Has anyone in our area (Nelson) tried to get chooks that are heading for slaughter from the factory farms?
Now we are ancient we prefer to get all our animals this way.
To live with us you have to be old & endangered.
With the price of our kind of eggs (organic) going through the roof, we thought we might give a home to 3 or 4 old chooks to cater for 2 old crocks[8D]
Seems a bit futile to ask for 4 chooks out of a could be 4,000 though, when I think about it.[]
At the rate the darn builder is going, we could be past our use by date before the chook house is built though[xx(]
I find your post really funny. If you can get end-of-lay hens for a couple of Dollars each and don't mind waiting for them to lay next spring then go for it.
If you'd like eggs soon-ish, point-of-lay pullets are the way to go. You might get them for around 20 Dollars each, they should start to lay within 4 weeks, lay through this coming winter.
There are heaps of people who make a tidy profit getting hundreds of end-of-lay hens and on-sell them via TradeMe to unsuspecting new owners, promising eggs within 2 months - and charging 10 to 15 Dollars for one such hen. As the days are getting shorter these hens won't start to lay again for at least 5 months. Some will never lay an egg again. Shavers and Hylines can live for 10 to 12 years but don't lay for more than 3 or 4, maybe 5 in very lucky cases so just be aware of the implications.
In my books a chook needs to at least pay for her keep and if she's been a good one she may enjoy retirement.
Simkin;355169 wrote: In my books a chook needs to at least pay for her keep and if she's been a good one she may enjoy retirement.
My chooks enjoy the same rights as my other pets because that is what they are to me. In saying that, the downside to that philosophy is that the retirement paddock is chocka, because I have heavy breeds and the oldest ones are now 9 years old. The roosters don't get the retirement treatment though :eek: The only thing the girls aren't entitled to is a trip to the vet at the end of their days, the neighbour dispatches them for me bless him.
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Save the Earth... it's the only planet with chocolate!
Cinsara;355193 wrote: My chooks enjoy the same rights as my other pets because that is what they are to me. In saying that, the downside to that philosophy is that the retirement paddock is chocka, because I have heavy breeds and the oldest ones are now 9 years old. The roosters don't get the retirement treatment though :eek: The only thing the girls aren't entitled to is a trip to the vet at the end of their days, the neighbour dispatches them for me bless him.
I've just got too many. At least heavy breed birds tend to drop dead about a year after they've laid their last egg. Shavers and Hylines may live another 10 years after they've stopped to lay so this is a real issue for people who would like to treat their chooks as pets and offer them an enjoyable retirement.
Simkin;355277 wrote: I've just got too many. At least heavy breed birds tend to drop dead about a year after they've laid their last egg. Shavers and Hylines may live another 10 years after they've stopped to lay so this is a real issue for people who would like to treat their chooks as pets and offer them an enjoyable retirement.
Doesn't worry me, I don't particularly like eggs :confused: but I do have about 45 ladies in the retirees paddock and get 4 eggs a day at the moment [:0]
My old blue orp Bella the Beautiful is 8 years old and has given me about 5 eggs a year for the last few, I'll be really worried if she stops completely now.
I plan to be a Hyline, I want a long, long retirement after my paid working life is over [8D]
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Save the Earth... it's the only planet with chocolate!
Hey Hasbeen, we are of the same mind in wanting to save these chooks from the slaughter house, and we have had a huge amount of pleasure from our 'rescued' shavers.
However I will also put my hand up to having been one of those "people who make a tidy profit getting hundreds of end-of-lay hens and on-sell them via TradeMe to unsuspecting new owners", ............ although in our case it certainly is NOT a tidy profit, we paid $7.00 each per bird, we paid for petrol to collect the birds, we paid for feed for the birds and we also paid the Trade Me success fee on each sale which we sold for maybe $10 or $12.00 Also in our case it was not hundreds of birds ... more like 40 - 50. We would like to have sold more but unfortunately we couldn't really afford to do so.
So why did we do it??? - Certainly not for the "profit", These chooks are delightful creatures, and don't deserve to end up as dog food after such a short life. We did not promise eggs every day or mislead unsuspecting new owners, we stated the age of the chooks and gave as much information as possible. We have had heaps of positive feed back, and are constantly getting emails from people who know someone who have bought chooks from us and they want some.
Saving 4 chooks futile??? .... not if you're one of those chooks
Good luck with your search Hasbeen.
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