Venting About Factory Chicken Farming

[TheChiggens]

She always wanted chickens but her city doesn’t allow them. Her daughter is fascinated by them at Grandma’s house, though!

So cute!
It's nice to see she is getting the chicken experience!

 

[trumpeting_angel]

So cute!
It's nice to see she is getting the chicken experience!

She likes them a lot! She is very interested in animals just now, so actual, real-life chickens were a bit of a thrill. She got to help collect eggs. I made sure to build the nest box door so this little one can reach in!

 

[FlyWheel]

That's one of the biggest problems not enough money for some people. I agree its worth to do that. But as @Peepsi said. Not everyone can.<Snip!>

All the more reason to grow your own. When I had ten hens they cost me all of $16 in feed per month. Figuring they averaged about 5 eggs a day amoungst the ten of them, that worked out to $1.50 per dozen, for "pastured" eggs.

 

[CCUK]

Cost is such a driving factor in all chicken products. I can go to my local butcher and buy TWO cooked rotisserie chickens for a fiver. If any one can grow there own in the backyard for that I'd like to know how. Mass production is what makes things affordable. Unfortunately chickens fall into this. All I can say is that I look at where the chicken I eat comes from and only buy what I know has been pasture raised or been raised to the best standards I can afford.

 

[TheChiggens]

@CCUK
I like your rules!
And totally agree. It seems like chickens being smaller life forms are easier to manipulate too.

 

[Rammy]

I just really needed to vent on this because it gets harder and harder every day to think about.

As I am sure you all know hens are being kept in confinement the size of a sheet of paper! Now I don't know how far back someone thought well this seems humane. Yes, I know its a very productive way of doing things. BUT as us backyard poultry fans we know what a happy hen is like. And they are usually pretty productive.

I just can't set my mind around how owners of factory farms think about animals. They think chickens are just their property to be put in a cage. And expected to live as if in jail. Being fed corn etc. To produce an egg EVERY day. I can't believe they can just walk in see 1,000s of tortured chickens staring back and think. "well everything looks good here!" We know the joys of watching hens frolicking in the field. Have a dust bath. Eating a worm. Sleeping on there roosts at night. THAT'S life. Not this jarring picture right here! Notice its almost all dark!

And then the worst part there killed a few months after there highest production. And that is SOME unhealthy meat.

So If you can adopt some Battery hens and give them the life they missed!
So thanks to everyone for reading this I just really needed to vent. There is a lot more I could have said.

This is why I raise my own chickens now.

 

[Rammy]

Ugh. Factory Farming is awful. With all species. I wish more people were aware of how horrendous some animal's lives are. They might be more inclined to buy meat, eggs, and milk from family farms. I have a lot of abandoned factory farms near my house, and they are so depressing to look at. However, organizations like PETA who think all farm animals (even ones living on small, well-managed farms) need to be "rescued" makes me mad. Like when they release animals at county fairs. Wish i could help more......

PETA isnt about rescuing. They are about eliminating, destroying, and exterminating all animals. They feel they are better off dead than slaves to humans.

 

[Rammy]

I'm with you on this (and many other things). This just gives me that feeling of being punched right in the gut. I honestly don't understand how it's still legal to do this. I understand that this is the results from a huge demand for eggs, but there's got to be a better way. I just started getting enough eggs that I'm hoping I can stop purchasing eggs so often. Not that it's that much better, but anytime I do purchase eggs from the market, I always purchase eggs that come from free range organic chickens. My hopes are that the birds laying those eggs are cared for and treated better than the birds in the picture you shared. That's enough to make one stop eating chicken. As far as how someone can think all is good, I don't get it. I have 1 complete and total JERK (and 1 slight part time jerk) that belong to me & I should just send them to the famous "freezer camp", but I just can't. I am such a softie and desperately need to woman up and cull them, but my daughter helped hatch them in school and we've cared for them ever since the end of May (brought them home when they were 1 week old). We have pictures of them with us. Even though they hate me, I'd still never wish them to have to live like these birds.

Free range or organic doesnt always mean what you think. Free range for factory farmed chickens is they "might" get to stick thier head out a window for 2 mimutes. Organic can mean they get feed corn without antibiotics in it. The definitions for those two terms are very vague and the factory farms do just enough to make the USDA happy.

 

[Rammy]

I saw a very interesting documentary called "cowspiracy" where he does the math and finds out with all of the grains that we grow for livestock we could feed the entire world.

Just because they said so in a documentary doesnt mean its true. Growing up I was told believe nothing you read and half of what you see.

 

[TheChiggens]

That mind is good at cirmumantces like this.