What is the Price of Eggs in Bug Tussle?

[Briar Lee]

When Humansville still had the hatchery, they sold baby chicks but the big business was selling broilers for frying chickens.

Understand, all the chickens my folks raised were truly free range. My mother would toss them some corn scratch to get them to come up, and she sat out oyster shell and grit, but those chickens all ate everything there was left over on the farm.

Chickens sold by the dozen, and in that huge chicken hatchery with pens full of white birds, there was always a few little black chickens.

The owners would make sure a little kid like me would get a free black chicken, which thereafter I’d always name Blackie.

When it came time to slaughter the frying chickens Blackie, always got a reprieve.

That meant most of the layers, were black as a coal mine at midnight, until the hawks or the owls or other critters ate em.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I care less about eggs. Everyone is acting like all food seems to come from these damned things.

What drives me crazy are morons who think that roosters aren't chickens, or act like a bull is not a cow. Ha ha. They should have covered this in elementary school, but cows are all cows, male or female. Both genders of chickens are still chickens.
A bull is a male cow, and a heifer is a female cow, but both are fuckin' cows.

Hens and roosters are both still chickens. And, yes, if you fry up a rooster, it is still just friend chicken.

It amazes me that people will argue till they are blue in the face that a bull is not a cow, or a rooster is NOT a chicken. WTF is wrong with people.

 

[brian64]

I care less about eggs. Everyone is acting like all food seems to come from these damned things.

What drives me crazy are morons who think that roosters aren't chickens, or act like a bull is not a cow. Ha ha. They should have covered this in elementary school, but cows are all cows, male or female. Both genders of chickens are still chickens.
A bull is a male cow, and a heifer is a female cow, but both are fuckin' cows.

Hens and roosters are both still chickens. And, yes, if you fry up a rooster, it is still just friend chicken.

It amazes me that people will argue till they are blue in the face that a bull is not a cow, or a rooster is NOT a chicken. WTF is wrong with people.

 

[dd57chevy]

I care less about eggs. Everyone is acting like all food seems to come from these damned things.

I believe the truth is , we were spoiled re: egg prices .

It was '20-'21 , not sure , but I distinctly remember Walmart eggs were $1.04 a dozen . Less than 9 cents per egg ! That was ridiculous ! Almost embarrassing !

When at the check-out I felt like looking around thinking store security would catch me .

Not sure if prices will drop any time soon . Rebuilding chicken populations is quicker than , say , cattle . But that virus* could return at any time .

*I have my suspicions as to where it came from , be we can't discuss that here..........

 

[Briar Lee]

As a little boy, I didn’t think about how almost all the chickens at the hatchery, were girls.

Then when I reached the seventh grade Miss Charlotte taught us all what happened to the little boy chickens. Gulp!

Xxxx

In the egg industry, male chicks (rooster chicks) are often considered a byproduct and are typically culled, or euthanized, shortly after hatching, often through methods like gas inhalation or maceration, as they cannot lay eggs.

Here's a more detailed explanation:

• Unwanted Byproduct:
  In the commercial egg industry, the focus is on female chicks (hens) which lay eggs. Male chicks are not needed for egg production, making them an unwanted byproduct.
  
  
• Culling Methods:
  To address this, male chicks are culled shortly after hatching, often through methods like:
  • Gas Inhalation: Breeds of chickens that are raised for eggs are sexed on their first day of life at the hatchery, and the male chicks are killed using gas inhalation.
    
    
  • Maceration: This is a method where chicks are ground up.
    
    

Xxxxx

That kinder, sorter, reminded me of my father’s advice to never, ever chase a girl, but let the girl chase you.

The girls can have them there babies, but they are always looking for a good mate, you know?

 

[dd57chevy]

As a little boy, I didn’t think about how almost all the chickens at the hatchery, were girls.

Then when I reached the seventh grade Miss Charlotte taught us all what happened to the little boy chickens. Gulp!

Xxxx

In the egg industry, male chicks (rooster chicks) are often considered a byproduct and are typically culled, or euthanized, shortly after hatching, often through methods like gas inhalation or maceration, as they cannot lay eggs.

Here's a more detailed explanation:

• Unwanted Byproduct:
  In the commercial egg industry, the focus is on female chicks (hens) which lay eggs. Male chicks are not needed for egg production, making them an unwanted byproduct.
  
  
• Culling Methods:
  To address this, male chicks are culled shortly after hatching, often through methods like:
  • Gas Inhalation: Breeds of chickens that are raised for eggs are sexed on their first day of life at the hatchery, and the male chicks are killed using gas inhalation.
    
    
  • Maceration: This is a method where chicks are ground up.
    

Xxxxx

That kinder, sorter, reminded me of my father’s advice to never, ever chase a girl, but let the girl chase you.

The girls can have them there babies, but they are always looking for a good mate, you know?

Why no capons ? Not worth the effort ?.

Capon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

I sold a guy a few hens and a rooster, a year or so ago... He wanted to know how the eggs get fertilized.

I was stunned... In the back seat of his truck he had a beautiful wife and a new baby. I dead-panned him, and asked him how he got that baby. Haha

I have no idea what he thought... Later I decided maybe he thought they were like fish, where the rooster humps the eggs after they're laid.

 

[Briar Lee]

Why no capons ? Not worth the effort ?.

Capon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Xxxxx

The lack of sex hormones results in meat that is less gamey in taste. Capon meat is also more moist, tender and flavorful than that of a cockerel or a hen, which is due not only to the hormonal differences during the capon's development but also because capons are not as active as roosters, which makes their meat more tender and fatty.[3]

Capons develop a smaller head, comb and wattle than those of a normal rooster.

Capons are fairly rare in industrial meat production. Chickens raised for meat are bred and raised so that they mature very quickly. Industrial chickens can be sent to market in as little as five weeks. Capons produced under these conditions will taste very similar to conventional chicken meat, making their production unnecessary.

Xxxxx

I’m just a sottin’ ere’ a waitin’ as the evening shadows lengthen, so I can go put my girls to roost, about how happy my parents both were out there five miles West of Humansville, in that two bedroom rancher my Daddy built for Mama in 1954.

Both of them had been immersed in the King James Bible since before they learned to read, from their cradles, by a good Christian mother each with a good Christian father by her side, at her every beck and call.

My mother had a full length mirror on the door of her bedroom and she did not sally forth from there, unless she looked perfect from the tip of her high heels to the top of her coffered head.

Her bedroom also had a vanity she used for her preparations to meet the morn.

Sometimes Daddy and me would be all dressed up for church and Mama would be getting ready and he’d peep around her bedroom door and ask

What wilt thou, Queen Esther, and what is thy request?

Ask and it shall be given thee, to the half of the kingdom!

Mama would wink at him and smile and reply

What if I should want all your kingdom?

He’d say I’d just have to borrow some money and buy more land and cows to buy another one.

And when Mama was ready, I’d run out to open the car doors for them, Mama first, Daddy second, then I’d get in back.

We’d drive past the Plum Grove Cemetery, where they all sleep today, on our way to the Humansville Christian Church.