Confinement

[Bellatrixed]

I made many points other than the rooster thing. In my opinion small cages for chickens are not the best thing. The other side is it may be harder for predators to get them. Is a chicken better off crowded or dead?

It's an interesting point and one I put a lot of thought into. I was originally going to get about 5 chickens and keep them in a tractor, but I eventually did a 180 and decided just to fence a good-sized yard for them and build a coop. I expect some losses from predators, but I can't fault people for wanting to avoid it entirely by keeping them penned. But there's still a difference between penned on grass with a decent amount of square feet per chicken and standing practically on top of each other in a metal cage.

 

[gg706]

I have never heard this. Do you have a source for your information? I'd be interested in reading more about this (anything to get people to buy more eggs

)

I can not remember where I aquired that info. I will try and find the link and post it.

 

[gg706]

I remember where I got that info. My neighbor previously worked in a battery house and he told me that. I did find some info that supports what he said.
They Eat What?

The Reality of Feed at Animal Factories

When many Americans think of farm animals, they picture cattle munching grass on rolling pastures, chickens pecking on the ground outside of picturesque red barns, and pigs gobbling down food at the trough.
Over the last 50 years, the way food animals are raised and fed has changed dramatically—to the detriment of both animals and humans. Many people are surprised to find that most of the food animals in the United States are no longer raised on farms at all. Instead they come from crowded animal factories, also known as large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs).
Just like other factories, animal factories are constantly searching for ways to shave their costs. To save money, they've redefined what constitutes animal feed, with little consideration of what is best for the animals or for human health. As a result, many of the ingredients used in feed these days are not the kind of food the animals are designed by nature to eat.
Just take a look at what's being fed to the animals you eat.

• Same Species Meat
• Diseased Animals
• Feathers, Hair, Skin, Hooves, and Blood
• Manure and Other Animal Waste
• Plastics
• Drugs and Chemicals
• Unhealthy Amounts of Grains

Are these ingredients legal? Unfortunately, yes. Nevertheless, some raise human health concerns. Others just indicate the low standards for animal feeds. But all are symptoms of a system that has lost sight of the appropriate way to raise food animals.
Same Species Meat, Diseased Animals, and Feathers, Hair, Skin, and Blood

The advent of "mad cow" disease (also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE) raised international concern about the safety of feeding rendered[1] cattle to cattle. Since the discovery of mad cow disease in the United States, the federal government has taken some action to restrict the parts of cattle that can be fed back to cattle.
However, most animals are still allowed to eat meat from their own species. Pig carcasses can be rendered and fed back to pigs, chicken carcasses can be rendered and fed back to chickens, and turkey carcasses can be rendered and fed back to turkeys. Even cattle can still be fed cow blood and some other cow parts.
Under current law, pigs, chickens, and turkeys that have been fed rendered cattle can be rendered and fed back to cattle—a loophole that may allow mad cow agents to infect healthy cattle.
Animal feed legally can contain rendered road kill, dead horses, and euthanized cats and dogs.
Rendered feathers, hair, skin, hooves, blood, and intestines can also be found in feed, often under catch-all categories like "animal protein products."
Manure and Other Animal Waste
Feed for any food animal can contain cattle manure, swine waste, and poultry litter. This waste may contain drugs such as antibiotics and hormones that have passed unchanged through the animals' bodies.
The poultry litter that is fed to cattle contains rendered cattle parts in the form of digested poultry feed and spilled poultry feed. This is another loophole that may allow mad cow agents to infect healthy cattle.
Animal waste used for feed is also allowed to contain dirt, rocks, sand, wood, and other such contaminants.
Plastics
Many animals need roughage to move food through their digestive systems. But instead of using plant-based roughage, animal factories often turn to pellets made from plastics to compensate for the lack of natural fiber in the factory feed.
Drugs and Chemicals

Animals raised in humane conditions with appropriate space and food rarely require medical treatment. But animals at animal factories often receive antibiotics to promote faster growth and to compensate for crowded, stressful, and unsanitary living conditions. An estimated 13.5 million pounds of antibiotics—the same classes of antibiotics used in human medicine—are routinely added to animal feed or water. This routine, nontherapeutic use of antibiotics speeds the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can infect humans as well as animals. Antibiotic resistance is a pressing public health problem that costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars each year.
Some of the antimicrobials used to control parasites and promote growth in poultry contain arsenic, a known human carcinogen. Arsenic can be found in meat or can contaminate human water supplies through runoff from factory farms.
Unhealthy Amounts of Grains
One last surprise. While grain may sound like a healthful food, the excessive quantities fed to some animals are not. This is especially true for cattle, which are natural grass eaters. Their digestive systems are not designed to handle the large amounts of corn they receive at feedlots. As a result of this corn-rich diet, feedlot cattle can suffer significant health problems, including excessively acidic digestive systems and liver abscesses. Grain-induced health problems, in turn, ramp up the need for drugs.

 

[moody-chicken]

Wow that is shocking and incredibly saddening and depressing. I never realised how truly ignorant I am to the way food is produced. It's actually quite scary and for the animals it's heartbreaking, horrific even. I will forever look upon my pets as saved souls after reading that, they don't know how lucky they are and thankfully they never will.

 

[aart]

I remember where I got that info. My neighbor previously worked in a battery house and he told me that. I did find some info that supports what he said.........

Still need a source. Cutting and pasting should always be accompanied by a link to where you cut and pasted it from so people can evaluate the source for themselves, plus it's just proper research protocol....can be called plagerism if you did it for a grade or publication.

 

[gg706]

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agri...agriculture/they-eat-what-the-reality-of.html This the link
I am not trying to prove one way or the other. I have nothing to gain from it. It was just something he told me when I got my chickens and he was saying how horrible the battery hens live. It maybe something widely known or not I just know I do not eat store bought eggs if I can help it because of the things he told me.

 

[Busybee1]

I think the OP is playing everyone and sitting back enjoying the show. I would not take the bait if I were u. There are too many people who really do want advise to waste your time one her posts. Look at her other posts and u will see what I mean.

I did not mean to be rude. I just felt like the OP had an agenda for her post beyond the question. I was encouraging everyone to read the post carefully before replying.

 

[appps]

Y

I think the OP is playing everyone and sitting back enjoying the show. I would not take the bait if I were u. There are too many people who really do want advise to waste your time one her posts. Look at her other posts and u will see what I mean.

I did not mean to be rude. I just felt like the OP had an agenda for her post beyond the question. I was encouraging everyone to read the post carefully before replying.

Yes I've just realised the other thread "about to get some chicks" which is also getting people disagreeing is also by the same OP

 

[gg706]

yes, have seen that thread as well. Not sure what to think?

 

[Too Fast]

We just have to keep educating OP. Or steer her to a comercial website, not BYC.