Saturday 20 October 2012

The Chicks Development

We have now had the chicks for more than a week now and they are growing nicely. They are all more outgoing and interested in what is going on outside the coop.

Chicks_001

They have developed a fine taste for the grasses and weeds that have been growing in the coop since the older chickens moved out more than a year ago. They are depending less and less on the chicken pellets and eating lots of insects and greenery, and this is all for the good.

Some of the chicks are still a little smaller.

Chicks_004

But I still think that they are a week behind the rest of the flock in growth. Nevertheless, they are growing nicely. They spend most of their time under the heat lamp.

Chicks_002

As you can see, they are bright eyed and very interested in their surroundings.

The last lot of Isa Browns we got had their beaks clipped as they had been bought from a chicken battery. I am very glad that the business has since folded after investigation into their husbandry practices and failure to treat their animals humanely. I am still perplexed by people who make animals their livelihood but feel nothing at all when abusing and mistreating the animals that are their life. I think that the best thing that we can all do to stop this kind of treatment of animals is to keep our own and vote with our wallets.

Chicks_003

Besides … what is better than keeping chickens? They are funny, they eat almost all of our table scraps, they keep down the insect population, they give us eggs (most of which I sell to my work colleagues). All of this and they take almost no effort to maintain! Sure, I understand that many people can’t keep chickens, just from the simple fact that they need some space … but those of us who can keep chickens, should keep chickens.

They keep us in touch with our Dinosaur past.

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