Egg rationing in America has officially begun

[GotGarlic]

Due to an epidemic of swine flu sweeping chicken farms in the United States, 46 million birds have been affected since April, mostly laying hens. The only way to control it is to destroy them.

Egg rationing in America has officially begun - The Washington Post

 

[Cheryl J]

Very sad - the ripple effects from this could be huge.

 

[CWS4322]

That's the problem with the egg industry--battery farms without regulations, inspections, etc. So glad I have my own laying hens. I know they are happy hens, healthy, get out in the sunshine, do what hens do.

 

[Dawgluver]

I'm driving to CWS's place and adopting a couple of her hens. Beagle would love them.

 

[CWS4322]

I'm driving to CWS's place and adopting a couple of her hens. Beagle would love them.

Drive on, DL. It takes about 24 hours to get here from LOW!

 

[RPCookin]

That's the problem with the egg industry--battery farms without regulations, inspections, etc. So glad I have my own laying hens. I know they are happy hens, healthy, get out in the sunshine, do what hens do.

That's fine for you. People who live in cities and towns ( probably more than 95% of the population) don't have that option. They depend on the those farms that you deplore. I can mostly get by without eggs for a while if I have to, but for many people it's a significant part of their diet. Those people will have a difficult time adapting until the industry recovers. I feel for them.

 

[CWS4322]

That's fine for you. People who live in cities and towns ( probably more than 95% of the population) don't have that option. They depend on the those farms that you deplore. I can mostly get by without eggs for a while if I have to, but for many people it's a significant part of their diet. Those people will have a difficult time adapting until the industry recovers. I feel for them.

Actually, 82% of people live in urban areas.


I don't care where you live--you don't have to buy eggs from a battery farm. I live in a city with a population over 1 million people. Everyone has the option to not buy eggs from battery farms. The condition in which the hens are kept is deplorable. Go to a farmer's market, go to a health food store, pay more for the eggs and know you are not supporting a battery farm, or stop eating eggs. Battery farms are akin to puppy mills.


The hens cannot stretch their wings, dirt bath, scratch for food, etc. They never get to sun bathe. They don't know what it feels like to walk on grass. All they can do is produce eggs and they are kept confined in conditions where if another hen dies, the body doesn't necessarily get removed. It just remains there until the workers get around to removing it. Eggs from the farm gate or the local health food store will taste totally different than the eggs from the battery farm hens. And, farm gate eggs from the small producer come from happy hens. Back in the '30s. '40s, and '50s, people kept hens. My mom grew up with laying hens, as did my dad. He lived in the middle of St. Paul, MN. We need to get people back to having a small flock of laying hens (3-5 birds, small coop). A garden, a few hens...works for me.


Chickens are very intelligent. In many States, chickens are recognized as therapy animals and visit Alzheimer's. patients They do not deserve to be treated as "dumb" birds. I'd suggest that you get 2-3 laying hens and a little coop there in Logan, Colorado. I imagine you could.

 

[Dawgluver]

Drive on, DL. It takes about 24 hours to get here from LOW!

And about an additional 15 hours from here along the Mississippi!

 

[taxlady]

I have to agree with CWS on this. It's a big problem with battery farms for chickens.

If CWS's chickens got the Avian flu, I'm sure she would just take extra good care of them until they got over it. It's the flu. I imagine she would isolate the healthy chickens from the ones with the flu. You can't really do that in a battery farm.

I live in the suburbs. I am not allowed to have chickens. I buy organic, free range eggs at the health food store and sometimes at Loblaws/Provigo, a Canadian chain of supermarkets. Sure, it costs me $7.99 for a dozen eggs, but I know the chickens were raised humanely and the eggs have more flavour.

 

[CWS4322]

I have to agree with CWS on this. It's a big problem with battery farms for chickens.

If CWS's chickens got the Avian flu, I'm sure she would just take extra good care of them until they got over it. It's the flu. I imagine she would isolate the healthy chickens from the ones with the flu. You can't really do that in a battery farm.

I live in the suburbs. I am not allowed to have chickens. I buy organic, free range eggs at the health food store and sometimes at Loblaws/Provigo, a Canadian chain of supermarkets. Sure, it costs me $7.99 for a dozen eggs, but I know the chickens were raised humanely and the eggs have more flavour.

Key words: raised humanely. Yes I eat meat. I don't eat it every day, but I do buy meat from farmers who have raised their animals humanely. Going to the supermarket, you'd never buy beef from a steer named "Conrad".

We all make choices. I choose to eat fish that is from sustainable fishing practices. I choose to buy local grass-fed beef and lamb and naturally raised pork. I eat less meat and more vegetarian meals because I can't afford to eat grass-feed and naturally raised every day. Since having laying hens, I don't eat chicken except when I have to cook it for the food photographer.

If you haven't been to Montreal, well, it is a challenge to drive in Montreal and it is a fairly large city--I think it is bigger than Ottawa...

 

[larry_stewart]

Had 6 chickens now down to 4 , but I still get about a dozen eggs a week which is more than enough for me and my family. I know what I feed them, I know how they are raised. In my next life, I think I want to come back as one of my chickens they have the life.

 

[Bookbrat]

Really thankful for friends who raise chickens (and beef and pork...and 4H lamb! ).It costs more, but besides all the other reasons, it tastes soooo much better.

Eggs have been plentiful this time of year. My egg lady recently apologized because feed went up and she needs 2.50 for a dozen eggs. Happy to pay it. It's all I can do to keep up with a garden, much less deal with livestock.

We're getting darn picky about where our food comes from.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Actually, 82% of people live in urban areas.


I don't care where you live--you don't have to buy eggs from a battery farm. I live in a city with a population over 1 million people. Everyone has the option to not buy eggs from battery farms. The condition in which the hens are kept is deplorable. Go to a farmer's market, go to a health food store, pay more for the eggs and know you are not supporting a battery farm, or stop eating eggs. Battery farms are akin to puppy mills.


The hens cannot stretch their wings, dirt bath, scratch for food, etc. They never get to sun bathe. They don't know what it feels like to walk on grass. All they can do is produce eggs and they are kept confined in conditions where if another hen dies, the body doesn't necessarily get removed. It just remains there until the workers get around to removing it. Eggs from the farm gate or the local health food store will taste totally different than the eggs from the battery farm hens. And, farm gate eggs from the small producer come from happy hens. Back in the '30s. '40s, and '50s, people kept hens. My mom grew up with laying hens, as did my dad. He lived in the middle of St. Paul, MN. We need to get people back to having a small flock of laying hens (3-5 birds, small coop). A garden, a few hens...works for me.


Chickens are very intelligent. In many States, chickens are recognized as therapy animals and visit Alzheimer's. patients They do not deserve to be treated as "dumb" birds. I'd suggest that you get 2-3 laying hens and a little coop there in Logan, Colorado. I imagine you could.

Zoning laws get in the way for many people living in cities, and even rural neighborhoods. I'm not sure I would be allowed to have hens where I am, even though I.m outside the city. The people who want to have hens, or geese, or ducks are often prohibited from keeping them. I even know a guy in town who put a small wind generator on his rooftop. The city made him take it down. They said it was an eyesore. It's sad to me that we are more concerned with the looks of our lawns, and rooftops than we are with intelligent lifestyles.

Ok. I'm done now.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[RPCookin]

I live in a tiny town of 350 souls. There must be zoning laws, because nobody keeps any livestock of any kind. In fact I don't know of a single farmer or rancher that raises so much as a single chicken. I know that if they did, they wouldn't be emotionally attached to them. The farmers and ranchers around here raise dry land wheat and corn, the livestock growers raise cattle and hogs to sell. They work hard to make ends meet and there isn't much time leftover for coddling chickens. Before there were supermarkets in the town 20 miles away, they did raise chickens for eggs and for eating, but it was done because they had no choice, not because they wanted to to bother with chickens.

Now there is a choice, and the choice is to not keep animals which mostly just attract foxes, coyotes, and weasels. My FiL still has the trap he used to catch those predators back in the day, and he is happy not to have to mess with that any more.

 

[CWS4322]

Actually, chickens are probably one of the easiest animals to raise. I have a fenced backyard (for the dogs). The predators that have been a problem have been raptors. Other than stringing up shiny things (old CDs) or covering my entire yard with fencing, there isn't much I can do.


Ottawa has a by-law against having chickens. However, I am zoned Ag-2, so I can have livestock.

 

[CWS4322]

Had 6 chickens now down to 4 , but I still get about a dozen eggs a week which is more than enough for me and my family. I know what I feed them, I know how they are raised. In my next life, I think I want to come back as one of my chickens they have the life.

I'm with you on that, Larry.

 

[larry_stewart]

Where I live each town as its own regulation as to if you can have, how many you can have ... and Absolutely NO ROOSTERS are allowed. The place I get them, they require buying a minimum of 6. * they don't want people just grabbing one as a novelty, then ditching them as they get older and aren't cute little chicks anymore. I must say they are a little louder than I expected them to be, but not all the time. They provide me with eggs as mentioned earlier, I feed them much of my left over scraps, including weeds from the garden. In turn, they supply me with fertilizer for the garden. Raccoons have been my biggest problem in the past, but I've 'raccoon proofed' there coop and run, and when i do let them out I keep a close eye on them. Even with the 4 I have, often I have too many eggs and share them with coworkers, who say that these eggs are far superior than the ones bought at the store. Im not an egg guy, I just bake with them, so for me, other than the yolk being an intense orange (as opposed to yellow), they are the same to me.

 

[GotGarlic]

A few years ago, the city where I live passed an ordinance allowing residents to keep chickens but there are a lot of restrictions. One is that the coop must be located at least 15 feet away from the property line. My lot is 40 feet wide, so the coop would have to be right in the middle of the backyard, where my herb garden is.

Then they have to be fed and vaccinated and their poop cleaned up. And we would have to find someone to take care of them when we go on vacation. It's not as simple as "just keep a few hens." What works for you isn't practical for many people.

 

[NickeeCoco]

A co-worker of my husband's lives out in the county and he picks up eggs for us from a hobby farm down the road from him. They only cost us $4 a dozen. I'd pay $3.79 for large brown eggs at Loblaws/Superstore, or $4.50 at Remarks, and those are the battery farm ones.

 

[sparrowgrass]

I have had chickens for years, and they are easiest livestock ever. I have a feeder that holds about 35 pounds of pellets, and a big rubber bucket for water. I can leave them for 3 or 4 days, no worries.

I have 22 little pullets in the brooder right now, to be added to my 10 old ladies. I will be selling eggs come fall, if everything goes all right.