Did a fire on a Texas farm kill 12 million chickens in January 2024? No, that's not true: The figure circulating on social media reflects the total number of hens the current owner of the farm has in six different locations nationwide. In 2020, the farm partially damaged by the January 2024 fire housed roughly one million chickens.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Instagram on March 5, 2024. A text banner placed on top of the video opened:
It's our own
government 🤷🏽♂️
It continued:
Here we go again 😵💫 Chicken farm
in Texas with 12 million chickens
destroyed by fire 🔥
This is what it looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Wed Mar 13 17:02:16 2024 UTC)
The video showed a fire on Feather Crest Farms in Bryan, Texas, that started on January 29, 2024 (archived here), with wording implying that 12 million hens perished due to it.
The claim, however, exaggerated the number of chickens lost in the blaze.
Back in 2020, when the farm was acquired by its current owner, MPS Egg Farms, it housed roughly one million hens (archived here), according to an account of the sale.
According to a statement (archived here) issued by MPS Egg Farms CEO Sam Krouse, chickens were only in one of the two damaged structures.
As seen on Google Maps (archived here), this farm consisted of more than two buildings:
(Source: Google Maps screenshot taken on Wed Mar 13 20:39:25 2024 UTC)
The company's website (archived here) estimates its total inventory spread across six farms in different places across the United States at "more than 11 million hens."
Thus, it is virtually impossible that one of the two burned structures at the affected farm contained more chickens than all the company's six farms combined.
Contrary to speculations of some "government" involvement in the post on Instagram, the investigation conducted by the Brazos County sheriff's office ruled that the fire was a non-criminal accident (archived here).
Lead Stories reached out for additional comments to the Brazos County Sheriff's Office and MPS Egg Farms. When we receive their responses, this story will be updated as appropriate.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about current events can be found here.
