Backyard Chickens - Yes or No?

[HVC]

It's a relatively recent thing. Breeds like the Cornish Cross were developed in the late 50s. Still around now, but bigger. Genetic freaks with huge breasts ( ) the reach slaughter age at 5 to 7 weeks old. Aren't meant to survive to full maturity, their hearts and legs can't take it. They don't breed true, so aren't a technical breed I guess. Ugly half naked things. Tasty though.


*edit* being raised on western chickens I don't like the less modified breeds. I had chicken in Vietnam. Small and tough. Apparently that's the popular tasty out there.

[Josquius]

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*edit* being raised on western chickens I don't like the less modified breeds. I had chicken in Vietnam. Small and tough. Apparently that's the popular tasty out there.

Yeah, that's a weird little east/west difference.
Go to a supermarket in Asia and chicken leg is the expensive one with breast seen as less desirable and cheaper.

[viper37]

They'll generally stop anything smaller than a coyote, except weasels, from what I am told.

I'm not certain they can stop foxes.

Usually, a farmer would have had a dog and the rooster would have alerted the dog who would have chased the fox.

[viper37]

It's a relatively recent thing. Breeds like the Cornish Cross were developed in the late 50s. Still around now, but bigger. Genetic freaks with huge breasts ( ) the reach slaughter age at 5 to 7 weeks old. Aren't meant to survive to full maturity, their hearts and legs can't take it. They don't breed true, so aren't a technical breed I guess. Ugly half naked things. Tasty though.

I remember seeing this supposed documentary on Super Channel about how they raised chickens for Kentucky Fried Chicken, where they feed them their excrements because most of the nutritious values in their food aren't digested.

Dad didn't want to eat anymore of that stuff afterward.  Mom said she was certain Dixie Lee wasn't the same so she'd be safe.   I wasn't impressed by any of this and refused to believe it could be all true. 

[HVC]

Not sure about the excrement thing, I mean they're dumb but most animals won't eat their own shit (other animals shit is fine for some reason ) Everything is soy fed now anyway. If you can get chicken not raised on soy, even the genetic freak birds, they taste much better.

As for roosters, a spurred rooster is a dangerous thing. Foxes are rather timid, so it's possible. Plus they're crepuscular so the chickens are awake, weasels are weaselly and hunt mostly at night.plus they're small and can get into coops. A sleeping rooster isn't helpful. Most of what a rooster does though is warn the chickens to hide, so good against birds of prey.

[crazy canuck]

Thankfully, there is a producer nearby, who raises chickens the old-fashioned way.  Well almost old-fashioned. The area he has his farm has a lot of eagles so he needs to have a moveable chicken coop which he moves across a field every so often. The chickens eat insects in the section that he puts them in, leave their they're droppings for maneuver which helps the grass grow.  Then he brings in the cows to eat the grass to leave the Dung which creates more bugs for the chickens with chickens come back.

The meat is a lot more dense than the factory farm chickens. I think it's also more tasty, but others disagree.

[Tamas]

The chickens my grandparents used to raise definitely tasted better than the supermarket kind.

[viper37]

Not sure about the excrement thing, I mean they're dumb but most animals won't eat their own shit (other animals shit is fine for some reason )

Well, they will in the "wild", I mean, outside of industrial roosters.  They shit everywhere, you throw grain and they eat the grain and everything around.  They even eat on a pile of manure.

But that they will, in a controlled environment, be fed their own excrement, I wasn't and still ain't sure.  But it's the US, everything is possible. 

[viper37]

The chickens my grandparents used to raise definitely tasted better than the supermarket kind.

Eating meat like that, without any standards or quality control?

[HisMajestyBOB]

You can get eggs without roosters. Just no chicks.

No shit.  Did not know.

Basically chicken menstrual cycle. . Egg pops out, but (on average) once a day. Think of that next time you eat an omelet

You know what I think about? How many chickens we slaughter a day. I thought about this once at a resort in Cuba. At lunch time they were roasting about 12 chickens on a spit. I figured they were doing this on all the resorts along the beach. One beach. Imagine all the beaches on all the resorts of the world. Then imagine all the restaurants and homes. Then think about how we also eat their means of reproduction. It's amazing we havent' driven them to extinction.

(note this is not a tree-hugging lefty post. I love meat. Just pointing out).

There are over 2 billion chickens in the US alone (https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/07/llama-emu-ostrich-herds-down/, a little ways down). Worldwide, I'm sure they outnumber humans.
So really, we gotta eat them before they rise up and eat us.