What happens to all the Rooster chicks?????

[ooptec]

hey,

Much as they show bucolic pics of happy family mixed farms on labels, mostly farms in that classic sense are a thing of the past replaced by 'agribusiness'

Shame really. But is due to the cheap price of food in grocery stores.

cheers

 

[annabell254]

Ok, well I just got an email back from heifer and they cannot accept from individuals for health reasons...which I do understand

.... they also said that most of the animals that are bought are bought in that country....but 500$ American for a milk cow! 20$ for 10 chicks... I can get half of that here...for a deal, and I would think that American money went further than that in a 3rd world country...When I visited Nicaragua 100$ of our money was like 1000$ to them...amazing beach front cottages for 10$ dollar a night! Ac was an extra dollar haha...Anyway sorry to rant, I was just hoping for more...I sent an e-mail back asking about the roo's from hatcheries and if they would have any use for them or if they could even use them....We will see...but my spirit is down, I just wish ..I dont know...for more...

...I guess it is time to visit the chicks they always lift me up

 

[Cindy in PA]

I heard about that book. Want to read it myself. And I've seen photo's of the grinder (and the results)

I can't understand how a person could do things like that. I read lots about factory farming, not just chickens, but pigs, cows and sheep get a bum deal as well in many farms. I must say it's doing a good job putting me off animal products! I was so horrified when I read about broilers and batteries I stopped eating chicken and shop bought eggs. Hasn't been easy at times, but it's been 3 years and I'm not going back. I just cannot support cruelty like that! Nowadays we're careful when we shop and look for venison instead of farmed meat.

If you are buying venison, wouldn't that be farmed also? Just curious, as I don't have any idea how else venison would be for sale. We buy grass fed beef as our solution from a small local farm.

 

[sumi]

We sometimes get Springbok and Kudu. They are kept on huge game farms, where they are allowed to do whatever they like, until hunting season begins. It's not always available, but I stock up if I find some for sale in the shops.
Guess it does help that we live in Africa...

 

[ChickletGranny]

Sooooo I'm just wondering... what happens in the wild? If there is 50/50 ratio male to female, what happens in the land of birds that are free in the world? It seems that some birds are monogamous and mate for life. And some, like the birds in New Guinea and Australia, the girls just line up and the boys flip their fancy feathers, sing and dance until those girls are mesmerized into allowing the boys in, or else they fly away saying "Naaaah, jus' not feeling' it." The boy's are deflated, but try try again. Nobody seems to need to grind the boys up alive in a chopper. Really? someone said it only took a minute or two? I wonder how the people in the gas chambers would have related to that statement. But they didn't hear the screaming, and if you know chickens at all... they are not quiet when they are threatened.

But even more than that, it makes us monsters! Closing our eyes isn't very effective - we can't unknown this now. I heard that roos can live happily together in a bachelor pad. Do they have to be a commodity for us to be able to let them live? Maybe there should be a Roo Resort that can be factored into the price of our eggs or something. Can't we come up with something more humane? Our delicious, versatile eggs are the best bargain we've ever had! We should pay back if we can.

 

[azjustin]

Sooooo I'm just wondering... what happens in the wild? If there is 50/50 ratio male to female, what happens in the land of birds that are free in the world? It seems that some birds are monogamous and mate for life. And some, like the birds in New Guinea and Australia, the girls just line up and the boys flip their fancy feathers, sing and dance until those girls are mesmerized into allowing the boys in, or else they fly away saying "Naaaah, jus' not feeling' it." The boy's are deflated, but try try again. Nobody seems to need to grind the boys up alive in a chopper. Really? someone said it only took a minute or two? I wonder how the people in the gas chambers would have related to that statement. But they didn't hear the screaming, and if you know chickens at all... they are not quiet when they are threatened.

But even more than that, it makes us monsters! Closing our eyes isn't very effective - we can't unknown this now. I heard that roos can live happily together in a bachelor pad. Do they have to be a commodity for us to be able to let them live? Maybe there should be a Roo Resort that can be factored into the price of our eggs or something. Can't we come up with something more humane? Our delicious, versatile eggs are the best bargain we've ever had! We should pay back if we can.

I'll bite.

After the 100's of chicks I've hatched, the 50/50 ratio is garbage. Big hatcheries would rather sell their chicks (cocks) instead of composting them, hence the "straight run".

Some birds mate for life, chickens most certainly do not. Have you ever seen a rooster in action?

The grinders are instant, whoever told you a minute or two is giving you a line....

Comparing gassing humans to the instantaneous grinding of a male chicken is completely asinine and illogical at best.

If you don't like the practices of the meat industry, buy local. Support the farms that have humane practices!

Every time you buy chicken/eggs/pork/beef at Walmrt/Fryz/Safewy/etc, you support big ag and it's "atrocities".


We're not monsters, just trying to feed our children.

 

[Bunnylady]

I wish someone would tell the chickens they can live happily together as batchelors, because mine don't believe it. Mine beat each other to bloody pulps, until the losers learn to run away screaming when the birds that beat them approach. They spread out until they get to the point that they don't see each other, which meant I have had to collect a couple that were trying to establish territory in my neighbors yards. Of course, wounded birds and those that are in unfamiliar territory are easy prey for predators - which is what most likely happens to excess males in the wild. But hey, predators have to eat, too - that's their "job" in the great circle of life.

 

[cassie]

I just had an idle thought...most people want hens, maybe a roo for every 5-10 ladies right? Sohooo when a hatchery sexes its chicks what happens to all the roo's? are they just thrown back in with the rest.... so that people getting strait run get a higher roo to hen ratio that what was really hatched? wouldn't this mean that there would be practically all roo's left in the strait run! Or do they go in a roo pen...if so... Does anyone know WHAT HAPPENS TO THEM???

There has to be extras (probably quite a few) in my thinking...
Anyways I may be the only person left who does not know this, but still .... Just wondering????

if they ARE thrown back in with strait run chicks...I'll be sure to never order strait run where sexing is available!

but if they are not...well I dont know if I want to know the answer because I can only think one thing that happens to an unwanted roo

(but are they culled as chicks or sold as meat chickens)

Straight run is straight run. The rooster chicks are not thrown back in. If you order straight run and happen to get mostly roosters, it's just the roll of the dice. It's not because they threw excess roosters back in there. Theoretically with straight run you should get about half roosters and half pullets, but anything can happen. I once ordered 25 straight run chicks and got 20 pullets and only five cockerels. Then there was the time I got a dozen fertile eggs from a neighbor to put under a broody. They all hatched. They were also all roosters.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

They are euphonized usually with Carbon Dioxide and then are used for either pet food or some organic agriculture product like fertilizer.

It seems less cruel than taking a rooster that you've raised to near adult hood and killing him just to satisfy your homeowners association because he crows at Sun rise or you think that the natural 50/50 relationship between hens and roosters is too hard on hens..

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Getting chicks, in most the world, is not a problem. As it isn't here either. Feeding them is the problem.

This is where the governments of the leading countries could come in. Monies could be set aside and transferred into holdings for this project. Monies could be raised through independent organizations. I'm in no way a financial consultant but organizations are set up all the time for needy causes.

Would day old chicks, hatched in Alabama, survive the transport to some foreign land, in any case?

The surplus supply of male chicks which are culled daily would not have to be shipped as day old chicks but would be housed until they reach the ages where transport would be possible

Teaching and encouraging sustainable, small scale agriculture is a real solution. .

In the US, the number of small farms is growing by 2% a year. In the Third World the focus of rural development is shifting from mechanization and the (false) economies of scale to programs that strengthen small farmers and their indigenous traditional methods. Wouldn't this be also a means for these third world countries to become even more sustainable in their food supplies over time?

Yes I know that this is an old thread, but I must ask is it sustainable to rear animals (Like a laying breed rooster) that will never produce as much food as it consumes?