One of the first observable impacts of the new Trump administration is the administration’s attack on public information. Agency communications are gagged, federal workers are encouraged to snitch on each other regarding DEI rollbacks, investigations are sealed, and we are told that somehow, Pete...
Jesus. Do you even read the news? The news of the past several years?
This is the new normal. Factory farming gives us cheap eggs, but leads to massive culling operations as a result of bird flu. They culled 100,000,000 birds last time. That’s a 1 with 8 zeroes.
Don’t like it? Raise your own damned birds. We’re starting in the next month or two. Adult layers are $10-$30 each on Craigslist, chicks are stupid cheap.
I already do.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/03/29/countrys-largest-egg-producer-saw-profits-surge-718-amid-shortage/
The industry saw profits rise 700% due to “shortages”. They see this as an opportunity to raise it further.
How do you protect you birds from birdflu?
I buy more of them when they die. Killing them because they have bird flu destroys their ability to adapt and combat that strain. Ones that don’t die aren’t completely immune from it, but they’re pretty close.
I only have like 6 hens; I don’t need to take the same precautions that farms do.
And you’re not worried to get infected?
No? H5N1 is rarely transmissible to humans. The biggest fear is a mutation that allows human-to-human transmission.
Ah yes, not preventing the spread of disease to prevent the spread of disease. 5D chess champ
No, not preventing the spread of disease because chickens are cheap and the ones that survive are stronger. Basic natural selection. It’s just less acceptable to do this to the human population.
You’re missing the point. You’re arguing for a natural “solution” to a natural problem. Nature (the chickens immune system) has been trying to solve for diseases attacking it for millions of years. Letting that approach play out may work occasionally in practice, but it completely discounts disease mutation, the long term immune system effects diseases can have on the “stronger” ones that survive (not every encounter with all diseases actually leads to longterm immunity, some are actually significantly worse the second time around due to lasting damage inflicted upon the immune system or genetics), and a host of other unaccounted variables like the extreme changes in exposure vectors we’ve subjected the animals to.
Diseases typically mutate to become milder over time, not stronger. You can’t spread when you kill the host; and mine are isolated, not in a large population so something like this only occurs rarely. There’s a level of reasonability here that I feel isn’t taken into account. There’s no point in me taking all of these measures for a tiny flock.
Do you absolutely need a rooster to have egg-laying chickens for non-breeding purposes?
Chickens will lay eggs regardless, they just won’t be viable without the rooster’s participation.
Only if you want more chickens. Unless that cock is shooting blanks.
My friends had two hens that laid eggs with no rooster. It was great.
No, but if you have one (or more, but the ratio is roughly 1:5 for rooster:hens) then you can also sell your eggs as fertilizer and make some cash that way as well, while also spreading chickens to others!
Eggs only start to hatch when kept at the right temp and humidity, so they’re not anything to worry about by being fertilized if you wanna eat them