Factory Farmers Expose Diseased Chickens

[BruceAZ]

There are some graphic images in this video so be warned!

more and more companies promise CAGE FREE eggs in the next couple of years..

are they considering this as cage free by any chance ?

no sunlight or contact with the outside and constantly stepping on + sleeping on your own waste

i'm not a clean freak.. but i don't like the thought of my chickens walk/lying on their own waste days after days.. so i'll try to clean out the run and coop each day whenever i can since Salmonella is a concern for me.

Backyard chickens in every backyard !!

 

[Teila]

Hey BruceAZ

Seeing all those chickens squished into a shed with, as you mention, no sunlight, nothing to roost on etc is very sad

I understand that the farmers’ hands are tied as to what they can or can not do with the chickens by the Company but if that was me, I would be looking for another use for my farm or looking for another job; no way I could face that every day.

Before coffee, or anything else in the morning here, the first order of business is to ensure my gals have their breakfast, fresh water and the overnight poops are cleaned up. Like you, I do not like the idea of my gals having to walk in their own waste. When they are supervised free ranging [neighbourhood dogs and cats means free range has to be supervised], I see them walking around poops, so I do think that they avoid walking in them if they can.

There are a lot of horror videos out there of just how badly chickens and other produce animals are treated .. chicks being thrown alive into grinders etc

While some have changed their ways and the birds are treated more humanely and some even see sunlight, I do not think this practice will ever be stopped, no matter how much people try.

X 2 on the Backyard chickens in every backyard. While the love and care we give our chickens does not make up for the actions of others; hopefully, if enough people learn what beautiful, funny little animals they are, the realisation of how cruelly some are treated may just sink in and more people will join the fight to stop it.

 

[BruceAZ]

Quote:

X 2 on the Backyard chickens in every backyard. While the love and care we give our chickens does not make up for the actions of others; hopefully, if enough people learn what beautiful, funny little animals they are, the realization of how cruelly some are treated may just sink in and more people will join the fight to stop it.

We are only allowed to have up to 5 chickens for my house size. I can't save all the chickens out there but at least I made a difference for these 5

so if every house around here has 5 chickens, it will make a big difference!

you saw Food inc. movie by any chance ?

it's a pretty good documentary movie. it's true. We, the consumers, can speak loudly with our wallet.

 

[Teila]

Hey BruceAZ

Yep, we have a 6 chicken limit in our zone and I currently have 5 little banties who are my babies

These little Princesses will definitely not know the horrors others of their kind have endured.

I had not heard of Food Inc, may be because I am in Aus, but I will try and check it out.

For me, it is like owning dogs or cats .. the responsible cat and dog owners freak out at the thought of dogs and cats being treated cruelly. More responsible chicken owners hopefully equals more objections.

 

[BruceAZ]

6 chickens?

i guess you live in a similar house size as i am then.

Some users on this forums are very fortunate of having ACREs of land to live on.. me.. we are talking sq ft..

The only place you can find ACRE for a property is if you look in the county areas or move outside of the city.

but honestly? 5 hens is plenty of work for me

I spent about 40-60 minutes cleaning out the coop/run, refill the feeders, giving them chicken scraps and checking on them each day.

It's been almost 2 months and yet the black one* will not come to me when i'm giving out food. She will always keep her distance:/

*i don't know much about breed of chickens.

 

[Teila]

Hey BruceAZ your gals are adorable!

Yep, our block is smack bang in the middle of suburbia and only 631 sqm.

Up until recently I had 6 bantams but sadly, KiKi passed away and now there are five. I agree that five or six is a good number and I am actually pleased I have a limit or I probably would not stop; chicken math

I find with 5/6 I know all their chickenalities and as they are my babies, give them equal amounts of love and care. I think if you have too many, they become harder to individualise, more expensive to buy treats for etc.

It all depends on why you have chickens, pets or production .. having bantams who are broody more often than not and not being known for their regular egg laying, my gals are simply pets and my little helpers in the garden

All of mine will take treats from the hand and will jump all over you when the live meal worms are being shared out. Some will let you pick them up but a couple are not so keen .. be patient with the black one, she may come around, or she might always be wary because that is her chickenality.

 

[BruceAZ]

treats? like chicken scratch? or meal worms?

meal worms are expensive :/

 

[Teila]

Hey Bruce

Here in Aus, I have a good supplier of meal worms from which I order 1,000 large meal worms every 4-5 weeks at a price of approximately $30 including delivery. Yeah, not cheap as such but much easier for me, working full time, than cultivating my own but yep, if you want, you can have a meal worm farm at home.

Some will shudder at this practice, “chickens should not eat dairy” etc, but every Sunday the 5 girls get to share a small slice of cheese .. they love it! They all gather around and I break off a small piece and hand it to each girl, saying her name, which is how they learnt to recognise their name.

On the weekends, they help me eat my lunch or may be that should be they let me have some of their lunch

Be it hot dogs, or sausage rolls, a pie, quiche, sandwich, whatever .. as long as it is not on the Do Not Feed to Chickens List, I share.

They love sardines in oil and get a ¼ slice of watermelon every weekend when in season.

I do not leave food in the run or coop overnight, so each morning I take out their daily requirement of organic, coarse grain layer mix and a small side serve of some description. This includes, lettuce, tomatoes, steak, left over roast, corn, peas, green beans, potato, fish, chicken [yep chicken!

], sausages, the list goes on.

While some things may be harmful in large amounts; in moderation, not so much and as long as the diet of treats is in good proportion to the layer mix they need, all good.

To kind of borrow your "What I posted above are just my opinions..they are NOT facts". What I have posted above is basically just sharing what I do and I totally respect others' rights to do things differently as I hope they do mine.

 

[HnkyDnkyZZFarm]

We're zoned ag, so we're at 12 chickens 3 ducks. What I'm finding is that the routine doesn't change all that much for having doubled the flock, and I anticipate being able to start a meat flock next year - I hope. Whether I scoop for ten minutes in the morning or fifteen isn't really all that different. The biggest factor is I have to build a second coop/yard which doesn't sound very appealing right now, since it's starting to get pretty hot and sunny during the day. The last fence fixing project left me sunburned and beat up tired for about four - five days.

I think SPACE is definitely the big factor, my goats/sheep stay relatively low load as far as worming goes so long as there is plenty of room to graze without having to graze near their own droppings, (25 yards by 50 yards) so I'm figgering the chickens are the same, everything I've read seems to point to parasite load being the real limit to how many animals you can put in a space.


Right now, the coop is 10x10, the run is 10x10 and the chicken yard is about 25 yards by 25 yards and they tend to hop the fence into the goat and sheep pens to range during the day. The goats also seem to keep predators at bay, since anything or anyone approaching the pens is called to loudly in goat.

The chickens don't always lay in the coop or the boxes though. They like to play egg hunt, and every time the ducks dig a nest the chickens take it over. If I store straw in or near the chicken yard, they will find a way to get to it and scratch out a hole. Bad deal for parasites though, and then the ducks have a ducky fit and go make a new nest and we start all over again.

Feeders are 25lb so I refill feeders about every two weeks. Two feeders are laying crumbles, one is rooster scratch (mostly to keep the ducks from depleting the layer feeders, since we don't really adore duck eggs and they aren't sitting them) Water is about once a week, but there are at least four waterers and the duck pond and goat/sheep waterers that they also go to throughout the day. The biggest headache of the waterers is dumping and rinsing the ponds and troughs. The ducks are in heaven when I do. They love the mud.


If you were to be totally insensitive to the birds quality of life, then chemically managing parasite load and filling your space as much as possible would definitely be more PROFITABLE, and since they're culling at about two years from other things I've read about production for sale, then they aren't invested in the long term health of the bird, but the egg laying potential of the bird. :-( Then again, the clear egg innards that are pretty standard in store bought eggs demonstrates pretty effectively that they are different than natural chicken eggs. The yolks on the duck eggs could be used for house paint. They are THICK, glossy and have a sort of jewel like quality.

 

[BruceAZ]

I do not leave food in the run or coop overnight, so each morning I take out their daily requirement of organic, coarse grain layer mix and a small side serve of some description. This includes, lettuce, tomatoes, steak, left over roast, corn, peas, green beans, potato, fish, chicken [yep chicken!

], sausages, the list goes on.

steak ?

true. chickens will eat pretty much anything.

but for me.. to keep it within budget, i'll just give them their main feed + chicken scratch + kitchen scraps (no meat though) just veggies and fruits

i noticed some veggies will give them diarrhea so i'll avoid those as well.

currently i'm feeding my chickens this feed from petsmart



later will switch over to this layer feed.
http://www.phoenixorganicfeed.com/prices.html

they sell starter and layer feeds + scratch in 50lb bag.. no grower feed here in this area

it's a buyer club that i found around here. Their price is reasonable compare to the pet stores