Dumbest Things People Have Said About Your Chickens/Eggs/Meat

[loveourbirds]

I would post the pictures to show you, but its kind of graphic when you realize what your looking at. ive researched both ends of the hatcheries and breeder's farms - that's why we are listed as breeders and not a hatchery. a close estimate for a hatchery would be 2,500 male chicks disposed of on a 10,000 bird hatch. there are a few reports of hatcheries just throwing them in dumpsters and letting them die on their own. - not saying all hatcheries are this way. out of that 2,500 close to 1,500 will be golden comet or other sex links.

on personal experience, game chickens seem to throw more females. im judging this by old English game bantams, that's my only experience with game. you can slightly change the female/male ratio in a few ways. one method is to allow the temperature in your incubator to drop several degrees for a few hours, this kills male chicks faster than females for some reason. its a lot easier to explain eggs in the dumpster than live chicks.
another method is using sorghum in your feed, depending on breed age and condition you can get about 20% more females if you use sorghum seed for 1 year. this is by my own, not scientific research, just looking at the percentages that hatched and lived. - this works by increasing progesterone.
a younger hen is higher in the hormone "progesterone" because of this hormone they will typically hatch more pullet chicks. it also increases the chance of them being broody.

as a breeder farm, we do not sex chicks. yes we do turn down business when people want all pullets, but I feel we price our chicks cheap enough you can do what you want with extra roosters. also being a breeder farm we have a better chance to select birds for show quality traits, vigor, and egg size/color. of course if you call us and want over 50 white Plymouth rocks, you will either have to take them in 2 shipments, or we will recommend another place for you.

 

[jesirose]

I'll have to do some research on the sorghum, where did you learn about that?

 

[loveourbirds]

Lots of the male chicks may go to pet food makers.

keep in mind chicken bones can kill dogs and cats, but yes some does go to the feed industry. some are frozen and sold to people for snakes and other animals that feed on meat products.

there are several of us on here who could give you horror stories on what we have seen and witnessed. if most people knew what they were really eating, they would most certainly change their ways.

 

[loveourbirds]

I'll have to do some research on the sorghum, where did you learn about that?

I originally read about it in Lowell Stromberg's book I think the title is "sexing all types of baby fowl" most hatcheries carry it, I know Strombergs does for sure.

 

[jesirose]

keep in mind chicken bones can kill dogs and cats

Uhm, so can a sock. A chicken bone is not likely to show up in a dry pet food. My 3 dogs have eaten raw chicken almost every day for the past 6 years. A chicken bone is not going to kill them simply because its a chicken bone.

I think you're getting cooked chicken confused with raw meat and bones.

 

[loveourbirds]

its the fragments of cooked chicken bones, they kind of react like broken glass inside the stomach of most animals. animal food is usually cooked, there are mechanical separaters that can take the meat off the bone on large birds, but ive never seen one for chicks. - not saying it doesn't exist.

I guess you could feed uncooked chicks to your animals - but as a chicken farmer I wouldn't think that is a good idea. it may cause them to attack young chicks in your flock. just guessing but they could also choke to death on the bones.

 

[loveourbirds]

lol I know that one company grinds bone and all. they use the meat scraps and bones from deer, beef, pork, horse and goats. my parents used to have a small butcher shop, that's where our scraps went.

it may just be a wive's tail but a lot of people claim that feeding raw meat to dogs makes them aggressive. people who fight dogs used to give them raw hamburger and gun powder to make them mean. on the factual end of the argument, chickens carry a high instance of e. coli and salmonella. I would never feed uncooked chicken to my dogs.

im not saying your wrong in doing it. - you are right; they are primarily carnivorous. even raw meat is probably better for them than most of the corn and soy based foods we have now. I do remember an instance of someone who wanted a vegetarian diet for their dog, the vet advised them against it because dogs need the meat.

 

[loveourbirds]

on that note, I have about 450 chickens that are waiting on their second feeding. I will be back in an hour or so to finish the conversation.

 

[jesirose]

  it may just be a wive's tail but a lot of people claim that feeding raw meat to dogs makes them aggressive. people who fight dogs used to give them raw hamburger and gun powder to make them mean.  on the factual end of the argument, chickens carry a high instance of e. coli and salmonella. I would never feed uncooked chicken to my dogs. 

im not saying your wrong in doing it. - you are right; they are primarily carnivorous. even raw meat is probably better for them than most of the corn and soy based foods we have now.  I do remember an instance of someone who wanted a vegetarian diet for their dog, the vet advised them against it because dogs need the meat.

As we've seen on this thread people have some pretty weird conceptions about how chickens work. It seems more than likely that people have those same misconceptions about dogs and their diets and behavior. Raw meat does not make dogs aggressive.

Dry dog food also has a high amount of salmonella and E. coli. Usually more than raw meat does. But that's okay because dogs can handle it.

All of this information is widely available. Just like the facts about how chickens make eggs and roosters work.

 

[loveourbirds]

im not saying your wrong, but I know of several cases where dogs have died from e. coli. but we are getting off the point here too.

feeding baby chicks to dogs, meaning the whole chick feathers and all, will lead to the dog developing a taste for whole baby chicks. instead of seeing them as something you want or need, they will see them as food. also, since we are getting technical here, more than 2 chicks exceeds the recommended protein for dog daily consumption. 2 chicks exceed it by about 4% depending on dog and activity. also in whole form, the feathers cause a nitrogen rich diet that is to high for dogs. the ammonia/ phosphate/ nitrogen balance is important to all animals. im all for this if someone can figure out how to make it work, on a scale that is feasible.

I would rather see these chickens being raised, and sold/distributed to people who need them. don't get me wrong im a dog lover, but people take priority in my life. either way, it doesn't matter what I want. dogs are going to eat chicken, and hatcheries are going to throw chicks in dumpsters.