No, I get that, but I'm saying that unfortunately for this one that horse has already left the barn, so to speak, so if the system changed tomorrow it would be just as bad as far as this virus is concerned. The same mortality rate would apply to those newly-freed chickens. And since it infects other species of fowl (ducks, for example) with less lethality it actually has all the advantages of a lower mortality rate while still being able to infect and be more lethal to chickens, whatever their living situation.

I absolutely believe we need to stop keeping animals of all kinds in conditions like that, to be clear, for this and many other reasons. That's why I got chickens of my own.

I agree that those things suck, but this virus also affects small and free-range producers, as well as wild birds (though not always with as high a mortality rate), so it's not the conditions that lead to the 90-100% mortality rate.

Unfortunately, this Highly Pathenogenic Avian Influenza has a 90%-100% mortality rate among infected poultry. From that kind of loss, the odds of you getting birds that will be breeding quality in sufficient numbers to be able to replicate the resistant traits well would not be worth the risk of it jumping species.

When growing plants in the desert for agricultural purposes, it seems the water you would need to grow them well would be a major concern. Are these plants being bioengineered to require less water, primarily? What about the nutrition the plant needs? How are those needs being addressed and what challenges are particular to the desert environment vs. an environment with loamy soil?

Right? Another fun tidbit is that the earliest chicks' peeping sounds stimulate the latecomers to work to get out as well, so you can see some very early social behaviors with them as well.

Great corrections, but one more quick correction (because I want to play too!) They don't wait until they hatch to start breathing, they start breathing when they pip. That is to say, inside the shell, they break the air sac and begin to breathe, and then they make their first hole in the shell. At this stage you can often hear them making their first peeping sounds, even before they've "zipped" (which is when they start pecking a line open around the shell, and the stage at which you can typically catch your first glimpse of the emerging chick.)

I have some quail eggs I'll be setting soon, I'll try to remember to film!