Bonus:Dengue Chicks and the Grocery Store Walk of Shame

[00:00:02] This is BewilderBeasts, an infotainment show dedicated to inspiring curiosity for all ages by investigating the ways animals intersect at humanity. I am not a historian, an ethologist, a researcher, a scientist, a zoologist, a trained audio engineer or an expert in… well, anything.

[00:00:26] Y'all, I'm lucky if I can remember to put my clean laundry in the dryer before it gets funky. And while I make every effort to present things as accurately as I can with a fun flair, I'm going to mess up. And that's okay.

[00:00:38] I hope I've given you a nice place to jump off from on your own adventures into curiosity. Or at the very least, I've given you the key to win your next round of trivia. Hello and welcome to BewilderBeasts, recording six hours from a massive snowstorm

[00:01:13] that's about to hit us. Today on this BewilderBeasts Patreon exclusive, free chickens will free up our landfills, Instagram is not real life, shock, and hens in Florida are preventing triple E outbreaks in an unusual way. Ready? Let's go! So there's this Facebook post. Maybe it's a Twitter post.

[00:01:43] Definitely an Instagram thing. Going around that says… Ahem. Me, me, me, me, me. Quote. A city in Belgium, unnamed, offered three chickens per household for anyone who wanted. Two thousand families said sure, give us three chickens.

[00:02:00] So this unnamed city in Belgium got six thousand chickens together and distributed them throughout the city. The first month claimed to drop a hundred tons of food out of their landfills. This eliminated landfill waste and now all these folks had chickens. They did the math.

[00:02:18] And if one in three houses had chickens enough to eat kitchen food scraps, there would not be an egg industry in the United States. That would be non-essential. The version of this that I had to watch six times because I cannot figure out how to

[00:02:31] pause insta-reels from an account called Adult Probs, Viral Videos, News and Comedy. Seems legit. Y'all, I watched this so many times it's hard to type along with something that is scrolling by really fast but I did it. Obviously all of that sounds incredible, right?

[00:02:49] It sounds too good to be true. Which is how the internet works. For starters, which town in Belgium? I could not find a single source that named this town in Belgium. When was this? Nothing was stated in the reel. Quote, they did the math.

[00:03:06] About one in three houses having chickens would make the egg industry as we know it in the United States absolutely unnecessary. One, who is they and two, how are people having chickens in Belgium preventing the United States people needing eggs? I'm very confused. Now here's a good thing.

[00:03:29] Every good viral video has some truth. And this is no different. Yes, there have been towns all over Europe who have tried something kind of like this but nothing exactly like this. At least not that I could find with a bit of Google Foo and 20 minutes on a

[00:03:45] decent browser. That does not mean that this didn't happen. But if someone found all of this awesome info for an insta-real you would think that it would be very searchable for an insta-face YouTube Twitter post, but it wasn't.

[00:03:57] The chickens, at least in the independent articles that I read on a Belgian town who did something similar to what was promoted in this insta-real, were not quite free. They were sold at about 4 euro per hen. That's actually not that bad.

[00:04:12] In the United States you can buy a pullet or a chicken who's almost ready to lay eggs for about 15 to 50 dollars depending on the breed, the breeder's price scale and some other factors. So 4 euro, that's pretty close to about 4 dollars and 30 cents in the United States

[00:04:27] at the time of this recording. That's still a really good deal. Good but not free. And maybe this was a translation issue but chickens, while they do eat a lot of things, they do not eat a lot in general.

[00:04:42] Usually about a quarter of a pound of food for the average sized chicken per day. That's a normal, regular sized chicken between 5 and 8 pounds. The wee little bantam chickens that we are getting in the spring, substantially less given that they weigh each under 2 pounds per chicken. Very tiny.

[00:05:02] So assuming 3 normal, regular sized Big Mama hens, you're looking at about 3 quarters of a pound of food a day for 6 thousand chickens. That's 4,500 pounds of food consumed per day around this... nameless town in Belgium.

[00:05:19] There is zero way that that equates 100 tons of kitchen scraps and that those 100 tons of kitchen scraps were kept out of the landfill. You see, the claim was that the first month, the feathered friends frantically digested 100 tons of food in a month.

[00:05:34] Let's do the benefit of doubt and say 31 days, let's give them as many days as possible right? To give this math the best shot at playing out at the end. And click click click, mathy mathy math.

[00:05:48] 31 days times 4,500 pounds of food across this town for the chickens and that equals 139,000 pounds of food. Do not get me wrong, that's a lot of food waste. But 139,000 pounds is still short by about 60,000 pounds of food to reach that 100 ton claim.

[00:06:11] They are still 7 hippo short, or 600 toilets too light, or 350 beer kegs underweight. Now imagine all those chickens your brain can fit trying to consume 350 beer kegs. Now let's see if they can find the other side of the road. I'm gonna bet not.

[00:06:31] So we can calculate that at about 69 tons, which is about 139,000 pounds of food really is, are eaten by these little cluckers. Does that mean that they ate 69 tons of food and kept that from landfills? Um, no.

[00:06:47] If these chickens were eating nothing but table scraps, which is absolutely not advised by any poultry keeper, each household is on the hook for about 5 and a quarter pounds of food a week. Birds need bird food. And in this case, chicken feed.

[00:07:04] They need to make sure that they're getting all the right nutrients and vitamins and for chickens who are laying eggs, calcium is super important. So even if we were to say half of the food was coming from the kitchen throwaways, we

[00:07:16] are still a long ways off from that 69 tons. Nice. It's quite possible and I hope that this is the case that the townsfolk started composting along with their new hens which could, across the whole town, actually eliminate a lot of food waste and take that out of landfills.

[00:07:33] But one thing is definitely clear. Three chickens for every one in this one town did not directly eliminate 100 tons of food from a landfill. Lofty? I truly wish that was the case, but then you'd have to deal with the poo side

[00:07:48] of things and that's definitely the downside of chickens. I would believe if the video was on the chickens producing 100 tons of something else, for sure. Eww. So where exactly is the negative truth to this?

[00:08:04] Well, I did happen to find several towns in Belgium who did variations on this theme. In one case they had 50 birds to dish out to volunteers in pairs, and another the townsfolk had to pay a low cost of 3 euro per hen.

[00:08:18] There were cases of mandatory education or other clauses like, uh, please don't eat your bird until they stop giving you eggs. Stuff like that. Nothing was exactly as described by the real, but it is still super cool and I

[00:08:31] don't think we should let that piece of it go unnoticed. In 2012, according to the BBC, quote, A French village has proposed giving two chickens to each household in order to cut down on organic waste. Officials in the village of... Oh, that's actually not that hard to say.

[00:08:48] Sorry, I scared myself. Officials in the village down... Officials in the village of Pince... This is going great. In Northwestern France, say that the chickens should each consume 150 kilograms or 330 pounds of rubbish a year. That is basically what my entire family weighs. Me plus Brian press ace?

[00:09:10] Yeah, it's about 330. The chickens could eat a family of three is what I'm getting out of this. Oh man, this is getting dark. Sorry, back to the quote. It is hoped that as well as reducing waste, the chickens will help families save money by providing eggs.

[00:09:28] Quote, To begin with it was a joke, but then we realized it was actually a very good idea said the mayor of Pince, Liddy Pasto telling French TV. Um, Mayor Pasto, have you heard of this show? This is the very premise of almost everything I talk about.

[00:09:46] It begins as a joke and then realize something's a good or a bad idea. Let's be best friends. Etterbeek was the first to join the craze in Brussels in 2015. And yes, it's Etterbeek. That's not lost on me. Don't think I'd let that slide.

[00:10:03] Anyway, according to the bulletin, quote, initially the municipality will give 20 families two chickens and a chicken coop. The families will also receive ongoing support for two years, including advice on nutrition, proper care of the animals and more.

[00:10:18] The pilot project in Etterbeek can count on a 9,000 euro grant from the Brussels capital region to launch the initiative. End quote. And there are campaigners around the United States to help communities see the benefit of these birds.

[00:10:33] Naysayers suggested chickens encourage rats, but that's really only if you're leaving food everywhere for the birds. If you put the food away at night, you're going to be all set. Others say that they are loud. Sure, a rooster can be loud. We have one.

[00:10:48] But it's no louder than a barking dog. But I get it, not everyone loves it, so stick with hens and the noise is drastically reduced to adorable chicken chattering. Others are worried about the chickens pooping and diseases spreading, but their poop is

[00:11:02] super compostable, super wonderful for your garden, and it makes amazing compost for spring plants. Circle of life, baby. One chicken's poop is another salad's lettuce. And I'll jump in as a not an expert in chickens given we've only had them for about nine

[00:11:18] months and I have made pretty much every mistake under the sun. For me, I've always, always, always dreamed of having a big farm. Horses, goats, big animals, all the dogs, all the animals. But as I got older, I know what that takes to make happen.

[00:11:38] And after getting a few chickens, I realized how funny these little birds are. And they get me outside working as if I'm doing hashtag farm life, and I am, but in a much more manageable way for me.

[00:11:48] I clean their poop once a week, I dump it in the compost bin, I give them food and water every day, and I worry about them. I love these little birds. Even the one named Egg, who has laid only three for us since we got the free

[00:12:02] loader in April. And it's something Kiddo and I can talk about. Ad nauseum if you ask my husband, but it's fun for us. Our rooster, the one that we didn't want, has saved our favorite hen when a hawk showed

[00:12:14] up one day and his little crow is super cute. Compared to the other roos in the neighborhood who sound like dying cats, but ours is cute. And he's a stunningly beautiful bird. It's the right kind of farm for us.

[00:12:27] And every time there's an egg in the box for us to get, it's just so exciting. It never seems to get old. They eat bugs, they reduce the need for sprays, they produce us breakfast, humor,

[00:12:38] fertilizer for a garden that I'm still failing at, but that's not their fault. Overall chickens, 10 out of 10 would recommend. Now there is the other variation of the quote, give townsfolk some birds for reasons and this one was so unique. I just had to include it.

[00:12:55] Okay, so while many of the towns that I mentioned earlier were using chickens to keep food out of landfills and help with food security, several communities in central Florida are using their birds for something a little bit different.

[00:13:06] They're using them as a bellwether for dangerous disease outbreaks spread by mosquitoes. Okay, so let's just do a little quick medical thing. So we're all on the same page. Let's say you had COVID and had a COVID antibody test done.

[00:13:21] There would be levels of COVID antibody in your blood draw indicating that you recently had COVID. Cool. This works with all sorts of viruses and bacteria. So we got your Lyme disease, we got your hepatitis, all of them. We've got your mononucleosis.

[00:13:36] Sorry to that one guy who I gave mono to, but that's okay, it worked out. We're married and in much of Florida there are lots of horrible, no good, very bad diseases like Zika, West Nile virus, triple E, dengue fever. Wait, stop the podcast.

[00:13:53] Florida, you all have dengue fever? Are you okay? My God, Florida, I'm so sorry. You just can't seem to catch a break, but you can catch dengue. Okay, so this is where the chickens come in. Check this out. It's so cool.

[00:14:07] These baby chicks are given to people, volunteers really around central Florida who are just supposed to live their normal chicken lives, pecking, pooping, breakfast, whatever. From time to time health officials will come knocking on your door, take little blood samples from the chickens and test that blood for

[00:14:23] antibodies. Those antibodies are what the body produces to fight infection. And each infection has its own little antibody superhero who shows up and takes out the virus or bacteria. Much like a Marvel Cinematic Universe person, right? Like Guardians of the Galaxy are equipped to take on space baddies.

[00:14:40] It'd be really hard for Ant-Man to take out someone in intergalactic spheres. But Groot, while super cute, would be less able to help on a microscopic level so that's where Ant-Man comes in. Anyway, each antibody is a superhero who has the skills to match that

[00:14:54] particular bad guy in this case. That bad guy is a virus or a bacteria and the super fighters are the antibodies. And the best part is no, these diseases while they do produce antibodies in these chickens do not actually do harm to the chickens in any way.

[00:15:11] Except for maybe a bug bite which is probably itchy I'm guessing. I don't know if chickens have the same itch response we do. I'll look it up later. But nor do infected chickens pass these diseases onto other chickens. At least not the ones that they're testing for.

[00:15:28] An infected mosquito could suck some of that delicious chicken blood. I mean, let's face it, everyone loves to eat chicken. Man, it sucks to be at the bottom of the food chain. But after the blood sucker gets its drink,

[00:15:40] it leaves behind the virus if it's infected with something. So if that mosquito contracted triple E from someone or somewhere bit the chicken, the chicken's body would send super fighting antibodies to handle that biz. And if the chicken has one of these diseases,

[00:15:56] it cannot spread from the chicken. Boom! Maybe they have magic blood. I don't know, it's getting a little out of my depth. I got as far as blood magic, so I think we're gonna call it good. But once an antibody that matches with the disease is identified in

[00:16:12] the chicken blood, crews can then localize their mosquito sprays to those areas that have known infection. So they are just not pooping out breakfast. These chickens are saving your lives in Florida. And here's the best part.

[00:16:27] After they do one year of service with volunteers around the Seminole County, they will retire to farms where they will just lay eggs and be chickeny, I guess. But they won't be poked and prodded for their entire life. They just serve the Floridian people for

[00:16:43] one rainy season and then go to the farm. I mean, a real farm, not the farm? I double check. So let's go back to Belgium real quick. That town that I mentioned, the real one that I could read about in reputable

[00:16:58] sources, not the unnamed ones in the insta thing. Anyway, in 2010, the Flemish region of Belgium, that's that little northern bit, they handled the chicken thing a little bit differently. According to journalist Vanessa Mock in The Independent, quote, authorities typically apply a stringent approach to ensuring the well-being of

[00:17:17] the chickens. We have proper training courses in rearing and feeding the hens. We watch out for anyone who may not be suitable, said Christopher Deneve, who recently launched a chicken scheme in Muscron. The town is distributing 50 pairs of chickens for free to the families with

[00:17:33] sufficient space to keep the birds in their gardens. But anyone who takes part has to agree to not eat the chickens for at least two years and they cannot give them away, end quote. I just tickled that in many of these articles because of translation issues,

[00:17:49] they are referred to as giving people chickens to help them as a scheme, chicken scheme. Because in the US, a scheme is often used with a puckish overtone or downright villainous connotation. Anyway, some evil geniuses with a big twirly mustache stroking a fancy

[00:18:06] chicken with a funny hairdo, which do exist, wah ha ha, my chicken scheme is going exactly as planned. Ha ha ha. They won't ever suspect all the ticks that are gone without pesticides or

[00:18:17] how many things they'll have to come up with to eat all those eggs in March. Who's the sucker now? Ha ha ha. Anyway, so this spring, if you're thinking on getting chickens for any reason, I guess what I would say is this.

[00:18:33] If you're going in for free eggs, which was my whole idea, it's not. It's 1000% not free eggs at all. However, you will know where your eggs are coming from and that you can get them for probably at least less than the $8 a dozen that

[00:18:50] you're paying for right now at the grocery store. You may also find extreme joy in getting into a new kind of farming that you can even do in the tiniest of little suburban yards, depending on your municipality. We have an omelet coop. Yes, it's called omelet.

[00:19:06] I thought it was funny. That's why I got it. It is a super expensive but easy to clean coop and it was designed with wheels and a little attached cage called a run that the birds can be completely contained in and moved around our yard.

[00:19:21] I can move them and they won't fly into a neighbor's area or they won't get your garden if you don't want them to. You absolutely can do this in a small space as long as you do your research

[00:19:32] as to which breeds are better for confinement and how many you can have in your town. And if you need help drafting a code, consider following the stylings of one Gwen Bale. The self-proclaimed and everyone proclaimed chicken lady of South Jersey.

[00:19:49] She has helped over 30 towns and municipalities draft and pass ordinances that work for individual communities that will allow townsfolk to have chickens. She was inspired when her own community would not allow her to have pet birds, to which Gwen Bale said,

[00:20:06] cluck that and she got right to work. It took her years working with local government, educating herself and the council about chickens and doing a trial in her own yard as well as a pilot in some other yards in the town for three years.

[00:20:22] And once that pilot was done, it was considered a great success. Residents can now have up to eight chickens on site, work with a newly formed chicken advisory board complete with some educational mandates.

[00:20:35] And this is to make sure people are getting in it for the right reasons and they understand it's not a quick and easy thing. And not every neighbor is going to love a free-ranging chicken eating your daffodils, completely get it.

[00:20:47] And while this article was written just before the cost of eggs skyrocketed across the United States for lots of valid reasons, quote, backyard chickens are one answer to a wide array of food challenges from reducing hunger to knowing where the source of your food supply and

[00:21:01] shortening its journey to your table to dodging the labor shortages that drive up egg prices in this supermarket. So let's get to the big question, right? Why are your eggs super expensive right now? There is one reason and it's not the inflation crisis from last year.

[00:21:21] Avian flu, bird flu, quite a common flu and like our flu, we see it almost every year. However, last year strain of avian flu wiped out 57 million laying chickens across the country last year. It is 90 to 100% fatal in chickens.

[00:21:45] This means if one bird gets it in a flock or a flock that produces eggs for a grocery store, the entire flock has to be killed to prevent the spread to other farms. And those hens lay next year's layers.

[00:22:01] And so when they were all humanely killed to prevent the spread and suffering in the birds who would die a very painful respiratory related death, they did not have replacement chicks to take over. So by keeping three, six, nine or even 15 chickens in a backyard can be

[00:22:18] managed quite easily if needed to go into what was called flock downs with tarps protecting small backyard flocks from falling poop from migrating birds like geese who are spreading avian flu. This makes it really, really hard to contain once it's out in the wild.

[00:22:36] And when we got our birds in April, we did not know about avian flu's effect on flocks. The two birds we got at the time, egg the ironic first of her name and nugget who we call the ova achiever because she's a laying machine who

[00:22:50] produces big blue eggs, they both lived in the omelet. We have humor, what can I say? We had no idea what flock downs were, not at all. We didn't even know avian flu was a thing. We just wanted to get chickens because we wanted a couple birds.

[00:23:06] However, the two birds we had were hatched inside and had never touched grass before because of avian flu and we had a responsible farmer provide us with these birds. And these birds lived inside a large coop and a barn for their entire lives.

[00:23:22] Before we got them and it wasn't out of cruelty but to keep them safe from picking up a disease that was killing birds all across this country, even in our county. So I got them some coverings for their little run.

[00:23:36] I putted them around the yard which I realized later was part of actually how birds were getting sick but we were new to this and I had no idea. And they've since been upgraded to bigger digs. They have more friends and we're getting more in June.

[00:23:48] Overall, this has been a very rewarding journey for us and learning a lot by trial and error as most farmers do. And I'm so glad that we got our birds when we did. Looking at the price of eggs now,

[00:24:00] especially since we have to do the walk of shame to the grocery store. It turns out one thing we learned is only a few breeds of chickens will lay eggs all winter. It has something to do with the amount of accessible daylight that they have.

[00:24:15] And while you can put a light in their coop to trick their bodies into laying, I for one wanted their little bodies to do what they needed to do to rest so the eggs next year will be big and tasty and plentiful.

[00:24:25] And if I shot an egg out every day, I would want December and January off too. Plus, I ended up getting two winter laying breeds for June who should be old enough next winter to pick up where these free loaders are leaving off because now I know better.

[00:24:39] And it feels really weird buying eggs when you have six birds in your yard. But the eggs are not free. They are work. They are worry. They are funny. They are helpers. They can be loud and they escape their fence and fly into a tree.

[00:24:55] And then they can get eaten by everything else above them on the food chain, which is literally everything else. They aren't free from the government. And if they are, there are stipulations. And while they will eat most of your kitchen scraps,

[00:25:09] they can't eat it all in one go. And they can't eat only that. They will keep lots of things out of the landfill. But you have to have a lot of chickens. I mean, a lot of chickens to make 100 ton dent in our food waste problem.

[00:25:25] Because it's not just about what they eat and what they take out of the landfill and them giving us breakfast. It's about the entire way that we think about where our food is coming from and the leftover food that we produce, our food waste. Where does it go?

[00:25:40] And by building a little compost, we can throw it over there instead of in the landfill. And our birds are eating it. And it's very funny to watch them run over to us like little ladies and little bloomers without arms. They're hilarious.

[00:25:52] Every time you go out, they think that you have snacks. So overall, I think just the way that we think about our food has changed drastically since getting these chickens. I guess I can't say we. I know I can say me.

[00:26:04] But maybe that'll be the case for you. So that's it for today. Thank you for listening, pageons. I cannot talk tonight. Oh my god. I have to go get ace in a minute. So sorry. So that's it for today. Thank you for listening, patrons. There we go.

[00:26:26] And thank you sincerely for your support. You all must be saying some nice things as I'm getting more inquiries about doing talks in person, notes about topics for next season, and people reaching out about the show. So thank you guys so much for sharing the love.

[00:26:40] Right back at you. And if you want to follow our ridiculous chicken journey, I don't know why you would, but just in case, including chicken training from last year with a clicker, we didn't get very far because I had to

[00:26:51] spend more time training than I thought my dog not to eat the chickens again. The chickens are at the very bottom of the food chain. So I had to spend months working with Captain to not eat them or be very

[00:27:03] interested in them as he has a bird murder on his rap sheet. So I've spent the last six months working hard with him on the mantra chicks are friends, not food. And to the guys at Tractor Supply, two different locations I'd like to add,

[00:27:17] who told me that the only way to train my bird dog not to go after chickens was with a shot collar, I would like to proclaim hired no. I understand my profession gives me a leg up, but with patience and a lot of

[00:27:28] work, he is leaving them alone unless they get out of their enclosure and knock on the front window. But that's not on my dog. That's not his fault. In that case, it's game over. And that's our next thing to work on.

[00:27:41] But the birds are on Instagram at egg and nugget. And in June, you'll see lots of videos and pictures of our baby chicks. And if you're curious at all about starting with chickens, drop me a note.

[00:27:53] I can send you the resources that helped me out the most and the ones that ended up pretty toxic and unhelpful if you prefer to know which corners of the Internet to stay away from, which in general, I think is a good thing to

[00:28:03] know where not to go. But if you truly want a good reputable thing on all things chicken, I've been a huge fan of the coffee with the chicken ladies podcast. They're my kind of people. They are evidence based chicken farmers in the mid Atlantic region.

[00:28:17] They believe in vet medicine. So, yay, big ups there. And they love talking about these chickens. And I've learned a lot from them and I love their breed spotlights every week because of them. It has helped me narrow down exactly which kind of chicks to get for next

[00:28:31] season instead of going in mostly blinds like we did this year. They are like supportive ear hole friends who are very good at talking me through this whole new backyard chicken farming thing while I'm out in the middle of nowhere.

[00:28:45] So speaking of resources, here are the ones from this week. Htr chickens dot com, independent dot co dot UK, the BBC dot com. Permaculture project dot com more from the BBC, the bulletin dot B, which I think is Belgium, Forbes dot com, New Jersey monitor dot

[00:29:07] com and Fox 35 Orlando. And again, if you want to check out coffee with the chicken ladies, if you're into chickens or you're considering it, give them a listen or just text me and we'll figure something out and I will help you get the

[00:29:19] information that is good and quality and will help you. Intro and outro music as always tip toe out the back by Dan Liebowitz interstitial music by MK2 sound effects and extra music provided by the artists on freesound.org and on pixabay as always thank you for

[00:29:35] everything until next time. Bye bye. Chicken's are at the very bottom of the food pole. The food rung ladder. I cannot talk tonight. Are the very bottom of the food chain. You've been listening to a podcast of the Podfix network.

[00:29:59] Discover more audible gems like this at podfixnetwork.com. Make sure to catch up to the minute network shenanigans by following at podfix on Twitter, official underscore podfix on Instagram at podfixnetwork on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to podfix presents wherever you choose to find podcasts.

[00:30:17] The Podfix network artists owned and loved.