I have great difficulty getting pics of my hens that are flattering to them. For one thing, they never stop moving. And I can’t get a good angle without getting down on the ground which around here is usually muddy and wet.
I appreciate your educational (and they are) posts on chicken keeping. I don’t take it personal because I happen to keep my chickens in what has become the usual model for modern small flocks. Even though I am limited in what I can do, it is always useful to know what the ideal would be. It is...
I look at it this way, any creature that has been domesticated, has essentially been tamed.
Battery hens have been enslaved. They are still a chicken.
Ever read those stories of children raised in a closet? They are twisted and will never be “right”, but it is still best to release them from...
Production breeds will always be kept as long as people eat eggs. In almost every grocery cart in every line is at least a dozen eggs.
I am really pleased with myself, lol, because I have not bought an egg in a year and a half. I am spoiled now.
Some of my girls are “production hens”...
This is my philosophy as well. While I get that my domesticated chickens have been “robbed” of their natural wild life, I also think that they only even exist at all because of farming and breeding, and I love my little tribe for what and who they are. I try to provide them with an environment...
I see a book in your future. Or at least a research paper.
You are correct in that your point of view is different from the usual, and therein lies the value in it.
You are correct that one can’t study natural behavior in unnatural conditions. It is also true that you studied natural behavior for years.
It might be an amazing study to observe their behavior in unnatural conditions as a contrast.
Just a thought.
Like humans, chickens adapt in crisis...
I definitely crashed this party too!
And it has occurred to me that it was a bit rude of me to just show up uninvited and not even pay any tax!!!!!!!
So, in order to rectify my uncouthness….