Chortle Chook Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Just wondering what would make people on this forum give up keeping chickens. There have been a few posts recently about early morning noise. Mine make little noise in the early mornings (and I even have a cockerel all be it a very old one aged 9) so that wouldn't be the issue for me even though I would sometimes like not to have to get up quickly on a weekend in the summer to make sure my girls get maximum fun before it gets hot. For me it is the poor veterinary advice. I've found it really difficult to get decent care over the 6 years I've been keeping chickens. On the one hand I've had a vet suggest I keep a rather sleepy chicken on a drip for a week at a referral centre when she (the chicken, not the vet) had lice in her crest that a good powdering got rid of and on the other I've had a vet refuse to stock baytril antibiotic because "it is expensive and has a short shelf life". I've also had one tell me that a chicken I had definitely had Mareks when it turned out to be a cancerous growth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat tails Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 For me it would either be moving to a house without a garden or my boarding place not taking chickens anymore, as I wouldn't really know what to do with them during holidays. My ladies definitely can be noisy, but they were here before the neighbours, so they can't complain. I have asked the council if I could keep them and they never objected. I personally found a very nice vet, not necessarily overly knowledgeable in the chicken department, but fine enough. He is honest and capable and willing to listen. All I need really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Ten years on, I can't imagine not having chickens. As Cat tails says, it would be due to not having a garden, or maybe when I'm too infirm to lug the Eglu in and out for cleaning, which I hope is a few years away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gavclojak Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Mine would be complaints from neighbors. After my four current girls leave this mortal coil I think I will have a break for a little while but I don't think I will ever give up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullethunter Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 I've loved chickens since I was little and finally having my own makes me very happy. I absolutely love them - I really am the crazy chicken lady! The only thing that would make me get rid of them, as some others have said, would be serious complaints from the neighbours. It wouldn't actually be the neighbours that would bother me, but I know OH would find it very difficult to cope with knowing we'd really upset the neighbours. Luckily mine are only noisy when they want to lay and another won't let them in the nest box, and for the go song. If I was single I'd just move somewhere with no neighbours, then the only thing that would make me stop having them would be if I could no longer look after them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daphne Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 Moving countries and travelling has made me give them up. It was tough, but not compared to what I have gained I still miss them, and intend keeping chooks again once we settle down although I am really enjoying the freedom right now We had cockerals and a complaining neighbour which took the gloss off for me, plus a fox attack literally days before I got rid of the last birds, so in a way the decision was made easier. The other thing is I have photos as screen savers, and on canvas, so my favourite birds are still very vivid to me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kopperdrake Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 We've kept them for around 8 years now and I can't imagine life without them. We're up to 25 and if anything, we'd just downsize to one coop, but that's a long way off I hope! We're lucky enought to have an orchard where they poddle around, and it would look barren without fluffy feathers bobbing in and out and making great big holes out of new mole hills Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancing cloud Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 I considered it for one night last year when I thought the fox had got both mine and I didn't want to get any more just to be fox dinner. It was a very long night However, turned out both my spoiled little madams survived , so I spent huge amounts on a WIR to keep them safe. When I get too old to care for them properly, I'll have to think about it, but that's (hopefully) a very long way off yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kopperdrake Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 I think that's why Omlet brought out the Cube and Go Up - they realise their long-time fans are getting older and less wanting to bend down to clean out Maybe if we wait another thirty years they'll have automated coops that conveyor the poop off into the compost bin for us and emit an audible beep to help us find the coop with our failing eyesight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 I have kept hens on and off since I was 8 years old. I was given my first bantam cross chicks by a gamekeeper on a stately home estate that we were moving away from. My parents weren't very happy when he turned up with them on moving day . I had helped or hindered him for about a year before this. We kept them and bred them for a few years before getting some brown layers and my mum kept them for another 25 years or so (not the same ones obviously) . She only gave up when it looked like she would have to move. I then got my own ladies in 2007 and haven't looked back, we have been very lucky with them, we have been careful too and have bought good healthy vaccinated pullets each time. I would give them up if we had serious fox problems, or disease issues or moved into a flat which we may do in 10 years or so, but for now I enjoy them and their eggs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Margaret Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 Hi Catherine, I have been thinking about this quite seriously for a few weeks now. Hate the thought of it , but I am awaiting a date to go into hospital for a big operation and really dont know how I am going to manage long term aterwards. Short term I have worked out, for two months I will take the girls to their usual holiday home ( boot camp really ) but they are fine being treated like chickens for a while. If I power wash house and clean WIR before they go wont have to worry about that when they come back home for a few weeks. Its after that, I know OH will help, but dont think every few weeks he will haul the house out of WIR stagger down garden and power wash it for me and then spend a couple of hours once a month cleaning out and hoovering all the crevices of the WIR I know its a bit OTT, but that is my routine. So at the monent not really sure if I can continue, OH wants the area for a shed... but that is not going to happen. Cant imagine the garden without them in it, but.. I am getting older and just maybe life would be easier, especially in winter, and working fulltime still.........HELP...what do I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chortle Chook Posted June 9, 2016 Author Share Posted June 9, 2016 I do hope your operation is not as big as you think, Margaret, and that all goes really smoothly. We'll be thinking of you. I keep thinking that the wise thing would be to not get new chickens as the old ones toddle off this earth and am now down to 6, but whether I really can bite that bullet I don't know. I have been so put off by the fact that it is easier round here to get treatment for a pet hammy than a chicken. I long for a sort of 'Yorkshire Vet' situation where if I spot one not looking well I can pop round to the vet and get her some decent treatment, but I guess I am in a rural area where chickens are still very much considered as a disposable commodity I have lost another one today (she was old at 7 but . . . ) and thinking about it, I can't imagine my garden without chickens. I think it would seem very barren after all the bustling that is always going on in it. And who would eat the left over sweet corn? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chortle Chook Posted June 10, 2016 Author Share Posted June 10, 2016 Well that's me sorted . . . I've agreed to have another Poland so perhaps not giving up any time soon after all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsunset Posted June 10, 2016 Share Posted June 10, 2016 Chortle chook, yes you need another Poland! Like you I've asked myself the same question this year and despite an awful chook disease I cannot imagine the garden without them, even if I only had 2!! The garden could...but I can't. ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alis girls Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 Ill health - me and girls. I lost one today - a youngster - huge prolapse and smelly discharge - flies buzzing round. I made decision to dispatch. Have never don e before with my own hand but did it. Not as hard as I'd hoped. I am a wuss - years of human nursing has made me want to nurture and nurse man and beast. However when you know the outcome wont be good - flystrike fills me with horror - it was the best decision. I couldnt be a farmer I'd have old decripid animals everywhere. I dread the day i wont be able to be a mad chicken broad. Hopefully a long way off yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
