I have a wee bit of chicken experience.
Me too.
Chickens are much, much happier when they can roam, peck, scratch, socialize, hunt bugs, eat seeds and plants etc, out in the open.
- Most of the time - yes.
- When they're under attack - that's the LAST place they wanna be.
They are not happy when confined to cages or small enclosures, eating only chicken feed.
- I didn't say anything about cages, small enclosures, or eating only chicken feed.
- A week old chick with a set or two of accipiter hooks sunk into it is not happy. (I've had a set of accipiter hooks sunk into me - all the way. Trust me on this one.)
My grandparents let their chickens out into their garden everyday.
- Meaning that they were protected, safe, and happier indoors overnight.
= There are a lot of gardens that cease being gardens if chickens are let into them.
They also had a shot gun and a .22 ready for varmints.
- Define "varmint".
- Is there any possibility that by blowing away varmints which might be interested in chickens your grandparents were actually working against themselves because these varmints were a lot more interested in stuff that eats gardens than they were in the chickens?
- Sam HAS a shotgun - and undoubtedly a .22 (and probably a couple of assault rifles) - and no hesitation to use it and STILL wound up with a briefly extremely unhappy week old chick with a distressed mother and siblings.
- If the asshole had kept the birds enclosed for the two or three more weeks it would've taken before they were big enough for the Sharpy to have lost all interest, Mom, the chicks, and the Sharpy would've all seen net increases in happiness.
- Sam, however, would've probably lost an opportunity and excuse to blow away Federally protected wildlife - so probably not much change there.
- Those McClure Turkeys...
http://www.kitestrings.org/post3289.html#p3289
http://c1.staticflickr.com/1/820/26630469677_f4b01ec80a_o.jpg
...looked pretty happy but...
Hope no one gets them for Thanksgiving.
...you didn't want anybody to eat THEM. You wanted them instead eat Turkeys that were raised in conditions like THESE:
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7377/16299755327_c3409b82f7_o.jpg
- And that's how Margie wants HER chickens and turkeys raised and treated 'cause all she cares about is getting them so cheap that she can afford to use half the bird to eat twice as much as she should and throw the rest in the garbage.
- You could increase the population of Turkeys at McClure if you loaded up the pickup with shotguns and rifles and took care of all the varmints: Rattlers, Weasels, Skunks, Bobcats, Mountain Lions, Foxes, Coyotes, Raccoons, Black Bears, Magpies, Crows, Ravens, Cooper's Hawks, Goshawks, Golden Eagles. (That's probably illegal but I'm sure Bob would be happy to act as lookout 'cause he doesn't want Obama telling anybody what he can or can't do.)
- We did something like that back East here to increase the Deer population. Now we've got no Wolves or Mountain Lions but we've got LOTS of Whitetails - along with overbrowsing, starvation, habitat and garden destruction, loss of biodiversity, road kills, traffic wrecks and fatalities, and Lyme Disease.
- So maybe you wanna think about things a bit before you lock and load - even if seeing stuff like Rattlers, Weasels, Skunks, Bobcats, Mountain Lions, Foxes, Coyotes, Raccoons, Black Bears, Magpies, Crows, Ravens, Cooper's Hawks, Goshawks, and Golden Eagles doesn't add anything to the enjoyment of your flying day at McClure.
That's how they roll in Texas.
THIS:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8143/7462005802_bbc0ac66ac_o.jpg
is how they roll in Texas. I've never been overly impressed by the ability of folk from that neck of the woods to act in their own long term best interests.
