How are the veggies coming along?

[Conor Wright]

We take in ex battery hens now and then,just a dozen or so at a time. there's always one or two like this. We give them a night indoors, near the stove with a blanket and water, some cooked rice mixed 50 50 with a sachet of wet kitten food. If there isn't a noticeable improvement in 24 hours I either wring their necks or drown them to ease their suffering. The dogs get the meat and the innards get dug in near a young tree.

No point getting too sentimental about them. I've been around caged hens in their hundreds of thousands. Death is a release to them.

[Conor Wright]

2 minutes ago, Steven P said:

I've looked at this a couple of times, replace the blanket with foil and it looks ready for a couple of hours at gas mark 6!

Ah man, he wanys to save it, not destroy it.

There's hardly any meat on a layer anyway. 45 mins be plenty!

[peds]

45 minutes ago, Conor Wright said:

Ah man, he wanys to save it, not destroy it.

There's hardly any meat on a layer anyway. 45 mins be plenty!

 

Good boiling bird, regardless off the age. Best chicken soup is from an old hen. 

[sime42]

55 minutes ago, peds said:

Scrambled egg, added crushed shell optional, added oatmeal optional, is what I feed chickens that need TLC. 

Expectant mothers, generally, not sick chickens. My sick chickens generally get told to buck up or bok off.

 

That sounds a bit wrong. Is that right, are chooks naturally paediacannibalistic? Other animals do it I suppose, so why not.

 

 

[peds]

Egg yolks are the perfect source of energy and nutrients for chickens... it's literally what they are designed to do, it's just that the usual intended recipient is still inside the shell with the yolk. Add a bit of crushed shell for calcium and some oats for calories and roughage, and you've got a poultry superfood.

 

A mother hen sitting on a clutch of eggs for 3 weeks, then however long it takes before she can safely go and forage with her babies, will happily eat any eggs or chicks she considers non-viable if she gets hungry enough.

 

For the greater good!

[peds]

1 hour ago, Conor Wright said:

We take in ex battery hens now and then,just a dozen or so at a time. there's always one or two like this. We give them a night indoors, near the stove with a blanket and water, some cooked rice mixed 50 50 with a sachet of wet kitten food. If there isn't a noticeable improvement in 24 hours I either wring their necks or drown them to ease their suffering. The dogs get the meat and the innards get dug in near a young tree.

No point getting too sentimental about them. I've been around caged hens in their hundreds of thousands. Death is a release to them.

 

 

My folks are into their third decade of rescue hens, you see some sorry looking birds coming out of those sheds.

I appreciate the reasoning behind it, and it's great that the birds involved get a second chance of life, but I can't do it. I feel as though it legitimises the industry to an extent... give us 12 months of hard labour, and then you can go free!

[Doug Tait]

2 hours ago, sime42 said:

 

That sounds a bit wrong. Is that right, are chooks naturally paediacannibalistic? Other animals do it I suppose, so why not.

 

 

 

I used to look after my mates when he was away in return for the eggs I collected. As I left their run one day with 8 or 9 eggs in hand I dropped one trying to close the gate. My god they were desperate to get at it. I'd no sooner grabbed one and thrown it back through the gate than another two were out, like a conveyer belt of birds fighting to get past me to the sacred broken egg. It was hopeless until I threw another egg back in the run and they all went for that so I got the gate closed. They definitely love eggs.

[Peasgood]

You have to be quick to collect eggs if you don't want the buggers eating them. It is quite a challenge to stop once they start. My geese are just as bad.

[Steven P]

3 hours ago, Conor Wright said:

Ah man, he wanys to save it, not destroy it.

There's hardly any meat on a layer anyway. 45 mins be plenty!

 

there is a reason I've never posted on the cooking thread!

[AHPP]

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Edited December 4 by AHPP