"a" flock, the article says. One farm with millions of chickens?
That's bananas
No, the article makes it quite clear that they are chickens, not bananas, despite being yellow, they are both quite different
Wow, you took a risky comedy swing and 13 people upvoted you so far.
Grats. That's bananas.
B—a-n-a-n-a-s!
Yeah, each broiler house can hold ~20-50k chickens (depending on size). A few million chickens is a pretty large operation. Most farms around here have about 20 houses max.
...why is the place where chickens are raised and kept called a "broiler" house?
Meat chickens are called broilers, and egg chickens are called layers. Since they have been selectively bred for each specific purpose
hmmm what happens to all the male "layers"?
Same thing that happens to all the male broilers: meat grinder>dog food.
“Certified humane” doe
My understanding is that dog food is sometimes the answer, but I believe in some cases it's actually more "cost effective" to either compost them or just throw them away. The system is broken.
Yup. Learning about animal agriculture was what made me vegan.
I went vegan for a bit for much the same reason. In all seriousness, good for you, taking responsibility for your footprint and the consequences of your dietary decisions.
More recently I've started keeping chickens and ducks (predominantly for eggs, inevitably one day for meat), and it's given me additional insight into how animal agriculture can be done more responsibly and how we can integrate it into our communities and to enrich our land.
I think it's great to foster awareness and agency in our food system. If being vegan works for you, I think it's wonderful. If being vegetarian works for you, also great. I remember the first time someone self-righteously told me they are vegetarian and only eat eggs, and I asked them what they think happens to the roosters since they're still born at a roughly 1:1 ratio. Introspection occurred. And if someone still Insists that eating tons of factory-raised meat is the only way, well then maybe they aren't ready to think about it yet but hopefully I can plant a seed that will germinate later.
Yeah, I actually got ducks for eggs soon after I purchased my house. But after getting the little dudes (in the mail) and watching them grow into full sized birds— I was reading and learning as much as I possibly could about how to best care for them. But this sort of research leads you down the path of agriculture literature. And the more I learned, the more it disgusted me. So my birds are full-time pets. I don’t eat their eggs, and I’ve tried to cook them and feed them back to the hens, but they don’t eat them. So now I just give the eggs away to my friends/family so they don’t have to purchase eggs. My logic is that doing this reduces the overall demand for factory farmed eggs.
(I have 4 hens and one drake. They are the most spoiled ducks to walk this earth.)
Ducks are the best! But try to tell me they aren't also the messiest creatures to walk the earth.
Oh for sure. But they’ve pretty much dictated the development of my yard since.
1600gal pond with massive up flow filtration.
10x8 custom coop with pond integrated to previously mentioned pond
Home automation routines to protect and secure the flock and make it easy for friends to care for them while I travel.
But if it rains heavily, ducks will find mud. And they will DRILL! Leaving a massive muddy pit. Luckily I love those dumb birds, and don’t mind the mud.
I appreciate the irony of your username.
I am a mighty hunter of the most dangerous game: tofu.
Dang, thanks. That's boggling
Did you notice it says 'farm'? Not 'farms'?
4 million chicken in ONE farm...!
It's the American way. And it sucks.
I'm sure any and all chicken producers will use it as an excuse to keep increasing prices.
Those two don't have to exclude each other! Think of the profits!!
Y’know eating less meat will help save the planet.
Because the water, power, and pollution expended would be less.
Aw come on, that's a lot of wings, if we promise to cook them well, can you drop off some to my house?
Even aside from those particular birds, the shortage of chicken and eggs from bird flu has driven prices way up. Fewer wings to go around, so parties bid up what's available.
The Dispatch reported that the entire flock will be culled, with the remains isolated, to help prevent further spread.
Kind of unfortunate that they can't figure out which ones got sick and cull just those. Would be nice to move towards chickens that are more-resistant to the flu, but that can't happen unless the vulnerable ones are selected against in terms of survival. An across-the-board cull doesn't do that.
Do we know the infection transmission method of this virus? Presumably if they knew they wouldn’t have to cull the whole facility right?
It's the flu, a respiratory disease.
There may be other vectors (like raw milk), but airborne is going to be the main route for birds.
Might be the case that some places have multiple buildings and can keep some chickens away from others. I don't know whether that's enough isolation.
A study completed just recently shows that raw milk is infectious, at least in mice. HTST (high temperature, short time--this is the most common method used in the US but not most of the world) pasteurization mostly neutralized the virus but not entirely. Batch pasteurization neutralized it. Just FYI.
"a" flock, the article says. One farm with millions of chickens?
That's bananas
No, the article makes it quite clear that they are chickens, not bananas, despite being yellow, they are both quite different
Wow, you took a risky comedy swing and 13 people upvoted you so far.
Grats. That's bananas.
B—a-n-a-n-a-s!
Yeah, each broiler house can hold ~20-50k chickens (depending on size). A few million chickens is a pretty large operation. Most farms around here have about 20 houses max.
...why is the place where chickens are raised and kept called a "broiler" house?
Meat chickens are called broilers, and egg chickens are called layers. Since they have been selectively bred for each specific purpose
hmmm what happens to all the male "layers"?
Same thing that happens to all the male broilers: meat grinder>dog food.
“Certified humane” doe
My understanding is that dog food is sometimes the answer, but I believe in some cases it's actually more "cost effective" to either compost them or just throw them away. The system is broken.
Yup. Learning about animal agriculture was what made me vegan.
I went vegan for a bit for much the same reason. In all seriousness, good for you, taking responsibility for your footprint and the consequences of your dietary decisions.
More recently I've started keeping chickens and ducks (predominantly for eggs, inevitably one day for meat), and it's given me additional insight into how animal agriculture can be done more responsibly and how we can integrate it into our communities and to enrich our land.
I think it's great to foster awareness and agency in our food system. If being vegan works for you, I think it's wonderful. If being vegetarian works for you, also great. I remember the first time someone self-righteously told me they are vegetarian and only eat eggs, and I asked them what they think happens to the roosters since they're still born at a roughly 1:1 ratio. Introspection occurred. And if someone still Insists that eating tons of factory-raised meat is the only way, well then maybe they aren't ready to think about it yet but hopefully I can plant a seed that will germinate later.
Yeah, I actually got ducks for eggs soon after I purchased my house. But after getting the little dudes (in the mail) and watching them grow into full sized birds— I was reading and learning as much as I possibly could about how to best care for them. But this sort of research leads you down the path of agriculture literature. And the more I learned, the more it disgusted me. So my birds are full-time pets. I don’t eat their eggs, and I’ve tried to cook them and feed them back to the hens, but they don’t eat them. So now I just give the eggs away to my friends/family so they don’t have to purchase eggs. My logic is that doing this reduces the overall demand for factory farmed eggs.
(I have 4 hens and one drake. They are the most spoiled ducks to walk this earth.)
Ducks are the best! But try to tell me they aren't also the messiest creatures to walk the earth.
Oh for sure. But they’ve pretty much dictated the development of my yard since.
1600gal pond with massive up flow filtration. 10x8 custom coop with pond integrated to previously mentioned pond Home automation routines to protect and secure the flock and make it easy for friends to care for them while I travel.
But if it rains heavily, ducks will find mud. And they will DRILL! Leaving a massive muddy pit. Luckily I love those dumb birds, and don’t mind the mud.
I appreciate the irony of your username.
I am a mighty hunter of the most dangerous game: tofu.
Dang, thanks. That's boggling
Did you notice it says 'farm'? Not 'farms'?
4 million chicken in ONE farm...!
It's the American way. And it sucks.
I'm sure any and all chicken producers will use it as an excuse to keep increasing prices.
Those two don't have to exclude each other! Think of the profits!!
Y’know eating less meat will help save the planet.
Because the water, power, and pollution expended would be less.
Aw come on, that's a lot of wings, if we promise to cook them well, can you drop off some to my house?
Even aside from those particular birds, the shortage of chicken and eggs from bird flu has driven prices way up. Fewer wings to go around, so parties bid up what's available.
Wikioedia: 2020–2024 H5N1 outbreak
Here's a graph showing chicken meat prices in the US since 2020:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000FF1101
And here's one showing eggs:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000708111
Kind of unfortunate that they can't figure out which ones got sick and cull just those. Would be nice to move towards chickens that are more-resistant to the flu, but that can't happen unless the vulnerable ones are selected against in terms of survival. An across-the-board cull doesn't do that.
Do we know the infection transmission method of this virus? Presumably if they knew they wouldn’t have to cull the whole facility right?
It's the flu, a respiratory disease.
There may be other vectors (like raw milk), but airborne is going to be the main route for birds.
Might be the case that some places have multiple buildings and can keep some chickens away from others. I don't know whether that's enough isolation.
A study completed just recently shows that raw milk is infectious, at least in mice. HTST (high temperature, short time--this is the most common method used in the US but not most of the world) pasteurization mostly neutralized the virus but not entirely. Batch pasteurization neutralized it. Just FYI.