Philosophical Vegan Forum

A nabour of mine has just rented out his house, as he hollidays. He has left with my family a chicken two ducks and a dog. so i am now looking for some help on how to care for these animals.


put chicken wire around the fences of the pool yard, putting the chickens will stop my dog (not the dog where looking after for him) from killing the chicken/ducks. the pool yard is paved with bricks with 3 garden areas all of witch are for the most part unable to be walked upon by the animals. will the lack of grass area cause a problem? (this worrys me as it is something many animal rights programs talk about such as earthlings, i do not however have any evidence to back up such a claim)

my dad's handling of the chickens seems to me to be unethical, if anyone has any information regarding chicken handling (in regards to holding them upside down by the feet) it would be very useful to me.

I already have possible solutions if ether of these things will be a problem.

Are the chickens aggressive?

If not, then handle them by picking them up like you would expect (as any roughly spherical object).

This guy is carrying two chickens:
http://thumb9.shutterstock.com/display_ ... 346022.jpg

If you're carrying more than two, you almost have to hold them by the legs... but as you said, there's just one chicken, right?
So, that's not really necessary.

I suggest you work to socialize your dog to the chickens. If your dog very aggressive to them?
A dog should not kill chickens if socialized to them properly.

Here's an article on it: http://www.ehow.com/how_2193909_introdu ... ckens.html

I don't think the chickens will have any problems walking around in the garden area. Why would they?
They'll mainly be interested in pecking around the garden for bugs and slugs.

They can go in the plants if they want, can't they? And touch the plants, and eat bugs off them?

so to recap

1)it is of little concern to pick up chickens by the feet, altho "as any roughly spherical object" is preferred.
2) it will be useful to socialize the dogs and chickens, or keep them separated.
3) the chickens seem to be for the most part uncomfortable with going into the garden, probably dew to lack of walking space that is not steep/slippery rocks, or the stems of plants.
4) the area being for the most part paved should not cause any real problems.

thanks BrimstoneSalad

p.s. is your name a play on "fire and brimstone" for atheist, and the stereotypical vegans fav meal, a salad?

I think they will go into the garden, or pick around its edges. If you can give them a better way to walk around in it, that would be nice. Chickens like to peck around for slugs and things in gardens, and they benefit your garden in doing so.

Picking chickens up by the legs, if done carefully, should not be particularly harmful, but it's not very nice if you have other options. This is one of the standard ways of carrying large numbers of chickens without a basket. Chickens have pretty tough legs. I would not carry a single chicken in this way unless it was aggressive/pecking.

It's kind of like picking up a cat by the scruff of the neck. It's sort of rude. But if the cat is aggressive, that's the way to do it.