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> I see no issue with free range eggs from a local keeping chickens - Male chickens are usually ground up alive within a day of being born because they're not

> I see no issue with free range eggs from a local keeping chickens - Male chickens are usually ground up alive within a day of being born because they're not economical to keep for meat. Locally kept chickens still feed into this supply and demand as the egg laying hens have to come from somewhere. - Egg laying chickens can live for about 8 years but are usually killed after 2 years when they stop producing as many eggs. This happens at free range farms too. - Also, free range doesn't mean what most people think it does e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_range#Free-range_poultry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_range#Free-range_poultry "In the United States, the USDA free range regulations currently apply only to poultry and indicate that the animal has been allowed access to the outside.[3] The USDA regulations do not specify the quality or size of the outside range nor the duration of time an animal must have access to the outside.[4] ... Free-range chicken eggs, however, have no legal definition in the United States. Likewise, free-range egg producers have no common standard on what the term means" > since they lay eggs most days whether you eat them or not and if you don’t use them, they would rot or attract rodents. We bred chickens to lay eggs that often though (wild chickens lay about 10 eggs a year whereas factory chickens lay about 300 which is so much it damages their health) and for them to leave their eggs unprotected (they've been bred to not "brood"). They're forced into this cycle.

dkersten 7y ago
> free range doesn't mean what most people think it does That’s why I said local. I grew up in the country and lots of people had a few chickens. They run around freely and are not “farmed”. They’re almost pets. They lay eggs all the time, so there’s nothing wrong with eating those eggs. As for where the hens come from, this is how my parents got hens when they kept chickens a long time ago: go to your neighbour with a rooster and say “hey, neighbour, could I get some chicks next time you have some? Thanks” > Free-range chicken eggs, however, have no legal definition in the United States I don’t live in the US though. > We bred chickens to lay eggs that often Ok, but now that they do, what are we to do? Slaughter all the non-farmed free range chickens to find some wild ones? The damage is done, what’s wrong with giving them good lives and enjoying their abandoned eggs?
- seanwilson 7y ago
  - What do they do with the male chickens? About 50% of hatched eggs will be males. - Do they let the chickens live until they die of natural causes? Or do they kill them before this?
  - thrower123 7y ago
    For egg production, usually they are killed as chicks. This can be quite gruesome in the larger outfits, where they are sorted and the males run through essentially a woodchipper. If you have too many adult roosters running around, they act like assholes and start fighting, pecking eggs, and other nastiness, so you don't want to keep them. Meat chickens are usually mixed sex, as they are bred to grow so quickly that you slaughter them after only two or three months. Historically, people would castrate male chicks and raise them as capons for eating, but that's become rather niche.

dkersten 7y ago

> free range doesn't mean what most people think it does That’s why I said local. I grew up in the country and lots of people had a few chickens. They run around freely and are not “farmed”. They’re almost pets. They lay eggs all the time, so there’s nothing wrong with eating those eggs. As for where the hens come from, this is how my parents got hens when they kept chickens a long time ago: go to your neighbour with a rooster and say “hey, neighbour, could I get some chicks next time you have some? Thanks” > Free-range chicken eggs, however, have no legal definition in the United States I don’t live in the US though. > We bred chickens to lay eggs that often Ok, but now that they do, what are we to do? Slaughter all the non-farmed free range chickens to find some wild ones? The damage is done, what’s wrong with giving them good lives and enjoying their abandoned eggs?

seanwilson 7y ago
- What do they do with the male chickens? About 50% of hatched eggs will be males. - Do they let the chickens live until they die of natural causes? Or do they kill them before this?
- thrower123 7y ago
  For egg production, usually they are killed as chicks. This can be quite gruesome in the larger outfits, where they are sorted and the males run through essentially a woodchipper. If you have too many adult roosters running around, they act like assholes and start fighting, pecking eggs, and other nastiness, so you don't want to keep them. Meat chickens are usually mixed sex, as they are bred to grow so quickly that you slaughter them after only two or three months. Historically, people would castrate male chicks and raise them as capons for eating, but that's become rather niche.