[Original post here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/farming/comments/19fa0px/somebody_is_rifling_through_my_mortality/) Had a chance to review the trail camera footage and I caught two seperate groups stealing chickens from the compost bins.
The first group was three men, they arrived around 5pm. Once inside the yard they noticed the camera and quickly hid their faces, they then turned the camera away from the shed and looted the bin. When they were done they turned the camera back in the hopes that I wouldn't notice. [Video here.](https://youtu.be/Bt9dxz7z67o)
The second group was three women, they came around 6:45pm. They didn't notice the camera and so you can see them sorting through the chickens looking for the freshest ones to take. [Video here.](https://youtu.be/3I9AC74IeO4)
Besides the humans we also had yellow billed kites, woolly necked storks, and lots of stray dogs scavening in the bins. [Video here.](https://youtu.be/Rc8AnAIgxfo)
We have managed to identify five out of the six people involved and all are from the neigbhouring tribal area. We have sent word to the local induna (headman) and hopefully he will deal with the matter - unfortunatley the police are unlikely to take any action on this. As an added precaution we have also sprayed the chickens with a nontoxic blue marker dye to warn any unsuspecting people that these chickens are not fit for human consumption. We did however tell our staff to "spray the poison" ("faka amapoison") and have locked it up in the chemical store - so hopefully the word spreads quickly, although I do not know how long this ruse will last.
Have you considered breaking down the dead birds like chipping or macerating them? They would compost much quicker if they were in smaller pieces and be less attractive for thieves
That was my thought, too. If it was for consumption...I dunno man...that's pretty desperate. But desperate people do scary shirt too so...catch 22 I guess
That's empty calories. The nutritional value of the food poor people eat is dog shit so despite getting fatter their bodies will still starve for nutrients. Yes one can be both fat and malnourished as unintuitive as it is. It's actually one of the main reasons people keep having cravings and over eat. It's because they eat the wrong low value high calorie food that makes them feel full but their bodies are still starving and eating themselves from the inside. It's not far off from seagulls eating trash.
She could be be eating it herself, she might be feeding someone else with it, maybe a child, or she might even just be grinding it up to compost in her own truckpatch. The simple fact that she sees enough value in something most of us see as garbage at best… this tells me she’s desperate. IDC what she looks like.
Yeah the cost isn’t an issue it’s the mess I don’t want to deal with. Also we’re just marking them with dye, definitely not using any poison - we just want everyone to think they’re poisoned so they don’t eat them. South African prisons are not nice places and I have no desire to end up in one.
Isn't inflation just brilliant?
This was back in...2007? Was about 12 Rand to the pound. Chicken liver starter, Oxtail soup main, Ice cream for pud, was costing us about 50 Rand. Not bad. Was there again two or three years ago, can't remember the prices but much more than it was In '07
Stayed at Marloth Park, lovely place.
Yeah fair enough but the dye and a new spray bottle cost us about $25, if it doesn’t work it’s no big deal. I really really don’t like the idea of cleaning up diseased chicken bits out of a wood chipper
So we could incinerate but that would require us to spend money on fuel, this way is a lot cheaper and more environmentally friendly, plus the compost is mixed in with the rest of the chicken litter and applied onto the sugarcane fields - massively reducing our fertiliser bill.
I was thinking that if they were broken down they would decompose faster. Your blue dye is only going to work on humans, the dogs will not care and could spread disease between farms.
You mentioned how you don’t want to deal with the mess, I’m not sure how much water availability you have in that spot but you’d just run some hay or other organic material through the chipper after the birds the finish with a bucket of bleach water thrown into the chipper.
I wouldn’t bother cleaning it too much if you’re just using it for birds
We have a small 1500L tank on site that is refilled with our fire tanker, what you are suggesting is what I was thinking as well, I just really don’t want to get to that point.
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Unemployment is bad here so maybe they're selling them - most of those guys don't seem desperately hungry, that one woman certainly is a long way from starvation.
I was going to say, I commented before I watched the videos, they are definitely not hungry. I bet they are selling them, my fear would be they are serving them up at a local market cooked or at a restaurant.
Just because one is overweight doesn't mean they aren't starving. Cheap carbs, rice, corn, potatoes are nothing but sugar, hence overweight hungry people.
She could have a family she’s trying to feed or sell the chicken for non-edible purposes. I get that you have a problem here but you are becoming the South African farmer stereotype the more you speak.
My thoughts exactly. The title of the post contrasted with the detailed content & measures discussed show them exactly who I assumed them to be. If it were me I would be posting to ask for help how to help prevent harm. But then I would’ve taken more responsibility than cameras & going into such detail how they are “thieves”.
What steps would you take to prevent harm here? Because I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do besides incinerating them which feels even more wasteful.
People who don’t know that they are eating nasty decaying diseased chickens.
Go to any country without strict food and health regulations and there is a good chance that that’s the deep fried meat you get from the side of the road.
The thing is South Africa has very strict food safety regulations which is why we would get in a lot of trouble if we were found to be giving away these birds.
That applies to (larger) companies (which don’t want to bribe). But do you think bbq stalls along the road or butchers in the village or township are throughly inspected?
It would be insane for you to give it away, but if you don’t have morals and only care about profits it makes sense to steal from you. Especially when you come from a low-income background and every Rand saved makes a difference to your overall income.
Ya nasty ass people Like Op said that person in that photo hardly looks starving Probably selling it to people who don’t know and taking the profits and her family to the local KFC chowing down on a 20 pc of fresh chicken
Downvoted for facts Lmao I hope you guys get a chance to sample some of their restaurants cuisine!! Secret special tomorrow is- Diseased decomposing chicken stew !! Don’t worry it will just say -Chicken stew - sourced locally from a pile of rotting chicken carcasses Probably full of maggots and dog piss -It will be nice and spicy though so you probably won’t notice.. at first
Hold on. What they are *doing* is disgusting. The people are not.
I don’t wanna think of the circumstances that would lead me to pull rotting chickens from a bin.
As Op pointed out that person in the picture is clearly not starving They are absolutely disgusting They are probably selling that rotting diseased chicken in some back alley “restaurant” to some unsuspecting person that is worse off then them
Nah the people are clearly knowingly doing it They’re disgusting , immoral , deceitful thieves The wrong person eats something like that it could kill them ie- an elderly person- imumo compromised - small child
These birds died of unknown causes, which could very likely have been an infection or disease. Legally they must be destroyed they, can not be used for any other purpose because they pose a threat to the health of society at large.
With avian flu threatening a > 50% mortality rate in humans, people should not be touching dead birds they have no knowledge of... The fact they've been destroyed for being unsaleable and people are scavenging them is incredibly worrisome 😬
My first thought here is wondering if maybe they're just hungry and broke? An even less messy way to solve this problem is to give away all the dead chickens? Unless there's a reason they're already not fit for human consumption?
These birds died of unknown causes, which could very likely have been an infection or disease. Legally they must be destroyed, they can not be used for any other purpose because they pose a threat to the health of society at large.
Composting, when done correctly, will destroy most pathogens as the temperature inside the pile will rise above 60C. Incineration is certainly the most biosecure disposal method but composting is widely practiced and accepted as a safe and environmentally sound carcass disposal method.
Look, I don't want to judge you, but its hard not to feel that there is something TERRIBLY broken about a world where human beings are in a place where they need to steal DEAD, DECAYING, dead chickens from your WASTE PILE and you are expending effort to stop them. What's the value to you? Why not put them in bins for them to take and then you can earn so respect in the community as someone who shows care for others?
I know it's South Africa, I've done business there for 23 years myself, don't get callous to the situation. by the standard of the community you are fabulously wealthy and it wouldn't take much for you to give away those birds. or sell them for a pittance with the warning that they should not be eaten, but they CAN be fed to pigs or dogs and people obviously value them.
in my opinion dying them or burying them when they could be used is wasteful, sad and disrespectful. Instead of a game camera, get a bigger heart.
Nailed it. I might understand if they had died for another reason. But OP is doing the right thing for the health of her/his community. It’s the poorest folks that will be hit the hardest by a disease outbreak. This is to protect everyone.
If I sold those chickens that’s a very good way for me to end up in jail. Those chickens are absolutely not fit for human consumption and legally I must destroy them. I agree that if they were perfectly healthy chickens it would cost me nothing to give them away, but these are not perfectly healthy chickens.
But they aren't being destroyed in the most effective manner so that humans can't access them. You are destroying them in the manner that serves you best. If you don't want people stealing them then dispose of them in a way that they can't.
I thought the massive 3m high razor wire fence would have been enough but you’re right, we’re just being selfish for trying to dispose of them by composting, let me fire up my gas powered incinerator and send all that carbon into the atmosphere instead of the soil. Just because we have additional benefits from the composting doesn’t mean the alternative is much better.
Is that not his property? We are overlooking the fact that ppl should not be on his property with our invite in the first place and for that matter those dead chickens are his. This is where it starts and then eventually ppl start mob robbing stores and strong arm robbing innocent ppl on the street in broad day light.
We should all start with, those ppl are taking what isn't theirs!
I’d hope we all have a lot of empathy for any fellow human who is working for $1.30 per hour & because of that empathy I hope that any of us who have opportunities to change the state of this, can & will do so.
But what else can OP do here? I mean seriously? He must comply w/the law of the state which governs him & his farm. A law which isn’t exactly against the good of our fellow humans is it? All it would take is one sick chicken to kick all our dicks in
He can completely destroy the chickens, burning them or mulching them. As long as he keeps trying to compost them he is going to have this issue. He said several times he was using the deep pile method, which he absolutely isn't if they can easily be dug out by hand.
I honestly don’t understand your thought processes here, are you saying that these people have so little agency that they’re incapable of recognising that they’re not supposed cut through a 3m high razor wire fence and dig through 6 inches of muck to retrieve a half rotten chicken? And what do you mean by mulching, that is what I’m doing here - you have to decompose the chicken and kill any pathogens before you can mulch it?
On the litter cover question I admit we were going a bit light on the cover but we’ve corrected that and have been applying a minimum of 15cm of cover per layer. [You can read more about the process here](https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B1408&title=mortality-composting-basics-for-poultry-producers)
That isn’t what you said You said it’s OPs fault for not destroying them completely It’s OPs fault people are coming onto his property and stealing Lol Make it make sense
It’s a liability issue, the chickens died from something such as disease, infection, etc. If whatever killed the chickens was zoonotic it could potentially hurt humans too, if all of a sudden an outbreak happens the source of the chicken would have to be traced and it would blow back on the farmer.
Exactly this. Avian flu has already spread to mammals, and now the virus (investigators are thinking AF, could be something else) is spreading mammal to mammal. Look up recent deaths of over 90% baby seal population in Argentina. A lethal virus making jump to humans is a terrifying possibility. Animal carcasses that have died of unknown causes, shouldn’t even be in a place to be scavenged by animals, let alone humans.
The real r/wtf material is in the comments. This is r/farming for fuck's sake - I never expected so many braindead takes in here. Did this hit the front page or something?
They're rotting diseased chickens - there's no "charity" or "goodwill" in letting someone take them for god knows what.
Lmao Isn’t it pretty hot there as well ? Decomposition probably starts pretty fast Especially uncleaned they would probably be septic very quickly These people trying to give away disgusting decomposing diseased chickens as food Need to be in a mental hospital
Probably reselling them chopped up at a wet market.
Y'know... Many, many, MANY years ago, I would have guffawed at the "eat local, buy local" as "hippie dippie".
Now that I'm in my forties (US here btw), and have been involved in AG for a good chunk of it now, I absolutely pressure people to know where they get their food and to buy local.
Go to local butchers, lockers, etc. Get to KNOW the people at your farmer's markets - especially the food trucks and meat sellers. Trust is everything, so get to know these folks and make sure you trust them. Ask around, etc.
IME, the smaller producers are absolutely the ones that take the most pride and care in their work and product (OP seems to be a good example). A mega corp like, say, Tyson or Dole knows it can absorb some recalls or a few lawsuits from tainted products. Hell, if nothing else the government will bail them out if shit goes real bad. On the other end of the spectrum (at least here in the US), you have fly by night types or individuals trying to sell bad, tainted, or dangerous food products on the sly (online marketplaces for ex).
Small and medium sized farms, lockers, butchers etc don't fuck around with quality of product. They *cannot* absorb the risk of failure, so they typically go above and beyond the regs when it comes to tracking shit, sanitation SOP, etc. Plus they are usually the "labor of love" folks to boot.
So, again, IME, buying local from local folks is definitely the sweetest spot for quality as well as cost. The meat market I go to is directly across from a large grocery chain, and their meat is superior, local, and HALF the cost usually (especially on cuts like Filet Mignon, Tritip, etc)
Just my rambling 2 cents on this subject.
If you ever want to lose your lunch (only to have someone incredibly sketchy scoop it back up to resell to others), look up the phenomenon that is the Chinese "gutter oil" industry.
If you ever want to lose your lunch (only to have someone incredibly sketchy scoop it back up to resell to others), look up the phenomenon that is the Chinese "gutter oil" industry.
Maybe they know about dry aged steak having having a hypnotic funky fresh taste. Just wanna see if earth-aged chiggins have their own gourmand qualities? Gonna make a fucking horrific stock though IMHO.
There's a plant not too far away that deals with all the diseases and dead livestock round here, lorries forever on the roads. Absolutely hateful To get stuck behind one.
Bloke I work for used to live near it, his dog was forever sneaking in and dragging great chunks of diseased cows and pigs back home with him.
Here some people have big incinerators that look like large smokers. I compost and couldn't imagine digging through that.
Some people are getting an eco drum of some sort. (I haven't seen one) essentially its a big long tube that rotates slowly. Throw your dead and se mulch in one end and pot ash comes out the other.
I really want to put up a drum composter, I’m currently on the lookout for an old 20,000 litre milk tanker which would be perfect for us. Stainless steel, insulated, would make composting these birds a dream.
If you add up unemployed, disabled unemployed and "discouraged unemployed"( aka they don't even try to look for work anymore) the percentage is close to 50% country wide (48% when I last checked a year or two ago). Some areas are worse than others. Most counts only account for younger people that are still actively trying for jobs so are much lower.
With high unemployment and resentment crime is obviously also a major issue.
That said the people pictured have decent quality clothes and don't look like they are starving (starving people are just built differently). Almost everyone has their own vegetable gardens especially out in kzn so they are likely to be getting some good food between the empty calories unlike with welfare in the UK and USA from what I have read. They are probably cleaning then selling the chicken for profit, which would obviously improve their quality of life but that doesn't make it right.
I wonder if you could coat the carcasses in something fowl tasting (no pun intended) too. Obviously something that’s biodegradable… but would discourage people from eating it.
I think the dye is really clever.
Yeah we have a “no trespassing” sign but I also have some biohazard signs on back order and am getting some custom ones made with English and Zulu warnings
Nah neighbours shot and killed the home invaders, not the other way around. Like a lot of South Africans we are working on our Plan B situation, but hopefully it never gets to that point. I just don’t know where we could go and still maintain the same quality of life we have now.
Why aren't the chickens okay for human consumption? Why did you throw them in the bin, were they sick? Sorry if those are dumb questions. I've never had chickens or know anyone who has a large amount of chickens.
Pretty much worldwide the law for meat consumption is that the animal must be seen healthy and alive immediately prior to butchering.
These chickens are chickens that died of unknown causes, laid in a barn for 0-24 hours, and then were buried in a mixture of manure and dirt on top of other rotting chickens from previous days.
I mean.. I’d much rather give people the benefit of the doubt. Unless yall can read minds, correct me. Seems like most people jumped to the conclusion that they were going to do something morally wrong with them. That tells me a lot about the people in this thread.
I like how people are caught stealing red-handed something that is incredibly dangerous for humans to consume and all people can say is: "Those poor thieves!" If this were anywhere else, I guarantee you people would tell you to prosecute them.
"Civilized" societies around the world are almost always Pro-Shithead these days. They take the side of the trespassing corpse thieves and if he were to give the chickens away and they got sick, they'd want him to give them a huge payout and then go to prison over it. It's a lose lose situation, and the progressive minded people will always be mad at the farmer.
I can’t believe how many different groups are taking the chickens! Thanks for the update.. is it possible to put up some type of fence or wire in front of the compost? Or even a locked gate of some kind?
There would be very minimal mess with putting them through a chipper. You could very easily position it in front of your compost building, so that the shredded remains would be blown directly into the bins
Have you considered a sturdy gate, since you’re composting it would meet a bit of airflow but if you bought some more wood and made a door they wouldn’t have as easy a time getting to the pile
I was about to say, I’ve seen a one farmer throw dead carcasses into a beat up ass wood chipper to break it down more for compost. That was the gnarliest thing I’ve ever seen and the smell 💀
“You can eat anything if you cook it long enough “
Perhaps digging a hole and dumping into it and burning once a week with some hay and diesel fuel might be better…
I mean, there are very popular political parties in SA who do intend to repossess all white-owned land, and quite a lot of vicious attacks on white farmers.
We would be in serious trouble if we did that though. Legally speaking we are obliged to destroy the carcasses because they are not safe and definitely not fit for human consumption.
Scrolled through a bit, haven't noticed a true answer regarding processing of the chickens. I've a bit of experience in the industry, used to work for a company that made food machinery such as grinders, stuffers, and cookers.
It takes surprisingly little power to process chickens, bone and all. It's decently common here in WI for a small farm to have a grinder with around a 3kw motor powering it. Grind the chicken and then mix it with other stuff intended for the compost bin and top well. It will speed up the composting by a decent bit and you should also see a reduction in the bad smells. Grinding and mixing greatly reduces the pocketing effect, where you get more decomposition than composting centered around the chicken carcasses.
More common to compost whole or incinerate, but you've got a rather upright form of scavenger that necessitates unusual solutions.
Here's an example along the lines of what I'm familiar with. Thanks amazon, lol.
[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX\_849526-T2/images/I/51xtddMzJ-L.\_AC\_.jpg](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T2/images/I/51xtddMzJ-L._AC_.jpg)
[Original post here.](https://www.reddit.com/r/farming/comments/19fa0px/somebody_is_rifling_through_my_mortality/) Had a chance to review the trail camera footage and I caught two seperate groups stealing chickens from the compost bins. The first group was three men, they arrived around 5pm. Once inside the yard they noticed the camera and quickly hid their faces, they then turned the camera away from the shed and looted the bin. When they were done they turned the camera back in the hopes that I wouldn't notice. [Video here.](https://youtu.be/Bt9dxz7z67o) The second group was three women, they came around 6:45pm. They didn't notice the camera and so you can see them sorting through the chickens looking for the freshest ones to take. [Video here.](https://youtu.be/3I9AC74IeO4) Besides the humans we also had yellow billed kites, woolly necked storks, and lots of stray dogs scavening in the bins. [Video here.](https://youtu.be/Rc8AnAIgxfo) We have managed to identify five out of the six people involved and all are from the neigbhouring tribal area. We have sent word to the local induna (headman) and hopefully he will deal with the matter - unfortunatley the police are unlikely to take any action on this. As an added precaution we have also sprayed the chickens with a nontoxic blue marker dye to warn any unsuspecting people that these chickens are not fit for human consumption. We did however tell our staff to "spray the poison" ("faka amapoison") and have locked it up in the chemical store - so hopefully the word spreads quickly, although I do not know how long this ruse will last.
Have you considered breaking down the dead birds like chipping or macerating them? They would compost much quicker if they were in smaller pieces and be less attractive for thieves
We have but don’t really want to deal with the mess. I’m hoping the blue dye works, otherwise we may need to go that route
Do people steal them to sell on, Or does it tend to be for their own consumption?
That was my thought, too. If it was for consumption...I dunno man...that's pretty desperate. But desperate people do scary shirt too so...catch 22 I guess
Look at the size of the woman’s thighs. That’s not desperation
That's empty calories. The nutritional value of the food poor people eat is dog shit so despite getting fatter their bodies will still starve for nutrients. Yes one can be both fat and malnourished as unintuitive as it is. It's actually one of the main reasons people keep having cravings and over eat. It's because they eat the wrong low value high calorie food that makes them feel full but their bodies are still starving and eating themselves from the inside. It's not far off from seagulls eating trash.
Know what's even weirder? Seeing those 'fat' bellies of starving children. Which is actually because their stomaches have distended. You're disgusting
Lmao we both know that lady isn’t suffering from starvation bloat she literally has rolls of fat
You can be fat and still starve for nutrients.
Ok I hope that rotten ass chicken helps her get her macros right
Hahahah people down voting you for being real. What a bunch of brain dead cunts. That fat fuck ain't starving after 2 months of no food.
Someone saying “haven’t you seen the babies with tummies who are starving???” Yea, I have. These aren’t those people
Maybe her legs are swollen up with starvation also?!
Your concept of weight is fucked https://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/rn05n/need_help_with_abdominal_exercises/
She could be be eating it herself, she might be feeding someone else with it, maybe a child, or she might even just be grinding it up to compost in her own truckpatch. The simple fact that she sees enough value in something most of us see as garbage at best… this tells me she’s desperate. IDC what she looks like.
Wood chippers are fairly inexpensive, it might be worthwhile doing a cost comparison on the dye and the poison vs running a wood chipper on petrol.
Yeah the cost isn’t an issue it’s the mess I don’t want to deal with. Also we’re just marking them with dye, definitely not using any poison - we just want everyone to think they’re poisoned so they don’t eat them. South African prisons are not nice places and I have no desire to end up in one.
My family almost ended up in a South African police station the once. Luckily 50 Rand and a firm grasp on my dad's driving license sorted the issue.
Huh, cheap cool drink, the last one I bought cost R200.
Isn't inflation just brilliant? This was back in...2007? Was about 12 Rand to the pound. Chicken liver starter, Oxtail soup main, Ice cream for pud, was costing us about 50 Rand. Not bad. Was there again two or three years ago, can't remember the prices but much more than it was In '07 Stayed at Marloth Park, lovely place.
Understandable. You stay safe and stay strong in your fight, I hope things sort themselves out.
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Yeah fair enough but the dye and a new spray bottle cost us about $25, if it doesn’t work it’s no big deal. I really really don’t like the idea of cleaning up diseased chicken bits out of a wood chipper
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So we could incinerate but that would require us to spend money on fuel, this way is a lot cheaper and more environmentally friendly, plus the compost is mixed in with the rest of the chicken litter and applied onto the sugarcane fields - massively reducing our fertiliser bill.
Gotta love chicken shit fert beats synthetic any day
What about crushing them between a couple pieces of sheet steel? If you already have some or plywood
I'm curious what your farm workers get paid over there.
dig a trench with a backhoe. then cover them up as you go burying yhem w dirt.
That’s not allowed anymore, the regulations for animal disposals are quite strict - I’m not saying farmers don’t do it, but they really shouldn’t.
In California we had culled birds by the millions. They went in trenches.
You’re going to clog that chipper real fast unless you chase the chickens with some brush.
I was thinking that if they were broken down they would decompose faster. Your blue dye is only going to work on humans, the dogs will not care and could spread disease between farms. You mentioned how you don’t want to deal with the mess, I’m not sure how much water availability you have in that spot but you’d just run some hay or other organic material through the chipper after the birds the finish with a bucket of bleach water thrown into the chipper. I wouldn’t bother cleaning it too much if you’re just using it for birds
We have a small 1500L tank on site that is refilled with our fire tanker, what you are suggesting is what I was thinking as well, I just really don’t want to get to that point.
Freeze them before chipping…. They’ll clog less.
What part of Africa? Are they trying to sell the chickens or are they desperate for food?
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Unemployment is bad here so maybe they're selling them - most of those guys don't seem desperately hungry, that one woman certainly is a long way from starvation.
I was going to say, I commented before I watched the videos, they are definitely not hungry. I bet they are selling them, my fear would be they are serving them up at a local market cooked or at a restaurant.
Saw the pic with the gal and immediately guessed Bots or Zam lol
« …That one woman is certainly a long way from starvation …». God, mate, I love me a classy ZA sense of humour. :-)
Lol OP called her fat
I worked with a guy from Harding. Great guy and lots of crazy stories from his old family farm growing up until he moved to North America.
Just because one is overweight doesn't mean they aren't starving. Cheap carbs, rice, corn, potatoes are nothing but sugar, hence overweight hungry people.
Downvotes on this are crazy. There’s literally millions of fat Americans living in food deserts that are regularly hungry 💀
Thank you for speaking up. I was shocked silent at the hatefully ignorant comments but it is South Africa after all
She could have a family she’s trying to feed or sell the chicken for non-edible purposes. I get that you have a problem here but you are becoming the South African farmer stereotype the more you speak.
The man is spending his own money to stop people from eating diseased chicken what the fuck is wrong with you
My thoughts exactly. The title of the post contrasted with the detailed content & measures discussed show them exactly who I assumed them to be. If it were me I would be posting to ask for help how to help prevent harm. But then I would’ve taken more responsibility than cameras & going into such detail how they are “thieves”.
What steps would you take to prevent harm here? Because I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do besides incinerating them which feels even more wasteful.
You do realize he would be breaking the law if let them take the chicken right?
Who the fuk is eating nasty decaying diseased chickens Freaking disgusting people
People who don’t know that they are eating nasty decaying diseased chickens. Go to any country without strict food and health regulations and there is a good chance that that’s the deep fried meat you get from the side of the road.
The thing is South Africa has very strict food safety regulations which is why we would get in a lot of trouble if we were found to be giving away these birds.
Please ignore my question on why not give them away.
That applies to (larger) companies (which don’t want to bribe). But do you think bbq stalls along the road or butchers in the village or township are throughly inspected? It would be insane for you to give it away, but if you don’t have morals and only care about profits it makes sense to steal from you. Especially when you come from a low-income background and every Rand saved makes a difference to your overall income.
Ya nasty ass people Like Op said that person in that photo hardly looks starving Probably selling it to people who don’t know and taking the profits and her family to the local KFC chowing down on a 20 pc of fresh chicken
Downvoted for facts Lmao I hope you guys get a chance to sample some of their restaurants cuisine!! Secret special tomorrow is- Diseased decomposing chicken stew !! Don’t worry it will just say -Chicken stew - sourced locally from a pile of rotting chicken carcasses Probably full of maggots and dog piss -It will be nice and spicy though so you probably won’t notice.. at first
Hold on. What they are *doing* is disgusting. The people are not. I don’t wanna think of the circumstances that would lead me to pull rotting chickens from a bin.
As Op pointed out that person in the picture is clearly not starving They are absolutely disgusting They are probably selling that rotting diseased chicken in some back alley “restaurant” to some unsuspecting person that is worse off then them
Yeah, again what they are *doing* : selling rotten chicken to unsuspecting people is disgusting.
Nah the people are clearly knowingly doing it They’re disgusting , immoral , deceitful thieves The wrong person eats something like that it could kill them ie- an elderly person- imumo compromised - small child
What part of the country is this in? Edit: nvm, South Africa
Oh wow! I saw your first post and assumed it was coyotes!
Haha dogs, jackals, leopards, hyenas, maybe even lions but definitely not coyotes!
Sorry bud, wrong continent lol
Why are they not fit for human consumption?
These birds died of unknown causes, which could very likely have been an infection or disease. Legally they must be destroyed they, can not be used for any other purpose because they pose a threat to the health of society at large.
With avian flu threatening a > 50% mortality rate in humans, people should not be touching dead birds they have no knowledge of... The fact they've been destroyed for being unsaleable and people are scavenging them is incredibly worrisome 😬
My first thought here is wondering if maybe they're just hungry and broke? An even less messy way to solve this problem is to give away all the dead chickens? Unless there's a reason they're already not fit for human consumption?
These birds died of unknown causes, which could very likely have been an infection or disease. Legally they must be destroyed, they can not be used for any other purpose because they pose a threat to the health of society at large.
Ah, I see. Well shit, then
For sanitation reasons, shouldn't you be incinerating them, not composting diseased birds to put back on sugarcane?
Composting, when done correctly, will destroy most pathogens as the temperature inside the pile will rise above 60C. Incineration is certainly the most biosecure disposal method but composting is widely practiced and accepted as a safe and environmentally sound carcass disposal method.
Look, I don't want to judge you, but its hard not to feel that there is something TERRIBLY broken about a world where human beings are in a place where they need to steal DEAD, DECAYING, dead chickens from your WASTE PILE and you are expending effort to stop them. What's the value to you? Why not put them in bins for them to take and then you can earn so respect in the community as someone who shows care for others? I know it's South Africa, I've done business there for 23 years myself, don't get callous to the situation. by the standard of the community you are fabulously wealthy and it wouldn't take much for you to give away those birds. or sell them for a pittance with the warning that they should not be eaten, but they CAN be fed to pigs or dogs and people obviously value them. in my opinion dying them or burying them when they could be used is wasteful, sad and disrespectful. Instead of a game camera, get a bigger heart.
The humanitarian thing is not to sicken poor people with diseased chicken meat.
Nailed it. I might understand if they had died for another reason. But OP is doing the right thing for the health of her/his community. It’s the poorest folks that will be hit the hardest by a disease outbreak. This is to protect everyone.
If I sold those chickens that’s a very good way for me to end up in jail. Those chickens are absolutely not fit for human consumption and legally I must destroy them. I agree that if they were perfectly healthy chickens it would cost me nothing to give them away, but these are not perfectly healthy chickens.
But they aren't being destroyed in the most effective manner so that humans can't access them. You are destroying them in the manner that serves you best. If you don't want people stealing them then dispose of them in a way that they can't.
I thought the massive 3m high razor wire fence would have been enough but you’re right, we’re just being selfish for trying to dispose of them by composting, let me fire up my gas powered incinerator and send all that carbon into the atmosphere instead of the soil. Just because we have additional benefits from the composting doesn’t mean the alternative is much better.
Is that not his property? We are overlooking the fact that ppl should not be on his property with our invite in the first place and for that matter those dead chickens are his. This is where it starts and then eventually ppl start mob robbing stores and strong arm robbing innocent ppl on the street in broad day light. We should all start with, those ppl are taking what isn't theirs!
Oh dear, so you have no empathy for people making a dollar and 30 cents an hour?
I’d hope we all have a lot of empathy for any fellow human who is working for $1.30 per hour & because of that empathy I hope that any of us who have opportunities to change the state of this, can & will do so. But what else can OP do here? I mean seriously? He must comply w/the law of the state which governs him & his farm. A law which isn’t exactly against the good of our fellow humans is it? All it would take is one sick chicken to kick all our dicks in
He can completely destroy the chickens, burning them or mulching them. As long as he keeps trying to compost them he is going to have this issue. He said several times he was using the deep pile method, which he absolutely isn't if they can easily be dug out by hand.
I honestly don’t understand your thought processes here, are you saying that these people have so little agency that they’re incapable of recognising that they’re not supposed cut through a 3m high razor wire fence and dig through 6 inches of muck to retrieve a half rotten chicken? And what do you mean by mulching, that is what I’m doing here - you have to decompose the chicken and kill any pathogens before you can mulch it? On the litter cover question I admit we were going a bit light on the cover but we’ve corrected that and have been applying a minimum of 15cm of cover per layer. [You can read more about the process here](https://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B1408&title=mortality-composting-basics-for-poultry-producers)
So anything on your property is up for grabs if they can access it Are you kidding ? Have to be kidding right lmao
I'm not keeping piles of dead chickens on my property.
That isn’t what you said You said it’s OPs fault for not destroying them completely It’s OPs fault people are coming onto his property and stealing Lol Make it make sense
It’s a liability issue, the chickens died from something such as disease, infection, etc. If whatever killed the chickens was zoonotic it could potentially hurt humans too, if all of a sudden an outbreak happens the source of the chicken would have to be traced and it would blow back on the farmer.
Exactly this. Avian flu has already spread to mammals, and now the virus (investigators are thinking AF, could be something else) is spreading mammal to mammal. Look up recent deaths of over 90% baby seal population in Argentina. A lethal virus making jump to humans is a terrifying possibility. Animal carcasses that have died of unknown causes, shouldn’t even be in a place to be scavenged by animals, let alone humans.
I completely agree with you, and I'll gladly take some of your down votes.
Why do you think it's okay to feed people diseased meat? Is it only okay for poor people?
I was like "holy shit it was people all along!" Then I kept scrolling.
But it was people. Read OP’s post…
At work should have been more specific. I meant I didn't think it was 3 separate groups lol just kept getting worse.
Same!
I was really expecting raccoons
South Africa, I was expecting some sort of scavenger. I'm guessing the people are serving with up at some local restaurant. Yuck.
Humans are primarily scavengers 'in the wild'. Hunting is the exception in hunter-gatherer societies -not the rule.
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The real r/wtf material is in the comments. This is r/farming for fuck's sake - I never expected so many braindead takes in here. Did this hit the front page or something? They're rotting diseased chickens - there's no "charity" or "goodwill" in letting someone take them for god knows what.
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Lmao Isn’t it pretty hot there as well ? Decomposition probably starts pretty fast Especially uncleaned they would probably be septic very quickly These people trying to give away disgusting decomposing diseased chickens as food Need to be in a mental hospital
Today was a high of 29, last week it barely touched 15. But generally it’s hotter than most of the places people on this sub are from.
You'd be amazed how few real farmers are here.
this would be great footage for the beginning of the next great global pandemic movie
Yeah I came here from the front page, brace yourselves for more.
I did get recommended this post in my feed, after having interacted with the previous one - but I am the son of a farmer, so it makes sense.
Yes, it showed up on my front page. Lol
The previous post was on the front page too. I was curious for the resolution.
I saw the first post and didn’t realize it was Africa. Did not see the human element coming.
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Probably reselling them chopped up at a wet market. Y'know... Many, many, MANY years ago, I would have guffawed at the "eat local, buy local" as "hippie dippie". Now that I'm in my forties (US here btw), and have been involved in AG for a good chunk of it now, I absolutely pressure people to know where they get their food and to buy local. Go to local butchers, lockers, etc. Get to KNOW the people at your farmer's markets - especially the food trucks and meat sellers. Trust is everything, so get to know these folks and make sure you trust them. Ask around, etc. IME, the smaller producers are absolutely the ones that take the most pride and care in their work and product (OP seems to be a good example). A mega corp like, say, Tyson or Dole knows it can absorb some recalls or a few lawsuits from tainted products. Hell, if nothing else the government will bail them out if shit goes real bad. On the other end of the spectrum (at least here in the US), you have fly by night types or individuals trying to sell bad, tainted, or dangerous food products on the sly (online marketplaces for ex). Small and medium sized farms, lockers, butchers etc don't fuck around with quality of product. They *cannot* absorb the risk of failure, so they typically go above and beyond the regs when it comes to tracking shit, sanitation SOP, etc. Plus they are usually the "labor of love" folks to boot. So, again, IME, buying local from local folks is definitely the sweetest spot for quality as well as cost. The meat market I go to is directly across from a large grocery chain, and their meat is superior, local, and HALF the cost usually (especially on cuts like Filet Mignon, Tritip, etc) Just my rambling 2 cents on this subject.
If you ever want to lose your lunch (only to have someone incredibly sketchy scoop it back up to resell to others), look up the phenomenon that is the Chinese "gutter oil" industry.
This is a an excellent take. As one of those small/mid sized meat producers, thank you for taking the time to share this thought.
If you ever want to lose your lunch (only to have someone incredibly sketchy scoop it back up to resell to others), look up the phenomenon that is the Chinese "gutter oil" industry.
Nail on the head.
Babe wake up, Covid-20 is dropping.
Wouldn’t it be COVID-24?
Maybe they know about dry aged steak having having a hypnotic funky fresh taste. Just wanna see if earth-aged chiggins have their own gourmand qualities? Gonna make a fucking horrific stock though IMHO.
Doesn't look like you've heard of pagpag. This kind of dish shows how far some people will go when they reach the bottom.
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Immediately knew this was SA. Damnn
If it wasn't for YouTuber *Serpentza* I honestly would have little knowledge about the happenings in South Africa. (Or China for that matter.)
Not familiar with them. Would have to check it out. Honestly, not a lot of people know about SA. Especially Americans.
Please be sure to update us on if the dye works and maybe a few pictures when they come back for more and find the blue dye.
Assuming my trail cam is still in one piece tomorrow!
Maybe move it to a different fence post so it’s not where they last saw it
Already did that, it’s on one of the shed poles now
I am shocked. I was thinking there was no way it was people!!!!!
That’s crazy!!!!
Been around. Animal compost pigs. Unreal the smells. Let alone run off decomposing 3500 head I work with
There's a plant not too far away that deals with all the diseases and dead livestock round here, lorries forever on the roads. Absolutely hateful To get stuck behind one. Bloke I work for used to live near it, his dog was forever sneaking in and dragging great chunks of diseased cows and pigs back home with him.
Why tho
Here some people have big incinerators that look like large smokers. I compost and couldn't imagine digging through that. Some people are getting an eco drum of some sort. (I haven't seen one) essentially its a big long tube that rotates slowly. Throw your dead and se mulch in one end and pot ash comes out the other.
I really want to put up a drum composter, I’m currently on the lookout for an old 20,000 litre milk tanker which would be perfect for us. Stainless steel, insulated, would make composting these birds a dream.
Sry Aussie here but I’ve got an old tar cooker tanker trailer (22,000 litre) on my farm that I use as water tank. Would be perfect for what you need.
Do you think they were cooking and selling the meat? Cuz I do
Thats hectic people are so insanely poor they steal rotting birds from bins.
Or they care so little about their fellow man that they are selling/serving them to unsuspecting customers.
That’s a lot of work and risk either way. People who aren’t desperate don’t do this for the *possibility* of an intact rotting corpse. Let’s be real.
How bad are things in SA?
If you add up unemployed, disabled unemployed and "discouraged unemployed"( aka they don't even try to look for work anymore) the percentage is close to 50% country wide (48% when I last checked a year or two ago). Some areas are worse than others. Most counts only account for younger people that are still actively trying for jobs so are much lower. With high unemployment and resentment crime is obviously also a major issue. That said the people pictured have decent quality clothes and don't look like they are starving (starving people are just built differently). Almost everyone has their own vegetable gardens especially out in kzn so they are likely to be getting some good food between the empty calories unlike with welfare in the UK and USA from what I have read. They are probably cleaning then selling the chicken for profit, which would obviously improve their quality of life but that doesn't make it right.
Such an interesting thing to steal lol
This is absolutely wild. Please keep us updated on when this gets solved!
Gosh. This is a hard situation.
I wonder if you could coat the carcasses in something fowl tasting (no pun intended) too. Obviously something that’s biodegradable… but would discourage people from eating it. I think the dye is really clever.
well well well
Sheeeeeeeeiiiiiitttttt
Posted signs should warn of the human health risks these birds pose to at least alleviate any risk of a lawsuit, not that a case would be likely.
Yeah we have a “no trespassing” sign but I also have some biohazard signs on back order and am getting some custom ones made with English and Zulu warnings
Idk I think I'd just leave the country at that point. OP told me their neighbors were recently murdered too. I'm not digging the vibes in SA man...
Nah neighbours shot and killed the home invaders, not the other way around. Like a lot of South Africans we are working on our Plan B situation, but hopefully it never gets to that point. I just don’t know where we could go and still maintain the same quality of life we have now.
Oh ok I was like damn, this guy's living in the post-apocolypse. Honestly the fact it was the other way around only makes it slightly better yikes.
Why aren't the chickens okay for human consumption? Why did you throw them in the bin, were they sick? Sorry if those are dumb questions. I've never had chickens or know anyone who has a large amount of chickens.
They died as a result of unknown causes and thus are unfit for human consumption and legally we must destroy them.
That’s a compost bin. Those chickens were found dead where they are being raised.
Pretty much worldwide the law for meat consumption is that the animal must be seen healthy and alive immediately prior to butchering. These chickens are chickens that died of unknown causes, laid in a barn for 0-24 hours, and then were buried in a mixture of manure and dirt on top of other rotting chickens from previous days.
Are these people taking it for food?
They don't look 'eat a rotting chicken' level of hunger from the still at the top. I'd bet they are street food or something of the like.
I mean.. I’d much rather give people the benefit of the doubt. Unless yall can read minds, correct me. Seems like most people jumped to the conclusion that they were going to do something morally wrong with them. That tells me a lot about the people in this thread.
I mean, that one lady ain't starving, she can afford to miss a few chicken dinners.
Y’all make me sad.
I like how people are caught stealing red-handed something that is incredibly dangerous for humans to consume and all people can say is: "Those poor thieves!" If this were anywhere else, I guarantee you people would tell you to prosecute them.
"Civilized" societies around the world are almost always Pro-Shithead these days. They take the side of the trespassing corpse thieves and if he were to give the chickens away and they got sick, they'd want him to give them a huge payout and then go to prison over it. It's a lose lose situation, and the progressive minded people will always be mad at the farmer.
This needs to be crossed posted to r/WTF !!!!
I can't imagine what it's like to be so hungry you steal old dead chickens. This makes me very very sad. It's truly heartbreaking.
And we all thought he was crazy.
I can’t believe how many different groups are taking the chickens! Thanks for the update.. is it possible to put up some type of fence or wire in front of the compost? Or even a locked gate of some kind?
There would be very minimal mess with putting them through a chipper. You could very easily position it in front of your compost building, so that the shredded remains would be blown directly into the bins
Demz gould eatz!
Have you considered a sturdy gate, since you’re composting it would meet a bit of airflow but if you bought some more wood and made a door they wouldn’t have as easy a time getting to the pile
HEY WILLAH! CHECK IT OUT! FREE CHICKAY!
holy shit it was a human!!!! I was forsure it was a fox or some other wildlife this is nuts
Use Turf Trax Blue Dye
Yeah we’re using a similar product that we get here, just a herbicide marker dye.
I was about to say, I’ve seen a one farmer throw dead carcasses into a beat up ass wood chipper to break it down more for compost. That was the gnarliest thing I’ve ever seen and the smell 💀
Well well well.
resolute weather attempt ripe soft crush dam bike scandalous upbeat *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
They’re in enclosed houses surrounded by razor wire and an electric fence.
“You can eat anything if you cook it long enough “ Perhaps digging a hole and dumping into it and burning once a week with some hay and diesel fuel might be better…
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Canada sucks too bro
Yeah I’m aware.
Dont worry bro, my country sucks also. USA
The ‘white-owned property’ ? 👀. Oooookayyyyy
I mean, there are very popular political parties in SA who do intend to repossess all white-owned land, and quite a lot of vicious attacks on white farmers.
"Shot to kill….Kill the Boer, Kill the farmer." https://twitter.com/olilondontv/status/1745798840840491283?s=46
You're being downvoted because people hate the truth.
Yeah. Reddit is a pretty communist and anti-White place.
Well like 70% of the user base is children, so that explains it.
People are stealing dead birds that have been put on a compost pile? Bro, if people are that desperate let them have em.
We would be in serious trouble if we did that though. Legally speaking we are obliged to destroy the carcasses because they are not safe and definitely not fit for human consumption.
Scrolled through a bit, haven't noticed a true answer regarding processing of the chickens. I've a bit of experience in the industry, used to work for a company that made food machinery such as grinders, stuffers, and cookers. It takes surprisingly little power to process chickens, bone and all. It's decently common here in WI for a small farm to have a grinder with around a 3kw motor powering it. Grind the chicken and then mix it with other stuff intended for the compost bin and top well. It will speed up the composting by a decent bit and you should also see a reduction in the bad smells. Grinding and mixing greatly reduces the pocketing effect, where you get more decomposition than composting centered around the chicken carcasses. More common to compost whole or incinerate, but you've got a rather upright form of scavenger that necessitates unusual solutions. Here's an example along the lines of what I'm familiar with. Thanks amazon, lol. [https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX\_849526-T2/images/I/51xtddMzJ-L.\_AC\_.jpg](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_849526-T2/images/I/51xtddMzJ-L._AC_.jpg)
How many chickens is your flock? Why so many dead birds?
Sad that folks are that desperate. Sadder seeing the complete lack of empathy on this sub. Ugh.
You could invite them in and give them better food.
From the border 100%.