Debeaking at McMurray?

[CompostQueen]

Quote:
Excellent point. What have been your best leads for sources of local chicks?

 

[woodmort]

Trust me if you were raising hundreds of birds in a commercial setting and buying pullets you would probably want them with their beaks trimmed. That is a whole different world and not one that those posting here are interested in in terms of housing and feeding. Not that I approve, it is just a fact of life. McMurray, or any other hatchery for that matter, isn't going to last if all they cater to is some person with 5 or 6 hens in their backyard.

BTW the only chicks I've ever lost were ones I purchased locally--in this case from Central Tractor--primarily, I believe from the personnel not knowing how to care for them and the excess handling by the little kids whose parents can't or won't control them. I've never suffer a single chick loss from the mail order chicks from McMurray. I order from them not only for their variety but because they will vaccinate so I don't have to use medicated feed.

 

[crossedwires]

it might be a bit diff here in the UK but we run a smallish hatchery and we never debeak but mainly thats because we have never realy had a problem with pecking so havnt found it necesary, from a comercial point of view (and i am only talking about our hatchery) i would see routine debeaking as another labour intensive job that would cost me money to perform in man hours, with margins as tight as they are theese days anyway i think most hatcherys would try and avoid it, i do however know that some the farms we supply rountinely debeak when we deliver to them. as for being painful thats purely down to how its done and how much is taken off. to be perfectly honest if you do have a pecking problem and only a couple of birds then a slight flateneing of the very tip of the beak does no harm and has no impact on the bird but again if i had pecking problems i would look at any possiable cause like overcrowding and i would try and iradicate that first

 

[CompostQueen]

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I absolutely understand that commercial hatcheries have thousands of birds and have to debeak in order to limit injuries etc. However I have stopped eating any commercially grown meat for this reason.

 

[woodmort]

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Please understand, I'm not putting you down for feeling that way it is just that not everyone has that choice. I just don't fault the hatchery because they practice what is necessary.

 

[Kuvasz]

Compost Queen, I TOTALLY hear you. I'm TOTALLY with you. After seeing a you tube of McMurray sexing chicks, which was like a Chick Horror Film to me, I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. Almost made me sick to my stomach and I keep wondering at what point in time will this kind of treatment be made illegal! It made me FOREVER grateful that I made the decision to buy fertilized eggs from an individual, and incubate them myself where they are handled with care and treated with dignity. Like yourself, I boycott commercially grown meat of any sort as often as I absolutely can so as not to support this kind of animal torture. While I've been aware of some of the practices of commercial factories for meat, I had never before thought of the chick industy!!! It's atrocious. Like many of you, I will never ever in my wildest most desperate dreams buy from McMurray. And that debeaking process is just unbelievable to me. Even if it is supposedly 'necessary' in their minds....who in their right mind could DO this to an animal?!

 

[chickerdoodle]

OOppss. 'Puter went wierd on me.

 

[chickerdoodle]

I agree with spending money locally even if prices are a little higher and I do it all the time. It not only helps the community greatly but saves fossil fuels for shipping and your veggies and fruit are fresher! I get locally gown organic chicken feed too. With that said, I am a bit concerned about walking around and seeing the chickens. Although it sounds wonderful (and a way to be sure all is humane and clean!) you have the problem of bio-security. Folks walking around looking at the facility can bring in disease and parasites on their shoes or clothing. It's a darned if you do, darned if you don't situation. If the farm made sure you wore plastic coverings head to foot, then it may be OK.

As for debeaking--I can't help but think commercial facilities MUST become more humane. With the bill just signed in California it's a start.

Debeaking currently saves a lot of misery for many birds (being cannibalized) but at a cost to all birds. The public can stop it. Folks just need to be willing to pay a few cents more to allow humane practices. There's the sticky wicket. How do you get the majority of the public to do so? Some folks are too cheap to do so, but some can barely afford the cheap eggs now. Let's watch California and if that takes off then hopefully it can snowball more humane care around the country.

Even more humane care should be given then the bill is asking for but taking baby steps may be helpful. One day debeaking may not be the norm but it's not going to happen overnight.

 

[mama2many]

I have a hen that was rehomed to me that was debeaked. She seems to have to eat and drink more than the others. I don't know if she looses food and water or if she just can't get as much in her beak. She is pretty pittiful, however she is very calm and sweet. She lets both my kids pet her and love on her. I don't support the practice but it wasn't her fault and she has found a loving home with us.

 

[crossedwires]

i will do my best not to upset too many people and also keep in mind i am talking about the situation here in UK, it may be diff over there..........

paying a little for chickens in supermarkets wont make a blind bit of difference! the extra you would pay wouldnt be passed on to the farmer/grower, the supermarkets take it. supermarkets always trot out the same excuse that the customer wouldnt pay more thats why they sell at the price they do, this is utter rubish. use local butchers etc to get meat from. here in the uk alot of local butchers use local producers and pay the producer a fair price, the price the customer pays is higher than the supermarkets but is a true reflection of what it should cost.

for example a while back we supplied a large well known supermarket chain here in the uk. for every 100 birds we sold to them we made roughly £3 profit PER 100 chickens! the supermarkets made a profit of about £1.03 PER CHICKEN!
we no longer sell to the large chains it just isnt worth it unless you can supply many many thousands of birds a week in a factory like growing situation. any meat chickens we sell we now sell to about 3 dozen fairly local butchers with small independant shops, they charge more for the birds but we make a reasonable profit on each bird (about 70p per bird), this way we can provide more space and take better care of our birds and still afford to run the business. so i would say if people realy want things to change then a radical approach like going back to local shops is probaly the only way it will ever happen