Preaching to the choir... PICS

[Shoshana]

I live in a town with a Perdue chicken processing plant, and we often see trucks loaded with chickens headed for the slaughterhouse. It's 45 degrees and raining cats and dogs today, and I ended up behind one such truck, took some pics with my cell phone. Poor chickies! I think they're supposed to be white leghorns, but looked dirty, almost brown, and were so cramped and pecking at each other. The pics don't really do their condition justice. Many are missing feathers all over and just looked so miserable! I can't wait until I can start my flock in the spring and eventually get away from grocery store birds...

 

[countrygirl4513]

It's an awful fact of life, isn't it? I hate to see it too. I feel the same way when I see dogs chained up or any animal in distress. I wish I could adopt them all. Spring can't get here soon enough. I'm ready for it too.

 

[dichotomymom]

I've only bought chicken twice since processing my own birds (my husband wanted big breasts, guess that's a common thread in his life, lol) and I feel no remorse because at no point are my ever crammed into anything and they are happy and healthy. Good luck with your future project!

 

[Boyd]

unfortunately, I eat my own as well as store bought chickens. I can't raise enough meaties in michigans weather so it's a sad reminder. I know where my food comes from and as sad as it is, I too buy from the factory farms

 

[Shoshana]

Until we moved here, I never even thought about where my chicken was coming from. Seeing these trucks has totally opened my eyes to chicken operations and those conditions, and to really want to raise our chicken ourselves.

Dichotomymom - If you don't mind my asking, how many birds are in your flock? Do you use an incubator or hen raise? I'm trying to figure out, as I an planning on a parent flock with hen-raised chicks for production, how many hens I need and how many/often should go broody to meet my family's needs. I was thinking something like 30 BO hens and 2 roos, and was wondering if this is reasonable.

 

[dichotomymom]

I'm down to 12 layers now (we processed 12 dual purpose back in oct). I buy day olds (all pullets) but will be purchasing strictly broilers for our meat consumption in spring because of feed costs and bird size).

 

[dichotomymom]

We don't keep roos because they keep us awake.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Those are the broilers... too big to be leghorns. Either way it's a pretty crappy end result for the chicken.

 

[Buster52]

Quote:
I think Jaku is in Michigan and he seems to do alright. Might want to query him how he does it. Surely you have a 6 to 8 week window in the weather there to raise a bunch of Cornish X.

 

[foweler]

I love my 3 girls very much. I spoil them awfully.
That said, if I had the land I would be raising my own meat birds. Better to have the blood of what I consume on my hands than to support an industry where cruelty is commonplace.
I would probably set up a killing cone where the flock couldn't see or hear what was going on. I wouldn't want to think they were knowingly waiting their turn. I would probably still have some that were just pets too.


I beleive the only vote we have that actually counts for anything is where we spend our money and I want to stop financing cruel operations even if it means spending more for my chicken meat and eggs.
If we all could find local sources for chicken and eggs that were raised in relatively humane conditions we should support those operations. We CAN make a difference by not spending our money at places that don't care about the quality of the lives of the birds. And by educating others as well. Of course there will always be people who don't care much about the quality of life of anyone but themselves but tolerating them is the price of freedom.
Hopefully, through education and exposure more people would open their hearts and do the right thing.