Poultry Farm Loses 50,000 Chickens In Heat Wave

[dewey]

Quote:
You know, the effects of natural disasters didn't cross my mind. Not a lot any one could do in some situations like that where keepers couldn't be around.

It was bad here in hurricaine Floyd, they couldn't get to the chicken & turkey & pig houses due to flooding. No food, no water for the animals. The feed mill I used at that time was making feed and they were flying it out by helo, mostly hog feed the chickens had already died.

Steve

That's so terribly sad. Big scale or little scale...terribly sad.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

There's not all bad about poultry houses. Remember, those types of setups are what allow thousands if not millions of people to eat. Without that type of housing, many would go hungry and would not have a protein source other than beans. Large scale houses allows us to have a healthy food source for a fairly small amount of money.

I personally could care less where my dead chicken dinner comes from. It all tastes the same, except that the store bought birds are more tender. Since I have been "in the field" I know how they are kept, watered, fed, stunned and killed. I will not be able to change opinion of those who do not wish to have their opinion changed, but I am glad my opinion was able to be changed once I was allowed to step into another person's shoes and see how the operation is run. Most houses are kept cool, otherwise birds would not eat which would decrease their weight gain, which would decrease their value. In rare instances, when the unthinkable happens, they are pushed into the limelight. It really is a fairly good operation with good results. Can it be improved upon? Absolutely, but the entire husbandry shouldn't be trounced upon and abolished because of a few operations that fail to provide.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

delete

 

[ScrappyChicken]

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That is very true and a good point. It's factory farming and it is what it is, terms like acceptable losses and profit go hand in hand to a factory farm. I have been able to see the whole process from the growing house thru the processing plant, poultry and pigs. Like RP said they do have to care for the animals or profit drops, does the grower care about the animal or the profit? Only the grower knows that answer.

Steve

Sorry folks but I could not disagree more. There are alternatives, much better and more humane operations, small yet still profitable, which if multiplied could feed thousands perhaps millions of people. But that argument is perhaps best left for another time, another place. Still regardless of the results, regardless how well the operation is run and how well the houses are designed, regardless how much the grower (sic!!!) cares about the animals, pictures of hundreds or even thousands of animals crowded together in what can only in the loosest terms be called a house, in my eyes--and perhaps only to my eyes--is disturbing and revolting. Many folks in the world may not care where their food comes from but I certainly do.

 

[Redcatcher]

With that many chickens, I would have a generator just for running the fans in that kind of heat. Generators are relatively inexpensive.