The production of eggs and chicken meat attracts immense speculation. Why does intensive egg production dominate the market? Free range is surely a more ethical system. Chicken farming wasn't like this in the past, runs the common lament, hens used to be happy and roosters raunchy and rowdy, well, until despatched for Sunday dinner.
Our rose coloured glasses tint memories whenever poultry in past times are recalled. That Grandma or Uncle Dick only kept a small flock that could easily be free ranged is forgotten, as is the fact the eggs and the occasional roast consumed at home in town, were commercially produced. Forty years ago all birds would have been semi or intensively managed.
Laying competitions, instigated around 1905, led to birds being housed and although shedding and the outdoor system existed side by side, developments in America with cages, and the introduction of pelleted feed, led Australian poultry keepers to embrace the benefits of fully shedded management.
What about chicken meat? When Grandma was little, roast chook was an occasional treat. When farmers hatched chicks, the males were reared for the meat market regardless of whether they fleshed out or not. Specialised meat production wasn't considered.
It wasn't necessarily better for birds in the old days, we just like to think it was. They were overcrowded, fattened on swill and carried to market inhumanely. Treatment of disease was at times barbaric and parasite control based around chemicals considered poisonous today.
What about broiler production? In Australia, production is managed by a small number of vertically integrated companies that run breeding farms, hatcheries, feed mills and processing plants.
Meat chickens are raised intensively on deep litter in large sheds (100-150 m long, 12-15 m wide) with a ventilation system or climate control. Lighting is manipulated to reduce activity and birds have little room to move. Some are processed as early as five weeks, the bulk between 6-12 weeks.
Growth is rapid, and should birds be kept too long leg problems appear. Because of their short life span, disease is not an issue, but stress is. The reduced lighting helps maintain a quiet environment.
Meat chicks on free range have the same genetics, but get access to green feed daily, which is supplementary to their basic ration. Where you see ‘corn fed' on a processed broiler wrap this refers to the addition of corn or maize to the diet.
Broilers are tasteless compared to home raised roosters. This is largely the result of being despatched before flavour precursors are deposited in muscle. Home grown roosters are substantially older than broilers when despatched so have developed the natural chemicals that contribute to flavour. They may have had access to free range, ingesting flavour enhancing feed, and have benefited from the intensifying of flavour that occurs with approaching sexual maturity. Given these factors, no wonder Grandma's roast always tasted wonderful.
Commercial breed's early maturity has been achieved through decades of selection for traits like feed efficiency, carcase and breast yield and growth rate. Birds are ready for market at 45 days compared with 120 days 80 years ago. Hormones are not used; they were outlawed in the 1950s. The myth chickens are given hormones is believed by 80% of Australians and unfortunately, little is done by the chicken industry to correct this erroneous belief.
Broilers may receive antibiotics in their first week, to benefit their growth and lower the risk of disease. Chicks suffer from a change in intestinal flora when they have to digest grains, and the judicious use of antibiotics controls the pathogens, enabling good flora to proliferate so chicks can put their energy into growing. Research is underway to develop probiotics to replace antibiotics.
Eggs are produced from layer strains of commercial hybrids and broilers from specially selected meat strains. Purebreds are not used because egg lay is low and growth slow. Instead, sophisticated breeding regimes involving three or four generations of inbred lines produce hybrid layers and broilers. If you buy meat chickens, or one of the red layer hybrids like ISAbrowns, you can't breed from them and get the same superior production. They're not infertile, but offspring will lack production excellence. This is to protect the breeder companies' vast investment.
Their genetics are in the hands of just a couple of breeder companies worldwide.
The egg layers are like elite athletes; all their needs have been formulated to achieve maximum performance. The cage system supports this; feed intake is controlled and the environment kept stable. Pullets go into cages before commencing lay, and stay there until the end of their productive life, about 77 weeks. They don't need antibiotics to stimulate lay. In fact eggs cannot be sold if they carry traces of pharmaceuticals.
Looking at production of eggs, 85% takes place in housing with battery cages. Dissatisfaction with this system is the major reason consumers choose to buy eggs produced in alternative systems. Australia is committed to this system until at least 2025, as agreed by the Agricultural and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand in 2000.Cages are too crowded and birds are not able to practice normal behaviour like perching and dust bathing. The result is the 4-5 hens in each cage suffer stress and boredom. Hen mortality from prolapse and cannibalism is high, feathers are damaged and leg bones lose strength and break. If more people knew details of the battery system it's likely they would switch to alternative systems. To be fair, there are some advantages in caging. Hens are happiest in small groups, and there are no battles over social order or undue competition for food and water. Problems occur in alternative systems because groups are large, the social order is constantly changing and bullies drive shy birds away from feeders.
Are free range and barn housed systems better? They have much in their favour, but are far from perfect. For starters, only a few independent operators exist. A 2002 industry survey found 8% of the market was free range and 5% barn housed. However, the majority of these were either on cage farms or owned by cage operations. Not surprisingly, the big issue with free range eggs is truth of labelling. For example, most people would imagine free range birds out on green pasture with a full beak to peck with. In fact, large operators remove the tip of the beak to prevent cannibalism and often have problems maintaining pasture.
Groups like Victoria's Free Range Farmers' Association Inc have stringent guidelines and members are independent and small scale. Free range as per their guidelines is labour intensive with eggs collected throughout the day. Part of this system is land management, and members must be pro-active in preventing environmental damage. The effects of excessive nutrient input on land ranged by fowls is a serious problem.In the barn laid system, birds are free to wander a large shed with access to nests and perching, but do not go outdoors. In many ways this should be the perfect system; the birds can enjoy most freedoms without encountering freezing wind or blistering heat. Often sheds are overstocked and hens become stressed when mixing with ‘strangers' and there is more cannibalism in barn systems than in cages, so beak trimming is more severe.
Final Thoughts
Commercial production of both eggs and meat is not particularly welfare oriented. There is no single perfect production system but the alternative methods are more fowl friendly and welfare orientated.
If you can produce your own eggs or meat, it would be a worthwhile exercise. You would know what you were eating and how it was produced. In the end that's what thinking consumers are comfortable with.
Meg Miller is the founder and co-editor of Grass Roots magazine; an ethical self sufficiency magazine for alternative lifestyles.
Po Box 117 Seymour, Vic 3661.
Contact 'Australasian Poultry' Ph 03 57924000 for more information on keeping your own chooks and availability of breeds.
Unlike traditional breeds hybrids are often sold debeaked, and of course recycled cage hens will be debeaked too. Hybrids are the best layers but traditional breeds are more forgiving of inept management.
If you run out of food they'll make do with scraps but hybrids have been bred for high production and must be fed accordingly and have access to shell grit at all times.
If you want to keep backyard hens you'll have to choose between hybrids or a traditional breed.
Three hens are ideal to start with, add two at a time if you want more, to minimise bullying. You can mix up the breeds together but keep in mind some are timid and shy and others out front and bossy.
Traditional breeds come in all colours, shapes and sizes and have diverse temperaments.
The bonus with backyard birds is fresh eggs for much of the year. Your garden will be enhanced by the hens presence and you will also have manure and chook house litter to build up your soil. Choose the right chooks and you will enjoy hours of fun with them.
Active and intelligent
Fencing needs to be high and pens netted over: Ancon, Araucan,
Leghorns (coloured), Old English Game
Placid and short-winged
Not the brightest chook in the shed. They may never find the vegetable garden.
Poor flyers:
Faverolles, Silkies, Orphingtons, Dorkings, Pekin Bantams.
Earnest hardworkers
Good foragers that produce well:
Australorp, Barnevelder, Welsummer.