The Lucrative Art of Chicken Sexing (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Lucrative Art of Chicken Sexing (2017)

#41

Post by fenwick67 » Sat, Mar 10, 2018, 12:20 AM UTC

ballenf wrote: post #22

presidentender wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gruesome, but I would dispute painful. The present state of things is the least bad it could be while still allowing us to enjoy the prices we do.

> The present state of things is the least bad it could be while still allowing us to enjoy the prices we do. That statement belongs in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Apt Bojack Horseman quote incoming...

> How do you respond to allegations that factory farming is "torture" or "cruel" or "like a terrifying movie about some strange dystopian society, but in this monster story, the horrifying monsters are us"?

> Relax, Tommy, everything we do is completely legal and FDA-approved, so, therefore, it is fine.

> I have no follow-up questions

Re: The Lucrative Art of Chicken Sexing (2017)

#42

Post by swebs » Sat, Mar 10, 2018, 12:33 AM UTC

Funny, because the How It's Made documentary shows them easily being separated by checking two rows of feathers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVf6KXVIZ5I&t=197s

Re: The Lucrative Art of Chicken Sexing (2017)

#43

Post by nick238 » Sat, Mar 10, 2018, 1:01 AM UTC

0xdeadbeefbabe wrote: post #18

devit wrote: post #14

Any progress on genetically engineering chicken so that only female chicks are produced, or even better artificially producing eggs without any chickens at all?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_link At least they color female chicks a different color.

Put a fluorescent protein in the W chromosome that's expressed in the embryo, then you could look for the tell-tale color and destroy the others earlier.

Re: The Lucrative Art of Chicken Sexing (2017)

#44

Post by maroonblazer » Sat, Mar 10, 2018, 1:59 AM UTC

eric_the_read wrote: post #16

Falling3 wrote: post #2

I've worked with chickens for years. Among lay people, being able to correctly sex a chicken after 2-3 weeks is a difficult skill. It's incredibly interesting that these people are able to do it so easily at such an early age. It's also put to very disturbing uses. The females go on to be used as layer hens and the males are kill within hours of hatching - generally in gruesome/painful ways.

I cannot for the life of me remember the context, but I remember reading about skills that can't be taught; only learned; chicken-sexing was one of these.

Yeah, I recall reading about one that had something to do with watchmen in London/Britain during WWII being able to spot German fighters in the air...? The best way they found to train them was to simply have them watch experienced ones do it for some period of time.

Re: The Lucrative Art of Chicken Sexing (2017)

#45

Post by newnewpdro » Sat, Mar 10, 2018, 2:09 AM UTC

fenwick67 wrote: post #29

kgc wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not grow the males to be for eating?

Roosters don't lay eggs, and somebody did the math and figured out the return on hens vs roosters is so much better it's not even worth raising the roosters.

Capon is tasty though.

Re: The Lucrative Art of Chicken Sexing (2017)

#46

Post by Simon_says » Sat, Mar 10, 2018, 2:17 AM UTC

jacobkg wrote: post #9

Chicken Sexing = Identifying a Chicken as Male or Female

Thanks for the clarification.

Re: The Lucrative Art of Chicken Sexing (2017)

#47

Post by xkcd-sucks » Sat, Mar 10, 2018, 2:29 AM UTC

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #26

DonaldFisk wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you tell? It sounds pretty painful. There is a painless way of killing, through asphyxiation by inert gas (e.g. nitrogen, but not carbon dioxide).

Googling suggests that animal welfare organisations currently suggest maceration is the best alternative, being better than carbon dioxide which gets second place. Do you happen to know why they don't promote your suggestion of suffucation with nitrogen?

Yeah given the extremely robust panic response induced by co2-- to the point where co2 is used as an animal model of panic-- almost any other gas is better.

Re: The Lucrative Art of Chicken Sexing (2017)

#48

Post by cyberferret » Sat, Mar 10, 2018, 2:34 AM UTC

Falling3 wrote: post #2

I've worked with chickens for years. Among lay people, being able to correctly sex a chicken after 2-3 weeks is a difficult skill. It's incredibly interesting that these people are able to do it so easily at such an early age. It's also put to very disturbing uses. The females go on to be used as layer hens and the males are kill within hours of hatching - generally in gruesome/painful ways.

I watched a video once of one of these workers picking chicks out of a conveyor belt - the female ones were dropped back onto the belt, but the male ones were wrist flicked into an eviscerating machine. Pretty much turned me off the whole poultry industry at that point.

I can't imagine the sort of callous nature one has to foment within themselves to so dismissively handle a living creature then toss it into a machine that will instantly end its life in seconds, for no better reason than being born the wrong sex.

I can accept killing as part of the food cycle, but this cold method of one person stamping out hundreds of lives per hour for no real productive gain had me reeling.

Re: The Lucrative Art of Chicken Sexing (2017)

#49

Post by drumttocs8 » Sat, Mar 10, 2018, 2:36 AM UTC

See the book on memory: Moonwalking with Einstein

Re: The Lucrative Art of Chicken Sexing (2017)

#50

Post by golem14 » Sat, Mar 10, 2018, 2:57 AM UTC

Falling3 wrote: post #38

fenwick67 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roosters don't lay eggs, and somebody did the math and figured out the return on hens vs roosters is so much better it's not even worth raising the roosters.

Roosters are raised for meat - just a different breed from those raised to lay eggs.

Not what I heard. I am led to believe the males are essentially shredded alive.

http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2016/06/13/us-egg-producer...