H.F.W chicken run

[Simoman 110]

I must admit I've recorded it and havne't watched it but i'm a big Hugh fan..........

[socks 32,253]

THE GOVERNMENT GUIDLINE IS THAT YOU CAN KEEP 17 CHICKENS PER 1 METER SQUARE AND THEY ONLY HAVE TO HAVE 30 MINS DARKNESS TO SLEEP IN EVERY 24 HOUR PERIOD .... AND WE HAVE THE CHEEK TO ACCUSE OTHER COUNTRIES OF BEING BARBARIC ............

[borderboy 80]

i dont think the blame can be put entirely on the farmers... alot of it is down to supermarkets forcing the prices down... if people want cheap meat this is result... until people realise that meat shouldnt be cheap, farms will continue to intensively rear animals...

[Tis TM 8]

i dont think the blame can be put entirely on the farmers... alot of it is down to supermarkets forcing the prices down... if people want cheap meat this is result... until people realise that meat shouldnt be cheap, farms will continue to intensively rear animals...

 

Exactly

 

And not only that, the majority of farmers rely on subsidies to even scratch a living - If they didn't have that they'd not be able to make it pay

[T.F.Student 0]

2 for a fiver ASDA's bin robbing me...Tesco here i come

[Malt 379]

I'm going to watch the program tonight. I read somewhere today, that a certain supermarket pays as little as 3p for a chicken! 3 pence! that's roughly 33 chickens for a pound! Is it any wonder that chicken farmers have to farm chickens the way they do.

[fishfish 17]

hugh has lost his way.

poor people dont have the luxoury of morals with regard to how meat was raised,for many families on the breadline these cheep chooks at tesco are the only affordable healthy meat,get rid of those and their kids will be braught up on burgers and other prosessed shite!

all HFW is attempting to do is destroy an industry allready at its knees due to the supermarkets.i cant feed chooks to an age that i can kill them for meat for the same cost as an oven ready at tesco!my mate malcom is in the buisness of rearing these intensely reared chooks,he sells 500,000 birds every 10 weeks,he works a regular 12-16 hour day ant that aint sitting in an office its hard graft,and he makes so little money at it that he gets working tax credits to feed his family! i asked him why he bothers,he said its all he knows.

[paddy.t 5]

part 2 twenty mins. enjoy

[paddy.t 5]

hugh has lost his way.

poor people dont have the luxoury of morals with regard to how meat was raised,for many families on the breadline these cheep chooks at tesco are the only affordable healthy meat,get rid of those and their kids will be braught up on burgers and other prosessed shite!

all HFW is attempting to do is destroy an industry allready at its knees due to the supermarkets.i cant feed chooks to an age that i can kill them for meat for the same cost as an oven ready at tesco!my mate malcom is in the buisness of rearing these intensely reared chooks,he sells 500,000 birds every 10 weeks,he works a regular 12-16 hour day ant that aint sitting in an office its hard graft,and he makes so little money at it that he gets working tax credits to feed his family! i asked him why he bothers,he said its all he knows.

 

 

if this is what it boils down to, farmers working all hours god sends and still have to get tax credits to support their familys, then what is the point? why not farm other livestock, or maybe rent the land out for a shoot.

[wabbithunter_15 0]

I think what he is doing is a very good cause, i have never seen how chickens have been raised and it showed both extremes of how they are actually raised. hes also showing people that chicken isnt just a £2.50 meal to feed the kids but lets them interact with the chickens and shows the quality of their life. enough said...... 5 mins, enjoy

[borderboy 80]

I'm going to watch the program tonight. I read somewhere today, that a certain supermarket pays as little as 3p for a chicken! 3 pence! that's roughly 33 chickens for a pound! Is it any wonder that chicken farmers have to farm chickens the way they do.

 

A mates a chicken farmer, supplies a well known fast food joint... he reckons its common to get £3-4 a hundred!

 

 

hugh has lost his way.

poor people dont have the luxoury of morals with regard to how meat was raised,for many families on the breadline these cheep chooks at tesco are the only affordable healthy meat,get rid of those and their kids will be braught up on burgers and other prosessed shite!

all HFW is attempting to do is destroy an industry allready at its knees due to the supermarkets.i cant feed chooks to an age that i can kill them for meat for the same cost as an oven ready at tesco!my mate malcom is in the buisness of rearing these intensely reared chooks,he sells 500,000 birds every 10 weeks,he works a regular 12-16 hour day ant that aint sitting in an office its hard graft,and he makes so little money at it that he gets working tax credits to feed his family! i asked him why he bothers,he said its all he knows.

 

 

if this is what it boils down to, farmers working all hours god sends and still have to get tax credits to support their familys, then what is the point? why not farm other livestock, or maybe rent the land out for a shoot.

 

its not that easy, chicken shed take up very little space in comparison...

[moosedog 2]

Hi guys dont know if anyone has posted this yet but if you all feel so strong about this subject you can sign a pettion on Hughs website http://www.chickenout.tv

[Tis TM 8]

hugh has lost his way.

poor people dont have the luxoury of morals with regard to how meat was raised,for many families on the breadline these cheep chooks at tesco are the only affordable healthy meat,get rid of those and their kids will be braught up on burgers and other prosessed shite!

all HFW is attempting to do is destroy an industry allready at its knees due to the supermarkets.i cant feed chooks to an age that i can kill them for meat for the same cost as an oven ready at tesco!my mate malcom is in the buisness of rearing these intensely reared chooks,he sells 500,000 birds every 10 weeks,he works a regular 12-16 hour day ant that aint sitting in an office its hard graft,and he makes so little money at it that he gets working tax credits to feed his family! i asked him why he bothers,he said its all he knows.

 

I think its trying to educate aswell though Fishfish, saying that you dont just have to get one meal out of a chicken, and to use the carcass etc. The cheap chickens make it easy for them to be sorta disposable, ie: pick off the best bits and bin the rest.

And I'm not sure he wants to kill an industry, possibly trying to get it to evolve? If the masses wanted to buy only free range, then the chicken farmer would have cause to change its methods to suit. Only problem is the super markets will still screw them down for every penny they can, and still make it a barely viable business. ASDA's Tesco's and the like have alot to answer for!

[Ossie 11]

i live in norfolk, which is proper poultry country. ducks, geese, turkeys, chickens, guinea fowl, reared by all methods, can all be found within 15 miles of my house. my brother looks after ten broiler sheds for a major local producer, so i get to sneak a look at some of the paperwork when he's not about!

i've been banging on about this for ages. it's the timescales that bug me. as little as 39 days (depending on the strain of bird & feeding scale) from cardboard box to plastic crate. i'm glad the irish guy on HFW's show pointed this out, as no one i know believed me when i told them how quickly the birds grow.

the problem is not with the farmers, it's with the supermarkets. they might pay as little as 5p a bird, and they set the price, not the farmers. take it or leave it. they also set the weights. the supermarket puts in their order for x birds at x weight by x time on x date, and the farmers have to deliver the goods. the supermarkets refuse to accept different-weight birds in a batch, hence the culling of perfectly healthy smaller specimens. a friend of the family worked in the transport department at a large duck processors, and told me that if a lorry arrives at the supermarkets warehouse late, they will be turned away. a whole lorry load of fresh birds, all different types, discarded. the processor then has to find someone else who will take them, or dispose of the lot.

the ammonia burns on the chickens legs are not as common as Hugh makes out. the company my brother works for are very hot on preventing burns on the legs, as they sell the chickens feet to china. they probably make more doing that than selling the whole birds to british supermarkets.

the supermarkets have created the pricing catch 22 situation/cycle. selling cheap chickens creates the demand for cheap chickens, the public expects cheap chickens, and the supermarkets keep selling cheap chickens because that's what the public want, they say. there is no incentive for producers to rear chickens in a better environment, because at the moment they'd still get sweet FA for them, so why spend hundreds of thousands of pounds making the conditions better for a few pence on a ton?

of course, there is a downside with the free-range birds. vermin & disease. my brother visited several free-range farms as part of his NVQ course, and was quite shocked at the amount of mud, water & crap the birds were carrying into their sheds on their feet & feathers, and the numbers of rats on the property, in & around the sheds.

the only way to make chickens truly healthy, tasty, and cruelty-free is for everyone to rear their own birds. that way you're in charge of what you're eating. but in our fast food culture, where everything is (literally) handed to us on a plate, how many people want to get their hands dirty, or even, god forbid, know truly what they're eating?

 

isn't it all so much easier, safer & sanitized when it comes shrink-wrapped from tescos?

[fishfish 17]

"the only way to make chickens truly healthy, tasty, and cruelty-free is for everyone to rear their own birds. that way you're in charge of what you're eating. but in our fast food culture, where everything is (literally) handed to us on a plate, how many people want to get their hands dirty, or even, god forbid, know truly what they're eating?

 

isn't it all so much easier, safer & sanitized when it comes shrink-wrapped from tescos? "

 

rearing yer own birds is the ideal way,but i costed mine and on 10 eating birds they worked out nearly a tenner per bird ! you would have to rear on a huge scale to bring the cost down to an acceptable level,the cost of feed has forced me to buy from the supermarkets. also i think that if folk had to rear their own many many would just not eat chicken.

despite how lacking in morals the intensly reared birds are theyDO have a place in our society,those who are on low incomes can have meat that isnt processed and the better off can buy the farm assured/organic birds.

i for one am one of the former but rest asured we do not waste a thing on the bird all the meat is used the carcass made into stock or soup and the bones minced into bits to go on the allotments.I must admit i do however try my best to put wild game on the table whenever possible,hey you cant beat a couple of pheasants eh?