snowberry Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 I'd like people's thoughts on this! Please don't bite my head off! I contacted a rather posh egg supplier in my area earlier; I asked if it was possible to rehome one of their hens after it had finished it's productive life with them. The woman acted as though she had never been asked this before. She said they couldn't do that because of bio-security issues. So I asked what happened to them & she said that they went into the food chain. Does this make them equal to battery farmers, who at least let some of their flock go to the BHWT? I'm sure that they would have years aead of them if allowed to live... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ygerna Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 I suspect the secondary income from selling the hens to the food industry is valuable to her. You'd think that a couple of end of laying life hens wouldn't do her out of too much money though. Maybe she really hadn't ever been asked this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowberry Posted June 3, 2011 Author Share Posted June 3, 2011 What bugs me is that their claim to fame (so to speak) is the eggs being coloured & specialising in rare breeds; I won't be buying their eggs! I wasn't expecting a freebie & can understand that they don't want people tramping all over the place, but it makes me so angry..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bramble Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 I'd be a bit fed up, too, but maybe she doesn't want any other "competition" for egg sales if the eggs are different colours; or maybe the hens don't look too good when they "retire" which wouldn't be good for her PR? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olly Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 ... or maybe she's just got a contract with a petfood supplier/food producer that she wants to stick with, and doesn't have any facilities for disposing of the hens any other way. I wouldn't necessarily ascribe any other motive to her reply. Egg production is a commercial business, and while 'organic' and 'free range' have specific meanings in relation to care and welfare, the business has still got to make money. Ater a year or so, the hens are not laying regularly enough to be worth keeping so they have to find a market for them wherever they can. That's the same whether it's free range or battery. In fact, I'd guess that more 'free range' hens go into food/petfood than battery, because there's no equivalent scheme for rehoming them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfer_chicken Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 I understand why the business would need to make money by selling the hens on, but it's sad to think of rare breed hens going to slaughter after just a few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
migsy Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 Perhaps you could offer to buy them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 Unfortunately if you run a concern with so many hens you wouldnt want the faff of rehoming them in ones and twos so I can see why she said no (sad though that is for the hens) Even when the BHWT take hens they have to take quite a few at a time and get them out fast on the day I guess a free range hen has had the chance of some sort of quality of life unlike the poor battery hens Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
