Keyona
hey moth,
I know Chicken chicks are born able to feed themselves but wouldn't it still be important for them to have those few weeks with their siblings/adult hens (really have no clue if the hens would be around in a hatchary) cause the bill lets people sell chicks before they are even a month old.
Personally? I think it's better. I think it's best for hens to incubate and raise their eggs. The chicks get the gut flora and immunities from staying with their mom, plus they seem to be less stressed (many poultry keepers have observed that 'pasty butt', where a chick gets their vent clogged with feces, doesn't occur nearly as much with hen-raised chicks versus mailordered chicks. though that may be because the hen-raised chicks didn't have to travel and undergo all the stress like mail ordered chicks). But yeah, the gut flora and immunities and stuff, that's big. There was a link I had about broilers and layers and stuff about their gut flora and probiotics and things like that...just have to find it in my 1,000+ bookmarks, argh.
EDIT:
Found it. Oh am I good.
Quote:
In the past, under natural breeding conditions, the chick/poult received a competitive flora of beneficial bacteria from the hen and from the environment. However, under modern breeding conditions, clean breeder and hatchery environments, as well as separation of the chicks from their parents, the establishment of the gut intestinal flora (bacteria) is delayed. This delay makes the chick/poult very susceptible to colonization of unwanted, transient bacteria that might be found in the litter, pen mates or contamination in feed or water.
Nurmi, the father of Competitive Exclusion drew attention to the conditions under which chicks are produced and reared. As mentioned, they have no contact with mother hen and are placed in clean and sanitized environments. This provides for little opportunity for growth of intestinal microflora. This deficiency, led Nurmi et al to the development of his or her own microflora that could be oral administered to the chick early in its life. In this way, an adult-type microflora was established and newly hatched chicks were protected from infection, that being, salmonella.
from
Canadian poultry.
Yes, it is vastly better for chicks to be raised more naturally versus the now conventional way of gathering eggs, artificially incubating them and growing them without the chicks ever seeing a hint of another adult bird.
Though as the article suggests, they are developing probiotics, but all that expensive, time, and effort could have been saved if they just let the chicks frolic around with their moms.
400
500
100
would be perfect for a day at the Ren. Fair XD
this would also be perfect, though i don't think i would have the horns. 