Scientists have figured out that breeding gentler laying hens may not only result in less mortality, but also in more eggs.
"When housed in communal cages, the kinder, gentler line had a 20 percent mortality rate, compared to 54 percent for the control line and 89 percent for the commercial line. Egg production was increased in the gentler birds, compared to the control line and the commercial line under the same conditions."
- Related Link:
** Attack of the Scientific Reductionists from Stephen Bodio's Querencia blog
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2 comments:
Frankly, just a way for commercial producers to crowd the birds more without the natural consequences of such unnatural living conditions.
Regular hens are especially gentle -- and have zero murder rate and stress-related death -- when they aren't crammed in together like sardines their whole lives. This is not a secret.
I can only imagine the depravity of the crowding that the researchers used to get 89% mortality in the line of birds already selected for commercial conditions.
I wondered about this myself. Back when I was a kid, and had a fair number of chickens, we never lost a chicken other than those poor malformed unfortunates that were pecked to death in the incubator. My understanding is that American industrial broiler chickens have a 15% mortality due to heart problems from having too large a chest. I don't think that has anything to do with docility.
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