Re Rustica

Ivana and the other chickens decided they didn't want to be wet so they went inside their coop.  But they didn't want to spend the day inside, so they perched just outside or on the lip of their coop, where they continued to get wet.  They weren't cranky for their wetness, and our roosters got everyone inside properly before bedtime, early enough to dry off so nobody would catch cold.

We had written to the Bee a news tip after hearing some perncious piffle on the radio.  We posted our objections previously to our blog under the same. 

Today we got a response back from Mr. Downing, of the Bee:

Rustica, Thanks for the tip.  I question your calculations, and ask you: If pastured eggs are so cheap to produce, why do they sell for $7-$8 a dozen?  I completely agree that they are a superior product, but I do think they're expensive to produce. Best, Jim

Dear Mr. Downing,

Thanks for your question - it is your willingness to follow through to report truth that earns our respect for the Bee!

The two questions are somewhat unrelated and will be addressed independently. 

<strong>The answer to your second question first, </strong>

in free markets, commodities will sell at the highest price the market will bear and for the lowest price the producer can afford IN A GIVEN MARKET.

Demand side first.

If you take a trip of even a few miles outside of Sacramento, you'll find that the relative supply of pastured eggs to caged eggs is reversed and there is a surplus of pastured eggs.  Eggs sell for as low as $1 per dozen in some places!  This is because the cost of producing eggs by pasture is so low and easy that the producers have to sell cheaply to compete with the home grown article.  The cost of caged eggs is increased by shipping, and may sell as high as $4-$8 per dozen.

In the city, it is quite the opposite.  Transportation systems from centralized production centers (which specialize in cage production) reduce the cost of transporting caged eggs and the laws that prohibit the production of pastured chickens within city limits increase the scarcity of the pastured egg, and raising the price accordingly.

<strong>Now, supply side.</strong>

Economists generally agree that there are two efficiencies of scale in any industrial production.  The first, made possible by roboticization and mechanization, is the efficiencies of "mass production."  The second, made possible by biological training, is the efficiencies of "small run production."  Mass production and small run production enjoy the same efficiency when undertaken at the proper scale of production: the marginal cost for small run producers has its minimum far earlier than the marginal cost for mass producers due to the variability of production.

An objection which should be dealt with very first and before discussion of the production efficiency of grazing versus caging chickens is that small run production cannot produce the same TOTAL eggs as mass production.  This is true, however, it does not account for the market encouraging a cooperative of many small run producers.  This cooperative system is more common in plant production.  Examples are many: many small wheat producers organize to feed the nation, sunmaid buys from many small producers, coors buys from many small barley producers, etc. 

This was the principle mode of industrial production until the industrial revolution.  It is still common in many industries today, examples can be given upon request but will be witheld from this particular discussion to simplify our response.  Many small run producers create the same TOTAL eggs as one mass producer, and for the same PER UNIT cost.

Mass production is preferred by noncooperative ("designed") market systems that aim to monopolize markets for the interests of the State, whereas in "free" markets, the high cost of machines and robots encourages mutualistic cooperation to "capitalize" and overcome the would-be inability of small run production to meet TOTAL demand: in capitalist systems, demand is high and prices are higher until the cooperative producers begin to fill total demand.

"Cooperative" does not imply communist marketing, where various small producers are enpartnered.  However, "cooperative" does suggest natural mutual production and marketing goals and interests.

Back to the supply side discussion:

Cages require a system of mechanization and roboticization.  (Definition: mechanization is the process of using machine labor, which is a methodical, tireless laborer - usually inorganic - designed to use a particular tool repeatedly.  Roboticization is the process of using robots, which is a mechanized manager of machines).  The cage is a tool used by the biological laborer (chicken) (the egg falls into a predictable, tireless, methodical location regularly), and the human and inhuman labor undertakes processes of robotization by collecting, standardizing, and otherwise processing eggs, feeding chickens, cleaning waste, culling birds, etc.  The birds cannot be allowed to act even semi-randomly, and none of the processes from feed to chicken to egg carton and broiler can be variated.

Grazing is a small run system.  The chicken can be taught to lay eggs in one place every day, and trained roosters and human labor are relied upon much the same way that machines and robots are relied upon in mass production.  The producer increases their flock size until such point as pasture is maximized or other resource constraints (more usually labor) is overwhelmed.  For us, this cap is about 500-800 hens, a production level of about 250 dozen per month on average.

Much more than that and it becomes too expensive (for our own operation's constraints) to produce eggs at a profit.  However, by advances in technique, we are becoming more efficient and are gradually increasnig production.  Yet we will never produce by ourselves as many eggs as a roboticized and mechanized farm and rely on contracts with our neighbors to supply what surplus demand is to be had.

Advances in transportation technology (especially recent advances in biofuels) have reduced our costs of transportation so we can bring our eggs to markets where they are in even higher demand, allowing us to capitalize upon the efficiency of our production and transportation by selling at a market price above the economic equilibrium of our home economy.

At peak efficiency, both large scale and small scale production will employ similar laborers per hen.  The efficiency per laborer is held constant by the limitations of husbandry not yet overcome by technological advance.

Now, to your first question about feed.

We raise chickens and are diversifying currently into ducks and geese.  We have excellent data for our chickens, and only national statistics for our ducks and geese.  Our data for the chickens meshes fairly well with national expectations, and so we trust the national statistics generated by veterinary schools and can provide those to you if you like - but the question for the voters was on chickens, so we'll stick to that for simplicity.

In a cage, each bird will eat 0.18 pounds of feed per day using our high energy feed that we mix ourselves.  This meets all caloric and nutritional needs at a cost of $0.36 per day.  This works out, at current prices, to be $131.40 per year.  With grain prices doubling last year and expected to perhaps double this coming year and perhaps not, a high expectation (~60% of doubling) we would budget about $210.

Each of our birds eats a combination of pasture and grain.  The grain is used primarily for training, and suppliment food in the winter (we have snow and there is little for these tropical birds to eat).  Our birds eat about 1/4 as much on average (for those keeping score at home, a total of ~$52 per bird per year).  When we maintain in our flock a popultion of about 1/3 roosters, the price PER HEN increases to about $80.

The machine of cage producers cannot rest, so they heat their birds and provide artificial light in the winter.  Our hens lay much more in Spring and Autumn than they do in Summer and Winter and so we need no heat.  The birds don't idle in those periods, but build up their strength to lay eggs cyclically, raise baby chicks (we do sometimes get a few broody hens, though training can reduce or nearly eliminate the risk of chicks, and harvesting eggs daily certainly eliminates chicks.  However, our customers demand we treat our birds ethically in such a way that broody hens are allowed to brood).  Mortality rates are equivilant between pasture and cage production. 

There are innumerable minor differences, adding costs to cages or to pasture, and resulting in greater returns to cages or pasture.  These are held to be equivilant in our data, and not seeing professional researchers at universities undertake the necessary tests, we encourage you and all other amateur scientists to undertake independent trials.  By the nature of the production, we are sure that the data will agree: small run grazing is as efficient and profitable as large scale mechanized egg production.  The price per egg when the State does not interfere (beyond city limits) bears this truth.

If you have further questions please let us know

Please let us know if we can provide more support.  We hesitate to take up your time, but the strong lobby of the large producers in this State are endangering both the will of the people and the interests of a free capitalist society.  By flooding the market of ideas with half-truths (yes, mass production is cheaper, but so is small run production on certain scales, etc.) they demonstrate that their monopolistic interests lie in the dominance and extermination of their competitors, not in the well being of society, the free market place or our national economy.

These large producers, having enjoyed special privilage from a socialist State that encouraged their monopolization through the illegalization of small scale production near to centers of demand and through other fees, taxes and regulations that only are compensated by large scales of production, are obviously terrified at losing their competitive edge by regulations that now, insetad of helping them, discourage them in favor of small producers. 

That the State is now promoting the small scale producer instead is only marginally better than the fostering of monopolies: at least the capitalist system will be freely preserved under the new law.  However, the sooner the people and State of California recognize that a free economy is the best way to secure their interests, the better it will be for all producers.  And the sooner that larger producers recognize that their interests lie in the betterment of all producers - large and small - the sooner they will profit better.  There is plenty of room in a free market for small and large producers.  The greed that motivated them to influence the public towards regulating the market for their benefit has come to bitter fruit, but it is not too late to undo the damage - if journals like the Bee will only investigate the whole truth of the matter for the advisement of the public.

please let us know if you'd like to borrow our personal books on economics, or would like references for your own access at the public library.  We are

at your service,
Aaron and Mary

We name all our chickens, but the chickens have to earn their names.  The geese don’t have names because they look very similar and behave as one unit.  We tend to name them between one and five weeks of age (few have distinct lifelong characteristics earlier than one week of age).  Sometimes, though, they don’t earn a name until they are fully grown. 

Every chicken has its own unique “chickenality” (personality), which is usually what they become named for.  Scuttle, our head rooster, disliked being picked up when we first adopted him.  He is very intelligent, and quickly learned how to evade being caught.  Whenever he saw us coming he would scuttle under the nearest bush!  Cluckey is one of the most talkative chickens we’ve ever had occasion to listen to.  Occassionally they are named for some unique physical characteristic.  Stubs lost a toe during her chick-hood.  Nina is smaller than her companions. 

Soon we’ll be getting about a hundred newly hatched chicks, and we look forward to learning what names they’ll require!

Chickens have a strong sense of home, and gain that sense of home by sleeping in the same place for a week or so.  Whenever we move our chickens to a new home (though we do try to avoid doing that), we keep them inside for a week or so to force them to sleep there consistently.  Then, when they are released and free to wander about, they’ll always come home to roost where we want them to. 

Why they do this is similar to why they take care of each other outside the coop in our infirmary.

We just adopted 7 new Rhode Island Reds, 1 rooster and 6 hens.  One of the hens has a broken leg and was to be fed to the cats when we spoke for her.  She'll lay lots of good eggs and serve the flock as well as any rooster by being an ideal companion in our infirmary.

The infirmary is a special coop we build that allows sick birds to both be physically isolated so they don't infect other birds and can't be harassed by them while allowing them the necessary social visitation to keep their stress level low.  We usually put at least two birds in the infirimary, even if only one requires it.  Our broken-legged hen (whose name is Tammy) will be a permanent resident.

But even when a bird spends even weeks in the infirmary, they don't forget where home is.  Tammy's home is one intended for visitors.  Sometimes even geese!

Geese are very attached to their homes, as well.  We all are. 

Geese dislike going home and must be taught from an early age how to return home.  We train ours by whistles and the voice command “go home.”  If the training is reinforced periodically by treats presented in their home, they will never have trouble returning to their coop.

Geese require a very well ventilated coop, and we provide ours a dog kennel with a poultry wire roof.  This reduces disease, and helps them regulate their temperature best.  For laying eggs, they prefer a doghouse within their kennel. 

Geese and chickens rarely get along, but when a chicken is sick, geese will care for the hapless bird...and chickens will comfort an ill or distressed goose.  We like to pride ourselves on the service of our roosters, but Tammy's service will be no less important to our flock.

The roosters are instrumental in teaching the hens where home is.  They lead them back and forth from home to the grazing areas daily, and call home any strays at night with their goodnight songs of "come home," "time for sleep," and "have good dreams, I love you!"  In the morning, the roosters who stay behind to guard the coop sing the song all day to remind hens where home is, and whenever a hen comes home for whatever reason during the day, she is warmly welcomed: she's been working hard and needs a comfortable home.

We all do.  And Tammy will help keep our birds comfortable when they occasionally have to spend the night away from their usual home.

Geese and chickens do not like to brood all their eggs, and usually abandon most of them.  This helps them ensure that they do not overtax their resources.  Another technique they use to ensure wise resource use is language.

If our birds ever want to brood their eggs into chicks or goslings, we allow them to.  The reason why they produce more eggs than necessary is much the same reason why humans produce more eggs than necessary.  A large flock is as hard to feed as a large family.

Chickens like to grow their population at a very slow pace – just like humans.  Growing at too fast of a pace means the risk that later generations may have exceeded the resource capacity of their home. 

When a flock of chickens grows too large, one of the minor roosters will take his hens and his roosters to a new home, much as bees will swarm.  But, head roosters are always looking for new resources for their flock, so this rarely happens.  A head rooster will claim more roosting space by singing in the environment: this “marks” the territory.  The birds associate the place with his song, and the effectiveness is similar to that of the chemical markers that dogs or bees use to claim territory, or the visual markers humans use. 

The head rooster is always traveling between his minor roosters to see they are taking care of his hens well.  If some of the hens are not eating, the minor rooster is punished and then all of the minor roosters’ hens (and the minor rooster himself) are shown to a new food source or the food source in that locality.

When an attack occurs on his flock, the head rooster will vigorously defend his hens, with the assistance of his minor roosters.  We have seen a head rooster defend his flock against a coyote, another defend against a mountain lion (with the help of his minor roosters) and against worse enemies than that.   They are very brave.

One or more of the minor roosters will stay back during such an attack and keep the hens away, or herd them to a safer place. 

One of the minor roosters always will stay at home and defend the nest area against attack.  This is usually the same rooster’s job every day.  When the flock is very large, the head rooster will require the help of a lieutenant to check up on all the flock.  This Second rooster will often rotate between a handful of the best roosters.

Hens have some say in who their roosters and head roosters are by bonding themselves to one rooster or another.  They can and do love all their roosters, but their greatest love is always for the head rooster, and then the second rooster, and so forth.

Hens are less vocal than roosters.  They will sing many songs, but they are usually eating.  Both hens and roosters have love songs, hate songs, songs of joy, happiness, sadness, fear, alert, and anger.  Only roosters have territory songs, mating songs and battle songs. 

The roosters will battle each other, but never injure each other.  They bounce up and down and try to jump higher, and then jump over their enemy rooster.  Ultimately, they make their enemy bow before them.  After that match is over, sometimes it is redone, sometimes another rooster wants to play.  Roosters will strut when they have beaten all the other roosters in their flock, or after defeating a real enemy.  After defeating a real enemy, all the roosters will sing a special victory song, which is a variant on the territory song.

Of course, our favorite rooster song is the “all’s well” song which is, in human music, a classic trill: CDCBC.  Sometimes it is emphasized, C’C’CDCBC, or when things are mediocre, CDC, or just CD.  The defining characteristic is the change from C to D.  When the roosters have a victory, it almost sounds like laugher, C’C’C’C’C’C’C’D’’C’D’C’B’C! 

Love songs are characterized by an upscale swing, B_C, and emphasized by shortening or repeating the B and lengthening the C.  Alarm calls are similar, B’D!  This suggests that in alarm, they seek their lovers to protect them.

When chickens mourn, they are silent.  When they are sad, especially after losing a battle, they sing a quiet D_C’B. 

When one of our favorite roosters, Poopy, got shot last year (we lost almost all our flock to criminals), all the chickens mourned for him.  Nobody laid an egg for a week.  We compared our notes and saw that when he came of age, egg production had increased more than 10% for several weeks.  The roosters also mourned for him, sulking at home.  Roosters are very important for egg production, both in protecting the flock and making them eat enough to be good layers, but also in motivation.  Poopy was always dancing with his hens and singing to them, and singing victory songs of encouragement to his fellow roosters.

When they hate something the roosters will click and growl and the hens cluck and growl.

When they are pleasantly surprised, they will peep like chicks!  Mother hens and father roosters will also speak “baby speak” to their chicks, and will fuss about them, clucking and clicking.  The roosters love to show chicks what is good to eat, sometimes demonstrating several times for their benefit, even pushing them back to “school” if the lesson becomes boring or repetitive.  As far as we can tell, there is no “hazing” of young roosters – they take their place among the older ones without ceremony or battle.

Our second favorite is the alert song: it tells us they are doing their job: it sounds like a car alarm alert, “bwoop bwoop!” (B’B_E’B’B_E) followed by a long lower note  C’C’B_B  It is similar to the “look at this tasty thing to eat!” song, B’D’C’B, and sometimes is accompanied by clucking, clicking or growls.

Roosters will share their adventures with their hens, re-enacting their battles.  After the magnificent defense against the coyote, one rooster pretended to be the coyote, sneaking up on several roosters pretending to be hens.  The head rooster then charged the “coyote,” and the minor roosters sang victory songs.  The performance was repeated several more times that day…and the next!

They all laughed for more than an hour, and danced until dark.  It was a chicken party!