ELI5 Why do so many ppl treat chickens expendable??

[NatJ]

I personally wouldn’t know, but I’ve heard fresh chicken is fantastic! I KNOW fresh eggs are waayyy better than store bought. Most of my chickens are layers, except my bantams. They’re too small to eat (I wouldn’t anyway) and they lay tiny eggs. I guess they’re just looking at chickens.

I've eaten bantams. They taste like chicken.

Some people eat quail, which are smaller yet. Not saying you have to eat your bantams, just don't rule them out purely on the grounds of size.

As for bantam eggs, some bantams lay just as well as some big chickens. If a bantam hen eats half as much food and produces the same number of half-size eggs, she's doing just as well as the big hen she is being compared with. If she eats less, or lays more eggs, or her eggs are bigger than half the large hen's eggs, then the bantam is doing better than the big hen. Of course there are some bantams that lay very few eggs and spend most of their time broody, or molting, or taking the winter off, but there are some big hens that do the same things. So it all comes down to which individuals you are considering. (To be fair, productive big hens are much more common than productive bantams. But it's not purely a size thing, more a matter of which birds have been selected for which traits.)

I agree culling an aggressive bird is fine, but I feel like its a little unfair to kill "extra" roosters without even giving them a chance. If they are nice at least try to re home them first

I like to give them a chance to become dinner.

I enjoy eating chicken. If I have chickens (extra roosters) and I want to eat chicken, then I will typically eat the chickens I have, rather than give away the cockerels and buy broilers to raise for meat, or buy chicken meat from the store. I might make an exception if I know someone is looking for a particular kind of cockerel and I have one.

Personally, I just don't get the mental disconnect that some people have between chicken meat at the store, broilers raised for meat, and chickens raised for any other purpose. They all taste like chicken, and I don't see why a chicken of one type would "deserve" to live if it means a chicken of another type gets killed instead

Since half of all chickens are male, and one male is enough for about 10 hens, that would mean 9/10 of roosters are extra for people keeping a breeding flock. And for people who want backyard laying hens and no rooster, then all roosters are extras. Either way, it is impossible to find homes for all those roosters, or even all the nice ones, if you want them to have homes where they live a long healthy life. It just does not work out numerically.

 

[z3lda3]

I had someone do that, and yes, he killed my entire flock.

Uh.. just when I thought humanity could get any lower. Wow. I’d love to adopt ex battery birds, but I’m too scared of bringing in diseases.
That’s..I can’t wrap my mind around it.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

I’m not wanting an argument I’m genuinely trying to understand. Why are chickens, especially roosters treated so expendable? (Not talking about broilers).

I see where you are coming from.

I’ve seen and read so many ppl culling their chickens/unwanted roosters and throwing out the body with the garbage. Unwanted rooster, kill it, burn it or bury it.

Some times ppl get into chickens not realizing the cost of raiseing them. Even if you advertise them they won’t always sale or get someone to take them for free. Culling the flock is sometimes the easiest way to get rid of them. Burying the body isn’t always easy. Like where I live we have tons of rocks in the soil making it extremely hard to bury something. Also burning may not be a option some places are very windy or dry. Throwing away the body may be the best option for the person.

And just recently I read about a person who killed his roosters and used the body for bait.

Roosters arnt that valueble unless they are very high quality and someone is willing to buy them. I use chicks or rooster (preferably ones that already died) as bait to catch a predator that is killing my chickens. I can see why you at concerned, they are sacrificing some roosters to save the rest of their flock.

Can someone explain to me why this is acceptable? If it was a cat or dog it’d be cruelty to animals and illegal.

If chickens are being abused then yes it is illegal and animal control can step in to seize the animals. Even in cats and dog breeding people will cull the animals that are unwell or not up to the standard and throw the carcasses in the trash, burn, bury or donate the body to schools. Chicken breeders do the same.

 

[z3lda3]

I've eaten bantams. They taste like chicken.

Some people eat quail, which are smaller yet. Not saying you have to eat your bantams, just don't rule them out purely on the grounds of size.

As for bantam eggs, some bantams lay just as well as some big chickens. If a bantam hen eats half as much food and produces the same number of half-size eggs, she's doing just as well as the big hen she is being compared with. If she eats less, or lays more eggs, or her eggs are bigger than half the large hen's eggs, then the bantam is doing better than the big hen. Of course there are some bantams that lay very few eggs and spend most of their time broody, or molting, or taking the winter off, but there are some big hens that do the same things. So it all comes down to which individuals you are considering. (To be fair, productive big hens are much more common than productive bantams. But it's not purely a size thing, more a matter of which birds have been selected for which traits.)


I like to give them a chance to become dinner.

I enjoy eating chicken. If I have chickens (extra roosters) and I want to eat chicken, then I will typically eat the chickens I have, rather than give away the cockerels and buy broilers to raise for meat, or buy chicken meat from the store. I might make an exception if I know someone is looking for a particular kind of cockerel and I have one.

Personally, I just don't get the mental disconnect that some people have between chicken meat at the store, broilers raised for meat, and chickens raised for any other purpose. They all taste like chicken, and I don't see why a chicken of one type would "deserve" to live if it means a chicken of another type gets killed instead

Since half of all chickens are male, and one male is enough for about 10 hens, that would mean 9/10 of roosters are extra for people keeping a breeding flock. And for people who want backyard laying hens and no rooster, then all roosters are extras. Either way, it is impossible to find homes for all those roosters, or even all the nice ones, if you want them to have homes where they live a long healthy life. It just does not work out numerically.

You know what I don’t get, is the ppl who go eww not fresh eggs, I only eat store bought. HUH? Because store bought eggs don’t come from a chickens booty?

 

[z3lda3]

I see where you are coming from.

Some times ppl get into chickens not realizing the cost of raiseing them. Even if you advertise them they won’t always sale or get someone to take them for free. Culling the flock is sometimes the easiest way to get rid of them. Burying the body isn’t always easy. Like where I live we have tons of rocks in the soil making it extremely hard to bury something. Also burning may not be a option some places are very windy or dry. Throwing away the body may be the best option for the person.

Roosters arnt that valueble unless they are very high quality and someone is willing to buy them. I use chicks or rooster (preferably ones that already died) as bait to catch a predator that is killing my chickens. I can see why you at concerned, they are sacrificing some roosters to save the rest of their flock.

If chickens are being abused then yes it is illegal and animal control can step in to seize the animals. Even in cats and dog breeding people will cull the animals that are unwell or not up to the standard and throw the carcasses in the trash, burn, bury or donate the body to schools. Chicken breeders do the same.

Did you say you use chicks as bait? I’m going to cry.

 

[FrostRanger]

People dump them 'cause they get an unexpected or aggressive roo and find out the hard way that no one in their area wants another rooster 'cause most people already have too many and they're too squeamish to cull the rooster themselves so they find someone with chickens and sneak it into that person's flock thinking he'll be better off there, not thinking about the implications for the person whom they're dumping the bird onto. Or some people just dump them somewhere random hoping they'll survive. There's a bantam someone dumped at my local tractor supply that no one has been able to catch for weeks

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Did you say you use chicks as bait? I’m going to cry.

Yes dead chicks. I have used live chicks once or twice but I don’t like using them alive.

 

[z3lda3]

Yes dead chicks. I have used live chicks once or twice but I don’t like using them alive.

I’m so sad now

 

[Egg Snatcher]

I’m so sad now

Yeas it is. But sometimes you have to be able to catch a predator from killing the rest of your flock

 

[z3lda3]

People dump them 'cause they get an unexpected or aggressive roo and find out the hard way that no one in their area wants another rooster 'cause most people already have too many and they're too squeamish to cull the rooster themselves so they find someone with chickens and sneak it into that person's flock thinking he'll be better off there, not thinking about the implications for the person whom they're dumping the bird onto. Or some people just dump them somewhere random hoping they'll survive. There's a bantam someone dumped at my local tractor supply that no one has been able to catch for weeks

WTH is wrong with ppl? Is that illegal? It should be!