KlopKlop
Crowing
I have finished my ordeal.
It was a long day. The Vet showed up at between 9 and 10. She questioned me for about an hour while inspecting my procedures and how I hatch. It is very thorough inspection, not a wink and a nod inspection. She inspected the eggs I have ready to hatch, Checked inside both incubators, talked about moisture levels, and what my desired hatch rate is and if I wanted to improve it or was happy with it.
I told her I am happy with it, I candle when I set the eggs and mark the location of the air sac. I know I set eggs a commercial hatchery would not. I set the eggs that have floating or misshaped air sacs. I explained I have lots of incubator space so I do not candle again until 3 days before hatching when I move them to my hatchers. I give every egg a chance, knowing some are unlikely to hatch. She saw nothing wrong with that, as long as I did not mind accepting a lower hatch rate.
We then went to the hatchers and she looked at the eggs I had in the hatcher for Thursdays hatch. She wanted to know about my hatching schedule and what day or days of the week I set. When I explained I do not have a regular day, I work my hatch days around my hatcher space. She was slightly surprised when I told her the chicks in the house would be going outside on Thursday expect for 2 of them.
She wanted to know why I would keep two in the house. I told her they were tutors, to teach the turkey poults how to eat and drink, because turkeys are too stupid to learn on their own. She had never heard of anyone doing that. But she did know turkey poults were dumb and had to be trained or tricked into eating. About this time a second Vet (male) showed up. She told him about how I trained my turkeys to eat and drink, She must have been impressed with that. I felt bad telling her it was not my idea, I never thought it up, I stole it.
She liked the nurseries I had and said she was worried when I said they were in the house, but said they were excellent, clean and not a problem, but would still like me on working on getting it outside.
The three of us went to the layer coop, she said it was fine, even without the improvements I plan to make. She then wanted to see the building I planned to move too, She thought it would be a lot of work, the Male Vet thought it was perfect and would be a breeze.
Then it was testing time...
The Guy Vet was new to poultry testing and was here for training as I was. We traded off testing birds and doing all sorts of gross things to the poor birds. Another Female Vet showed up so I had 3 vets testing and inspecting. All in all it was a great day. I learned a lot. I got all kinds of new toys from the state for testing. Some of the birds looked like pin cushions by the time we were done.
They both keep complimenting me on my birds and their condition. I had one when I picked it up I thought had a distended gut/ prolapsed uterus, or something. The vets looked her over real well and said while it was not normal it was not a problem, they thought it might have been a minor infection and nothing to worry about.
EJB you can be proud of your Partridge Chanticlers! They said they were the nicest looking birds they had ever seen. When I told them I wanted to shave their vents, they were a little taken aback by it. When I started cutting and plucking feathers the Woman vet told me it makes sense, to shave her, she said there would be no way for the sperm to get through all those feathers. I cannot believe how many and how heavy the feathers were. Thank You Jerry! I am hopeful I will get good eggs soon.
I showed them what I was doing with my Pea Combed BA's. They both liked the idea and said they had each had problems with chickens and frostbit combs.
When we did the turkeys JJ fell in love with the first Vet. He followed her for 3-4 hors before he left her side. At one point he was, doing what Tom turkeys do when they ( trying how to say this delicately)... Any way's the other Woman Vet asked me " what is that turkey doing?"
I said "really, you don't know?"
She said " well, I think I do now, I just never thought he would stand here and do that in front of all of us"... The rest of her comments will not and cannot be written here. BUT they were funny.
I am now certified to test Chickens, Guineas, ducks and geese for PT. I can draw blood from all of them, I can do the AI tests, which is a swab in the back of the throat in everything but ducks and geese. The had me violate a couple chickens as if they were ducks, so I can test waterfowl too. I think on a real duck I will need to wear 4 pairs of latex gloves. It is just so gross!
Both me and little hatchery passed.. I am happy about that..
Now for the bad news, I am under quarantine. I had one hen that tested positive for PT. A Rainbow. We poked her over and over trying other reagents. We could not get a positive test. There has been no PT in Minnesota since early 90s. The first Vet said she had only had one positive test in her career. She is around 45.
They were very nice about it, I asked "now what". They did not know and had to check with their office in Willmar. They gave me a choice. I could put the hen down of draw a blood sample to sent to the lab. I chose to do that. Had I put the bird down I would have no quarantine.
I am not going to put a bird down if it could be a false positive. I will not sell birds or eggs for a few days. They can not tell for sure, but think it is just a different salmonella but there is no way they can tell me anything more than that. They actually seemed pleased that I would chose to take the quarantine over putting the bird down. So I have one bird living in another shed all by herself. The poor thing.
So that Is my day, the 2nd woman Vet is coming back tomorrow to pick up the blood sample I have from the bird and maybe take more from her. ( she had left before this one was tested as her dog was hit by a car, and they had to have it put down.) Working as close as I did today with these three vets, I re-learned Vets really do love animals, I could not help but to feel for the pain she showed over her dog.
So I know she knew, how I felt about my hen.
BTW Turkey wrestling is hard work, I am going to bed soon. I will save the Mikes until tomorrow1
So glad to hear things went well! I have been busy all day and this is great news to bring a close to it! Fingers crossed for your hen. So does this mean you are NPIP? Or is there more paperwork and what not?
e Now I need to hatch little fuzzy replacements! (hopefully hens 
)
What colors?
