We are moving houses soon, and I've been thinking about adopting some chickens, ex-battery hens, that is.
I was wondering if it's possible to raise a chicken on a vegan diet? If it was closely watched and designed by a vet? Because I know that they are naturally omnivores, and all I've read about them says that they 'need' meat. And there's not much about it that I have found.
Also, if anyone knows of some rescue groups around Melbourne. Because, buying the chickens from the companies is just putting money in their pocket...
the thing is, you can give chickens a seed mix which is just wheat and sunflower seeds and corn and stuff. thats what we give our chickens. once we bought the pellety stuff but realised it had animals in it and we didn't get it again.
as for the whole vegan thing, our chooks don't get meat (unless you count the worms and grubs that they scratch up) and they are fine. we give them bread and the scraps and they are healthy enuf.
i suppose if you really wanted them vegan, they could be vegan. you'd just have to watch out for them eating their eggs. that's what our nasty chickens do. they're like, "oh, i've laid an egg. may as well turn around and eat it. burk burk burk. cock-a-doodle-do."
You're definitely not meant to feed chickens meat. They will generally eat leafy greens, wheat, seeds, grass and all sorts of other things... If they really need meat they will eat worms the way they're meant to, but you won't at all have to feed them it.
I'm not expert of course but I know people with chickens, it's best to do some internet research on how to take care of them before you take on the responsibility.
as lemon said, we keep our chooks on a pretty much vegan diet.
a good seed mix is all we give them in terms of a main diet, three times a day (morning midday and night) plus we supplement their diet with weeds from the garden (they love dandelion leaves)
and if your okay with it, they love eating snails, worms and pretty much any grub or bug
again, if your okay with it, they love eating the washed-up cuttle fish bones from the beach.
its really good for their eggshells, to keep them hard.
i think when they start eating eggs, they have low calcium, but you'd have to double-check (they could just be naughty and i don't want to admit it to myself)
if they are a bit sick, soak some bread in water and put crushed garlic through it
i'm curious, what are you planning to do with the eggs?
if i were to go vegan, i would still eat our chickens eggs cos i know they are well treated.
thats pretty much all
chooks have the most gorgeous nature
Looking at Wikipedia it seems that chickens are indeed omnivores. If I was keeping them I guess I'd give them vegetables and hope the insects & worms they get are enough meat for them. You could always turn the garden over to reveal some worms for them.
I certainly wouldn't worry about the moral dilemma of chicknes eating meat as I wouldn't consider them moral agents. However I'd hope they could get enough meat from their surroundings.
It seems most people aren't aware they are omnivores. Hmmm.
What to do with the eggs. Well, I couldn't bring myself to eat them, I'd feel like I was exploiting them, and the thought of eating a chicken's period... ewwww. So yeah, just chuck them out I guess.
It seems most people aren't aware they are omnivores. Hmmm.
What to do with the eggs. Well, I couldn't bring myself to eat them, I'd feel like I was exploiting them, and the thought of eating a chicken's period... ewwww. So yeah, just chuck them out I guess.
whhaaa?? no!
Think about it, if you sell them, that's less eggs that people have to buy from cage eggs suppliers and shonky "free range" farms. Put the word out to friends and family members or sell them at markets. Just collect old egg cartons from other people, pop them in there with a home made label "Organic Free Range Eggs" and get them out there.
Even give them away to people you know buy cage eggs, it all helps!
It seems most people aren't aware they are omnivores. Hmmm.
What to do with the eggs. Well, I couldn't bring myself to eat them, I'd feel like I was exploiting them, and the thought of eating a chicken's period... ewwww. So yeah, just chuck them out I guess.
whhaaa?? no!
Think about it, if you sell them, that's less eggs that people have to buy from cage eggs suppliers and shonky "free range" farms. Put the word out to friends and family members or sell them at markets. Just collect old egg cartons from other people, pop them in there with a home made label "Organic Free Range Eggs" and get them out there.
Even give them away to people you know buy cage eggs, it all helps!
Well, it depends on how you look at it. That's making profit off them. It's encouraging others to believe that 'free-range' or 'organic' is okay, which in the long run can destroy the possibility of a world where we don't exploit other creatures etc.
It's the same with 'free-range' meats.
I get what you are saying, I would never promote free range eggs to other people because that industry is misleading and cruel. But you have a chance to educate people about how chickens are treated if you just explain what is wrong with the free range industry and how chickens aren't really "free range".
Just think, you could actually STOP one person from buying cage eggs altogether so it would go from a certain amount of cruelty to no cruelty whatsoever (assuming you treat your chickens well)
