Chickens are obviously the best pet, they:
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Poop free eggs
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Eat your leftover vegetables
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Poop free fertiliser for your garden
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Are good alarm clocks
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Make hilarious sounds
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Are stupid looking
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G*mers get their own real life Chocobos
Chickens used to be a staple of the home during the great depression. Most working-class people from the silent generation had chickens to give them free eggs. Chickens are the pet of the proletariat.
The entire reason the rich don't want you to be able to afford a house with a backyard is that they don't want you to figure out how awesome having chickens is.
It's also exploitative and harmful to them to continue to take their eggs, because it causes them to lay more. Giving birth every day is a taxing experience and horrible to do to an animal you care about.
It's not like giving birth everyday, it's more like having your period every other day, which sucks, but their body won't stop doing it anyway unless they go broody which is harder on their body.
Number 4 sometimes holds a little too true, shut the fuck up you stupid rooster, sun ain't even out yet
"BUT IT'S GOING TO BE UP IN AN HOUR, AIN'T THAT EXCITING?! EVERYONE?!"
It's straight up illegal here to have chickens in your back yard. It's some bullshit
I don't, I never complain when they don't lay eggs and always thank them when they do. They get lots of expensive treats too!
They lay more eggs because you take the ones they lay.
They don't lay them for you, genius.
If I didn't take them away, then they would go broody and start neglecting themselves.
They don't lay them for anybody, if I don't take them they usually either abandon them or go broody which isn't good for them. Chickens lay eggs every 2-3 days instinctively. It's like a weekly period.
My only gripe is that my toesies look like delicious juicy grubs and it hurts getting pecked
My grandparents had chickens, I liked the free eggs :)
however
FUCK SHEEP, they are the devil
Lol, I'm curious now, why are sheep awful? Did one headbutt you or something?
Yes but that's not the reason why. It's not really that I hate sheep as much as that I hate dealing with them and have a lot of memories being annoyed by them. My grandpa raises sheep and so I have spent a lot of time working with them and they are mean and I always kinda ended up with the worst jobs. The sheep my grandpa raises are for meat not for wool, though you still have to shear and get rid of excess wool. That means they're really big, a bit over 200 lbs for the ewes and around 350 for the rams. Sheep will do mean things like pinch you with their feet, the rams when mating will charge you and all that but they're also gross animals. I've faceplanted in sheep shit more times then I can count as a child. They're skittish I've had to herd them around places and it's a pain in the ass. you have to shear them (they need to be sheared bc they don't lose their coat ever so it just builds up and gets gross and hot and can give them sores and stuff) annually which is always a process and a half which meant I had to give up weekends as a kid to go do farm work, and I always end up with shitty jobs. Plus it always meant either the winter or summer when I would go which meant below freezing or above 100F. Some examples of jobs I did are:
-putting in fence posts, which means hauling railroad ties which are heavy and you can only really do one at a time, digging up a fence post, which is an old rail tie, saving the nails bc you reuse those, putting the new one in, and nailing it in. Repeat for like 4 hours in either of the weathers mentioned.
-assisting in the shearing and washing of sheep, which sheep are gross, so that's not fun. basically you will get stepped on and probably peed/pooped on at least once.
-moving water pipes. huge pain in the ass. you take the heavy ass pipe, disconnect one end, slowly lift it so it can drain without snapping in half, which you have to lift it slow so it takes forever to do each pipe. move it to the new place and connect it to the new pipe. repeat x 25
-By far the worst job which I always ended up with which this is the worst one was being in a wool bag while they stuff it with wool, which we always did in the summer. Picture this: it's a hundred degrees out, you're wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt, they put up a contraption that looks like two ladders with a burlap sack in the middle that's hanging off the ground. Found a random pic of one online. the wool entering these bags is not clean, oh no it is covered in shit and piss. My job was to be in the bag so I could stuff the wool in tighter. Hope you're not claustrophobic because this means I'm in the bag with this nasty wool pushed in over my head and then I pull it down and tuck it into the sides. so to sum this up 100+ degrees in a burlap sack filled with wool wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt. It gets really warm in there and also stinks bc heat + poop + pee. It gets all in your hair too. One nice thing is the lanolin in the wool made my shoes come out shined and water resistant so that was like the one bonus
Now contrast this to cows, cows are nice, they don't require you to do all this extra work and calfs are way cuter than lambs
It’s not really that I hate sheep as much as that I hate dealing with them and have a lot of memories being annoyed by them. My grandpa raises sheep and so I have spent a lot of time working with them and they are mean and I always kinda ended up with the worst jobs. The sheep my grandpa raises are for meat not for wool, though you still have to shear and get rid of excess wool. That means they’re really big, a bit over 200 lbs for the ewes and around 350 for the rams. Sheep will do mean things like pinch you with their feet, the rams when mating will charge you and all that but they’re also gross animals. I’ve faceplanted in sheep shit more times then I can count as a child. They’re skittish I’ve had to herd them around places and it’s a pain in the ass. you have to shear them (they need to be sheared bc they don’t lose their coat ever so it just builds up and gets gross and hot and can give them sores and stuff) annually which is always a process and a half which meant I had to give up weekends as a kid to go do farm work, and I always end up with shitty jobs. Plus it always meant either the winter or summer when I would go which meant below freezing or above 100F. Some examples of jobs I did are:
-putting in fence posts, which means hauling railroad ties which are heavy and you can only really do one at a time, digging up a fence post, which is an old rail tie, saving the nails bc you reuse those, putting the new one in, and nailing it in. Repeat for like 4 hours in either of the weathers mentioned.
-assisting in the shearing and washing of sheep, which sheep are gross, so that’s not fun. basically you will get stepped on and probably peed/pooped on at least once.
-moving water pipes. huge pain in the ass. you take the heavy ass pipe, disconnect one end, slowly lift it so it can drain without snapping in half, which you have to lift it slow so it takes forever to do each pipe. move it to the new place and connect it to the new pipe. repeat x 25
-By far the worst job which I always ended up with which this is the worst one was being in a wool bag while they stuff it with wool, which we always did in the summer. Picture this: it’s a hundred degrees out, you’re wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt, they put up a contraption that looks like two ladders with a burlap sack in the middle that’s hanging off the ground. Found a random pic of one online. the wool entering these bags is not clean, oh no it is covered in shit and piss. My job was to be in the bag so I could stuff the wool in tighter. Hope you’re not claustrophobic because this means I’m in the bag with this nasty wool pushed in over my head and then I pull it down and tuck it into the sides. so to sum this up 100+ degrees in a burlap sack filled with wool wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt. It gets really warm in there and also stinks bc heat + poop + pee. It gets all in your hair too. One nice thing is the lanolin in the wool made my shoes come out shined and water resistant so that was like the one bonus
Now contrast this to cows, cows are nice, they don’t require you to do all this extra work and calfs are way cuter than lambs
Yeah whenever I look at sheep I think of having to do all that shit plus I watched a ram hang itself when I was like 6 and so that was probably mildly traumatizing definitely helped me come to terms with death though
My chickens have never pecked me hard enough to hurt even when they're broody. I guess I just have really chill hens.
I consider the free eggs a happy bonus. I don't demand them and it's certainly not the main reason I keep them. I just enjoy having them around. If they stopped laying eggs I wouldn't love them any less or stop feeding them or whatever. I ain't some chicken landlord
They aren't anybody's. The chickens usually abandon them if no one takes them. They don't want them any more then I want my monthly period. (Gross, but the only comparison I can think of that comes close.)
I love my chickens, they live in my green house over the winter. They turn soil, add fertilizer to it, and keep weeds from growing.
Why vegans don't eat backyard eggs
If you buy from a farmer or a breeder, they're likely killing male chicks at birth by straight up tossing them into a grinder
but yeah, if you get a rescue hen and actually treat them well without taking their eggs, it's cool
They're from my friend. She has a huge property out rural where she lets them roam wild and had a couple that needed rehoming so I volunteered. She has a couple of roosters too. She's a vegan, never kills them, only ever rehomes them.
Trust me I worry about that stuff too.
Trust me I worry about that stuff too.
But you keep eating the eggs.
Wait, is there something bad about eating unfertilised eggs? Would they not just go bad otherwise? Chickens tend to either abandon unfertalized eggs or they'll go broody and try to hatch duds, which isn't good for them.
Obviously your practice of eating eggs from your chickens is ethically way better than eating eggs from an industrial farm. At the same time, it is a bit exploitative to take and eat your chickens egg, which simply is not produced for human consumption. Think of how people adopt dogs without any expectation of the dog providing anything in return, why should your relationship with a chicken be any different? Not a chicken expert, but I've heard from others that allowing your chickens to eat the eggs (and shells as well) is good for them because it replenishes some of what they lost producing the egg (especially calcium).
I don't expect anything in return, they just happen, lol. I do crush up the eggshells and feed them back. Like you say it helps give them some calcium back.
