During my research of battery hens, I came across a very sweet and wonderful aspect of the laying hen story. I was very weighted down with the lives these poor little birds are forced to live, and then I came across the information that there are people out there who re-home hens that have reached the end of their commercial laying lives. (Usually around 18 months). At this point the hens are sent for slaughter, to be made
Beautiful hens in warm sweaters.
into pet food etc. Some very blessed hens however get their first chance at living a life of freedom, a life every chicken should be able to live from the very beginning. Now they can stretch their wings, feel the sun shining on them, have dust baths, and just run around in a clean and spacious environment. Thanks to caring and compassionate individuals, these little hens who have only been valued for their eggs, now have a chance to just be themselves. They are chickens that need help, and there are good people out there who want to help them.
Most of the hens have significant feather loss from their horrible living conditions, and so they are more likely to become chilled and sick. So, a wonderful idea has been thought of…chicken sweaters! 🙂 Many wonderful people have taken the time to knit or crochet pretty sweaters to keep these lovely hens warm while they grow their feathers back. I have been thinking I would like to do the same, and send them to organizations that deal with rescue hens. I crochet, so I know I could learn a pattern for a chicken sweater. So far, I have found far more about re-homing hens in the U.K., but I’m sure I can find something in Canada.
Here is a link to the website of a wonderful organization that is helping hens in the U.K. :
Here is a video showing one group in the U.K. who has helped these beautiful hens by giving them sweaters. The birds seem to really take to the sweaters, and I know they help a lot.
Well, tomorrow is the 2nd day of our annual Fall Fair. For about 8 years I was involved helping with chick hatching and taking care of the birds. I even gave a short interview on the local radio station one year. I loved every minute of all the years I was able to help out there. It was so rewarding to show people that chickens are beautiful animals, and they can even make great pets. 🙂
Fancy Pants at 1 year old - Summer 2010
Last year I didn’t help out, and I didn’t think I was going to get to this year either. I worked today, but my mom and dad went to the fair grounds to help out, and they talked to our veterinarian, (he is very involved with the bird aspect of the fair), and he said I can help him out tomorrow. So, I am very excited! I decided I am going to bring my rooster, Fancy Pants. He was actually hatched during the fair two years ago, so he will be going back to where he was born. (Not that he knows that.) 😉
Fancy Pants as a baby- Summer/Fall 2009
So, I gave him a nice bath today, which he enjoyed, and I dried him with the blow-dryer so he wouldn’t get chilled. He had never had a bath before, but he was very calm and relaxed through all of it. Then I let him walk around the yard for awhile, and later we went up on the deck, and he sat with me for at least half an hour, he is such a quiet bird. 🙂
He’s a cochin, and they tend to be a quieter breed of chicken. They are also probably my favourite breed. I love their feathery legs. Tomorrow Fancy Pants goes on an adventure. I will be sure to take pictures, and perhaps even some video.:)
I spent most of the day up at the barn working on taking down tarps in the old chicken pen/granary. My mom’s little black turken spent most of the day with me. (She may officially be my mom’s, but since I take care of her and spend time with her, really…she’s more mine. ) 😀 She’s very sweet and she comes over to see me and makes these quiet little peeping sounds. I will have to put a video of her up soon.
While I was up at the barn, I looked over, and a number of my chickens had decided to have a dust bath in front of my dad’s skidder. They looked so cute kicking up the dust and rolling around. I could watch them for hours, they always make me smile. Seeing them happy makes me happy. 🙂
I haven’t gotten a video of my birds dust bathing yet, but I did find a cute one on Jess & Krista’s blog. Here it is.
Last night I was finishing up my first video and looking for other videos to add to my YouTube Channel, when I can across some amazing chickens. The videos were mostly shot at “Chicken Camps” hosted by Bob Bailey & his wife Marian. They are dog trainers and their belief is that, “if you can train a chicken, you can train anything.” So, they use chickens to improve and strengthen the skills of other dogs trainers and owners.
I have owned and raised chickens for most of my life, and I was so surprised at these videos. I knew, or at least had hear, that chickens could be trained to perform simple tasks, but I wasn’t aware that they were capable of so much. In the videos the birds, are trained through positive reinforcement and operant conditioning to do certain things. They are able to discriminate between colours and shapes and do a sequence of steps in a certain order.
Here is a link to Legacy Canine’s “Chicken Camp” web page. It has information outlining what the camp is about and why and how they work with chickens.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this, because so many people, even those who have owned chickens for years, don’t realize how much they are capable of. I mean, they can tell the difference between at least 4 different shapes and 3 different colours! That makes them at least as intelligent as dogs on some levels.
Also, these hens appear to be leg-horns, which are the same ones used in the egg industry. It just drives home the point that these are thinking, feeling, intelligent creatures that deserve a happy and healthy life, filled with love and stimulation. They are not some brainless animal with no feelings that should just be crammed in a cage and never be able to see the sun, run around and be a carefree animal. This abuse really needs to stop. (There, I had to get that out).
Here is one of my favourite videos, you can watch more on my YouTube Channel under the “Amazing Birds” playlist.
I made a video of my birds today! This is my first video project I have edited like this, and while it isn’t perfect, I am proud of it. 🙂 I think it shows just how happy my birds are.
The rooster at the very start of the video is Fancy Pants. I named him that because of his feathery legs. (He’s a cochin). The hen that’s looking up at the nesting box is Henny Penny. The mother hen’s name is Chikoh, I still have to name her baby. Chikoh is part Silkie and part English Game Hen. Disco is the duck that’s standing outside the pen, (the first duck in the video). You can also see a little turken and my guinea fowl. 🙂
Any way, I hope you enjoy the video. I would have kept the original audio, but it was choppy since I edited it. I think the music is pretty anyway.
I also discovered some amazing videos of chickens tonight. You can watch them on my YouTube Channel in the “Amazing Birds” playlist. I will post more about them tomorrow.
I have been helping my dad with our new duck/chicken pen for awhile now. I’ve done most of the staining and the pen is nearly finished. The doors just need to go on and be painted, which I am doing today.
It’s a nice pen, spacious and well built. I know our birds will love it.
I will take some photos of the pen as well as of the birds. I also want to get some videos to share. 🙂
Until then, here is another cute video I found. It’s so sweet to see the mommy talking to her little babies and the babies talking with her. How can anyone not see that chickens are very social and form bonds and relationships like all other animals do?
I can’t help but contrast this video with what goes on in so many hatcheries. All these babies want is warmth and protection. (Notice how they go under mommy to stay warm and safe). So many poor little ones are denied this kind of care.
I just want to add though that I realize many chicks and other baby birds are hatched in incubators and therefore have no hen to go with. I myself have hatched birds in this way. I don’t believe it’s wrong so long as they are kept warm and safe and protected as they would be if they had a mother bird. They do very well on their own actually and they bond with the other babies. That being said, I have always preferred to hatch birds naturally so that they do have a mother, that is clearly the best way and the way God intended it to be.
Mother hens are in many ways one of the best mothers in the animal kingdom. They will often die protecting their young and they are very affectionate and attentive to their chicks. I have had many hens fly at me while I am giving them food or water, because they perceived me as a threat and were trying to protect their babies. They really will stand up to anything that they believe may harm their chicks.
The Bible has a beautiful verse which I am sure most people have heard:
“Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” – Matthew 23:37
God, who made these wonderful animals is using the mothering nature of the hen to describe how He feels toward His people. I think that is a beautiful thing. There truly are elements of who God is in the creatures He has made, to me this also mean they have exceptional value. To know that we can look at a mother hen with her little ones and see a bit of God, is amazing. 🙂
It’s interesting that I came across this video today. My black rooster was doing this very thing up at the barn earlier. (We also use buckets like this for our hens to lay in). Anyway, I had let some of the chickens outside to enjoy the sunny day, and I heard all this clucking and commotion coming from inside the barn. I went in to see what it was about, and there was Mr. Rooster up in the hay talking to one of my buff hens and telling her to get up there and lay an egg. 🙂 It was adorably cute and amusing to watch. These birds are just so much more beautiful and sociable than so many people think or know.
Here is the video. It’s sweet, I hope it makes others smile too. 🙂
Here is an encouraging and uplifting video from “Shoots & Roots” of chickens who are free to truly be chickens. I wish more people could understand and appreciate that these animals really do have feelings and emotions. They can be happy and sad just like any other living things.
I love the part where they are having dust baths, my chickens love to do that too.
So, it’s late and I have been working on getting this blog all set up. The last entry I made was pretty disheartening, so I figured it was time to share something more uplifting.
What could be more uplifting than some pretty photos of some happy birds? 🙂
*These photos have all been taken by me and may not be used without permission.
My English Game Hen, Reno & Her Baby (Summer 2010)
Well, I have been doing some research and looking into animal cruelty today. In particular I have been focusing on the poultry industry, and what I have discovered is beyond disturbing to say the least.
There are so many birds and so many places that abuse them, I don’t even know where someone would begin in doing something about it. I watched several videos taken at hatcheries, some were filmed undercover, but one was even featured on “How It’s Made” on the Discovery Channel. Of course the one from the Discovery Channel didn’t show anything extreme or any injured or dying birds, but it still showed huge numbers of baby chickens moving down conveyor belts and being roughly handled. The undercover videos showed horrific things that I couldn’t believe I was seeing.
Many of the chicks are injured and killed by the machinery, and, if they are weak, sick, or injured, they are disposed of along with their shells. They also go through a process where they are hung by their heads and have the ends of their beaks burnt off, so that they will not be able to injure other birds by pecking. I know how terrified these poor little babies must be. Having hatched and raised so many chickens myself, I know that when they are that young, all they want is warmth and protection. Instead, these chicks are faced with being roughly handled, (even thrown), sent down long conveyors where many get injured, and put into crates for shipping.
I myself had never really looked so much into what goes on at a hatchery. I already knew that sometimes the birds are handled roughly in order for the workers to maintain speed and efficiency, but I had no idea it could be so bad as what I saw today. These sweet little birds may as well have been non-living things, simply useless objects to be tossed about whichever way the workers wanted them to go.
Of course, that brings up the central point behind all this senseless cruelty. These chickens are far from useless, at least the strong and healthy ones aren’t. MONEY…that is the number one reason all of these things go on. If there was no money in it, then no one would do it. I know that this is obvious in many instances where unethical and horrendous things go on, but I still wish it could be easily brought to an end. Many people feel that the answer is staying away from meat and animal products all together, but, realistically, I don’t believe that there will ever come a day when everyone in the world becomes a vegan or a vegetarian. What needs to change is how the animals are treated during their entire lives.
I eat meat and eggs, and I don’t condemn anyone else who does so. Most people probably have absolutely none or very little knowledge about what goes on in the lives of the animals that eventually end up in grocery stores or fast-food restaurants. I don’t think it’s wrong to eat them, and I know that there will always be people who do, what is wrong is how they are treated. Watching those videos makes that very clear to me.
This morning my dad made us breakfast with fresh eggs from our chickens. I mentioned that they taste much better because they come from happy hens, and I believe that. Our chickens can actually be chickens. They are able to run and flap their wings, clean their feathers and drink clean water and eat nutritious food. I believe it is not at all wrong to eat eggs from chickens who have been raised with love and respect. The truth is though that most people are not able to have their own chickens. Obviously the majority of people live in cities, and are therefore unable to own poultry of their own. The grocery store is the only option for most people out there, and it’s just easier not to ask questions about where the eggs come from and how the hens who lay them are treated.
It is true that there are more businesses these days who claim on their cartons to have “free-range” hens, but there is no way of knowing whether or not this claim is true. Apparently there have been cases of false advertising in this regard. Obviously there is less money to be made by businesses who actuallydo treat their birds ethically, and eggs from such hens cost more to buy. I believe though that we should all support the farmers and companies who truly make a commitment to treat their birds fairly.
Anyway, here is a informative little site outlining some of the things that go on in the poultry industry, as well as some truths of how special each of these birds really is.
WARNING: This video is very graphic. Please do not watch it if you are uncomfortable seeing the extreme cruelty to baby chickens that goes on in hatcheries each and everyday.
This video is from Compassion Over Killing and is the result of one of their investigations into animal cruelty.
Love the Birds 