BYC members in Massachusetts? - Page 64

A Fair in Bolton, all one hears about are the Fairs in Springfiled and Topsfield.

Thank you for the into

Sandi

There are six towns on the island. Mine does not have an ACO. I am pro having one btw. The rest do. Last year they somehow skipped the farm census. No one I know recieved a visit. This year, I found out today, they have just last week hired the assistant ACO from the next town over to do ours. I know her and she knows my chickens and I expect a visit any day now. I only have five hens at this point. The most we have had is eight. I have them tested by the state. They are not a secret, nor am I undercover in anyway. Alot of people in town have backyard chickens. Most of them are responsible people. 

The dog thing on the other hand is a serious issue. I am sure that most of the people in town are good responsible dog owners. All of my immediate neighbors have dogs and suitably restrain them. But, I am also sure there is a lack of licensing enforcement, and thus a probable lack of people keeping up with shots and so on. The escapies run amock and people call the police. The police will only come if someone gets bitten.

There was a letter in the paper a couple of weeks ago with a story of someone's dog escaping and the neighbor seeing it get hit by a car and calling the police and they refused assistance. She was sitting there in the street with the suffering dog and the police came looked at the situation said they couldn't help and left her there. Fortunately, a good samaritan that was a vet drove by and rendered first aid and a ride to the vet. OH and the Health office was cut an employee as well. The agents have no assistant. The town is ill run. I could go on, but I am getting off the soap box.

Hi, Somerset, I am in Rehoboth, Mass, I volunteer  at the Swansea/Somerset Animal Shelter , and REhoboth Shelter

We have  26 chickens,   6dogs and  5 cats.

Hi folks! I too am in Massachusetts- Plymouth. I got my 1st chickens 2 years ago (almost) and I LOVE it! We live on an old farm so it was a dream of mine to get the farm up and running again. Of course they had 6000 chickens and I don't plan on having NEARLY that many but if the old barn was still standing I might be tempted to have a hundred or so!
We live in a state park in a historic house owned by the state. It's a loooong story- check out our website if you want more info or want to see pictures.
I'm SO happy to have found this website- we have goats, chickens and ducks at the moment and I want to get female ducks, female goats and a rooster (although one of my beautiful young chickens crowed this morning- I think.) We recently had a run in with a fox and lost 2 chickens and the only 2 female ducks we had. I'm LIVID but that's all in another post on here somewhere.

Glad to have found a group of folks from MA! Good to know there are other chicken (farm) lovers out here!

Hello from Hudson! I was wondering if anyone on the Mass site knows where I could get Roo's processed or if anyone was willing to take roo's? I really really want to get an incubator but I am not allowed to have roo's on my property since I am in a residential area & not farm area. (my yard is less than 1/2 acre) I don't want to make the incubator investment until I know what I will do w/ any unwanted roo's. My thoughts range from rehoming them (I want to have some nice Amerucana's & marans in my flock) to sending them to freezer camp. I figure I can raise them to table size before they really start to crow?!? (no, yes, maybe??)
Thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by blueberrychickens 

Hello from Hudson! I was wondering if anyone on the Mass site knows where I could get Roo's processed or if anyone was willing to take roo's? I really really want to get an incubator but I am not allowed to have roo's on my property since I am in a residential area & not farm area. (my yard is less than 1/2 acre) I don't want to make the incubator investment until I know what I will do w/ any unwanted roo's. My thoughts range from rehoming them (I want to have some nice Amerucana's & marans in my flock) to sending them to freezer camp. I figure I can raise them to table size before they really start to crow?!? (no, yes, maybe??)
Thanks!

You have a couple of options.  One, there are mobile processing units that you can hire to proccess your birds... typically about $5/bird or option two, you could join the http://neasociety.com , they have meetings once a month in Westford, MA and they have a tailgate sale before the meeting, where I am positive you can unload unwanted roos.  Hope this helps.

Hey everyone!

Do any of you know of any good dog trainers in MA? I have a dog (border collie mix) who is showing aggression towards strangers. She is a very skittish dog in general. Great with my family, but tries to bark/bite strangers.

Take Care Everyone,
Sunny & the 5 egg layers

Quote:

Originally Posted by sunny & the 5 egg layers 

Hey everyone!

Do any of you know of any good dog trainers in MA? I have a dog (border collie mix) who is showing aggression towards strangers. She is a very skittish dog in general. Great with my family, but tries to bark/bite strangers.

Take Care Everyone,
Sunny & the 5 egg layers

Hi

Not sure where you're located, but Phil Bolak is really great with issues like that. He's in the Sterling (central MA) area.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by kannna 

Each town is supposed to have a municipal animal inspector and do a census of animals in their town. Some take it more seriously than others.

Here is a list of all the towns and their animal inspectors:

http://www.mass.gov/agr/animalhealth/rabies/docs/animal_inspectors_2011.pdf

Never heard of that,the ACO goes by my house all the time because the animal shelter is right up the street. Nobody has every stopped by to count my chickens(hatched or not),knowing the previous ACO was helpful(4H group leader for my kids) but the new ACO has not ever stopped by so. Marshfield has been declared a farm town,don't know if that makes a difference.
 

I have a question for all you MA chicken lovers out there. I'm looking into buying chicks from PurelyPoultry.com and was wondering if anyone has done so? They are in Wisconsin so I'm worried about shipping live chicks to MA in February and even though they ask what sex you want, besides sex-links and a few other breeds, how can they ASSURE you that you're getting a hen? 

Has anyone used them and what do you think? Their prices seem to be good (as long as it's not a 50/50 chance they'll be roos) and I REALLy don't want to get into eggs. 

Anyone?