# I think World Poultry needs our help, LOL



## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

There's an article on world poultry about how chickens caught less illnesses when they were kept in cages. Then they talk about how filthy chickens are and they eat their poop, etc. I can copy the article if interested. I felt like telling them their children would never get sick if you kept them in a closet. Then this poster asked if hobby poultry keepers don't seem to have these problems because they keep purebreds  So I just love these public posting areas and posted this reply: (right or wrong, I am just pi$$ed off)
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It's not rocket science to figure out that chickens caught less diseases in cages. They should have never been put in cages in the first place. The problem is still over crowding and poor sanitation. It's certainly a lot cheaper to be inhumane. It's too bad that "experts" have spent the last 100 years discovering ways to squeeze every bit of profit out of a chicken rather than discovering ways to keep them healthy and happy.

E. Vogelaar, with respect, hobby poultry keepers most likely do not over crowd and their methods of sanitation may be better as well. I think if anything, purebred birds are probably more prone to disease than mixed breeds because of all the inbreeding it has taken to make a specific breed. 

In 10 years I have not ever seen a chicken pick seed out of poop deliberately. I think people would rather blame poor sanitation on a poor chicken than on the keepers. Maybe the professional chicken keepers should take a look at chickenforum.com and find out how hobby chicken keepers keep their chickens clean and disease free.
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I should have said that chickens prefer picking through horse manure, LOL


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## Nm156 (May 16, 2015)

Since our winter weather has been off this year.Partially melting then freezing again.I had to buy a fence to keep them from drinking the dirty water puddles.


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## chickenqueen (Jan 9, 2016)

Seminole,I know what you mean!There was a beautiful quarter horse next door.She was in a "pasture" less than 1 acre big and she pooped in 1 corner.Every morning after I turned the flock out they went running for that poop pile and spent at least an hour pecking through it,I figured they were getting undigested grains.At first I tried to stop them but there's more of them than me so I conceded.It didn't seem to hurt them,plus, the horse is gone now.I guess if I get a horse they'll have horse poop again.I've never seen them eat chicken poop,dog poop,etc. just horse poop.


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## seminole wind (Aug 22, 2015)

Horse's are only 30-38 percent efficient in what they eat, which makes stuff easy to pass thru. 50 pounds a day's worth. When I fill the water buckets, and dump the older water, the chickens drink that. Although I do have a few that do wait for the fresh water.

These huge companies that "free range " chickens in a large warehouse need to invent a way to clean the floor on a regular basis. I was thinking like hardware cloth with rolling trays underneath. Something like that. They've had over 100 years to think about it. I don't want to hear them whine about chickens in cages being cleaner. They should have never done it to begin with. Now they pay the price. They are really getting slammed now with the problems of illness in non-cage chicken keeping and the doing away with continuous antibiotics. Also if these chickens are hatched and grown out , how are they carrying in disease? Wouldn't a chick need to be hatched and exposed to an illness to be a carrier?


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