Julia Grey
CHRISTA MEDERI has happy chickens. They have “a nice house”, where they come and go as they please, according to their own fowl habits. They are fed mainly on a diet of organically grown greens, freshly picked. These stress-free and healthy chickens produce eggs that have an extra yellow yolk and greater nutritional value.
“But,” says Mederi, “you can’t feed a nation on free-range chickens.”
Far from contented clucking and a constant stream of eggs, when left to their own devices these fine-feathered birds have a vicious pecking order.
Take the way chickens use the sharp edges of their beaks to torture each other. Mederi explains that the process of laying an egg leaves a chicken’s “behind” red and inflamed. This is an irresistible invitation to other chickens to peck at the raw area.
If the wound gets infected, this inspires the chickens to a pecking frenzy and they attack their unfortunate companion. Sometimes, a particularly aggressive chicken catches the victim’s intestine in its beak, and holds tight while the hapless creature flees, leaving a trail of its innards behind it.
Chickens are also very particular about laying. After some time of laying eggs without hatching them, the chicken gets broody, and stops laying for two to three months. The birds also lose their feathers twice a year, which similarly hinders their laying ability.
Battery farms avoid these problems by cutting off the sharp tips of the young chickens’ beaks and putting them in cages under lights 24 hours a day, resulting in almost double the number of eggs laid. After six months, the egg-layer is taken to the slaughter house.
ENDS