The Third Day 2.11.09

This morning we got up early to go with the third year vet students to a pullet farm (pullets are young female chickens before they’ve started to lay eggs). At this house, the pullets are raised until they are of egg-laying age (around 20 weeks) then shipped to a layer house.

The chicks arrive around a day of age in boxes with 100 in each box. Workers then transfer the chicks to the top row of cages. As the chicks grow, some are transferred to the lower cages until all 5 rows are crammed full of birds.

At 10 days of age, the chicks get their beaks clipped (aka chopped off) and are vaccinated.

Here are some more pictures:

EVERY poultry farm we go on we have to suit up in this gear for biosecurity reasons (we don't want to be bringing diseases into the farms, especially since we travel to so many). Don't we all look ridiculous? hahahaha

Here is me standing inbetween two isles of cages.

The house was so long i couldnt' see the other side from one end....

I had trouble counting the birds in the cage b/c they were so scared and kept freaking out when the saw people...i think there are about 14 birds per cage. Again, crowded, but up to industry standards.

They are still cute:)

This was sad. Some of the chicks were "mis-sexed" at the hatchery--this is a group of males....the farm was holding these guys for the third years to practice blood draws....but since the third years did that in another lab, they had no purpose and were going to be killed. Well, they were killed. Males have no use in the layer industry, as you'll see in the next post...

This is the pit in this house....this is the house were they clean it often, so the smell was better (still not fresh air, but as good as it gets). The sad part was that chickens escape from their cages all the time and fall into the pit--as you can see in this pic. These chickens had incredible feather condition because they weren't tore up by the cage wires....they will be killed when the pit is cleaned, as they don't want to bring any disease from the pit up to the cages.

This is the view from the pit up at the bottom of the cages.

this is a common site--a dead chicken trampled in the cage....dead birds are cleared from the cages 1-2 times per day.

And then I spent the afternoon doing nothing in the poultry lab.I I can’t get my laptop online in this building so I can’t do any of my work and I have errands to run….

Oh!!! Before I go, I need to share the worst part of PA: the state is trying to keep me away from good beer! AHHHHHHHHH!!! OH NO!!!!! THE HORROR!!!

I’m used to Madison where there is a liquor store 5 blocks from ANY location and Wisconsin in general, it’s very easy to find a store with a selection.

So in PA, there is no alcohol sold in stores (obstacle #1) and the liquor/wine stores are state run (weird) so there is NO beer in those stores (obstacle #2). The nearest store that sells any kind of beer is a 10 minute drive—and it only sells wholesale beer in nothing less than 24 bottles—now I like my beer, and can make friends with the UPenn students by supplying beer to the dorm, but I want to try different kinds of local beer and I can’t do that a 24 pack at a time (obstacle #3).

So after much researching, I found what appears from the website to be a decent beer store 17 miles away. It had better be worth the drive, or I swear Pennsylvania, I shall never return! Hahahaha!

Here is some mediocre beer: