Actually (under my ethics) keeping chickens is good, as you are giving life to the chickens (they wouldn't exist without us). The trouble is, many farms don't treat their livestock with respect. They keep them in cramped cages where they cannot even move their wings, and male chicks are gassed or ground alive. Even free-range/organic egg production systems involve killing the male chicks.
The solution: Veganism or keeping your own chickens and actually treating your own chickens ethically.
Ok, I haven't asked why keeping hens in cramped cages is wrong, I asked why are you considering eating eggs is wrong. What about organic eggs?
Note: I grow up in the coutryside, caring for a variety of animals/lifestock. We had a hen, chicken and roster yard for them to run around, a coup with nests from hay for the hens to sleep in and lay their eggs there during the night. I remeber in the morning as the roster would sing I would wake up go feed the birds and then check the coup for eggs. (nothing like organic fresh eggs in the morning). Now we would check the egg to see if there were fecundated or not before eating them.
It didn't stress the hens, it didn't take anything of them. And on top of all that, do you know what happens if I leave the eggs laied in the coup?
The other hens would come and break the eggs with their beaks in order to kill other hens's potential chicks.
If one eats commercially produced eggs, one inherently supports the way they are treated and the horrible conditions they live in, such as cramped cages. It's cruel, and vegans oppose cruelty to animals. I also wouldn't eat any egg, regardless of its source, because the eggs aren't mine to take. Eating eggs still supports the commodification/exploitation of animals, and vegans generally oppose that.Ok, I haven't asked why keeping hens in cramped cages is wrong, I asked why are you considering eating eggs is wrong. What about organic eggs?
Note: I grow up in the coutryside, caring for a variety of animals/lifestock. We had a hen, chicken and roster yard for them to run around, a coup with nests from hay for the hens to sleep in and lay their eggs there during the night. I remeber in the morning as the roster would sing I would wake up go feed the birds and then check the coup for eggs. (nothing like organic fresh eggs in the morning). Now we would check the egg to see if there were fecundated or not before eating them.
It didn't stress the hens, it didn't take anything of them. And on top of all that, do you know what happens if I leave the eggs laied in the coup?
The other hens would come and break the eggs with their beaks in order to kill other hens's potential chicks.
And on top of all that, do you know what happens if I leave the eggs laied in the coup?
The other hens would come and break the eggs with their beaks in order to kill other hens's potential chicks.
Actually, when they break the eggs, they do so in order to eat the eggs. It's not done "to kill other hens' potential chicks." Hens aren't out to kill other hens' chicks; a broody hen will sit on other hens' eggs and will raise any resulting chicks as her own, whether or not they hatched from her eggs or another hen's eggs. (Every spring my hens and female ducks try to brood out a couple of nests of eggs, and do so cooperatively, taking turns to sit on the eggs.)Ok, I haven't asked why keeping hens in cramped cages is wrong, I asked why are you considering eating eggs is wrong. What about organic eggs?
Note: I grow up in the coutryside, caring for a variety of animals/lifestock. We had a hen, chicken and roster yard for them to run around, a coup with nests from hay for the hens to sleep in and lay their eggs there during the night. I remeber in the morning as the roster would sing I would wake up go feed the birds and then check the coup for eggs. (nothing like organic fresh eggs in the morning). Now we would check the egg to see if there were fecundated or not before eating them.
It didn't stress the hens, it didn't take anything of them. And on top of all that, do you know what happens if I leave the eggs laied in the coup?
The other hens would come and break the eggs with their beaks in order to kill other hens's potential chicks.
Hi Luis,
Yes, definitely, even free-range/organic egg production involves chick culling.
It's possible to keep chickens as pets. However, I think it's important to remember that chickens are flying birds (except for the industrial chicken breeds, which grow too heavy for their wings to support flight). A chicken's wings are made for flying - they don't really belong in cages or coops.
Video of wild chicken (jungle fowl) flying. Chickens don't really need us for survival. They just need us to protect their habitat.
More information about the red jungle fowl: Red junglefowl - Wikipedia
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That's really only true wrt broody hens. But it's why, when I have one or more who are broody, that I boil some eggs, mark then, and return them to the nests, so that they have eggs to sit on that won't hatch out.One of the things I may have missed reading posts here but don't think has been mentioned is that hens lay more eggs as a biological response to them being taken away. Obviously the extent to which that is done is also the extent to which the hen's body is stressed to produce more eggs.