School hatching chicks

[frostedviolets]

AIBU to really, really angry at this?

8 chicks hatched according to the newsletter, the ‘living eggs’ company coming to collect the chicks unless any parents want to rehome them 🤬🤬🤬🤬

First of all, there is no mention whatsoever of vetting, making sure they are going to parents homes with the correct equipment, knowledge etc, remember these are baby chicks, not young chickens.

Secondly, ‘living eggs’ claims the chicks are rehomed ethically on ‘free range’ farms but this is surely bullshit given that no farm, free range or otherwise wants cockerels so what exactly is going to happen to the unfortunate chicks who have been boys?
Presumably they are going to be gassed or minced?

Not to mention the appalling conditions of most ‘free range’ farms.

AIBU?

we hatch chicks out every year at home and its so great for the children and very educational!. as long as a responsible adult is in charge and had taken/accepted responsibility then it shouldn't be a problem. most my hatches have been 60-70% roosters! if i don't have enough space i usually rehome.
there are alot of people that have farms that take unwanted cockerels as flock protection etc.

i wonder if the british hen welfare trust could help, even if they can only take the girls? might be worth calling on 01884 860084 OP?

Maybe it's the area I live in, but they did this at my DC's nursery for a number of years. It was an incredible experience for the children, I was lucky enough to be there once to see a chick hatch. Each year the chicks were adopted by nursery parents - admittedly not the males, but as a meat eater it would be hypocritical for me to be squeamish about this. I'm still in contact with some of the parents who adopted chicks, they are now family pets and live a comfy existence.

If they're going to be minced anyway then does it matter whether they hatch at school or at the company?

Are all the posters objecting vegan?
If you eat commercial eggs then you're supporting the chick-mincing industry

I hope someone rescues them or their future is bleak at best! 😞

@Veterinari even if they are going to die, does it mean it's ok that their short little lives are miserable?

@Alpacamabags

Why would opening the incubator make an egg explode?

Horrible. Agree it is teaching children that animals are disposable, and that it is fine to use and abuse them for our entertainment or food 😥

I keep chickens. I have 2 coops of 20 a piece with two Roos. For the most part they are free range but at night time they go into their coops due to predators most commonly racoons and foxes. When the hens stop laying they become fried chicken or chicken pastry, or chicken pot pie or chicken stew. I keep my roos so I can fertilize and keep my flocks up. If I get too many I sell them to the local co-op who use them for breeding. I love my chicks and everything they provide me with.

I don't have a problem with hatching eggs in incubators, we do this at home with our ducks. I see some pps suggesting this is cruel, but chicks and ducklings seem to do quite well (and many mothers are not good sitters).

Personally I keep all my ducks (I'm veggie so not willing to kill them) but I don't think that hatching them and humanely killing unwanted chicks is any worse that everyday farming practice.

I’ve stopped eating chicken due to male chick treatment. I’m largely meat free in the week now. I have a steak once a week but it’s mostly veggie now.

Genuinely, why can’t they just keep the chickens in the garden at school?

Extremely irresponsible of the school and a very poor example. It reminds me of these idiots who breed their dog because it has a uterus and they want their children to experience the ‘miracle of birth’ and have a lovely experience. So shit. Never mind the poor bloody animal and the risks involved.

I’m not a vegetarian (anymore) but the way some people treat animals horrifies me.

If you eat chicken or eggs, you are paying for chick mincing and / or gassing. The babies are a day old or younger when it happens.

Why can’t we just start eating capons again?.

You can buy frozen day old chicks, also day old gerbils

@Fluffycloudland77 That's pet snake food

@Fluffycloudland77 you don't think force feeding roos is cruel and abusive?

Capons just a male chicken isn’t it?.

Is it impossible to rear a male chick healthily, give it a good life and use it for meat? I mean even if it's not a commercial breed preferred for meat, couldnt an ordinary family raise it & use the meat? That could be a better life for the bird, assuming the family had right equipmen//knowledge to rear it.

Here is one happy boy!! A friends farm. A hen laid in a bush, hatched him on her own. I saw him the day he broke free!! Unknown to be a male back then..
One loud happy cockeral @ 5 months!!

@LowcaAndroidow

Do you have much experience of chick rearing?
Many 'pet' chickens are reared in incubators and do just fine - it's odd to assume their lives will be miserable - they'll probably have a nicer experience in the school than in the commercial hatchery that supplies the farm

DD3's preschool did this. We took home 4 chicks (female) at 4 weeks old. We kept them in a plastic crate for several weeks, with a heat lamp. Then they moved into a dog crate with the lamp, then the lamp was removed during the day, then removed altogether. Eventually at about 20 weeks, I think, we moved them out to their coop. 2 of them are still alive 7 years later. The other two died in the last year or so.

Is it impossible to rear a male chick healthily, give it a good life and use it for meat?

No, and neat chickens are not sexed and minced, just layers, for obvious reasons. The chicken meat (broiler) and egg industries are very different

If you don't mind me asking what area are you in ? I know a few farms that will take on cockerills as we have chickens also and get them from farms that don't keep the chickens to eat but to mate, there's no way you can tell the gender of an egg or even a chick until there around 2 months of age and even this is hard x

Veterinari

Sorry why not? Does the meat taste that bad? I did a bit of a googling and it seemed to suggest of course you can eat a cockerel/rooster... it might be a bit dryer/less palatable but who's choosy? Waste not.