The sad and happy story of one ex-battery hen
I noticed yesterday that Hyacinth, one of our ex-battery hens, was sleeping during the day, which is quite unusual, out in the enclosure. She was clearly not in any pain, eyes closed, close to the ground, while the other hens wandered around her. She was left well alone.
Later, she went to bed in the coop around 6pm—around two hours earlier than the young ones go to bed, and four hours before her three fellow ex-bats. She displayed none of her usual skittishness when I picked her up and stroked her, and made none of her usual catalogue of sounds then, or today. She has been, and is, completely silent. But again, she seems not to be in any pain. She gives the impression of being worn out, simply exhausted.
tags: birds, ex-battery hens, intensive farming, livestock, pets, poultryToo much meat, too much nitrogen
The human race is responsible for too much nitrogen being produced, which threatens the environment in a number of different ways, all potentially devastating. The primary causes, according to this very interesting BBC article, are the overconsumption of meat and chemical fertilisers used in intensive farming.
Policies to reduce nitrates in water have banned wintertime spreading of farm manures across much of Europe’s farmland. The focus on springtime manure spreading has intensified peak ammonia emissions, giving a new threat to biodiversity and air quality. Most organic gardeners in the West, as yet unrestrained by this governmental stupidity, continue to be well aware that manure is best applied from October through to December. By doing so, its breakdown is much slower and emissions from its decay dramatically reduced when compared to applications from March onwards.
tags: carbon, composting, emissions, environment, global warming, intensive farming, manure, nitrogen, toxicity
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