Should poultry be raised in cities, county communities or near any of these?

[wkyongae]

Honestly, the real problem with commercial farms is not how the animals are raised. It's how the farmer is paid. Farms many many year ago switched from being paid for quality to quantity. When that happens the growing conditions changed too not to many farmers liking but out of need to support their families. Kindof like this.

 

[wkyongae]

My wife and I are mostly self-sufficient home steaders.

So do you think the backyard chicken keepers are trying to put you commercial chicken raisers out of business?

Yes, there are a lot of pet chicken keepers here, but not all.

 

[aart]

My wife and I are mostly self-sufficient home steaders.

I thought I saw you say somewhere that you had 100's-1000's of birds.
Not sure why you are here belittling all the backyarders.

 

[wkyongae]

I thought I saw you say somewhere that you had 100's-1000's of birds.
Not sure why you are here belittling all the backyarders.

We have at times had alot of birds on our farm. Our main problem with the backyarders is their location and the problems that they could pose to us even though we're doing things right and in the proper location. I watched my dad live with this problem. He had 100000 pullets, 1400 hogs and 240 sows. Then one year a bunch of houses sprung up very nearby. Spring, summer,fall he battled those people but every winter he was their best friend because he kept the road and their driveway cleared of snow.

 

[alinas2010]

Honestly, the real problem with commercial farms is not how the animals are raised. It's how the farmer is paid. Farms many many year ago switched from being paid for quality to quantity. When that happens the growing conditions changed too not to many farmers liking but out of need to support their families. Kindof like this.View attachment 3781573

We can agree to disagree about the problems with commercial farms. A lot of things certainly play into why things are done the way they are on commercial farms. But I for one don’t think there is ever an excuse to subject any animal to sickening and inhumane conditions. Simply saying it’s okay because they’re bred specifically to be in those conditions doesn’t really cut it to me. There has been a trend of more ethical, small commercial farming creeping up the past few years, I hope it continues.

Do you think the more people that can be self sufficient (and I know you hate to hear it), but the more that can have backyard chickens, perhaps that can in some little way help equate to less pressure on commercial chicken farmers and they can focus on quality, not quantity again some day?

It sounds unfair what your family went through, but I don’t see how that’s the fault of backyard chicken keepers. Do you think if more people had kept backyard chickens around your father’s old farm, maybe they could be a little more understanding of the smells and sounds?

 

[wkyongae]

We can agree to disagree about the problems with commercial farms. A lot of things certainly play into why things are done the way they are on commercial farms. But I for one don’t think there is ever an excuse to subject any animal to sickening and inhumane conditions. Simply saying it’s okay because they’re bred specifically to be in those conditions doesn’t really cut it to me. There has been a trend of more ethical, small commercial farming creeping up the past few years, I hope it continues.

Do you think the more people that can be self sufficient (and I know you hate to hear it), but the more that can have backyard chickens, perhaps that can in some little way help equate to less pressure on commercial chicken farmers and they can focus on quality, not quantity again some day?

It sounds unfair what your family went through, but I don’t see how that’s the fault of backyard chicken keepers. Do you think if more people had kept backyard chickens around your father’s old farm, maybe they could be a little more understanding of the smells and sounds?

You are correct there is a trend in the right direction if the consumer can except the price of the product. And the backyard farms can be competitive in the market place with quality and price. Right now in Utah there is a beef packer designed for and only for local cattle. We have a grocery store chain near Spokane Washington that sells mostly their own Hereford beef through their own packing plant. During the COVID-19 thing they had plenty of beef for sale. We would increase our poultry operation if we could get together with others and build a processing plant. This takes land to scale up something backyard hobby growers just can't do. Local butcher shops used to fill this role now with all the laws and regulations they won't do it any more. Here WA we can only process up to 1000 birds per year before we need a permit. Could you imagine the lobbing that big chicken would do if this happens we would be shut down fast. And don't think for a minute that it's not happening now.

 

[wkyongae]

Could someone please explain why most backyard chicken growers put their chickens to the very back of their property next to their neighbors property? Just something I've noticed on YouTube.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

I only did a speed read but I'm going to go back. This subject interests me and I'm wondering if you have a criterion for when "backyard keeping," is okay based on parcel size? I used to live in Maple Valley WA. close to Enumclaw (I bet you're familiar.) I had 6 chickens, 2 acres; surrounded by 80acres undeveloped. I was really trying to see though not off grid, how self-sufficient could I be right here with this land. And indeed though not off grid, I had a well, woodstove and had no problem during power outages. WELL the inevitable happened. BTW I built m coop close to a fence because on the other side was forest and no people. Then they put up pleasantvilles all around me. I became homestead holdout. My 2 acres no longer seemed like enough. People from the new developments even called the fire department when I was burning in my totaly legal fire pit. It changes everything if you ask me, when you're in a neighborhood with limited space and especially where alot of the people WANTED to be in a HOA. Me with no HOA rules, it just didn't fit the mold. You won't be surprised that I'm now adjacent to Mt. Hood Nat'l forest where aint no one putting up pleasantville.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Could someone please explain why most backyard chicken growers put their chickens to the very back of their property next to their neighbors property? Just something I've noticed on YouTube.

Haven’t noticed that personally but my guess would be trying to not get in trouble for having it too close to a house. If the plots are tight and the property division runs down the middle of the distance between two houses, safest place for distance rules is going to be as close to that midline as possible.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Could someone please explain why most backyard chicken growers put their chickens to the very back of their property next to their neighbors property? Just something I've noticed on YouTube.

Answering the question with a question, is a coop considered a permanent structure, in which case if there is a well, 100ft. setback... ??