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    Re: There are 24 billion chickens on the planet + extreme food. 📂 Archived Message

    Posted by Ian M on November 15, 2021, 5:09 pm, in reply to "There are 24 billion chickens on the planet + extreme food."

    Bird flu mitigation affects small producers more than large warehouse operations in that the little guys have to come up with new structures to limit potential transmission from wild birds whereas the big operations already have them ready-made. Farms I've been at since the last outbreak have had to resort to a few novel improvisations such as using polytunnels or even lorry bodies (with lots of netting) as temporary roofs. The chickens don't respond well to these 'lockdown' measures - the ones here only just started regrowing the feathers they lost through contantly pecking eachother and egg production is still down well under half of what it should be.

    The latest debate is whether to get rid of them now (ie: rehouse them individually or in small groups in customer back gardens) or wait and see if egg production improves (unlikely over winter in any case) or if there's another 'lockdown' in which case getting a new flock would likely result in the same problems arising with them.

    Makes you wonder about the long term psychological effects of lockdowns on humans. Have we all been pecking eachother more? What about our own 'productivity'? (Not that I care about that from the capitalist pov of course - though I will say that farming is an unfriendly occupation to one with egalitarian lefty/anarchist tendencies!)

    cheers,
    I

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