Ideally, these male chicks could be taken to an animal sanctuaries.
With the scale of the industry and the rarity of farmed animal sanctuaries, it wouldn’t be possible for all of them.
For the ones that can be rescued, life on a sanctuary is much better than in the wild or on a farm in a dark shed.
I think one of the problems is that you basically can’t keep many roosters together (I’m not even sure you can keep two roosters together). That means that for a sanctuary you need huge space so that the roosters don’t kill each other. So while I also buy eggs that guarantee that the male chicks will be raised, I wonder how this is supposed to work if I pay only like 50 cents per egg and half of the hatched eggs are male.
(Note that my knowledge on rooster farming comes from a German or possibly German-French documentary on that, so I might be talking out of my ass here.)
(I think I just remember that 2€/egg was the price calculated in the documentary for ethical farming without losses for the farmers. This was some years ago. To be fair - I’d totally pay that for an egg. Egg as an ingredient can be easily substituted and as a standalone dish it can be something special that I’m willing to pay for. )
They ship the males out of country where they are raised in sheds, then sold to Africa.
I think the best solution is to not buy eggs. A good replacement is mung bean flour. It has similar nutrition and flavor, can be obtained cheaply, and spares chickens from being exploited by humans.
Tell everyone that you can do very well without eggs, which then stops the breeding, mistreatment and inevitable killing of chicken, without the land use to grow their food, so nature can be restored there, capturing CO2, which then slows down and gradually turns back climate warming, so we can still keep growing plants in a moderate climate for our own consumption. It’s a bit simplified of course, but you get the gist.
You need about 5 hens per rooster, unless you only have a single one, then you can get away with less. More than 5 of course doesn’t hurt, but usually 5 hens per rooster is enough to prevent them from killing each other.
So they can theoretically be held together? Like, 3 roosters 15 chicken in one group?
Also, and I am sorry if this sounds dumb, but is there any kind of birth control for chicken? Or do you just eat fresh eggs with 1 day old embryos inside all the time? Can you castrate a rooster?
(Wait isn’t there even a dish with a castrated rooster? I think it was in a play by Bertold Brecht)
So they can theoretically be held together? Like, 3 roosters 15 chicken in one group?
Yes
Also, and I am sorry if this sounds dumb, but is there any kind of birth control for chicken?
No, hens don’t immediately start hatching their eggs when they lay them, they try to collect about 8 before they do so. There are no embryos inside the fertilized eggs when you eat them
Can you castrate a rooster?
No, because their scrotum is not outside of their body
Is that really a good thing for the animals though? Instead of being killed right away, they will suffer a short miserable life, then be killed.
In Germany the eggs are tested early on the incubation period and if they are male, they are never hatched.
Ideally, these male chicks could be taken to an animal sanctuaries. With the scale of the industry and the rarity of farmed animal sanctuaries, it wouldn’t be possible for all of them. For the ones that can be rescued, life on a sanctuary is much better than in the wild or on a farm in a dark shed.
I think one of the problems is that you basically can’t keep many roosters together (I’m not even sure you can keep two roosters together). That means that for a sanctuary you need huge space so that the roosters don’t kill each other. So while I also buy eggs that guarantee that the male chicks will be raised, I wonder how this is supposed to work if I pay only like 50 cents per egg and half of the hatched eggs are male.
(Note that my knowledge on rooster farming comes from a German or possibly German-French documentary on that, so I might be talking out of my ass here.)
(I think I just remember that 2€/egg was the price calculated in the documentary for ethical farming without losses for the farmers. This was some years ago. To be fair - I’d totally pay that for an egg. Egg as an ingredient can be easily substituted and as a standalone dish it can be something special that I’m willing to pay for. )
I saw this German documentary about the egg industry.
They ship the males out of country where they are raised in sheds, then sold to Africa.
I think the best solution is to not buy eggs. A good replacement is mung bean flour. It has similar nutrition and flavor, can be obtained cheaply, and spares chickens from being exploited by humans.
whether you buy eggs or not, the industry doesn’t change
It does, its called a “boycott”
what is your plan to get enough people to boycott eggs to stop there industrial production?
Tell everyone that you can do very well without eggs, which then stops the breeding, mistreatment and inevitable killing of chicken, without the land use to grow their food, so nature can be restored there, capturing CO2, which then slows down and gradually turns back climate warming, so we can still keep growing plants in a moderate climate for our own consumption. It’s a bit simplified of course, but you get the gist.
let me know how that works out
You need about 5 hens per rooster, unless you only have a single one, then you can get away with less. More than 5 of course doesn’t hurt, but usually 5 hens per rooster is enough to prevent them from killing each other.
Source: I keep chickens
So they can theoretically be held together? Like, 3 roosters 15 chicken in one group?
Also, and I am sorry if this sounds dumb, but is there any kind of birth control for chicken? Or do you just eat fresh eggs with 1 day old embryos inside all the time? Can you castrate a rooster?
(Wait isn’t there even a dish with a castrated rooster? I think it was in a play by Bertold Brecht)
Yes
No, hens don’t immediately start hatching their eggs when they lay them, they try to collect about 8 before they do so. There are no embryos inside the fertilized eggs when you eat them
No, because their scrotum is not outside of their body
Capons are a thing. It’s not common to castrate roosters, because it’s extra effort, but the taste is different so people do it.