When a chicken lays an egg

[*crikey*mate*]

does it hurt?

[*crikey*mate*]

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@tasfleur wrote:

Thanks Freddie (and Crikey) ...   The mod has taken the picture off already, that was quick but now I understand xx

We don't buy eggs from stores anymore, we're fortunate to have friends who have chickens and are always bringing them along, so we make cakes for them too in return.

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and your cakes are legendary and rightly so, they are scrumptious!

[*crikey*mate*]

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@freddie*rooster wrote:

I love that saying "half cocked"

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well, it is a chicken thread LOL

[*crikey*mate*]

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@am*3 wrote:

Look at a hen, owned by a farmer or householder, happily pecking away in its hen house yard with a few others, compare that hen with one stuck in a cage with others.. see which one looks happy & healthy and which one doesn't not.

As I said before there is no need for a knee-jerk reaction to say don't eat any eggs or have any eggs for sale. There are free range (and organic) eggs available that are farmed under conditions that are considered acceptable (1500hens/hectare) in Australia.

It is the caged hen farming that needs to be stopped and it will be phased out in Australia.

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Do chickens smile?

How do you tell if they are happy?

How do you know that it doesn't devestate them to have their eggs cruelly ripped away from them - by human standards, that egg was a chance for them to have a baby!

Considered acceptable by whom?

Did anyone ask the chickens what makes them happy?

Maybe they don't care how they live as long as they get their daily meals.

Freddie's post makes the most sense to me, I reckon she's hit the nail on the head - it's not really about the chickens, but our feelings that we project onto them.

[*crikey*mate*]

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@am*3 wrote:

 A Happy Hen

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he's dead! and he's not smiling, so how do you know?

LOLOLOL

[*crikey*mate*]

So, does it hurt when a chicken lays an egg?

[freddie*rooster]

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@am*3 wrote:

 A Happy Hen

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That needs to go in Pimpy's picture thread.

[*crikey*mate*]

[*ibis]

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@crikey*mate wrote:

So, does it hurt when a chicken lays an egg?

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in chicken feelings im going to go out on a limb here and say no

[izabsmiling]

Thanks Freddie , I haven't seen the picture that is being discussed here .I can guess what kind of picture it is knowing your recent real life battles.I can appreciate how it is a happy picture for you 

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Crikey Mate wrote:I get what you are saying. but how does a chicken know to be sad if it has never known anything else?

Are chickens capable of being happy?

To me, if it hurts to lay an egg, then the chicken must be suffering. So to continue to eat eggs knowing that means that I am ok that the chicken suffers as long as my needs are met. But I will justify this by only eating eggs from chickens that don't seem to suffer as much as others.

These chickens are bred to produce eggs for us to eat. If we didn't eat the eggs, then no chicken would have to suffer, at any level.

I think nature intended eggs to be a method of reproduiction to continue the species, not necessarily a mass produced food source.

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I have happy hens here (bred for providing eggs for us).They roam free ,scratch in the dirt, look playful,healthy and perky ..so yes hens can be happy imo.Our hens are.

Our best layer wouldn't answer my question about it hurting or not to lay an egg .Regardless ...I don't know how to stop her laying them..short of ending her life.She has never been clucky which by nature she would need to be in order to hatch eggs and produce chicks (even then hens do not do this 'every' time they lay an egg and  Of course as mentioned to have any hope of that a rooster and the necessary act between the rooster and the hen need occur, in addition to a clucky hen and a successful hatch is needed to produce chicks.No rooster, no clucky hen...she still lays eggs.

By your reasoning we shouldn't eat the eggs which she will lay regardless ...because you think it may hurt her to lay them and all of her eggs should become chickens  ?  

Rather we come up with a way of stopping her laying eggs or just throw away the eggs ?

and seemingly the conditions we keep our animals is not important ?

[*elizabeths-mum*]

Well they certainly don't suffer in silence if it does hurt! Projecting our feelings on them again, if they have pain when laying the egg, do they also feel that amazing exhilaration you have when you have given birth successfully? Do they grieve when you pinch their eggs from under them? Our currently broody hen doesn't seem to have noticed.

On a human level, are we suffering and we don't realize it because we haven't experienced a higher life?