so my 26 year old daughter is driving from long island to Virginia today to go to a wedding. she is mostly a vegetarian and loves animals. on her way she is seeing a lot of tractor trailers hauling live chickens. I guess she was enjoying watching them as she would pass by. she would text me when she stopped for gas or bathroom break to update me where she was. so the last time she said she got off the highway to get something to eat. she said she was driving and all of a sudden she sees all of these trucks with the live chickens lined up to turn in the same driveway. when she passed them she could see the sign on the building. it said TYSON. well she said she was sad, and I was cracking up laughing.
Is she down in Pennsylvania now? I know there’s a Tyson plant over in New Holland
I see 2 or 3 of those a night, should be seeing the ones with turkeys pretty soon.
she just made it to her destination in Virginia. she was either at the end of delaware or the beginning of Virginia when she seen the plant.
So where did she think they were taking the chickens? On vacation? 
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she new. I guess she was not expecting to see their final resting place. LOL
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During the early 1920s my father was a very young boy. His parents kept chickens in the yard, and he made them his pets. Just one problem: one disappeared from time to time. As he grew older, he figured out that his pet chickens were on the Sunday dinner table. He had to make a decision whether to eat chicken or side with his pets. He ate chicken.
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Same way when I was growing up.
We’ve got a turkey plant around here so see trucks with the turkeys on their last ride. Few years ago one of the trucks hit that low bridge so they had turkeys in their crates on the road. Can’t imagine if a truck load of turkeys got loose in town. One thing though, don’t follow those trucks too close. They spew nasties quite a ways back and if you’ve got your window open or in vent mode, breath in all those microbes.
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Not sure if is true mother would talk about turkeys being so stupid they would drink in all the water as it was raining they could and die.
I’ve heard that but don’t know if it’s true or not. I do know the turkeys that are bred for the dinner table are bred to be stupid and big. They have no need to think about anything except getting fat. Not like the wild turkeys.
My father would have said (in a raspy Brooklyn accent) “we took em on a one way ride”.
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My favorite John Anderson song…is about a chicken truck. Hey, and it’s car related!
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I have a little trouble with the dialect but here are the words for your enjoyment.
Lyrics
Well it was mornin’ when I left Alabama
It must have been around in Mid July
I got behind a chicken truck from Georgia
And the feathers were a flyin’ like snow out of the sky
I couldn’t get up the speed enough to pass him
And a funny smell was a gettin’ close to me
And somethin’ keeps on messing up my windsheild
And the farther I go the harder it get’s to see
Chicken truck chicken truck behind it I’m stuck
Chicken truck chicken truck it’s just my luck chicken truck on Highway 65
Well the hens are a sqaukin’ and the roosters are a crowin’
Slowin’ me down when I need to get goin’ chicken truck on Highway 65
He slowed down and I tried to drive around him
On a big long hill just south of Tennesee
He had a box of Colonel Sander’s on his dashboard
And he was eatin’ fried chicken and throwin’ his bones on me
Chicken truck chicken truck…
Chicken truck chicken truck…
My sister and I climbed up a Forest Service fire watch tower the Ranger let us in. We could see areas of white in the distance, Ranger explained they were turkey farms. Early 60s in Northern Minnesota.
I had never seen a wild turkey until this past ten years, now they are in my neighborhood!
“Wolf Creek Pass” by C. W. McCall
Some of the lyrics.
Me an’ Earl was haulin’ chickens
On a flatbed out of Wiggins
And we’d spent all night on the uphill side
Of 37 miles of hell
Called Wolf Creek Pass
Which is up on the Great Divide
Right in the middle of the whole damn show
Was a real nice tunnel
Now wouldn’t you know
Sign says clearance to the 12-foot line
But the chickens was stacked to 13-nine
Well we shot that tunnel at a hundred-and-ten
Like gas through a funnel and eggs through a hen
We took that top row of chickens off
Slicker than scum off a Louisiana swamp
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Well, Wiggins is in south MS. Not sure how close it is to the great divide and wolf creek pass…? But, artistic license and all
There’s also Wiggins in Colorado, about 60 miles NE of Denver
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Driving through the mountains in N. Georgia on a two lane road passed an 18 wheeler stock truck hauling hogs, now that’s a smell that stays with you.
When I was maybe 5 or 6 my father drove a small stock truck for the local slaughter house. Occasionally he would take me along, when we delivered the animals we would go in. It never affected me and I still love animals.