(Dominque, Buff Orpington, Australorp, Silver Dotted Hamburg, New Hampshire Red, etc.) I purchase my chicks from a hatchery, and they are mailed to my nearest post office for pickup.

In a batch of 30 - 40 chicks, I may lose anywhere from 1 to 5 for no apparent reason, mostly in the first few days. The chick just sits down and dies, despite my efforts to keep it warm and hydrated. So that much is normal, but -

my chicks are kept on straw with the ability to move under a heat lamp or away as they see fit.

my chicks have plenty of room to roam - in fact I have to keep the cage partitioned off in the first week to keep them confined to a smaller area so they don't wander off into a cold corner.

my birds take 5-6 months to come up to full size. I keep them confined for at least 3-5 weeks, then allow them access to the larger chicken house and the outside.

my birds have a selection of nests and roosts, and plenty of room to roam even inside the chicken house. Outside, my birds have 10 acres to roam, although they generally stick close to the chicken house in case i bring out some treats (apple peels, carrot shavings, etc.)

now - the reasoning for keeping birds indoors is the fear of picking up disease from a wild bird - including avian flu. tThat would be disaster for a farmer, and possibly a industry. But - I also change my straw bedding several times a year. Neither my chicks nor my full grown birds sit on dried feces as shown in the film.

I lose more money feeding and caring for these birds than I ever make back in eggs. No farmer could raise the birds the way I do. (and I have lost birds to hawks and foxes.) But - there must be a happy medium between what I do and what Perdue does.

[center][font size=3]Happy Mediums = Profit Loss[/font][/center]

- Or so they believe. The industrial farming model takes no animal's welfare into consideration except for those on the Board of Directors and upper management.

when any company is too big, it seems it loses its conscience and places profits over all else.

The trend to buy local is truly the way to go, know your sources, know their practices. Seems when big ag. took the reins we lost so much, we need our community farmers back in a big way.

I absolutely agree with you, Hedgehog, we have so much technology, we understand more than ever before, there's gotta be a better way.

Perdue needs to get Temple Grandin on this & lead the way, be the change & not the bad example.

I'm thankful my neighbor raises chickens.

Do you mind if I link to this post in General Discussion so it reaches a larger audience?

...(they give the women executives this kind of shit to be the public face, the men get the ground-breaking/ribbon-cutting ceremonies) who has now blamed the horrid conditions on the farmer and has ordered his operation be audited.

Chicken farmer who spoke out about factory farm abuses immediately audited by Perdue

She blames the farmer even though the place hasn't been audited yet. So you know where this is going. Sight unseen she blames him. His family has farmed that land raising chickens and produce that has fed a goodly portion of this nation since the 1700s. But now all of a sudden he's forgotten how to farm? Forgotten what's in his blood?

- If ever there was a corporation worthy of boycotting, this is the one.

K&R

K & R