The Tenth and final day 2.20.09

Today is the last day of my poultry rotation. I go through phases of being callus and doing well, and then crashing like last night/today. I didn't realize how emotionally spent I was--i am done. good thing it's the last day.

But what a day it was.

In the morning, we went to a chicken slaughter/processing facility. Bringing cameras into slaughter plants is a huge no-no (they are afraid animal rights people will freak out when they see the videos--which doesn't much make sense to me. if the slaughterhouses were to make their own video and publish it, then they could make sure everything is pristine, they could boast their welfare programs (this plant had a welfare program where an independent group came and audit-ed them on welfare standards), etc etc. it would put a good spin on it, people would get over their initial shock of seeing animals die and they would feel more comfortable with it. i think an open policy would be better for the industry...whatever..

so how is a chicken slaughtered....

the broiler chickens are trucked to teh slaugher plant on a truck like this (i know these are ducks, but it's the same setup)


A pallet of cages is unloaded with a machine (each pallet is like 10 layers high)...the pallet of cages is tipped and dumps the birds on to a conveyor belt.

The conveyor belt brings the chickens into the slaughter plant.

Works grab the chickens and put them into "shackles" like this...

this was the part i had a problem with--the workers were really rough when shackling the birds (who were conscious)...

Then the chickens are dipped (6-10inches) into a water bath that is electrified--> this "stuns" them (supposedly--i couldn't see as they went into the bath--only after they had come out in a few seconds--they appeared stunned, but their nerves made them shudder--it was weird)

Then the chickens go through a machine that chops off their heads. They have a guy after that machine with a knife to cut heads off any chickens that miss that machine (~1/20 need something cut off)

Then the chickens go in a scalder which loosens the feathers, then the feather picker (machine with ton of rubber fingers), then the carcasses get inspected by the usda and parts get cut off, or condemned or whatever. then the carcass gets processed.

The processing part is super extensive and requires a ton of machines and workers. i was amazed by how complicated it is. This plant was also very clean. which was good i guess.

It was an interesting experience over all and i wish i had pictures and videos to show you:( it's hard for people to learn how their food gets to the plate when those who supply it won't let you see. *sigh*

The Ninth Day 2.19.09

Today, after a slow morning, we went to a cage-free layer house run by the Amish (despite the fact that the house utilized electricity...)

If i remember right, this house had ~150,000 birds in the house, partitioned off into 4 pens.


While walking through, i was trying to compare the animal welfare to the cages houses I saw. This house was nice in that the floor were slatted so all the poo fell into a "pit" and thus the smell was better than a lot of the other houses i've been in, and very clean. There was more feather loss in this flock (they were pecking each other--which often happens with this strain of birds when they get older). These were a lot calmer birds, b/c of their genetics. They seemed "happier" to be, but they were calmer birds in general, so idk.

The Eighth Day 2.18.09

Today all i did was listen to some lectures...that were kind of boring....oh well:)

The Seventh Day 2.17.09

Today we went to another layer farm. This one was slightly different in that under each set of cages there was a manure belt. The belt got from one end of the house to the other end in 3-4 days in one house. The other house was sort of the same but the belt was moved more often b/c the manure didn't dry out as well. In both houses, the smell was better than in the house with the "pit".

Here are some pictures of the manure belts...


The first house had 6 layers of cages; the downside was that you had to use a ladder or lift to even see the top 2-3 rows.



The second house had walk ways for the top 3 layers....you and kind of see it below...


There were 7 birds per cage...and they were pretty darn flighty...



oh and one correction--industry standards say pullets need 44 sq inches per bird, but adult layers need 67 sq inches per bird...so that's like slightly bigger than 8" x 8".

Here are some other random pictures...


(the poo pile)

The Sixth Day 2.16.09

Today was boring. The doctor was gone so i sat at the lab all day and got work done. That's all.

The Fifth Day 2.13.09 (friday the 13th!)

This morning we went to a Mennonite farm that raises ~4000 silkie chickens for the live bird market. There were a few rooms where i had to wear my mask because the ammonia smell was overpowering, but compared to the other farms i visited, this was the "best" one. It was also nice because the woman who took care of the birds seemed to really care about them, and expressed how she struggled with the fact that these animals were a business--something that had no been expressed at any farm. It was a better day than the previous farm visits.


There are about ~1000 birds in each room. The large building is split up into 4 rooms: the chicks occupy the middle two rooms, and eventually the flock is moved to the outer two rooms at a certain age. Feeders are hand filled throughout the room, and nipple drinkers hang from teh ceiling in rows. The litter is not changed or added to--this is typical.



The flock FLIPPED OUT when i used my flash, dashing to the other end of the barn.

The Fourth Day 2.12.09

Today we went to a hatchery. This hatchery is HUGE and hatches chicks out for layer farms.

The eggs come from the breeder farm on a truck, already loaded onto these racks

Then they sit in the "cooler" (65 degrees) for 1-7 days until they are scheduled to go in the incubator which looks like this


once in the incubators, they have 12 hours of "pre-heat" where the temperature is gradually raised from the 65 deg to 103 or 105 or something high like that. Then that temp is gradually dropped as the embryos get bigger, until it's about 98 deg around day 17.

The at day 17 the eggs are moved from the incubators to the "hatchers". The chicks are transferred from the turner racks to flat trays, awaiting hatching (at day 21). Here is a video of the chicks the day after they hatched, still in teh "hatcher" waiting to go to the processing room.




After the chicks have been hatched for one day and are dry, they are brought to the separator room where a machine dumps them on to these slats that let the chicks fall through but catch most of the eggs and crap.






After being separated, the chicks travel on a conveyor belt to the next door room. They go around in a circle while the workers determine if they are male or female by the length of their wing feathers. They throw them into a female or male chute. The females (inner, lower conveyor after sexing) go onto the vaccinators (next movie). The males are in the outer, lower chute and fall via a trapped door into a macerator. A macerator is like a high powered blender. literally. the male chicks of the layer strain get macerated in this blender. it sounds horrible, and isn't the best, but the reports i've read say the chicks die in 0.3 seconds....i don't know, there isn't another alternative for the industry though.




then the chicks continued on the conveyor belt to the vaccinators...they are giving a vaccine under the skin via an automated machine:





After that, the chicks are loaded into stackable trays (100 each) and put in the holding room (heated) until the truck comes to ship them to farms.



So that's the hatchery. I guess i should be proud of myself for only shooting my mouth once.