Recent content by gmjarvi

Thank you for sharing your experience! And for the name drop. I may try to contact him before spring and ask him if he thinks it's worth testing now, or waiting until spring. I meant small, NPIP certified breeders, not local backyard flock keepers (which is how I started my flock). I would...

That's not a bad solution, actually. And something their parents would be more open to than if I asked them to go 6 months without their egg flock 😅

I think I will have to strike a balance somehow because I can see their parents rolling their eyes at me if I tell them their kids need to shower when they get to my house 😂. I have heard that MG/MS can travel on your person, too, and even in your nose! So it could be spread by droplets, i would...

@Nendei when your birds had symptoms for ILTV, did you confirm with necropsy after culling? Also, I'm really sorry you had to experience that! It must have been devastating. I realize above i forgot that you were the same poster that had experience with this particular disease.

This is a polarizing topic in poultry that tends to get emotional. I'd just like to post a reminder of my original questions. I'm seeing some assumptions and generalizations being made about flock owners, and that's not why I'm here. Judging other flock owners doesn't help or answer my...

oh! Can you also explain/share your experience in guaranteeing that hatcheries are MG/MS, etc. free? I have read conflicting reports on this topic, making it hard to sus out the truth. I understand chicken breeders regardless of scale have to be NPIP certified to distribute poultry across...

Thank you for your clarification! For some reason I've not been able to find that MG/MS are reportable diseases in MI. I have been looking, but apparently in the wrong places. This is useful information that I'm grateful to have. It may bear clarification that I understand these are /chronic/...

Your mom sounds like a wise woman! This sounds like a reasonable approach to me, but I do know some chicken people that have prized show chickens and might have a cardiac event if they had to butcher their favorite show bird! And absolutely, I would never willingly or knowingly endanger other...

Okay, feel free to turn notifications off for this post! Thanks for coming.

Take a couple deep, deep breaths! I'm not sure this is worth getting super worked up about. I don't have any plans to show birds in the near future, and have every intention of managing my flock responsibly. That's why I'm here! If you've been reading along, you'd know that I have every...

Happy Thanksgiving! I've heard wild turkey meat is terrible, but I'd like to try it someday and see for myself 😉. I know I like grouse/partridge!

True

I think this is part of my hang up. Without regular flock testing, how can you be sure that it's not present? In my mind it would make sense to test all or a mathematically significant portion of the flock rather than just one. NPIP testing varies by state, and I'm pretty sure in my state the...

That made my eyes widen 😳 maybe I'm a little bit of a hippie, but the use of antibiotics without an infection present makes me squirm! We don't typically go to poultry shows, and our fair was canceled this year, but 4H is something I am interested in for my son when he's the right age. Several...

I'm curious as to where you read that MG cannot be passed from wild birds to chickens? I've not read that anywhere. It's also worth noting that lab tests for MG performed on species that aren't the normal species tested may not produce reliable results. At least, that's what my state extension...