Stockmanship bails poultry farmers out of the most desperate disasters. Stockmanship is the art of feeling there’s something wrong with your flock, before you really know it.
And that’s precious. Because when you know you’ve got a problem, it’s too late.
Stockmanship is the reading of signs to know what’s coming. A level of empathy with your flock that makes them an extension of you. You feel what they feel, smell what they smell, hear what they hear etc.
Through stockmanship, you excel in knowing your flock as well as the mother hen would and therefore can protect them from looming issues, problems or threats. It’s an innate instinct born of natural affection between hen and chicks.
Naturally, that puts us at a disadvantage. We could just never be the mother hen. But empathy can be nurtured. It takes humbling. Going low (quite literally in the case of the best) and getting comfortable being at the same level as your chicks. Being with them every day, for prolonged periods. Watching them. Observing their behaviours and developing that sense of how they are doing.
Fine-tuning this sense is priceless. Keeping you ahead of the curve on obstacles to well-being before they happen, giving you the best chance for adjustment with minimal adverse impact.
Practice, train and immerse in stockmanship…a poultry farmer’s best friend.
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