Preaching to the choir... PICS

[Overeasyplz]

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Hear, Hear! What an excellent post.

 

[hcammack]

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I said I buy my chicken from the grocery store. I see no reason why I should pay the prices people ask for cornish cross birds raised in a moveable battery cage. In case you need further clarification, I think chicken tractors are just another version of high density factory farming.

I'm not the first you have argued this point with. You are entitled to your beliefs, though, however wrong I know they may be.

Good luck finding free range meat chickens. Do you know how fast cornish crosses would be slaughtered by predators and die of heat free ranging? SO you buy factory farmed bacteria filled chicken because you feel like chicken tractors aren't perfect? I would much rather have chickens that lead lives that are a little bit better but not perfect than ones that have lived their lives in a climated controled feces and bacteria filled room.

You are entitled to your beliefs, however wrong I know they may be

 

[Festa X11]

I work in the industry and although I have no contact with the birds as I clean the houses out after catch ready for the new bedding and chicks. In a 19200 square foot shed there is an average of 37000 birds and they have a lifespan of between 35 and 42 days, over here in the UK the cages that you saw on the truck are called modules which have 12 trays each containing between 17 and 23 birds depending their size. Yes this is a cruel way to rare chickens and it is driven by supermarkets who push this way of farming(if you can call it that) one big supermarket is offering those birds for £10 for three

 

[Le Canard de Barbarie]

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I am a proponent of yarding, where the birds are allowed to graze freely using electric poultry fencing and LGDs for protection. I practice what I preach. Chicken tractors are just a big, moveable battery cage.

You are entitled to your assertions, however wrong they are.

 

[foweler]

Anyone know where to get meat birds for consuming in N. California? Yarded or tractored?

I'm no expert but I would think tractors are better than batteries because they get real grass under their feet and fresh air. As long as they are not packed in like sardines I would think it has to be an improvement.


Also, does anyone know exactly how Costco's "Cage Free" egg birds are treated? My girls provide most of our eggs but now and then we get some of Costco's. Especially if the wife is going to make deviled eggs or potato salad.

 

[the simple life]

You would have to find out where Costco gets their eggs from to begin with.
They just get eggs by buying them from a farm or factory and then slapping their own label on them.
I know you know that alot of these labels make false claims or are able to slide in under the radar by meeting the minimum requirements of the law.
Many times free range means there is a door to the warehouse where the hens are kept and they may never actually see the light of day.
Cage free likewise can mean they are kept in a giant warehouse in cramped conditions full of thousands of hens, but they aren't in single cages.
You get the drift, you really have to do your homework to get to the bottom of it.
I think if you truly want to get free range, cage free birds then find someone local, maybe through a farmer's market who doesn't mind you stopping by the farm to see things for yourself.
I invite people to my house to see the chickens and the coop and the yard all the time, some of them do come by to pick up their eggs because they like to play with the chickens or watch their antics as they run around the yard.
I had someone show up the other day, surprise visit and they were thrilled to see the chickens running around the yard.
Its best to see for yourself, although that is not always possible.
A farmer's market is still a good choice because there aren't any commercial people there.

 

[95yj]

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i hope this is a joke, i really don't want to fight about this right now, but there is no possibility that a factory raised chicken w/ zero floor space in a warehouse surrounded by thousands of other birds with barely enough room to move are on the same level as birds raised in a tractor which is moved to fresh vegetation daily and are raised by people who actualy care about the birds enough to ensure a happy life and humane death. i'm open minded and i did think about your side, but there is no possibility... besides my cx's never even moved the full length of the tractor, but they appreciated not being jammed next to another bird, even in the warehouses the birds are still packed in much tighter than what could be considered humane.

You didn't include my other sentence that I felt was important:

This all stems from a picture of chickens being moved to the processing plant. So much is assumed after that.

there was no other sentence, and while i have problems with the way they are transporting the birds i have much bigger problems with the ways the birds are raised and slaughtered. and also beyond the humanity part is the fact that meat birds from large industrial settings are contaminated with bacteria at rates waaaaaay higher than tractored chicken. i also feel that i should be allowed to buy whatever kind of chicken meat i want, do to laws and legislations to "protect" general society a local farmer cannot raise, slaughter and sell chickens without jumping through a ridiculous amount of beaurocratic hoops. if i want to buy uninspected chicken meat why shouldn't i be allowed to, it often has much lower levels of e-coli etc.

 

[the simple life]

This is quite obviously a touchy subject.
Everyone has their own opinions on how to raise all animals.
Look at some of the fights on here over how any of us can even raise meatbirds and process them. Some people think all livestock should be raised as pets.
Just like there is the debate between grass fed beef, which a great many think is the best and still there are those who feel feed lots are an acceptable practice and corn fed is great.
You really can't change how anyone feels, we just have to accept the difference in opinions and go on with our lives.

 

[Le Canard de Barbarie]

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You are right. Sorry.

 

[PoultryPedia]

On the side of warehouse raising of meat birds, another "con" is that the floors become quite coated with excrement and the chickens (especially the numerous ones that are crippled from genetically over-accelerated rate of growth) will get acidic burns on their poorly feathered skin on their underside, too.

Also, the many crippled chickens are poorly attended to and many have great difficulty reaching the watering sources, or end up trapped in tight spots such as feeders, and die from thirst.