Day 066 - 14 Dec 94 - Page 64


     
     1        tendency to peck if the animals are deficient in some
     2        minerals, calcium has been associated with that.  There
     3        also could be a sign of aggression, there will be some
     4        chickens that are more aggressive than others.
     5
     6   Q.   Can you pause there.  Do you know of any evidence to
     7        suggest that the aggression, leaving the breed out of it
     8        for the moment, has anything to do with the fact they are
     9        quite close together?
    10        A.  It is part of their behaviour.  You could see any bird
    11        in the open, in the wild, it could be an eagle or anything
    12        else.  When they are born they have a tendency, they have
    13        to establish their social status within that nest,
    14        especially under stress when they go hungry or if the chick
    15        is smaller than they are.  If the chick shows some signs of
    16        sickness, that is a way where Mother Nature meant for those
    17        animals not to live.  So, there is a natural tendency for
    18        the birds to pick on the weaker chicks that will not
    19        survive otherwise, which by doing that will leave them with
    20        enough for themselves.  That will happen whether or not
    21        they are in a grow house or in a nest in the wild.  That is
    22        Mother Nature.
    23
    24   Q.   Does it follow, can one reduce or eliminate this tendency
    25        simply by giving enough of the right kind of food?
    26        A.  It could be reduced significantly if you provide the
    27        right nutrition to the animal, but to eliminate it 100 per
    28        cent that is difficult.
    29
    30   Q.   I think I have for the moment at least asked enough about
    31        laying chickens, except for this.  When laying chickens are
    32        hatched, I assume that a proportion of the chicks will not
    33        be female?
    34        A.  That is correct.
    35
    36   Q.   From which I hope it follows that a proportion will be
    37        male, is that right?
    38        A.  That is correct.
    39
    40   Q.   Do you know what sort of proportions male and female
    41        chickens have when they are born?
    42        A.  53 per cent will be females and 47 per cent will be
    43        males.
    44
    45   Q.   With egg laying breeds, I am not talking about meat breeds
    46        I am talking about egg laying breeds, what happens as a
    47        generality nowadays in the world to the male chicks?
    48        A.  There are different practices throughout the world.
    49        They vary from those chicks, the males, would be sold at a
    50        discount price so they can be grown, and you can go to the 
    51        other extreme where those male chicks will be destroyed. 
    52 
    53   Q.   We know that Sun Valley in this country which are one of
    54        the people that supply McDonald's, do practically a
    55        birth-to-table operation rather like Equity and Tysons in
    56        America, they put the unwanted male chicks into a tub of
    57        some kind which they then fill with carbon dioxide until
    58        the chicks are suffocated or asphyxiated I should say, and
    59        then they macerate the dead bodies, whatever is left over,
    60        for whatever it can be used for.  Is that a technique which

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