Any thoughts please - chick rearing

Re: Any thoughts please - chick rearing

Sarah Cahill — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 08:36:16 GMT

Completely agree that children who eat meat should be educated about how it gets onto their plate - hence why I've been vegetarian since I was 4 and am now vegan.

Re: Any thoughts please - chick rearing

Gillian Mostyn — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:14:40 GMT

A few points:

- the breeds for egg production are not suitable for meat, so if these are, as I suspect, layer chicks then they are unlikely to be killed on farm.

- even if the kids are told about egg and meat production, and are told that some animals similar to their chicks are reared specifically to be killed for meat, what is the problem? It is true. Children who eat meat should be educated about how it got onto their plate.

- chicks don't need a mum.

Re: Any thoughts please - chick rearing

Katie Mansfield — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 22:06:12 GMT

sadly I'm south, but I would have been really interested in that Kerry

K x

Re: Any thoughts please - chick rearing

Kerry Brennand DipAVN (Surgical) RVN A1 MBVNA — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 21:17:52 GMT

If any of you are in the North West region I have organised a BVNA talk on "Lets Learn About Chickens!!!" with Victoria Roberts - they are becoming popular as pets nowadays and have been asked by many to organise this talk. Its on Monday 25th June 7pm at Myerscough College - please contact me for more details

Re: Any thoughts please - chick rearing

emmadilemma — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:50:48 GMT

Ii agree that there`s better ways to teach kids about animals...especially if the chicks are ending up on farms then being killed. Maybe if they`re not prepared to stop doing it you could talk them into getting good homes for the chicks once they grow up? Alot of people seem to be getting hens these days for eggs so i wouldn`t have thought it`d be hard to get them a home. I agree too that it`s sad they have no mum

Re: Any thoughts please - chick rearing

Katie Mansfield — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:39:49 GMT

Mmmm maybe. I guess I'm just an all natural, free-range kinda gal :)

K x

Re: Any thoughts please - chick rearing

Kim Buckley — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:25:53 GMT

[quote user="Katie Mansfield"]It just seemed wrong to me that they're treated so artificially. [/quote]

If you look at how most intensively reared chickens are raised then these chicks sound like they are getting a pretty good deal.

Re: Any thoughts please - chick rearing

Kim Buckley — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:25:51 GMT

[quote user="Katie Mansfield"]It just seemed wrong to me that they're treated so artificially. [/quote]

If you look at how most intensively reared chickens are raised then these chicks sound like they are getting a pretty good deal.

Re: Any thoughts please - chick rearing

Katie Mansfield — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:17:31 GMT

[quote user="Kim Blowing"]I presume once the chicks are big enough they will be put outside and be allowed to be normal chickens?[/quote]

Once they're old enough they either go home with a child from the class or back to the farm, and then, I guess, to Tescos :(

It just seemed wrong to me that they're treated so artificially.

K x

Re: Any thoughts please - chick rearing

Elerrina — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:06:12 GMT

I have reared chicks many times for a lady who owns a farm but doesn't have the time to rear them herself. They have always turned out to be lovely chickens much nicer than the ones reared with their parent. They're extremely friendly and often used to come out when they heard my voice but they had all their natural chicken behaviors, it didn't seem to be of any detriment to them at all. And in my opinion it seems a bit over the top comparing battery conditions (which haven't really been moved away from, they just get some toys and an extra couple feet space) to hand raising chickens

Re: Any thoughts please - chick rearing

Kim Buckley — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 17:00:12 GMT

I don't really know a lot about chickens but a friend of mine breeds chickens and most of them are hatched in a incubator. They don't have a parent bird and all seem to be fine and grow up to be normal chickens. She also uses chickens to incubate and rear ducklings and they don't seem to be at any disadvantage by not having a duck mother.

I presume once the chicks are big enough they will be put outside and be allowed to be normal chickens? Probably isn't great that they are handled by lots of children but I suppose it will make them quite tame when they are older. We had ducklings in our classroom when I was at school so I'm guessing it is quite a common thing?