Feeling Guilty

[KelliR]

Hi all......so I do a lot of reading and I am starting to have "flock raiser guilt". I love my chickens. They are like pets to me so they provide so much more than just delicious eggs BUT....in my reading I am finding so many articles about how chickens have been so domesticated and genetically modified that they are doing things their bodies were never intended to do. A chicken in the wild would not lay an egg every 25 hours, so why do mine? I am not forcing them to. But according to my reading, we have bred them to do this. I have BSLs but I did not get them because they are good egg layers or that they are a hybrid...I got them because I read so many good things about them and they have all turned out to be true.

So, my question is this. Is there such a thing as purchasing a chicken that will lay "as nature intended" as in only to reproduce? Or is that statement even true? I mean, are we as backyard chicken keepers doing a bad thing by raising our birds in a far more civilized and natural way than the disaster that is the modern egg/chicken industry? It is really confusing to me. I would love some opinions.

 

[GitaBooks]

Yes, chickens are genetically domesticated, though not in a lab, but over careful selection for thousands of years. All domestic animals have been selected by humans to be genetically different, either in production or appearance or behavior, often all three. This can lead to tons of problems, sadly. Dwarfisim in dogs and cats, cows that can't give birth easily, horses that easily get sick. However, this is usually caused by inbreeding and poor selection, not breeding for over-production.
Here, lets see if I can explain this:
A hen that lays eggs every day her first year (after 18 weeks of age) can live longer then many roosters do simply because she is lighter weight (at least, this is why I think so). However, a production hybrid may die from waterbelly (caused by over-laying) at only a couple years of age. It really depends on the breed you buy and the care they are given. A chicken can manage to live a long, healthy life even if laying every day.
There are bantam chickens, ornamental chickens, game birds, and game bird bantams that only lay during the breeding season. However, they too can suffer from breeding for "game qualities", ect. I study animal breeds, domestication, and the effects we have on animals. I am trying to make people aware of how much there breeding for certain traits affects animals and their owners. Because of this, I tend to ramble. Sorry if this was long.

Raising chickens just for pets or those that do't produce very well is perfectly fine. Birds that produce well (but not to the point of exhaustion) is important for feeding our nation and this world. However, I find people push it too far with hybrids that can't stand, layers that die early, and certain mutations that lead to chickens that can't see, easily walk, ect.


I hope this answers some of your questions. Feel free to ask any others you may have.

 

[donrae]

First, there is a big difference between selective breeding and genetic modification. No chickens available (even the Cornish cross) have been genetically modified. It's all selective breeding. Same way we got different breeds of dogs, horses, etc.

If you want a more "natural" bird, I'd suggest looking into game birds or jungle fowl. They're more "primitive", so to speak. They're great foragers, usually quite assertive birds, not stellar layers and great mothers.

 

[KelliR]

Thanks guys....very informative. I have just seen so many articles on the subject of production breeding. And then the first birds I purchase are hybrids. The first one started laying and has only taken one day off. I don't want to wear them out or have them die early or get diseases...I know it all sounds kinda dumb but I felt judged just by reading the articles...like I was forcing my birds to do something unnatural....I just want to do good by my girlstand enjoy them. I don't want to think they are miserable. I'm just over thinking.

 

[napdognewfie]

If you don't give them any extra light, they will lay less for the winter. That would give them sort of a break.

 

[KelliR]

I guess my point in posting this was brought on by a frustration I have with what is right and what is wrong according to some. I have always thought that chickens lay eggs and provide meat. They rid pastures of bugs and weeds.That it is normal and natural....but now that I have my own flock I am reading things about what has been done to make them "egg laying machines" and I feel sort of guilty. I know that many animals have been cross bred and "created" to do certain jobs. I also understand that this practice has been going on for many many years. Now, most of this reading has come from research on the type of birds that I have...I saw BSLs are docile, vocal, entertaining, heat and cold tolerant and great egg layers and I was like great!.....The fact that they are a hybrid created for early sexing was an interesting fact as well, then I saw that they were created to be the machine of egg layers and it got me thinking. Anyway...I appreciate the comments. I really want to create a happy and comfortable life for my birds....and of course I want eggs....I just felt a little guilty after some of these articles. One was a PETA article and afterward I felt like I was doing the poor birds a disservice by saving them from life in a cage.

 

[donrae]

Here's a tip--if you want to raise chickens, stay off the PETA-type websites. They don't want anyone keeping animals for any reason and will play on guilt. Not everything on the internet needs to be read.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My chickens wander around, get a free meal everyday, lay when they feel like, do whatever it is they have to do each day, are you getting chickens and demanding things out of them, the more a chicken free ranges the less they lay, I agree about a lot of misinformation out there, do as most people do,get chickens and give them a good life, I am constantly thinking about the factory farm birds, that is torture, whether you eat them or not, their lives will never be as horrible as that.

 

[enola]

Happy healthy hens lay eggs. That is what they do. I think you hit he nail on the head when you said you think you may be over thinking this.

And Donrea is right, PETA is not putting out any information worth wasting your time reading.

Provide proper housing, quality feed and fresh water, watch them closely for illness and you will make your hens feel like they are living the life of Riley!

 

[newmarch2014]

Each chicken we end up with was hatched already, should we stop buying those chickens to stop demand.....that would take awhile for the hatcheries to slow production and what is done with all those little lives that would now not be bought up? This is much like the debate of adopting dogs....I would rather give as many as is feasible for me a good life no matter where or what they came from whether it was a backyard breeder or whatever. I may not ever pay a breeder for a dog but in a round about way I am contributing to the overproduction of dogs by taking one home at all, should I stop keeping dogs? Even if my chickens lay every day with enough sun (I don't supplemental light) and die at 4, they lived a pampered chicken life. That is what matters to me, making any animal I bring home as comfortable as reasonably feasible. No overthinking, just making life better for an animal one animal at a time.