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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?

#731

Post by 0x457 »

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.

> why do you get to decide that it isn't the purpose of a cow to be eaten?

Pretty sure it is the cow's purpose. Humans first domesticated a wild animal and then with selective breeding cows were "made". That has no weight on ethics tho.

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

#733

Post by michpoch »

> Last week, the average price of a dozen eggs hit $4.95 per dozen

That sounds.. pretty cheap?

Here (Switzerland), 10 eggs (instead of 12), cost at least 4.20 CHF (almost 5 USD): https://www.coop.ch/de/lebensmittel/milchprodukte-eier/eier/...

These are the lowest quality eggs available.

Regular eggs are around $1 each and it's been like this for at least a decade now.

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

#734

Post by qq99 »

stinos wrote: post #173
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…

> a large coop It's large compared to the average, but the longer we've had chickens the more we're convinced they thrive better when given appropriate space (anecdata about average age of our chickens vs all other people with chickens we know), leading me to think something like yours is still too small even for 2 chickens. For us the minimum is now such that there's at least some of the gras/moss left throughout th…

The one I built was definitely too small on all accounts (coop space and run space).

For the second coop, we bought a pre-built shed that's about 8'x12' (much taller and roomier than the first), and even that is starting to feel too small for 13 chickens with all their various items. They have a much larger run now, but even that still feels like it might not be enough for them!

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

#735

Post by bluebarbet »

animal-husband wrote: post #541
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…

Were that the case, you’d see vegans advocating for eating classically-husbanded animals. But I for one have never seen such a thing. And when I’ve spoken with vegans about this very topic, they’ve insisted that no animal can possibly be raised/slaughtered humanely – the belief seems almost axiomatic to them.

This conflates animal rights with animal welfare. The vegans who are motivated by the latter might do as you suggest. But a strict interpretation of animal rights means respecting the right to live. This underpins religious vegetarianism too.

Still other vegans are motivated by concerns about the environment. For them too, "classical husbandry" will not be a winning argument. If anything the opposite, since it requires more land.

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

#736

Post by jeffrapp »

michpoch wrote: post #733

> Last week, the average price of a dozen eggs hit $4.95 per dozen That sounds.. pretty cheap? Here (Switzerland), 10 eggs (instead of 12), cost at least 4.20 CHF (almost 5 USD): https://www.coop.ch/de/lebensmittel/milchprodukte-eier/eier/... These are the lowest quality eggs available. Regular eggs are around $1 each and it's been like this for at least a decade now.

Prior to the price spikes, it was relatively easy to find a dozen eggs for around or below $2.

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

#737

Post by 0x457 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #706
swiftcoder wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most tropes have some basis in reality. I've met a few farm-owning parents who view any kind of sentimentality towards animals as counterproductive.

But that's normal - emotionally boding with a farm animal you intend to slaughter and eat is indeed counterproductive. The trope is about something different - it's about intentionally making a subject bond with an animal over long time, as with a close friend, and then finally making them kill the animal as a final test of loyalty. Doing that in real life, and for no good reason, is just sick.

It is, those people think this practice will speed up process of that bond being understood as counterproductive.

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

#738

Post by notfed »

philco wrote: post #703

This feels like an insane proposition to me, I'll explain: 1. Soaring egg prices are due to culling + deaths related to the proliferation of H5N1 (Avian Flu). 2. The reason we have been proactively culling is to minimize spread AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, to minimize the number of exposures H5N1 could have to Humans. 3. The reason we want to minimize exposure between chickens and humans is because each exposure of an infec…

Let's say I have a few chickens in my backyard that don't have bird flu, and we (myself or my chickens) never come into contact with any other chickens.

Aren't we safe? If not, what are the possible vectors? Is it from random birds flying in my yard? My visits to grocery stores?

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

#739

Post by PaulHoule »

lsaferite wrote: post #689
alwa wrote: post #621

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can confirm. We used to own a mean rooster and he would certainly stalk me when he was out of the run. Not sad that a fox ate him. Would have preferred the hens not also been eaten though. Our current rooster is pretty chill and just ignores me. He even consents (begrudgingly) to my young daughter picking him up and holding him.

We used to have one around the barnyard who hated me and hated my son (maybe 5 years old at the time) and hated it even more when I was carrying my son on my shoulders.

I learned from that, and other experience of hand-to-hand combat with birds, wildcrafting eggs [1], and such, to "never let a bird see your back". I like it how those little red-wing blackbirds like to sit on POSTED: NO TRESSPASSING signs because that is their attitude. They'll dive bomb you but also flap really hard up high at the sky to nip at the wings of hawks who are lazily cruising. You might not even notice they have a nest to protect if they weren't getting in your face about it.

[1] at least seven years ago, I think...

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

#740

Post by js2 »

philco wrote: post #703

This feels like an insane proposition to me, I'll explain: 1. Soaring egg prices are due to culling + deaths related to the proliferation of H5N1 (Avian Flu). 2. The reason we have been proactively culling is to minimize spread AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, to minimize the number of exposures H5N1 could have to Humans. 3. The reason we want to minimize exposure between chickens and humans is because each exposure of an infec…

20 years ago, Thailand almost overnight got rid of backyard chicken farms:

> Perhaps the biggest and most lasting change, Auewarakul says, is that this outbreak abruptly accelerated the transition from backyard chicken farmers to large-scale industrialized poultry farms. He says this was a big cultural transition since chickens had been part of everyday life for many Thai families. [...]

> The shift to these industrialized farms has not fully eliminated avian flu in chickens, but the disease has been largely contained. With ongoing monitoring, cases are often identified early and dealt with before the virus can gain a foothold.

https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2024/06/12/g-s1-...

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