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Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

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Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#211

Post by swiftcoder »

sergers wrote: post #135
pulkitsh1234 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you really like eating chicken, you may end up finding it difficult to eat them again in the future after you develop a bond with them. I used the believe the same, but as I found out on HN, there are a lot of people who won't bat an eye killing animals raised on their own land. Maybe they just never develop a bond with these animals. But then the question should be is it just the "bond" which is holding someone…

My wifes family was wicked as they would let the children bond with the animals, without letting them know they gonna be dinner. She tells a story of a wonderful pet goat. Until one day it was "gone to another farm", and they enjoyed goat curry for dinner. The older siblings knew... and now they dont talk lol.

My friend would spend summers at the family farm, and the youngest kids would be issued a rabbit as a pet for the duration. They'd then make the kids watch the rabbits be slaughtered and cleaned, and serve them up at the end of the vacation...

Straight psychopath approach to child raising. The adults were all convinced this is how you made kids grow up tough

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#212

Post by latexr »

6510 wrote: post #200
latexr wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> being vegetarian doesn't exclude you from the necessity of killing in order to live. You're just killing forms of life that you emphasize with less, which is very reasonable and rational but also not materially different. That’s like saying you kill chickens to eat eggs. You don’t kill a plant to eat its fruit. In fact, plants benefit from animals eating what they produce, be it oranges or tomatoes or something els…

I killed so many slugs eating my broccoli it started to get to me. I technically didn't kill them myself, I put the cannibals in a bucket together. 1/3 to 1/2 bucket per day. About 30 full buckets for 20 broccoli plants of which about 8 were ruined.

The conversation is about the necessity of killing what you eat. Those slugs have nothing to do with either argument nor were they a necessary casualty.

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#213

Post by im3w1l »

latexr wrote: post #198
gadders wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had chickens for probably 15 years now, starting with 3 and ending up with about 20 (mixture of hybrids, pedigrees and rescued battery/farmed hens) and 2 geese. This happens a lot with chickens. Chickens are a gateway drug to more chickens. If you have a few chickens, they take about as much looking after as a rabbit - keep their food and water topped up, and clean them out once a week. I agree that you won't ma…

> It makes no sense to get a £80 vet bill on a chicken that cost £20. This logic is confusing. You are taking a purely transactional view when it comes to the chicken’s health, but you also admitted they don’t turn a profit. In that vein, it makes no sense to get the £20 chicken in the first place. Your utilitarian view is also the opposite of what the person you’re replying to is describing. Do you believe that if o…

It makes sense if someone likes chickens in general but doesn't care much about any individual chicken.

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#214

Post by rsynnott »

mcny wrote: post #165
burnished wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Past generations of my family used to name animals that they raised for meat after dishes they could end up in. There are practices people can engage in to distance themselves from the animals they interact with. But also some people who raise animald for meat hire a person to collect them for slaughter in part because of the emotional toll involved. As to your last question.. I think you might be confused? People do…

> People don't like to kill in general. I used to believe this. Then I came up with a twisted question to ask people (I am fun at parties) The question is something like, if you had to come up with a name for someone to kill within twenty four hours can you do so? The conditions are you get a full and unconditional pardon. It won't be held against you at all. If need be, we will even arrange it such that the person c…

> I expected people to answer no. You can't come up with a name in a day! However, over half the people I have asked have said they have a name right now.

I don't think that's surprising, and it doesn't meant that people are okay with or blasé about killing people. Like, arguably this is just the trolley problem rephrased; there exist people whose death would clearly be a vast net benefit and would save many other lives. So is it okay to kill them? It's not an easy question.

I think it's more or less unrelated to the issue of killing one's own chickens; there is no such thing as an evil chicken who death will save thousands.

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#215

Post by maxdoop »

awongh wrote: post #191
qq99 wrote: post #93

As someone who once built a large coop [1] then just bought a pre-built shed for the 2nd coop, it's definitely _not_ the _monetary_ solution. You will probably lose money overall for quite some time. I'm still probably underwater. BUT, there are definite upsides: - Chickens are very sweet animals, and are quite intelligent. You will grow to love all the silly things they do. You can pet them, they are super soft, and…

> it's definitely _not_ the _monetary_ solution Does this also take into account the current price of eggs in the same product category? i.e., organic, free-range eggs? For current Erewhon prices, 8 eggs a day is $11.30 in free eggs a day, so $339 in eggs a month? https://erewhon.com/subcategory/33022/eggs - $16.99 a dozen

Erewhon is probably THEE most expensive place lol

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#216

Post by latexr »

fragmede wrote: post #208
latexr wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mushrooms are “fruits”. The “plant” itself is the mycelium underground and the mushroom is the “fruity” part which is produced to spread the “seeds” (spores). And fruits are broader than most people think. Many of the things you think as vegetables are fruits: pumpkins, zucchinis, tomatoes. But even outside fruits there is food you can harvest without harming the plant, like potatoes. And we haven’t even gotten into…

aren't plants alive?

They are, and you don’t kill them or harm them to eat the things they produce with the purpose of being eaten and spread. If you want to engage in the conversation, please make an effort to do so in good faith and actually address the arguments. If you’re only going to make basic queries everyone already agrees with, we’re just wasting time and space.

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#217

Post by TeMPOraL »

swiftcoder wrote: post #211
sergers wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wifes family was wicked as they would let the children bond with the animals, without letting them know they gonna be dinner. She tells a story of a wonderful pet goat. Until one day it was "gone to another farm", and they enjoyed goat curry for dinner. The older siblings knew... and now they dont talk lol.

My friend would spend summers at the family farm, and the youngest kids would be issued a rabbit as a pet for the duration. They'd then make the kids watch the rabbits be slaughtered and cleaned, and serve them up at the end of the vacation... Straight psychopath approach to child raising. The adults were all convinced this is how you made kids grow up tough

That's straight from the TV trope book, this is how movies/shows portray Evil Organization training ruthless spy assassins (except usually it's a dog, and they have to kill it themselves).

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#218

Post by megadata »

"The Trump administration’s efforts to impose its will on the federal workforce through mass firings, funding freezes and communication blackouts is hampering the ability of public health professionals to respond to the growing threat of avian flu.

As egg prices continue to rise and more cases are detected, state and local health officials say there is no clear plan of action from the administration."

https://thehill.com/homenews/5154415-trump-moves-hamper-bird...

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#219

Post by [deleted] »

latexr wrote: post #216
fragmede wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

aren't plants alive?

They are, and you don’t kill them or harm them to eat the things they produce with the purpose of being eaten and spread . If you want to engage in the conversation, please make an effort to do so in good faith and actually address the arguments. If you’re only going to make basic queries everyone already agrees with, we’re just wasting time and space.

[deleted]

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#220

Post by 6510 »

I couldn't find anything online about it but some old guy in a youtube video talked about them using chickens to heat houses long ago.

They build the chicken coop against the house with a very thin wall between it and the living room.

Chickens have 41-42°C body temperature. (105-107°F) With a bit of help from fermenting poop they sit very close together and heat up the coop until it gets to hot. One chicken will go outside and walk around in the snow.

The otherwise isolated living room acts like a buffer, they gradually heat it up and it helps stabilize the coop.

I've never seen this thing in action but the old man said it worked really well. I also have no idea how many chickens were used. It would require a breed that does well in cold climate. Today people put electric heaters in the chicken coop.

If it really works that well, combined with the eggs, it could make it profitable.

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