What is the ratio of female hens to male roosters? Quick googling tells me 10 to 1 but I'm not sure if that is correct.
Is there any other species that has a similar extremely lopsided number of one sex?
Why I Would Raise Chickens
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Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#92If six times as many people raise chickens, won't the sale price of chickens go down and negate (part of) the effect of providing all the chickens in the first place? Shouldn't the number of people raising chickens have already reached a market equilibrium?
Only in the universe with perfectly rational actors where markets always clear. As there is stiction in mechanical systems, markets may not converge on perfect equilibria.
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#93Anybody else surprised by how much a chicken costs in Africa? $5 is £3.45[1] and I can buy a (dead, plucked, gutted, packaged, delivered to my door) chicken in the UK for £2.95[2]. I realise the local supply's much lower because my Sainsbury's chicken is grown in a cage in a factory somewhere, but nonetheless, I didn't expect that. [1] I presume USD is the currency in the video, since 5 of the local currency is £0.00…
There's also the famously cheap Costco $4.99 Rotisserie Chicken. But it seems it's a bit of a loss-leader for them[1].
[1] - http://time.com/money/3901655/costco-rotisserie-chickens-hot...
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Grain in bulk is still cheaper than poultry. However, you have a point. If poor urban families do not have access to fairly priced chicken feed, they will face the choice of feeding them pet food (at a net economic loss) or cutting their losses and eating all the chickens right away.
Please read the article written by Bill. One of the first lines is that chickens are easy to feed because they can make do with stuff they naturally find on the ground. Given grain will help them grow faster, but it's not imperative.
Yes, as I mentioned in my edit to GP, I have now read the article.
It still sounds strange to me. I mean, how is it that 3rd country rural people cannot not know about chickens? I assumed this would be about giving flocks to urban poor, where there is precious little area not covered by concrete and the chickens would likely forrage on half poisoned cockroaches or something like that.
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#95Anybody else surprised by how much a chicken costs in Africa? $5 is £3.45[1] and I can buy a (dead, plucked, gutted, packaged, delivered to my door) chicken in the UK for £2.95[2]. I realise the local supply's much lower because my Sainsbury's chicken is grown in a cage in a factory somewhere, but nonetheless, I didn't expect that. [1] I presume USD is the currency in the video, since 5 of the local currency is £0.00…
Chickens weren't sold that way until pretty recently in history in rich countries.
Like cows, chickens provide ongoing sustenance. That $5 chicken may yield $50 in eggs. When the bird gets old, you make some soup.
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#96> If you read this article, watch the video above, and answer one question below, I will donate—on your behalf via Heifer—a flock of chickens to a family in poverty. Giving a flock of chickens to desperately poor families sounds like a great idea that will pay dividends for many years. However, I can't help but be reminded of the many charitable programs that sound great but end up having very unusual unintended cons…
If i had to pick two charities that i trusted to understand the consequences of giving animals to impoverished african families, it would be Heifer International and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.
That's not to say it won't have unintended consequences, but this is kind of what they do. I'm sure they've studied the ramifications of the programs they run more than any HN commenters have.
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#97> A farmer who sells 250 chickens a year can bring in $1,250, versus the extreme-poverty line of about $700 a year.
(That's the comment when you answer the quiz correctly.)
What a simplification. I'm all for the chickens, but the quiz and this quiz-answer-comment make it seem a little too easy.
If you want to sell 250 chickens a year you a) need quite a few more than that, b) you need SPACE - and it should provide plenty of free food for hundreds of chickens (so, LOTS of space), and c) the more chickens the higher the risk of disease, and several hundred chickens is a lot of chickens for a poor guy, d) if you don't have LOTS of space you will need to get food from somewhere (and pay for it?).
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#98I find it a bit odd that he doesn't mention actually eating the chicken itself at any point. He mentions selling the chickens for more nutritious food than just eggs... But isn't chicken meat alone pretty nutritious?
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#99I am not poor, but did recently raise chickens for about a year, and did the math on how they fared as an investment. I would disagree they are "easy and inexpensive", though in a 3rd world setting with some luck it may vary. Here's a rough summary from my experience:
-1 x Coop (self-made from scavenged wood, home store bought wood, wire, and hinges) ~$400 -5 x laying chickens ~$100 (Chicks are cheaper, but you pay to feed them for N months before they lay, and they need special care. Even then, some died or got sick and quit laying)
So let's call it a $500 initial investment. Mine laid roughly 12 eggs a week. Near me, we pay $5 for a dozen farm-fresh eggs. So it would take ~100 weeks to pay off my investment, not taking into account the ~20/mo for feed, bedding(hay), wormer, and time spent fooling with them. Time-wise, in addition to building the coop, etc. I had to let them in/out daily and feed and water them.
They were fun. I like fresh eggs and I'll probably do it again sometime. But a good investment they were not.
Re: Why I Would Raise Chickens
#100Impractical to raise chickens in cities where it's illegal to butcher them. The egg laying tapers off at 3 years, but they'll live to ~10 years. That's a pet, or a freeloading chicken you have to feed but don't get eggs from. So...? Yeah, not terribly practical unfortunately.