I am torn with this part of my job as a chicken farmer. In order to record who was laying eggs still I had to place each chicken in their own cage. I really hate having them in cages and not letting them outside. To me it seems cruel only leaving them in a small cage. I can't imagine what it is like in one of those larger chicken barns where there are hundreds of chickens, all in rows, lined up on top of the other, never seeing outside the barn.
On the other hand I love going in and 'finding' the eggs in certain cages. I like keeping track of what chicken has laid eggs and how many.
I feed and water them in margarine containers a couple times each day. They are eating more in the cages then what they were free range, which tells me they were eating a lot of what our land has to offer.
I started off with them on the straw on the floor but found that they were standing/sitting in a poopy mess on the bottom of their cage. So I raised their cages on cement blocks and now their poop falls through.
I also was feeding them on the top of the margarine container but with chickens being scratchers they kept scratching the tops to the back of the cage and then pooping on it.
So far, 12 of the 24 are still laying eggs. We will be moving those chickens into the new coop with our 50 new birds we will be getting on Wednesday. Yes, THIS Wednesday!!!! Can't wait.
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