So I was looking through a couple facebook pages that some locals made for posting garage sales and items for sale/trade in our area and I came across an add about chicken feeders, waterers and culling equipment etc... the add was posted by the wife of an old coworker. Funny enough I was supossed to drive down to the ranch where I buy my feed and get new waterers and feeders. I thought this would save me money in the end. So I responded and I was told they had soo many feeders, all kinds and sizes and waterers that tie in together, she told me I could have a mix of the items for a very cheap price. I drove down to their farm and she told me this story about how they bought the 150 acre farm from an old chicken farmer who simply just wanted to sell and move on. well after they moved in they went through the barn and the out buildings and realized he left everything behind. Meaning anything to do with raising chickens and other farm animals. These people weren't sure what to do with any of it so they began posting in order to sell the items, which they don't even have a clue how much its all worth. So I told them, and even then they still allowed me take what I wanted for a dirt cheap price. After a short conversation they showed me the culling equipment, they had the things to put the chicken heads through in order to cut them right off and then they had this spike thing, apparantly used for plucking?/!! and then the scalding machine. I politely declined and told them my hens were just egg laying hens. So my old coworker who had arrived only minutes after her showing the culling machinery said...oh...well I have got a barnfull of egg layer equipment...and well did he ever!!!!!
He opened his second barn, of about 20 feet wide and 30 feet long and from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall were nothing but battery cages. they were super small and I could see that there was no way a chicken could ever even stand in one of those. the tops had locks on them and they absolutely reminded me of a video I had recently seen about egglayers and battery operations.
I then realized something. A couple days earlier my husband had been sharing our chicken stories with a coworker and that coworker told him about his old neighbour. He told my husband how he had known for years that this man had hundreds of chickens and yet he had never seen a single one anywhere out on the farm. the town people would go to his house on a daily basis to buy eggs and he even sold them at the farmers market.
then one day my husbands coworker decided that if that many people bought his eggs that they must be pretty good. So off he went to pay him a visit and learn something about eggs. He inquired about the chickens and the farmer gave him specific details about his chickens. According to the farmer the chickens were not allowed out of their cages because they were solely egg laying hens. He also told him that if a chicken didn't lay anything in 2 days the chicken was culled and quickly replaced. Then he shared the last bit of information which changed everything for my husbands coworker. The farmer told him that to make sure they didn't try to stand up he would cut off the chickens legs and then proceeded to show him a few of the chickens.
well he left without buying any eggs and that week he wrote a letter to our local paper and shared the story with our community and the smaller vilages around our community. The towns people according to what my husband was told were outraged at the severity of cruelty these chickens endured and everyone stopped buying eggs. He was also banned from sellign at the farmers market and in the end he did one final act of cruelty. He burned his hundreds of chickens alive!!!!! I guess the police said they couldn't do anything about it because there were no laws against it.
Even so, the farmer was badly outcasted and that is why he sold his farm. I was surprised by this story and even asked my 80 yr old neighbour about it, and he confirmed it and even said he used to be good freinds with the farmer. But the towns people were upset because even though we have loads of hunters and small scale farmers, no one up here really treats their animals in such a manner. I have to say I was quite appalled to see the cages and it makes me cringe when I think what those creatures went through on a daily basis!!!!
He opened his second barn, of about 20 feet wide and 30 feet long and from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall were nothing but battery cages. they were super small and I could see that there was no way a chicken could ever even stand in one of those. the tops had locks on them and they absolutely reminded me of a video I had recently seen about egglayers and battery operations.
I then realized something. A couple days earlier my husband had been sharing our chicken stories with a coworker and that coworker told him about his old neighbour. He told my husband how he had known for years that this man had hundreds of chickens and yet he had never seen a single one anywhere out on the farm. the town people would go to his house on a daily basis to buy eggs and he even sold them at the farmers market.
then one day my husbands coworker decided that if that many people bought his eggs that they must be pretty good. So off he went to pay him a visit and learn something about eggs. He inquired about the chickens and the farmer gave him specific details about his chickens. According to the farmer the chickens were not allowed out of their cages because they were solely egg laying hens. He also told him that if a chicken didn't lay anything in 2 days the chicken was culled and quickly replaced. Then he shared the last bit of information which changed everything for my husbands coworker. The farmer told him that to make sure they didn't try to stand up he would cut off the chickens legs and then proceeded to show him a few of the chickens.
well he left without buying any eggs and that week he wrote a letter to our local paper and shared the story with our community and the smaller vilages around our community. The towns people according to what my husband was told were outraged at the severity of cruelty these chickens endured and everyone stopped buying eggs. He was also banned from sellign at the farmers market and in the end he did one final act of cruelty. He burned his hundreds of chickens alive!!!!! I guess the police said they couldn't do anything about it because there were no laws against it.
Even so, the farmer was badly outcasted and that is why he sold his farm. I was surprised by this story and even asked my 80 yr old neighbour about it, and he confirmed it and even said he used to be good freinds with the farmer. But the towns people were upset because even though we have loads of hunters and small scale farmers, no one up here really treats their animals in such a manner. I have to say I was quite appalled to see the cages and it makes me cringe when I think what those creatures went through on a daily basis!!!!
