42-day wonders

[onthespot]

an interesting article about commercial meat bird raising.
http://www.upc-online.org/broiler/9230842day.html

 

[Trollkiller]

Good read, thank you.

 

[mikarod]

Personally I prefer for writers of publications to keep their opinions out of the work.

Where are the facts stating that broiler birds are NOT stunned and rendered unconscious? I've got data that says they are. Also, most broiler houses do not have their chicks sexed. It costs extra and the females grow as well as the males when raised correctly. A good grower is able to get uniformity and weight all in the same house with both sexes. Growers that have to get sexed birds shouldn't even be in the business in the first place.

 

[greyfields]

It's all too familiar to me. The worst part was the chicken catching at night to stuff them into the crates, which are loaded onto 18 wheelers. God, I hated that.

The FCR for females and males are identical. The females simply don't eat at the same rate as the males, so appear "smaller" at an identical age. But, at 42 days old, you can barely tell them apart. I don't really understand why they were separating them either, unless they were providing a "roaster" versus a "fryer" crop.

And I'm sorry to say, but chicken are not stunned before having their throats cut. Some processors still do this part by hand; but it's all become largely automated. The machine simply removes the entire head as the chickens pass through it.

 

[Bossroo]

How many at home do-it-yourselfers stun the chicken before cutting the throat or chop their head off?

 

[greyfields]

I think I've only heard of someone once explaining it. My grandpa always held them by the legs and smashed their heads on a fence post, then cut their throats and strung them up from the clothesline.

 

[Bossroo]

How does one capture a loose free range chicken in the sunshine and transport it to a processor miles away ?

 

[silkiechicken]

A free range chicken would come home at night to roost, and you just don't let them out in the morning.

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
All the "chicken packing" is done at night.

 

[whitecra]

I have a friend that her and her family has 4 chickens houses. I know they treat them right while they have them. What is different about us here choppin goff the heads or cutting the throat of our meat birds? It is the same out come. As a matter of fact I have 2 friends that have chickens houses and have had for years.
Chris