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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?

#251

Post by cmrdporcupine »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #90
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #25

We have raised a few hens at our hobby farm over the years. The eggs are nice and all, but they're actually quite fragile animals, and then you go and get attached to them and they get suddenly sick and slowly die on you in horrible ways. And veterinary care for backyard chickens is seriously problematic and difficult to get and expensive. My wife fell seriously in love with keeping chickens and it kind of emotionall…

what are they dying of? I assume it isn't weather. I was shocked when my Wisconsin coworkers said their chickens handle -10F weather no problem in the winter.

there's just a pile of things. usually reproductive -- becoming egg bound, etc. there's parasites, viruses, bacterial infections. and being flock animals, they hide it, too.

yeah some varieties of chicken are remarkably tough around cold which is crazy considering their original tropical origin.

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

#252

Post by latexr »

fragmede wrote: post #241
latexr wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why do you get to decide that it isn't the purpose of a cow to be eaten? Clearly you’ve never experienced the sight of animals in a slaughterhouse, as they realise what is happening to the animals in front and begin to panic and violently bellow and push back. > You're arguing on the Internet, it's already a waste of time and space. That is only true for people who don’t engage in good faith and don’t have a genuin…

your attempt to evoke an emotion doesn't answer my question though. Why do you get to decide that the purpose of a cow isn't to be eaten?

Why do you get to decide it is? The onus of proof is on the one making the claim.

I guess someone could also repeatedly bash you over the head with a tire iron and break your legs, and when criticised reply “how do you know their purpose isn’t to get hurt?”

“Well, when I approached them to hit them, they cowered in fear, asked for mercy, and tried to flee.”

“Your attempt to evoke an emotion doesn’t answer the question though. How do you know their purpose is not to be ravaged?”

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

#253

Post by phpnode »

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…

For me the biggest downside is that they reliably attract vermin. I tried a bunch of things to deter rats but they were ever present when we had hens

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

#254

Post by CharlieDigital »

johnla wrote: post #237
CharlieDigital wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That doesn’t mean they are superior to actual whole chicken. Taste is subjective. Sounds like his son preferred the taste of one over the other. My kids prefer nuggets over the whole roast chicken my wife and I eat. The salt, MSG, and seasoning of the nuggets along with the fat from the oil tastes better to them. Sadly, nothing I say will convince them otherwise.

Try making nuggets from scratch. It’s so good and easy to do. Chicken tenders from breast meat. Egg seasoned with salt, pepper. Dunk into seasoned breading. Dunk into egg again and back to the breading. Pan fry. Yummy.

I do make fried chicken for them occasionally and I season with a bit of curry, cumin, and smoked paprika.

    - 1 pack of 6 thighs or 3 breasts
    - 4 tbs corn starch + 1 tsp salt + 1/2 tsp each of curry powder, cumin, smoked paprika to coat
    - slice chicken thinly and use a mallet to flatten to make it even and cook faster (this also increases the ratio of breading to chicken which they like)
    - coat each slice in the corn starch mix
    - beat 2 eggs and then dredge the coated slices in egg
    - coat the now egg coated chicken with bread crumbs of your choice
    - fry in a flat pan with just about 4-6mm of oil
    - about 60-90 seconds each side
They love it! But it also takes me almost 2 hours to do! So it's a once in a while thing in these busy times.

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

#255

Post by lioeters »

burgerone wrote: post #115

> dominant egg producers . . . have leveraged the crisis to raise prices, amass record profits, and consolidate market power Call me ignorsnt, but I'm surprised to see fewer cases of this kind of exploitative capitalism here in the EU. The only similar case that cones to mind is the gas and diesel price hike. Am I missing something or are Americans just more accepting of agressive capitalism like this? Something simi…

I don't think Americans are more accepting of aggressive capitalism, they're victims of an exploitative system that has completely captured their government, media, education, and every aspect of life. Sure many of them are willing participants, or victims who aspire to join the all-powerful ruling class - but that's the result of generations of social engineering and brutal suppression of any viable alternatives.

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

#256

Post by fragmede »

latexr wrote: post #252
fragmede wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

your attempt to evoke an emotion doesn't answer my question though. Why do you get to decide that the purpose of a cow isn't to be eaten?

Why do you get to decide it is? The onus of proof is on the one making the claim. I guess someone could also repeatedly bash you over the head with a tire iron and break your legs, and when criticised reply “how do you know their purpose isn’t to get hurt?” “Well, when I approached them to hit them, they cowered in fear, asked for mercy, and tried to flee.” “Your attempt to evoke an emotion doesn’t answer the questio…

> 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.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43113489

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

#257

Post by viraptor »

y-curious wrote: post #234
mattlutze wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harvesting crops is materially different from slaughtering animals, and calorie for calorie, plant-based nutrition involves less termination of life than getting calories from animals (if you're grouping insects and non-animal life into the "forms of life" being killed). If people don't like killing in general, or killing animals more specifically, they can live a wonderfully health(y|ier) life by going plant-based,…

What makes my wife and I fail every time is protein intake. We are both active and require a lot of protein. We drink whey protein 1x a day, have quinoa for salads and occasionally eat eggs. The problem is come dinnertime, we have few options. We can't eat: - beans: Yes, I rolled my eyes too. My wife gets bloated painfully and it's happened so many times that I've stopped preparing bean-primary dishes - beyond meat:…

> beans

Have you tried various types? cannellini beans don't seem to have the same effect as others in my experience.

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

#258

Post by dotancohen »

numba888 wrote: post #238
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…

> You may have to euthanize a chicken, likely by hand (literally) via cervical dislocation. It still ranks among the worst things I've ever had to do in my life. Traditionally it's done by decapitation. Head dies instantly. No need to suffer. Body runs for a while. Don't forget to ask for forgiveness...

That's what cervical dislocation is. The cervix is the neck. You're dislocating the head from the body, via the neck.

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

#259

Post by addicted »

somenameforme wrote: post #245
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…

It's just the circle of life. Live in a remotely rural area with animals around and you're going to see pretty regular death. For instance foxes are beautiful, extremely intelligent, and amazing animals. They'll also systematically and sadistically kill literally every single chicken inside a henhouse, one by one, if they get in. In another instance a dog I loved more than anything as a child to young adult was kille…

Murder is also part of the “circle of life”, whatever that may mean, given that it’s pablum that means nothing. As is disease.

We rightfully find these immoral and don’t engage in them.

That’s not a defense of the immoral act. It’s just words to describe the immoral act.

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

#260

Post by vinhcognito »

mattlutze wrote: post #178
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…

Harvesting crops is materially different from slaughtering animals, and calorie for calorie, plant-based nutrition involves less termination of life than getting calories from animals (if you're grouping insects and non-animal life into the "forms of life" being killed). If people don't like killing in general, or killing animals more specifically, they can live a wonderfully health(y|ier) life by going plant-based,…

Less termination of life based on numbers or some version of (sentience * number of individuals)? I find it hard to believe the sheer number of individual insects killed during harvest could match the killing of one cow, calorie for calorie.

Also, what if we increase the calories of the animal we choose to slaughter, say we start raising massive whale-sized animals instead, would that tip the scales?

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