Chicken Runs And The Human Surroundings

Written by Isaac Wood Thursday, 25 August 2011 10:18

From high in the air passengers on jet airliners may look down upon factories in the open countryside. Long oblong slabs lie silently and immobile. These are chicken houses. Millions of birds live out their ninety day lives in these installations which produce the raw material for countless take-away places, restaurants and catering firms.

From high in the air passengers on jet airliners may look down upon factories in the open countryside. Long oblong slabs lie silently and immobile. These are chicken houses. Millions of birds live out their ninety day lives in these installations which produce the raw material for countless take-away places, restaurants and catering firms.

Inside some of the long barns there are wire cages. Hens are stuffed into them and eggs roll out into drains that run beneath the cages. This inhumane method of food production may be the reason why so many people, disgusted by factory farming, have set about producing poultry in their own gardens.

It is possible to search online for firms that produce aesthetically pleasing and hygienic coops especially designed for keeping hens. They can become a garden feature, and the fact that they house live, productive birds makes them in effect an educational resource for young children. They will benefit from watching natural processes, and from knowing that a roasted supermarket chicken was once a living bird.

The poultry industry has done wonders with genetic engineering, producing birds that lay eggs endlessly, or broilers that seem to grow like balloons being inflated. Some of these new breeds may be kept in garden coops but there are also opportunities to keep old fashioned breeds that are all but extinct.

The genetic strains of productive birds kept in factory farms have their origins in old breeds that prevailed up until the Post Modern Age. Rhode Island Reds and Leghorns were great layers and their were breeds of game fowls that produced few eggs but had great bodies when laid out on the table.

Poultry breeders who are in it for interest rather than economic gain can gain much pleasure from breeding. Cocks can strut their walks and clucking hens scratch in straw for food, surrounded by their clutch of peeping chicks. These scenes and sounds are of great educational significance. They may not only be means of preventing the extinction of rare poultry strains, but also of human beings who are in touch with the whole community of life.

Chickens have accompanied human beings on many great adventures. When settlers colonized the interiors of the American and African continents they took their chickens with them, swinging in coops tied beneath wagons. Sailing ships also had their chicken coops tucked near the galley, so that officers could enjoy boiled eggs for breakfast.

Fowls have lived close to human beings since time immemorial. Now, as the Post Modern Age fades away they are coming back to live in many back gardens. Ideal chicken houses can be examined and bought online. Some are even exported from China to Britain. If one were to ask Chanticleer about essential ideal feature of chicken houses he would probably insist on a thin horizontal rod upon which he could perch and sleep peacefully, safe in his imagination from Mr Fox. His wives, the hens, would more probably be interested in secret boxes where they could creep away to deposit their eggs. Roosters and hens alike would agree that an automatic door allowing them to go outside and scratch at will would be the ultimate fashion feature.