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I've been thinking about this ever since I got chickens, and I have a few theories (because I overthink everything).
First, the reason I even thought of it is because I grew up on a farm. A farm that has been in my family for over 100 years. I'm not terribly knowledgable on farms/farming (I'm female, so wasn't expected to do much farming, and just generally didn't pay any attention) but I would imagine it would be considered on the large side for a family farm. And we, like just about every old farm, had an old chicken coop.
Farming overall is hard work. It was 100 years ago and, in different ways, it is today. And being a farmers wife is hard work (although that I believe has become a slightly easier job over the years), and it would be my guess that 50+ years ago, when chickens were more popular, much of the care and feeding of chickens fell on the wife. So when chicken and eggs became easier to get elsewhere, as refrigerators became more widely used and grocery stores became bigger and more accessible (we could drive to them, food could be transported to them from miles and miles away) it became a question of "why raise chickens when I can buy the meat and eggs- it's one less thing I have to do."
And I also kind of blame broilers for the downfall in chicken popularity. If raised and managed properly chickens can be downright easy to raise- if you give them enough space, a secure coop, and use the deep litter method (which isn't new- I have old farming/homesteading books that refer to it) there is little maintainance. Then along come broilers (which I do love, but hear me out) which were supposed to get big fast, meaning meat faster, and people just threw them into their existing chicken setup (poorly ventilated chicken coop and small yard). Well, we all know what happens when broilers are in one spot too long- yucky smelly poo mess! AND there isn't a lot to love, personality wise, with broilers, so between the mess and the lack of personality I believe people began to become disenchanted with chickens.
But now there isn't something that the farmers knew that we don't- we are doing it for a different reason. They kept chickens because if they wanted eggs and chickens, they HAD to. We do it because we want to. We also have this awesome resource (BYC and the internet in general) where we can learn awesome management and other tips and tricks to make our chicken raising experience much more pleasant- I would have never thought to tractor my broilers (would have, in fact, done exactly what I said above) had it not been for this site. Now instead of piles of broiler poo to clean up I have a fertilized yard! But the internet has made this possible- I had the same "theory" when I was using cloth diapers for my kids- cloth has been around forever, but had kind of fallen out of favor with disposible being widely available. But now, due to a growing feeling of responsibility, more people are interested. And thanks to the internet problems that plagued cloth diaperers in the past (like smell) are easier to figure out and deal with.
That said- I'm still raising Cornish X for my meat chickens, because it works best for my setup and climate.
I've been thinking about this ever since I got chickens, and I have a few theories (because I overthink everything).
First, the reason I even thought of it is because I grew up on a farm. A farm that has been in my family for over 100 years. I'm not terribly knowledgable on farms/farming (I'm female, so wasn't expected to do much farming, and just generally didn't pay any attention) but I would imagine it would be considered on the large side for a family farm. And we, like just about every old farm, had an old chicken coop.
Farming overall is hard work. It was 100 years ago and, in different ways, it is today. And being a farmers wife is hard work (although that I believe has become a slightly easier job over the years), and it would be my guess that 50+ years ago, when chickens were more popular, much of the care and feeding of chickens fell on the wife. So when chicken and eggs became easier to get elsewhere, as refrigerators became more widely used and grocery stores became bigger and more accessible (we could drive to them, food could be transported to them from miles and miles away) it became a question of "why raise chickens when I can buy the meat and eggs- it's one less thing I have to do."
And I also kind of blame broilers for the downfall in chicken popularity. If raised and managed properly chickens can be downright easy to raise- if you give them enough space, a secure coop, and use the deep litter method (which isn't new- I have old farming/homesteading books that refer to it) there is little maintainance. Then along come broilers (which I do love, but hear me out) which were supposed to get big fast, meaning meat faster, and people just threw them into their existing chicken setup (poorly ventilated chicken coop and small yard). Well, we all know what happens when broilers are in one spot too long- yucky smelly poo mess! AND there isn't a lot to love, personality wise, with broilers, so between the mess and the lack of personality I believe people began to become disenchanted with chickens.
But now there isn't something that the farmers knew that we don't- we are doing it for a different reason. They kept chickens because if they wanted eggs and chickens, they HAD to. We do it because we want to. We also have this awesome resource (BYC and the internet in general) where we can learn awesome management and other tips and tricks to make our chicken raising experience much more pleasant- I would have never thought to tractor my broilers (would have, in fact, done exactly what I said above) had it not been for this site. Now instead of piles of broiler poo to clean up I have a fertilized yard! But the internet has made this possible- I had the same "theory" when I was using cloth diapers for my kids- cloth has been around forever, but had kind of fallen out of favor with disposible being widely available. But now, due to a growing feeling of responsibility, more people are interested. And thanks to the internet problems that plagued cloth diaperers in the past (like smell) are easier to figure out and deal with.
That said- I'm still raising Cornish X for my meat chickens, because it works best for my setup and climate.
