??
theres only 1 thing to be said about that tim and thats buy free range and not intensively farmed birds that have been sitting in their own excrement :'(
"Robert also keeps several hundred laying hens, who share their beautiful daisy-strewn pasture with his organic conversion pigs. His hens are in fantastic condition and live the life of Riley, bathing in the dust and gambolling amongst the long grass."
So....??
The last free range chicken I bought also looked as though it had hock burn. We have no option but to trust the supermarket or supplier not to be pulling the wool over our eyes.
And these were direct from a renownedly ethical grower that Stein & Prince Charlie go on about.
My guess would be that chickens are allowed access to the outside world but either they have groups of aggressive birds preventing others from exiting pop holes resulting in some never seeing the outside world, this frequently happens when the flock is too large. Or they have the feeders & water in the sheds rather than outdoors which often results in loads of chickens choosing not to venture outside.
Of course you could email the photo to Eadles & ask them to explain why their birds have hock burns but you will probably get this standard response which is of questionable accuracy.
QuoteThe presence of dark discolouration on the hock is, contrary to popular opinion, no indication of the system by which the bird was reared. These hock "burns" are caused by the fact that the birds do not perch but sit on the ground. Mud can stick to the skin and cause this discolouration which is no problem for the chicken. The mistake made by some is to associate this with lameness, hock "burn" does not cause lameness but a lame bird will get chronic hock "burn" as it spends all the time on its hock. When a chicken is grown too fast the bones will not develop quickly enough to support its weight and they will collapse onto their hocks. Growing the birds more slowly allows the bones to develop at the right pace to keep up with weight gain.
Interesting!!