Soylent Greenhouse

I like this simple chicken tractor design.  The cover provides shade but also heat, which allows for earlier or later McMutant batches.  It appears to be ~8' wide.  There is a rope tied to the front which is used to pull the coop forward.

Chicken Factory Farmer Freaks Out

I stumbled across this video and am utterly confused.  First of all, I do not even know what they mean when they say these places are notoriously inaccessible, while showing a sign about biosecurity.  Yes, biosecurity is important, which is why many places simply will not allow random people traipsing around.  Not everything is some grand conspiracy to keep the sheeple ignorant.  Speaking of ignorance... people seem to be very ignorant about the chicken factory breed, that vile McMutant known as the Cornish Rock.

Look, Cornish Rocks are the chickens you see in all the stores.  They take eight weeks to raise at most, and will weigh somewhere between 7-12 lbs live weight.  A lot of times people will not even wait the full eight weeks to butcher.  This rapid growth is not the result of genetic modification but clever cross breeding.  Yes, the McMutant is disgusting and does not have the good qualities or the dignity that most other chicken breeds have.  So the McMutant is still natural, but it just does not seem like it.

If you want a more natural or normal chicken you could always raise Leghorns, Black Jersey Giants, and Freedom Rangers, just to name a few breeds.  These breeds take much longer to get to weight, but will also forage more.  This matters because the taste will probably be different.  I say "probably" because I have had people swear up and down that two of the above breeds taste even better than McMutants even though the age of the McMutant is what makes it taste so good.  Older chickens are usually for soup.  I could go on and on, but the reality is most people are just going to watch factory farmer freakout videos, complain, and then do absolutely nothing.  And that is to say nothing of the fact that at least with factory farming you are eating seemingly miserable birds instead of the happy ones...

Winging it: Sexing Chicks

The other day a customer noticed a chick in the "wrong tank" and decided to help us by moving it into the right tank.  Well, it was a cockerel that we were keeping separated from all the pullets of the same breed so we could have an easier time of giving customers what they actually ordered.  It is hard enough when people sell turkeys and guineas as chickens, and we have already had customers complaining about receiving cockerels instead of pullets from a tank full of pullets--this is entirely possible, by the way, because basically there is no 100% guarantee.  Basically a wizened old dude wakes up early in the morning and stares at chick holes all day.  Most of the time he gets it right.  Without that kind of experience, and none of us have it, we have to rely on other methods which are fallible.

One method I have seen, yet sadly neglected to capture on camera, is dowsing.  This lady came in and picked up all the pullets in a tank one at a time, and held a string  with a needle tied to it over them.  She muttered something about getting hens this time and refused to trust in the wizened old dude; well, us too for that matter, which is actually understandable.

A much more interesting method a couple of sane customers shared involved inspecting the wing feathers.  Pullets will have much more developed or uneven wing feathers than cockerels at the same age.

Now, if you are not dealing with day old chicks, you can observe behavior.  For example, the customer that tossed the cockerel in with the pullets was fairly easy to find because he had a different posture than the other pullets--but this is only because he was a little older than the pullets.  If you watch day old chicks, they all pretty much act the same, but it does not take notice male behavior, such as strutting and other postures.

Matriarchy, Rape-iarchy, Patriarchy

Matriarchy

Many people are under the mistaken impression that you need to have roosters in order for your hens to lay eggs, but this is not so.  However, in the absence of roosters, hens will step up and try to take on the role, but besides the obvious, they are unable to do so.  Even so, dominant hens will mimic the behavior of roosters by mounting other hens.  I have not seen hens share amongst each other; it is a free for all with the strongest, sneakiest, or swiftest, winning.  When a hen finds a treat to eat it will make a certain noise which attracts other hens who attempt to steal the happy.  As far as protection goes, it is also a free for all.  Most hens are actually oblivious to the many potential dangers.  I have seen hens happily running around or scratching the ground while hawks and eagles circle above.  It is very rare to see hens look up for predators; ducks, well known for their rape culture can actually teach hens to look up, but this is normally the province of roosters.

Rape-iarchy

When too many roosters are present, there is utter chaos.  One year I briefly had around fifteen roosters with around sixty hens and it was a nightmare.  First of all, the roosters fought among each other constantly.  They do not crow only in the morning like in cartoons--they crow constantly, and they delighted in kicking each others' crows short.  That was the only amusing thing about having so many roosters.  Like hens, roosters will make a certain noise when they find a treat, but it is supposed to attract the hens and be shared.  With too many roosters, the hens would first be attracted by the noise, but after so many gang bangs they lost trust; sadly a couple lost their lives as they were raped into the dust.  All but one of the roosters were executed, but the damage was already done--most of the hens had no respect for the remaining rooster.  Hens would get into fights with each other which the rooster was unable to break up.  He would find a treat and call, but none would listen.  He could still offer protection, but he could not fulfill his reproductive duty as he was often rebuffed.

Patriarchy

After the above, it is quite a difference to see a rooster perform his duties properly.  Things are certainly a lot more peaceful.  This is not to say that everything is perfect, but given the three alternatives, this is most preferable.  Protection is not always against foreign enemies, sometimes roosters must protect hens from each other.  For various reasons hens will fight with each other, and can these fights turn deadly.  Some hens can actually become outcasts; I have no idea what the causes are, but some can actually be kicked out of the coop and forced to roost outside at night.  There were a couple hens I had that were just utterly despised by everyone else for reasons I could never discern.  They were beautiful Silver Laced Wyandottes but they apparently must have committed some unforgivable crime and eventually died.