what is done with the millions of male chicks every year that won't grow into laying or meat hens? It's not pretty.
One of my friends recently told me something interesting.
He lives on the upper Olympic Peninsula and has a bunch of roosters in his flock of chickens.
He free ranges his chickens.
So apparently if you keep eggs at certain temperatures you can manipulate the sex of the offspring.
Most people want hens so they adjust their incubators or do whatever.
I’m thinking cooler temperatures produce males since our area is not known for high temperatures.
I know that they do that with tortious’s because I used to have several.
So that’s good to know if you are not wanting any roosters or are not sure why you are getting so many.
Cheers.
Andy.
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