[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by iandwk

Off topic a bit, sorry. I have seen several posts about how poultry is grown in an inhumane way. I owned a poultry farm and grew close to a million broilers (fryers) per year. The inhumane way of doing it escapes me. This is not an attack on you, Gracie. I would never do that. I simply want to put this out there to let folks know how the poultry they eat is raised. There are a lot of misconceptions about how it's done.

Let me explain how they are grown, and then judge for yourselves.

Day 1
The eggs are hatched and immediately transported to the farm in flats of 100 each. Depending on the time of year, we would get between 25-30,000 per house. We loaded the flats on a flatbed trailer and backed them into the house and placed the chicks on the floor of the house under brooders and where food and water was available. The temperature was between 90 and 95 degrees, which is maximum comfort for a chick to encourage it to eat and drink, which they won't do if it is too cold or too hot. As they grow feathers they can hold their body heat better and the temperature is reduced as needed. Their entire life is spent on the floor of the house with the freedom to move about, and they are not caged as is commonly believed. I know someone will say I am wrong, but this is the way it is. Egg layers are in cages, not broilers (if you don't like the thought of caged chickens, think about this the next time you crack an egg). They always have access to food and water. At growout, which for me was usually 37 days, the integrator (Tyson in my case) sent a crew to pick up the chickens and they were hauled by semi to the processing plant. Some are grown longer, as much as 8 weeks, depending on the market they are being grown for.

Compare that to a free range bird. See the above description. Open one door on each poultry house for at least one hour each day, and our government mandates that they can be sold as free range. If you think this sounds outrageous, look it up. You can open every door on a chicken house and they will look out, but they won't leave. They are too comfortable in the house where the temperature is perfect for them and they have all the food and water they need. Several times I have found one of the doors open on one of my houses that had been open all day and none had ever escaped. You mostly close the doors to keep heat or cooling in and predators out.

Compare that to a yard chicken. They eat and drink all day, they roost at night. They may or may not have a shelter and are exposed to whatever elements there may be. That is natural and good. It takes a yard chicken 3-4 months to grow to a good size for processing due to weather, nutrition, etc. In order to meet the needs of the American public, I would have had to have 3 or 4 times as many chickens running free, the losses to predators and whatever else would have been tremendous, and they would have been impossible to catch and send to market, driving the cost to the consumer through the roof.

What is the difference between a yard chicken and one raised in one of the modern facilities? Mostly the food and the environment. Yard chickens have a longer life span, but not by that much.

What is the difference between a free range chicken and one raised in a modern facility? Nothing, except the free range has had the option every day to go outside.

If you truly want a free range bird, buy from a local farmer who has yard chickens. They have had a more or less natural diet of bugs and worms and whatever else. I have found that a chicken will eat most anything it can swallow, including one another. Of course, the meat is not USDA inspected, so you take your chances in that sense.

I guess if all this sounds inhumane, then nothing I can say will change anyone's mind. Hogs and cattle are pretty much raised the same way. Maybe not indoors, but highly integrated like poultry.

The answer to all of this is that if you are truly disgusted with the way they are raised, go vegan. Although they are alive, vegetables aren't cute and cuddly like a baby chick and can be eaten with impunity.

You know of which you speak and I appreciate learning this. I have tried not to humanize my food and like Russ Boston believe that homosapiens are carnivores. I love this place where people continue to learn from experts like you.