HENS IN BAD CONDITIONS!!!!

[Hinotori]

As long as people are only willing to pay $2 or less for a dozen for large eggs, this will stay the standard unfortunately. Yes they are that price regularly in some of the stores here. They go on sale for $1 frequently.

I prefer my peewee size silkie eggs for deviled eggs. The large and XL go to baking or selling. I'm not quite close enough to Tacoma. Asking $3 a dozen out here is pushing it and that barely covers feed and cartons for me. Why I'm reducing the large fowl. Cull silkie pullets pay for feed easily on the silkies. The better pullets actually bring money to save for housing upgrades.

 

[Swede]

Reckon this is where the "chicken" in dog food comes from?

 

[CrealCritter]

Dear Mrs/Miss DarkRaven thank you for posting this. It's a reminder to me as one of the reasons we gave up small town life for the country.

I love my chickens, they are well cared for, have a big fenced sunny yard to do what chickens do all day long, they have plenty of shade when they get too hot. There coup has a fan that runs constantly in the summer pulling in fresh cool air. Their coup has plenty of perch and nesting space. I feed them good quality feed from a drop box feeder that holds 100lbs of feed and has never once ran dry. They constantly have fresh water with added organic apple cider vinegar when they get thirsty. My grand daughter loves on them most everyday and they flock to her and jump in her arms so they can be loved by a 2 1/2 year old girl.

In return they provide my entire family with fresh delicious eggs and delicious meat. And that's just one of the many reasons I've gone country.

I didn't watch the video - I've seen many chicken factory videos like it before. If consumers only truly knew what they were eating - it might change their mind and factory farms might have to change their ways. Sadly money talks and when consumers protest by not buying a product it usually forces change - It's sad, very sad indeed.

 

[Swede]

Dear Mrs/Miss DarkRaven thank you for posting this. It's a reminder to me as one of the reasons we gave up small town life for the country.

I love my chickens, they are well cared for, have a big fenced sunny yard to do what chickens do all day long, they have plenty of shade when they get too hot. There coup has a fan that runs constantly in the summer pulling in fresh cool air. Their coup has plenty of perch and nesting space. I feed them good quality feed from a drop box feeder that holds 100lbs of feed and has never once ran dry. They constantly have fresh water with added organic apple cider vinegar when they get thirsty. My grand daughter loves on them most everyday and they flock to her and jump in her arms so they can be loved by a 2 1/2 year old girl.

In return they provide my entire family with fresh delicious eggs and delicious meat. And that's just one of the many reasons I've gone country.

I didn't watch the video - I've seen many chicken factory videos like it before. If consumers only truly knew what they were eating - it might change their mind and factory farms might have to change their ways. Sadly money talks and when consumers protest by not buying a product it usually forces change - It's sad, very sad indeed.

hello crealbilly!
thank you. its more peaceful being a country girl.
aww thats so cute!

yep its very sad for these poor innocent birds

 

[Mini Horses]

DarkRaven -- question for you regarding the males...what would you suggest as a method to handle all the non-egg laying birds?

First -- I DO NOT agree with the manner than hens are handled from day one to the end. The caging is not acceptable. Crowding & filth beyond belief, not acceptable....and so forth. It is appalling!

But hatcheries sell primarily pullets. We all know that not every egg contains a female chick. Many laying breeds do not make a good meat bird. They have excess at hatch. IMO gassing is a more humane way of ending life than macerating.

On our farms we can raise them, give them humane care and butchering. We are less concerned with a cost factor. We still face the matter of "we wanted pullets" -- excess roos create issues in our flocks, can't keep them all. Some farms butcher older hens or even those at age "X or X".

Commercially, if raised to butcher, feed costs outweigh sale income and that is a fact. I'm curious as to what would be options for these little male chicks.

Some of mine enjoying several acres of space...

 

[sumi]

@Mini Horses in S.A. some hatcheries sell or give away the male chicks to anyone that wants them. I actually got started with chickens this way, when a guy picked up a few hundred of those chicks near Cape Town and drove inland, stopping at small towns and telling people he had an order for the chicks that got cancelled and he doesn't want to drive all the way back with them… It worked, he sold a lot of the little ones. I bought some, my neighbour bought some. Of course he didn't tell us they were nearly all male chicks! LOL I actually got a hen from that batch, that went the wrong way when they sexed them. I ended up selling most of the cockerels when they were older. Some of them get lucky...

 

[Swede]

DarkRaven -- question for you regarding the males...what would you suggest as a method to handle all the non-egg laying birds?

First -- I DO NOT agree with the manner than hens are handled from day one to the end. The caging is not acceptable. Crowding & filth beyond belief, not acceptable....and so forth. It is appalling!

But hatcheries sell primarily pullets. We all know that not every egg contains a female chick. Many laying breeds do not make a good meat bird. They have excess at hatch. IMO gassing is a more humane way of ending life than macerating.

On our farms we can raise them, give them humane care and butchering. We are less concerned with a cost factor. We still face the matter of "we wanted pullets" -- excess roos create issues in our flocks, can't keep them all. Some farms butcher older hens or even those at age "X or X".

Commercially, if raised to butcher, feed costs outweigh sale income and that is a fact. I'm curious as to what would be options for these little male chicks.

Some of mine enjoying several acres of space...
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I agreee with sumi. Is these people are "money greedy" they might as well sell them for meat or sell them as pets.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Don't hate me for saying this, but I think gasing at birth is a better way to go than living for a year in those cages and then being turned into dog food. Like Mini Horses, not saying it's ok but I think the hens have it worse.

I don't think there's a big market for pet roosters, and with the advent of the cornish cross (and the fact that these birds aren't exactly dual purpose birds) there isn't a big market for roos as meat either. I think the system obviously needs to change in a grand scale. It's about supply and demand, and education. Farmers can't compete with battery egg production prices, and not enough people know what goes on in these places. But it's the same as feedlot beef- they've artificially lowered prices by raising animals inhumanely and it's going to take a lot to change that.

 

[Swede]

Don't hate me for saying this, but I think gasing at birth is a better way to go than living for a year in those cages and then being turned into dog food. Like Mini Horses, not saying it's ok but I think the hens have it worse.

I don't think there's a big market for pet roosters, and with the advent of the cornish cross (and the fact that these birds aren't exactly dual purpose birds) there isn't a big market for roos as meat either. I think the system obviously needs to change in a grand scale. It's about supply and demand, and education. Farmers can't compete with battery egg production prices, and not enough people know what goes on in these places. But it's the same as feedlot beef- they've artificially lowered prices by raising animals inhumanely and it's going to take a lot to change that.

It's fine - I understand.
I agree with you

 

[Mini Horses]

Yep -- the entire system is a disaster. BUT these chickens are hatched and most often there is no way to disperse the male chicks. That's what I'm saying -- to be fair to the chicks, cruel as it is or may sound, fast gassing is more humane than many other ways.
The care, feed, space needed to raise them is just not going to be given. It is also not feasible that they could even give them all away fast enough. Maybe ship thousands to TSC to give away!

The layers? Well, I would love to put the people who are designing and maintaining (??or not??) them and the system, to be put into the system themselves for a few weeks with comparable space, feed, water & care !!!!

More inspections & penalties for failures is needed.

We will not be able to train the numbers of the consumers in time to make a difference. BUT women did campaign to stop the conditions of the horse urine collections, for the most part. It took a long, long time. And synthetic hormone production.