51–60 of 87 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
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
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 machin…
Hmm? I grew up around farms. You do realize roosters (male chickens) are not very productive right?
I think these practices are horrible, but I understand that the only reason they happen is due to the productive gain. Even on traditional farms roosters are culled earlier than later, as you only need a handful at most per 100 chickens.
The type of operation you describe is typically for laying hens. Roosters of those breeds are not useful.
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.
Why not grow the males to be for eating?
Females are also more docile and less likely to cause damage to other chickens.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
Is sperm sex selection not possible? (it is in humans) Is this detectable via ultrasound of egg? Why not breed chickens with visible sex difference?
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.
The flipside to their early death is the fate of the hens, which may have to live in small cages for a couple of month before being slaughtered themselves.
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.
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.
Why not grow the males to be for eating?
Part of that is that the animal only has so much energy to spend, the other is that when breeding for one trait, one invariably tends to neglect other traits.
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
Now, with CRISPR and genetic engineering, it may become possible one day to sex them at the egg stage by expressing a simple gene. A tiny biopsy, similar to in ovo vaccination, would reveal the sex. But the consumers don't like genetic engineering...