Advice needed for my rooster and hen with controlled reproduction.

[centrarchid]

Another option is to split parents and brood so each has about half of chicks. I can do it with games and if understand silkies, roosters make pretty good or at least tolerant fathers. This would stop reproduction and keep birds from being isolated. Then you will be able to consume non-fertile eggs as well.

 

[Kerri Ladybug]

yes centrarchid, this was my original plan. I already made separate pens. The father is only sometimes accepting of the young. The mother wants nothing to do with them and will peck and chase them. Maybe perhaps she could be alone for a bit while sitting on new eggs and then leaving the new chicks with her. This was my original plan. Last time i had removed her chicks because they almost died. For some reason they were not always burying themselves in mama's feathers. So i had to place them under a heat lamp. Now she is not interested in them. She must not know they are hers.

I took out some eggs yesterday and used them as food. You could see the small white ring on the yolk. I've been told of course that this is not killing a chicken, but isn't the little mass of cells the very very beginning. Maybe this was the chicks only shot at life. With unfertiles, no babies need to be created and destroyed-no matter how early the development. But some people think there is nothing there to abort if taken BEFORE incubation. Maybe it is true.

Maybe i will build a bigger pen this afternoon for papa and the little ones. I made one 2 days ago, but he chased them, even though the area was big. I will try a bigger one. I' m still a bit unsure of these fertilized eggs.

Thank you for replying because now i am rethinking my plans. Every bit of good advice helps.

Kerri

 

[Zaxby's2]

Abortion is killing life, and a fertilized egg isn't life, it's just an egg. If it's incubated then it becomes a developing life form, and killing it might be thought of as wrong, but until it's incubated, nothing has happened. Think about it. If eating a fertilized egg is ruining a chick's only chance of life, then eating infertile eggs is also stopping a chick from being born(don't stop eating eggs just because I said that, I was just trying to show you that a fertile egg isn't any different from an infertile egg, because life hasn't begun in either). Your not killing anything, or not giving life a chance, your just eating an egg. If I can't further convince you that your not killing anything by eating a fertile egg, then let me put it this way. Animals were put on this earth to be eaten. Not that it's okay to treat animals cruely, you need to give them a good life and take it away quickly and painlessly so that no suffering is involved. Even if a fertile egg was already living(which it's not), is it really any worse than eating bacon? I assure you that eating a fertile egg is not wrong, nor is anything being killed. Sorry if I got off topic but I just wanted to let you understand that eating fertile eggs is okay. Good luck with your decision!

 

[Kerri Ladybug]

Zaxby's2 :

Abortion is killing life, and a fertilized egg isn't life, it's just an egg. If it's incubated then it becomes a developing life form, and killing it might be thought of as wrong, but until it's incubated, nothing has happened. Think about it. If eating a fertilized egg is ruining a chick's only chance of life, then eating infertile eggs is also stopping a chick from being born(don't stop eating eggs just because I said that, I was just trying to show you that a fertile egg isn't any different from an infertile egg, because life hasn't begun in either). Your not killing anything, or not giving life a chance, your just eating an egg. If I can't further convince you that your not killing anything by eating a fertile egg, then let me put it this way. Animals were put on this earth to be eaten. Not that it's okay to treat animals cruely, you need to give them a good life and take it away quickly and painlessly so that no suffering is involved. Even if a fertile egg was already living(which it's not), is it really any worse than eating bacon? I assure you that eating a fertile egg is not wrong, nor is anything being killed. Sorry if I got off topic but I just wanted to let you understand that eating fertile eggs is okay. Good luck with your decision!

Thank you for taking the time (again) to help me out. It is MUCH appreciated. It makes total sense what you say. And actually i had scrambled eggs last night with those fertile eggs that are not fertile

. And they were good!!!! I had five (they are small).

I knew that no veins or growth started to develop until incubation has started for at least 3 days. It was the very very beginning of the little white circle you can see on the yolk before incubation which made me think that the life is there-started-just very very early. And i said to myself-she lays every second day-that's a lot of life chances gone over her life. But separating the rooster is not good either. And yes by the way, you have reassureded me-

. I'm just babbling on

!


Also-i do not like cruelty either as any person should not. There is much evidence of it on factory farms. While i have studied that we can live quite healthy as a vegetarian, if someone wants to eat their animals then of course it's their choice. Then they can if they process it humanely and they know where it comes from. Better this way than from places with high abuse practices.​

 

[Zaxby's2]

Good for you.

Are you a vegetarian?

 

[Kerri Ladybug]

Zaxby's2 :

Good for you.

Are you a vegetarian?

yes. How about you.​

 

[Zaxby's2]

Nope. The living conditions of some animals discusts me, but I still manage to eat meat. I couldn't live without bacon.

 

[LilyD]

Zaxby's2 :

Nope. The living conditions of some animals discusts me, but I still manage to eat meat. I couldn't live without bacon.

Bacon doesn't have to be disgusting when raised though. We have 3 pigs and they live in a pasture like you would cows and horses. They eat the grass and roots from the weeds. They do love the pool and occasionally the mud but they poop all in one area and stay fairly clean when kept this way. I would never pen my pigs it's so inhumane to make them live in their own filth.​

 

[Zaxby's2]

Quote:
Bacon doesn't have to be disgusting when raised though. We have 3 pigs and they live in a pasture like you would cows and horses. They eat the grass and roots from the weeds. They do love the pool and occasionally the mud but they poop all in one area and stay fairly clean when kept this way. I would never pen my pigs it's so inhumane to make them live in their own filth.

It's interesting that you said that we're raising are own pigs for the first time this year. We've got them in a big pen with trees and grass, and they go into the barn for shelter. They like to roll around in the mud, which is fine by me because they enjoy it.

We've got two, the boy is named Bacon and the girl is Bits.

We're going to take them to a slaughter house when they reach 200 lbs. Here they are when they were younger:

Them enjoying the mud under a baby tree:

They've gotten a lot bigger now and soon we'll have some yummy bacon and sausage!

 

[featherz]

If it helps any, I am a vegetarian and I have no problems eating fertile eggs. Some more strict veggies may disagree with me, but if you don't use an incubator and you have no broody hen, NONE of your eggs will develop into anything. They will just sit there and rot into stinkbombs.

If I have a broody, I'll let her sit on some eggs (and even then they don't ALL turn into chicks), but without a broody, they will never be chicks and they are fine for food. My .02

.