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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?

#261

Post by addicted »

burnished wrote: post #147
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…

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…

Being against child slavery doesn’t exclude you from benefitting from child slavery when you use your phone.

I guess you should just be pro child slavery and enslaved some kids to do your housework then?

Cars kill 50k Americans a year. I guess we are just ok with killing peoplr and therefore shouldn’t be against murder either?

It doesn’t even take philosophy 101 to understand there’s a significant moral gulf between killing deliberately and incidentally.

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

#263

Post by addicted »

fragmede wrote: post #224
latexr wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> purpose of being eaten and spread why do you get to decide that it isn't the purpose of a cow to be eaten? You're arguing on the Internet, it's already a waste of time and space.

Here’s a compromise.

Neither you nor I get to decide what the purpose of another sentient being is.

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

#264

Post by addicted »

fragmede wrote: post #224
latexr wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> purpose of being eaten and spread why do you get to decide that it isn't the purpose of a cow to be eaten? You're arguing on the Internet, it's already a waste of time and space.

Also, this is a ridiculous argument.

If someone raises their human kid “to be eaten”, that would be the purpose of the kid.

Does that make it ok to eat the kid?

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

#265

Post by latexr »

fragmede wrote: post #256
latexr wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

There is a chasm of difference between your purpose and the purpose of something you do.

If you build a chair, the purpose of doing so could be to sit or to earn money by selling it. We can derive exactly which from your actions and the outcomes, but there is still an identifiable purpose. However, it is entirely different to claim your purpose is to build chairs.

Similarly, in my previous example someone can hit someone else with the purpose of harming them, but it doesn’t mean that person’s purpose is to cause harm.

Do you see the difference? I do kind of feel like I’m discussing middle school philosophy here. I surely hope that is not my purpose. This whole conversation was unnecessary with a tiny bit of steel manning on your part, don’t you think? Does it truly seem reasonable to you to claim an entire species’ purpose is to do something they do not only not pursue but actively avoid? I’m confident you are able to see the point by now.

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

#266

Post by MagicMoonlight »

h0l0cube wrote: post #29
Jgrubb wrote: post #18

To save money? Absolutely not. I'm keeping a spreadsheet on our 20 chickens this year. They're young, so input is very high while output is still ramping but I'm guessing it's $7-8 dozen in food costs alone (the highest end organic feed tho), never mind the initial buyin.

> the highest end organic feed tho Maybe feed them your food scraps? Or bulk buy and prepare your own grains/pulses?

This makes me wonder - would chickens grow more efficiently if you cook their food for them?

When we invented cooking it gave us a massive advantage because of the nutritional efficiency, yet we feed animals just random raw stuff. Would feeding them porridge instead of grain lead to higher output?

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

#267

Post by phito »

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.

Ever ate a carrot? The whole plant has to be "killed". Killing doesn't even make sense in the context of plants, a lot of them can just be cloned from a leaf, stem or root. Where do you draw the line between damaging and killing a plant, the termination of the apical meristem? The plant will stop growing but it can still clone itself, or grow more apical meristems...

This whole argument is absolutely meaningless.

edit: just pointing out I'm not directly replying to you but to the whole thread.

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

#268

Post by amanaplanacanal »

addicted wrote: post #259
somenameforme wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Try this then: every animal eats other living things to survive. We have been doing it for a billion years. Is a basic drive built into it DNA. After that, is just a question of which living things you are going to eat.

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

#269

Post by amsterdorn »

abeppu wrote: post #30

The letter from Farm Action, linked at the top of the article, is pretty compelling in making their case. A few highlights: > As a result of the smaller flock, egg production has dropped slightly from 8.1 billion eggs per month in 2021 to 7.75 billion eggs per month in December 2024. Importantly, however, per capita production of eggs in the U.S. has not dipped below per capita consumption of eggs in any year between…

Corporate greed back at it again!

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

#270

Post by koolba »

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…

> 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 can become quite tame. They can purr.

Chickens are ruthless and will not hesitate for a moment to kill and then cannibalize their coop mates. The best way to avoid it is to have a single breed as they tend to start by attacking anything different, literally spots or discolorations, on other birds.

Yes, chickens will eat other chickens.

> I'm told the eggs taste way better, I don't really notice it because I really only eat my own eggs, but perhaps I just got used to them.

All eggs taste the same. Which is great because eggs taste great.

> Your wife may one day want a chicken to live inside the house. You may one day agree to this, and then miss it when the chicken is living outside the house again...

Chickens are filthy animals and the thought of having one indoors is disgusting.

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