What do vegans do with chicken eggs?

[cassie]

If the cows do not go into the barn willingly to be milked, there is something very very wrong with the management of that dairy. I know something about cows and dairying. I used to live in one of the largest dairying areas in the country. I have been in dairies milking anything 25 to 2500 or more cows. I worked as a milker for many years. At one time or another I milked 225 Jerseys by myself in a flat barn, I milked about 60 Holsteins in a herringbone parlor, and I had a commercial goat dairy of my own with 100 milking does for several years. In addition I tested cows for DHIA in Monterey County in California. Testing cows gave me an opportunity to see a lot of different dairies. At none of the places I saw, did anyone have to bring the cows in to the parlor by force. You just open the gate and in they come. At one small Guernsey dairy I tested, the milker would go to the door of the parlor and call in the individual cows by name. My goats were the same way except sometimes they all wanted to come in at once. When I was milking cows the only ones I ever had to go out and bring in were the fresh heifers.

To answer some of the questions, the baby bull calves and buck kids go for meat (sorry) and the females are kept for milk. On most cow dairies, the calf stays with the mother for one to three days or so to get the colostrum. Then it is moved to the calf barn and fed milk or replacer. If you think that feeding milk replacer to a calf rather than its mother's milk, keep in mind people do the same thing. If purchased baby formula is not milk replacer, I don't know what is.The cow or goat is usually milked for ten months after giving birth, at which time she is dried off and in two months she will give birth again. Dairy goats and cows produce far more milk than their babies can ever consume. Baby goats and baby calves are usually weaned at about eight weeks of age, by which time they are eating hay and grain. My goat kids were removed from their mothers immediately after birth and fed pasteurized goat milk, or cow milk when I had it, because of CAE, a disease that is transmitted to the kids from their mother's milk.. CAE does not affect people or other animals except maybe sheep. You may think it is cruel to remove the baby from it's mother at birth, but is is more cruel to allow it to contract a lifelong disease which causes painful arthritis, among other things, when it could have been prevented. Cows that no longer produce end up as hamburger. Cows that cannot walk and "have to be propped up" need to go to the butcher ASAP and the dairyman needs improve his breeding program to breed structurally sound cows. The udders of structurally correct cows and goats do not rub, drag, or get sores no matter how full they get. Cows are milked twice a day, and on some places with very high producers, they are milked every eight hours. As for mastitis, even beef cows out on pasture with their calves, in the most natural environment possible, can and do get mastitis.

And for those of you who seem to think animals are better off without the interference of man, keep in mind life for animals in the wild is not all beer and skittles either. Very few of them die peacefully in their beds of old age.

 

[Nsampsel]

I agree with you totally... I feel that I am the responsible human. (there is some bible passage about this somewere) I hatched them, my job is to take care of them. In the wild, the extra males would be driven off to find other females, get killed by the head male or get eaten by predators.

I will be processing my first birds this weekend... I got freedom ranger chicks from someone local ... expected to get a full bodied, but healthy, happy bird that I could breed in a back yard flock for meat birds.... I got a ginger cornishX... These birds are miserable. They are so heavy they cannot walk very much. (I had 2 die for no reason I can see) I tried introducing them to my free range flock and I thought they were going to have a heart attack. My roo did the walk the circles around them thing and they freaked! panting in 70 Degree weather. poor babies are 9 weeks old and the size of my red sex link laying hens. I will not be purchasing this breed again. I feel that the humane thing to do is process them for our dinners.

On that note, the children (11-14) will not watch the killing part. But, I will be having them help prepare dinner with them and explain that we should be thankful for these birds to fill our stomachs. When we talk about processing birds with the kids, we also talk about the great meal (recipes) we will make to celebrate their lives.

We have not named them and call all of them the "Chubby Chickens". (they were raised with leghorn mixes and ameracauna, so they seem monsters by comparison)

Just my 2 cents.

I love the "Chubby Chickens" thing...lol

I have about 4 Tetra Tints I can't tell apart anymore that I often call the "Goon Squad" or things along that line.

 

[Nsampsel]

If the cows do not go into the barn willingly to be milked, there is something very very wrong with the management of that dairy. I know something about cows and dairying. I used to live in one of the largest dairying areas in the country. I have been in dairies milking anything 25 to 2500 or more cows. I worked as a milker for many years. At one time or another I milked 225 Jerseys by myself in a flat barn, I milked about 60 Holsteins in a herringbone parlor, and I had a commercial goat dairy of my own with 100 milking does for several years. In addition I tested cows for DHIA in Monterey County in California. Testing cows gave me an opportunity to see a lot of different dairies. At none of the places I saw, did anyone have to bring the cows in to the parlor by force. You just open the gate and in they come. At one small Guernsey dairy I tested, the milker would go to the door of the parlor and call in the individual cows by name. My goats were the same way except sometimes they all wanted to come in at once. When I was milking cows the only ones I ever had to go out and bring in were the fresh heifers.

To answer some of the questions, the baby bull calves and buck kids go for meat (sorry) and the females are kept for milk. On most cow dairies, the calf stays with the mother for one to three days or so to get the colostrum. Then it is moved to the calf barn and fed milk or replacer. If you think that feeding milk replacer to a calf rather than its mother's milk, keep in mind people do the same thing. If purchased baby formula is not milk replacer, I don't know what is.The cow or goat is usually milked for ten months after giving birth, at which time she is dried off and in two months she will give birth again. Dairy goats and cows produce far more milk than their babies can ever consume. Baby goats and baby calves are usually weaned at about eight weeks of age, by which time they are eating hay and grain. My goat kids were removed from their mothers immediately after birth and fed pasteurized goat milk, or cow milk when I had it, because of CAE, a disease that is transmitted to the kids from their mother's milk.. CAE does not affect people or other animals except maybe sheep. You may think it is cruel to remove the baby from it's mother at birth, but is is more cruel to allow it to contract a lifelong disease which causes painful arthritis, among other things, when it could have been prevented. Cows that no longer produce end up as hamburger. Cows that cannot walk and "have to be propped up" need to go to the butcher ASAP and the dairyman needs improve his breeding program to breed structurally sound cows. The udders of structurally correct cows and goats do not rub, drag, or get sores no matter how full they get. Cows are milked twice a day, and on some places with very high producers, they are milked every eight hours. As for mastitis, even beef cows out on pasture with their calves, in the most natural environment possible, can and do get mastitis.

And for those of you who seem to think animals are better off without the interference of man, keep in mind life for animals in the wild is not all beer and skittles either. Very few of them die peacefully in their beds of old age.

This is something along the lines of what I was trying to say but didn't have all the background to put it in words...lol

 

[sumi]

If the cows do not go into the barn willingly to be milked, there is something very very wrong with the management of that dairy. I know something about cows and dairying. I used to live in one of the largest dairying areas in the country. I have been in dairies milking anything 25 to 2500 or more cows. I worked as a milker for many years. At one time or another I milked 225 Jerseys by myself in a flat barn, I milked about 60 Holsteins in a herringbone parlor, and I had a commercial goat dairy of my own with 100 milking does for several years. In addition I tested cows for DHIA in Monterey County in California. Testing cows gave me an opportunity to see a lot of different dairies. At none of the places I saw, did anyone have to bring the cows in to the parlor by force. You just open the gate and in they come. At one small Guernsey dairy I tested, the milker would go to the door of the parlor and call in the individual cows by name. My goats were the same way except sometimes they all wanted to come in at once. When I was milking cows the only ones I ever had to go out and bring in were the fresh heifers.

To answer some of the questions, the baby bull calves and buck kids go for meat (sorry) and the females are kept for milk. On most cow dairies, the calf stays with the mother for one to three days or so to get the colostrum. Then it is moved to the calf barn and fed milk or replacer. If you think that feeding milk replacer to a calf rather than its mother's milk, keep in mind people do the same thing. If purchased baby formula is not milk replacer, I don't know what is.The cow or goat is usually milked for ten months after giving birth, at which time she is dried off and in two months she will give birth again. Dairy goats and cows produce far more milk than their babies can ever consume. Baby goats and baby calves are usually weaned at about eight weeks of age, by which time they are eating hay and grain. My goat kids were removed from their mothers immediately after birth and fed pasteurized goat milk, or cow milk when I had it, because of CAE, a disease that is transmitted to the kids from their mother's milk.. CAE does not affect people or other animals except maybe sheep. You may think it is cruel to remove the baby from it's mother at birth, but is is more cruel to allow it to contract a lifelong disease which causes painful arthritis, among other things, when it could have been prevented. Cows that no longer produce end up as hamburger. Cows that cannot walk and "have to be propped up" need to go to the butcher ASAP and the dairyman needs improve his breeding program to breed structurally sound cows. The udders of structurally correct cows and goats do not rub, drag, or get sores no matter how full they get. Cows are milked twice a day, and on some places with very high producers, they are milked every eight hours. As for mastitis, even beef cows out on pasture with their calves, in the most natural environment possible, can and do get mastitis.

And for those of you who seem to think animals are better off without the interference of man, keep in mind life for animals in the wild is not all beer and skittles either. Very few of them die peacefully in their beds of old age.

Then I guess our dairy cows round here are not "structurally sound"? Or maybe the farmers should stop trying to beat the world record for most milk from one cow in one milking session. It happens, sadly. As does udders getting rubbed. Poor management. Or our farmers getting paid less for their milk than it's costing them to produce. Desperate times and all that.
I don't know about your farmers, but round here it's getting the most for the least financial expense and sod the animals.

 

[shell3]

Sounds pretty much as I have learnt over the years. Hence the veganism. I'll never view animals as money making products as humane. But am glad to speak with people with first hand experience of the meat trade any dairy farms and can understand better how factory farming evolved. As you say it's not normal for cows to be beaten unwillingly into milking stalls , i agree the farm I visited is very badly run. I don't know when you kept cows if the living quarters stank? These ones were let into the field(they told me) but while I was there on a hot summer day they were all crammed in a large shed like building with an open front which was lined with feeding troughs , I leaned in to rub their faces to try to comfort them some how and they all seemed so without joy, the smell was over whelming. I reported this farm to the RSPCA and they visited but said they were breaking no laws and had been given advice! Also a friend of mine who has some experience on dairy farming once told me when a day old calf is removed from its mother both animals are extremely distraught and cry for each other for a long time, has this been your experience?

 

[sumi]

I've seen video footage of one calf actually managing to get back to mom, only to be separated again. So sad!

 

[Happy Chooks]

I'm feeding the bees sugar solution now as it's a new hive and they need the energy to draw out the comb. (for their own survival and growth of the hive) I will likely not get any honey this year, it will be left for the bees to maintain the colony through the winter. From what I've learned so far, you are supposed to leave the hive with roughly 70 lbs of honey to get through winter. (more if you are in a cold climate) That's roughly 10 frames of honey. I will be taking the excess honey above what is needed for the bees.

We didn't get bees for the honey. We have terrible pollination here, and we wanted more pollination of our fruit trees. The honey is just a bonus. A friend of ours got bees and his crop of fruit exploded. So we decided to try it.


I'm curious though - you say you will eat infertile chicken eggs because the chickens make them anyway and they are not a life. Honey isn't any difference from an egg. The bees will make it anyway, and will store far more than they need. So why do you say you won't eat honey? Is it just because you don't agree with the treatment of some people towards the bees?

 

[shell3]

Yes the treatment of the bees, the removal of the honey which is replaced with inferior sugar supplement which is not as good for them and also the killing out of the entire hive when production declines so as to be replaced. However this is all second hand knowledge not personal experience which is why I'm so interested to speak with you! I love bees and think its fantastic to have them to help your fruit trees, I'm sure they will be a great success, the fact that you say you will only be removing the honey the bees don't need is great because of course they only make honey to eat it. You sound like you've done your research into taking good care of your bees and I hope in return they will look after your trees for you

 

[shell3]

Sumo: I volunteered for an animal rights group for a while and have seen many of those types of footage some gathered by our under cover staff, things that would wake me in the night long after! Sometimes still do. One where a man shot at piglets trapped in a pen shouting dance piggies dance and laughing as they laid bleeding on the floor shaking and screaming. Pure evil, to think that that could have happened to a joint of meat from the local store is repulsive. We have so many vegetarian alternatives here, good luck going Vege when you arrive

 

[cassidy22]

I am neither vegetarian nor vegan, and likely never will be.

But I will tell you one thing - I don't eat any meat or eggs that aren't raised on my farm. I know how my animals live. And I process all my own poultry (I don't process lamb, but found a compassionate processor who is respectful of my animals, and kills them quickly and humanely.

My daughter has been exposed to all our animals since birth. Heck, she shared a birthday with one of our lambs! (if it wasn't a ram, I would have kept it!) She's seen lambs born, she's watched eggs hatch (saw one this morning!) She collects and washes eggs with me, and she's there when we process birds. She even helps bring the birds to the scalder for me, and helps pluck. She's 3. We'll see how her attitude changes as she gets older and starts to understand...

We have hens that hatch their own eggs and we let them raise their young. Our lambs stay with their mamas until processing time. Everyone lives outside on the pasture, in the sun. They have safe and secure places to sleep (some of their own choosing) and they are free to roam the pasture, eat grasses, and do whatever critters do. And at the end - they get a kiss on the head and a thank you, and we eat them. All our sheep have names, all are treated like pets, BUT if I want to keep raising lambs and hatching birds, I eventually have to eat a few to make room for more.

If I started feeling guilty every time I ate a lamb chop, or an omelette, then I'd have to stop eating carrots and lettuce, too. Because I'd feel guilty for killing those living plants, as well. They get to have a good life, likely a safer life than if they were in the wild (especially with the coyotes around my place) It's how I justify it, but it is also why I raise MY OWN meat, and don't support factory farms and feed lots!