To think that chickens are being unfairly favoured by being given their own topic when all other pets have to slum it in a single category?

[Threadworm]

Why can't they sit in a very small cage thread in the pets topic, instead of going free range with a whole topic to themselves?

Can we have a guinea pig topic please.

chickens aren't pets though are they?
they are dinner

Ooh, yes please! I love guinea pigs.

Message withdrawn

Maybe because the chickens are not just pets? Maybe because they cross the pets/ethical living/gardening/recipe topics? (and how many other pets cross all those )

That was to the op, sorry

fab

yabu

going off to find said topic

Although I believe Guinea Pigs are quite tasty....

Do you have egg envy?

No egg envy. My canary has laid eggs. But I suppose she wouldn't be welcome in the chickens topic

Chickens deserve their own topic because, unlike guinea pigs, they are multi-tasking. They are pets who provide food.

If you follow my (dodgy) logic we could also have a topic for pet dogs who bring home ducks or pheasants for supper, or pet pigs who find truffles. But cats and guinea-pigs etc. do not multitask. So there .

Chickens don't fit into any of the categories - and there are lots of us with them - and anyway, I think hopefully it may be more of a 'livestock' topic, with room for goats, pigs etc.

(I don't really mind, of course! And I'd love to keep chickens if it was practical for me.)

Actually, a wider, livestock, category would make more sense.

where is the hen topic?

Justine has promised one, but I don't think it has arrived yet!

motherfunk - I think part of the point is that many people can and do keep chickens even in fairly urban gardens, fewer people have the possibility of keeping a cow, pig etc

Also, it is easy to keep chickens and they don't have to be eaten to serve a useful purpose.

Hassled, my cat once brought home a rabbit so there .
Granted it was a neighbours pet rather than a free-range one, but theoretically we could have eaten it, so cats can multitask .

Well, just because they are convenient, they get more attention than the other animals..

Sure, its not hard to keep sheep or pigs is it? Cows fair enough, they are really big.

Gordon Ramsay had those sheep in his back garden, and George Clooney has a pet pig. TBH, I don't know anyone who keeps any farmyard animals as pets.

I just think chickens are getting all the attention..

But chickens are not pets are they?

Mzybe we should have a topic entitled 'the good life' or 'aspirational smallholdings' so that the focus isn't solely on the chickens though? Would that help all those out there with chicken envy?

ahhh but are chicken's pets or are they dinner?Dog au vin - nope. Coq au vin - yes

Hmm, rabbits could go in either pets or food, couldn't they?

All 'normal' farming has levels of cruelty attached to it, but most people (thinking people) have to agree that current battery chicken 'living' conditions ara actually a living hell.

Anyone who still eats non free range eggs after seeing the evidence is sick.

And this is why there is so much coverage.

And freeing ex battery eggs is such a nice thing to do.

ooops, its not the egge being freed, it's the hens

ooooh I would love a smallholding, so yes to the ASPIRATIONAL SMALLHOLDINGS topic.

I'd also love a huge aviary type thing with rabbits and guinea pigs in it.

Hmm, I think the title should be 'Chickens and livestock' or something similar so that it remains a 'chicken' topic, as that is what most of us have, but includes other 'Tom and Barbara' type ventures.

Lovesdogsandcats- sorry but I'm going to have to put you straight on the "All 'normal' farming has levels of cruelty attached to it".
If we 'normal' farmers were found to be using practices even remotely upsetting to our livestock then SEERAD, DEFRA, Animal Health and the police wold be round to investigate.
And for what it is worth 'Aspirational' sucks.