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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?

#621

Post by alwa »

PaulHoule wrote: post #598
adrian_b wrote: post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a small child, I used to spend a part of the summer vacations with my grandparents, who had some land cultivated with a variety of crops and trees and they also raised some animals, including chicken which roamed freely through a big garden. I liked to play with the chicken, and by rewarding them with maize grains I have succeeded to train some of them to respond to a few simple commands, like coming to me when ca…

My understanding is that birds are about as intelligent as mammals. Funny I know some people who grew up with chickens who think they are nasty, aggressive and disagreeable. Like little dragons.

Depends how they’re raised… impressionable creatures. Though IME some roosters especially are just plumb mean.

A mean rooster has a surprisingly high terror-to-size ratio, and can easily draw blood with its spurs. And they carry grudges, and they’ll stalk you.

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

#622

Post by JumpCrisscross »

philipwhiuk wrote: post #492
indoordin0saur wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a growing teenager I would easily eat 6-12 eggs in a day.

That's a crazy diet.

Eggs are a cheap meaty protein. Meat is healthier, but more expensive. (Unfortunately, a side effect of that diet is--if sustained beyond growth spurts--it trashes your cardiovascular system.)

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

#623

Post by wruza »

DeepSeaTortoise wrote: post #360
wruza wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why? You can easily come up with a whole list. I’d ask for a week to perform research on more names I wasn’t aware of. There’s so many bastards in this world I’d specifically choose a less sharp weapon for and skip the can’t protest part. The only thing I’d worry about is getting physically exhausted and mentally unstable after such marathon, but it has to be done.

Kinda disagree on the latter part. If there's no chance to toss them in prison, but other opportunities, do whatever is necessary to prevent further suffering. But then there's the question on whether you could trust your own judgement. E.g. I wonder how many people would choose Kim Jong Un without realizing how EXTREMELY progressive the guy is on the scale of the hell hole that is North Korea. Allowing just anyone w…

That’s why I say we need a detailed list, and a long one. Most bastards are in the middle of these structures, not on top (with notable exceptions).

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

#624

Post by PastorSalad »

seizethecheese wrote: post #616
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…

I grew up with backyard chickens. It was great, but youre missing one downside: the smell. Chickens shit a lot. Also, the predator thing is understated. You don’t just need defenses, your defenses are likely to fail. If this happens, you may wake up to the sound of your pet being mauled to death and your yard covered in feathers.

The two-decade war between my Dad and the local foxes cannot be understated. The chickens are fully enclosed, naturally. They currently have a (completely buried) overturned concrete igloo under their feet. There’s a dual perimeter fence, the outer one is regularly coated in all manner of larger mammal’s urine he buys online. Team Fox is currently tunnelling to map out the concrete igloo, convinced there’s an opening. They’ve gone full mole.

With some distance it’s quite amusing, but it’s claimed a large part of his life, being the obstinate bugger he is.

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

#625

Post by JumpCrisscross »

rscho wrote: post #179
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How's that? I know American eggs get cleaned and bleached, but that doesn't happen in Europe yet salmonella is not a huge issue. (cleaning eggs also removes some of its natural barriers, making it mandatory to refrigerate them to keep them edible)

Industrial eggs are tightly controlled. Homemade eggs are far more susceptible to infection. AFAIK, scrubbing eggs like in the US is generally a bad idea, and results in the need to refrigerate them.

> Homemade eggs are far more susceptible to infection

Source? I buy small-farm eggs all the time. The industrial ones need sanitisation because of the literally shit condition the birds are kept in.

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

#626

Post by thatfrenchguy »

shagie wrote: post #465
CharlieDigital wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going through the school system (private pre-K/K and public) was really what changed my kids' eating habits. Once they get used to the school nuggets and pizza, it's hard to "unlearn". They were more diverse eaters as young kids and ended more picky and narrow in their food choices. It's why pizza is the staple of every kids' birthday party.

I believe this is a difficult problem for schools. They need to have food that meets the standards (as they are defined), appealing enough to 6 through {age} range to have them eat it, something that can be prepared with relatively low skill demands, and something that can be prepared easily in the quantities needed with the kitchen staff provided. That really gets down to reheated chicken nuggets, pizza, and other c…

I mean, no it is not difficult, look at French school menus. You just have to not have the bad options on stock.

Kids eat better in a lower-middle-class area preschool in France than they do in the most expensive daycare in the Bay Area.

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

#627

Post by switch007 »

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…

> 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

Whenever someone mentions how unique you can be with language and come up with amazing unique sentences never uttered by anyone before...I shall think of this

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

#628

Post by simplify »

vengefulduck wrote: post #537
georgeecollins wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything biological is going to be eaten. Your dog or cat would eat you if you were dead and they were hungry enough. I am not saying we shouldn't evolve past eating meat, it would be great for the environment. But to say that one biological creature eating another biological animal is unethical is an indictment of nature.

I think the problem with this argument is the assumption that nature is inherently good. Nature is cruel and uncaring. Moving beyond it is a good thing imo. We’re just lucky that as a species by the roll of the dice we were given the power by nature to usurp it.

You really need to define "good" in this sentence. How can nature move beyond nature?

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

#629

Post by thijson »

AlexandrB wrote: post #429
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…

The dark truth about keeping chickens and many other poultry is that they hatch in an approximately 1:1 male:female ratio, but can't be kept in that ratio without severe conflict and stress. Thus, hatching chickens to keep for egg-laying requires killing most of the male chicks. So yes, you have to kill chickens to eat eggs.

We put the redundant roosters in the woods, let nature do the killing for us. They didn't last one night.

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

#630

Post by r00fus »

jorvi wrote: post #585
partitioned wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people always think its the killing? Almost every vegan/vegetarian has most of their issues with how its raised and treated its whole life. The constant meat eater trolling about how its natural to eat meat and animals do it, ignore the fact that its not natural to keep animals in pens where they cant turn around for their entire life that is basically pure torture from birth to death. If all meat was produced…

You're a reasonable / pragmatic vegan. Vegans that won't eat meat because of the kill are ideological / dogmatic vegans. There's even a small amount of vegans that consider lab meat to be something immoral (how they loop their head around that one, I do not know). I'm currently dating a girl that's vegan and is super chill about it, but when I was 16 I dated a vegan girl also. My mother made two separate dishes for h…

These dogmatic vegans aren't born that way - they're created by a completely unethical farming environment and detachment from farm life as /u/partition mentioned.

As I grow up I am beginning to realize just how many "bad personalities" and "horrible life choices" are really just driven by a poor environment - and that speaks more of our society and governance than the individuals.

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