BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[LooperChickens]

I use the three finger rule to select breeder hens because the wider the pelvis bones the bigger the egg she lays and my costomers like larger eggs. I've also noticed the chicks are healthier hatching from larger eggs , as they have more room to grow. I think that rule applies to production as it makes bigger eggs.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Perhaps because the fuel prices have dropped significantly they can then ship the animals . . . I will be looking for that label , you bet!! I have already tried to find alternatives to the "made in china". Was totally shocked to have found my peeled garlic was shipped in from CHina!! OMG. FOr now I buy heads of garlic and my kids have fun playing with knives while they peel them and put a million cloves into t he freezer. I will NOT buy chicken processed in CHina.

Dh mentioned a $1 per dozen increase is the expected effect. That is one more reason to keep raising my own egg producers and meat producers. ANd mine do get to run in the woods; the roosters keep their heads up looking for coyotes; and some like to steal the grain from the horses and sheep. Though there is one rooster I find in a stall looking for yummies. No food is really free food-- the cost of the land, taxes, buying feed for the horses and sheep ( and the birds too) all costs. IMO a healthy diet helps keep the doctor away. lol

I am looking to produce more of our feed . .. . production is a learning curve though. And keeping the birds contained is becoming an issue . . . .

( Please do not think that my methods are the best, or that I think they are the only way; I'm all for how ever people can keep livestock to feed themselves. And while I don't like the factory system, it does feed our people who cant or wont raise their own. Progress is slow . . . and people have been spoiled by cheap food . . .. been there done that. Chickens showed me a new way to eat. )

 

[LindaB220]

There is that new law that they are now going to be sending US raised chickens to China to be slaughtered and processed, then sent back to the US for sale. A lot of folks don't know that this is going to be happening. I still can't figure out how in the heck it is going to be cheaper to ship live chickens to China for processing, then ship them back here to the US to sell the meat. Unless a lot of corners are going to be cut.

Can't blame you about not wanting to slaughter your own poultry. I have worked my way up from not being able to touch my dead chickens, to being able to do the after-slaughter processing of them and plan to work my way up to the actual slaughtering of them myself. Right now my hubby does the deed for me. As much as I hate it, I feel like I either need to be able to eat my own birds, or stop eating meat, because I am just not happy with what I am seeing in today's factory farming and slaughter methods. And to eat chicken that was shipped to China and back again????? insert eye roll

This is a new one for me. Last I heard they couldn't send live ones and were going to send the slaughters parted to be made into patties for Mcdonald or such. Processed only.

 

[LindaB220]

I use the three finger rule to select breeder hens because the wider the pelvis bones the bigger the egg she lays and my costomers like larger eggs. I've also noticed the chicks are healthier hatching from larger eggs , as they have more room to grow. I think that rule applies to production as it makes bigger eggs.

Good point Looper

 

[1zooman12]

And now we see another reason why government has no business dictating how free and private enterprise shall operate. I understand that is the result of another of those executive orders which never see an examination by the US Congress. Can anybody clear this up?
Stay well and alert,
Neal, the Zooman

 

[bnjrob]

This is a new one for me. Last I heard they couldn't send live ones and were going to send the slaughters parted to be made into patties for Mcdonald or such. Processed only.

Apparently the USDA gave its ok on the whole thing and it is speculated that it's all about politics and possibly in return for China lifting a ban on beef from the US. Other articles have said that some of the big commercial producers are not going to take advantage of this new "trade" policy, but nothing has been set in stone either way by anybody, except that it is now ok to do this. Here's a blurb on it. http://wivb.com/2014/11/05/opposition-brews-to-china-processing-us-chickens/

 

[LindaB220]

Apparently the USDA gave its ok on the whole thing and it is speculated that it's all about politics and possibly in return for China lifting a ban on beef from the US. Other articles have said that some of the big commercial producers are not going to take advantage of this new "trade" policy, but nothing has been set in stone either way by anybody, except that it is now ok to do this. Here's a blurb on it. http://wivb.com/2014/11/05/opposition-brews-to-china-processing-us-chickens/

This article said that they would be using frozen chicken sent to them to be made into chicken nuggets. But they also said tha they are thinking about just letting the Chinese raise the chickens and shipping over here. Why even bother doing anything if China is going to get approval to take over our lives and HEALTH.. Outrageous!!!!

 

[DesertChic]

This article said that they would be using frozen chicken sent to them to be made into chicken nuggets. But they also said tha they are thinking about just letting the Chinese raise the chickens and shipping over here. Why even bother doing anything if China is going to get approval to take over our lives and HEALTH.. Outrageous!!!!

What a lot of people don't realize is that the U.S. has been importing chicken from China for years, but on a much smaller scale than this new legislation allows for. Many of the chickens sold at Walmart are Chinese imports. An independent journalist did an exposé piece on the processing of these imported chickens, showing how they were repeatedly given bleach baths, irradiated, and soaked in water to make them appear plumper and juicer before being packaged for sale. It was actually pretty disgusting. Our local news even briefly carried excerpts of the story and listed the brand names under which this chicken was sold. A lot of people started slamming Walmart for it, but it was a subsidized government program, encouraged and fostered by our government to improve trade relations with China. Walmart did want was financially and politically advantageous. To me the real wrong was in hiding what was being done. If they wanted to sell Chinese chickens, then label them as Chinese imports instead of using loopholes that permit repackaging as American products.

If you think about it, these two separate pieces of legislation are strongly linked. By imposing new regulations on poultry farming in this country, locally grown poultry products become more expensive, making the imported Chinese poultry more desirable to people on limited budgets...and the unsuspecting who think they're just buying affordable food. The Humane Society may have the agenda of turning us into a nation of vegetarians, but the mechanics behind all of this have got to be focused on power and monetary gains for a select few. For now, anyone who got out in front of this, even if they did so unwittingly, is in a pretty good position right now. Unfortunately, the bulk of the country buys all their food at the corner market, wrapped in plastic after being transported halfway across the country. The potential ramifications are rather horrifying.

Right now, I'm just really happy that I decided to start growing my own food, beginning with my garden two years ago and now extending into poultry. Several of my acquaintances who thought I was a little crazy for getting chickens are now asking me if I'd be willing to sell them eggs and meat. Oh, how the tides turn.

 

[bnjrob]

What a lot of people don't realize is that the U.S. has been importing chicken from China for years, but on a much smaller scale than this new legislation allows for. Many of the chickens sold at Walmart are Chinese imports. An independent journalist did an exposé piece on the processing of these imported chickens, showing how they were repeatedly given bleach baths, irradiated, and soaked in water to make them appear plumper and juicer before being packaged for sale. It was actually pretty disgusting. Our local news even briefly carried excerpts of the story and listed the brand names under which this chicken was sold. A lot of people started slamming Walmart for it, but it was a subsidized government program, encouraged and fostered by our government to improve trade relations with China. Walmart did want was financially and politically advantageous. To me the real wrong was in hiding what was being done. If they wanted to sell Chinese chickens, then label them as Chinese imports instead of using loopholes that permit repackaging as American products.

If you think about it, these two separate pieces of legislation are strongly linked. By imposing new regulations on poultry farming in this country, locally grown poultry products become more expensive, making the imported Chinese poultry more desirable to people on limited budgets...and the unsuspecting who think they're just buying affordable food. The Humane Society may have the agenda of turning us into a nation of vegetarians, but the mechanics behind all of this have got to be focused on power and monetary gains for a select few. For now, anyone who got out in front of this, even if they did so unwittingly, is in a pretty good position right now. Unfortunately, the bulk of the country buys all their food at the corner market, wrapped in plastic after being transported halfway across the country. The potential ramifications are rather horrifying.

Right now, I'm just really happy that I decided to start growing my own food, beginning with my garden two years ago and now extending into poultry. Several of my acquaintances who thought I was a little crazy for getting chickens are now asking me if I'd be willing to sell them eggs and meat. Oh, how the tides turn.

Interesting, I had not heard this. Had just seen a bunch of articles about the rules now being lax so that pretty much anything COULD happen and that they could sell us chickens raised and butchered there as well as chickens raised here could be sent there for butchering and then sent back again. Guess it's like everything else in our stores today "made in China", and we should just assume it is so, even if the label doesn't say it. I know that there is a bunch of hissy fits going on with this trade deal because of the US wanting beef to be labeled with the country of origin and I think it's Mexico and Canada that do not want to import beef to the US if it has to have a country of origin label.

You're right - we have the push towards veganism going on, but it does all boil down to money. Money talks. That is what is so concerning to me. I've seen the studies for and against GMO stuff, and there really is no telling whether GMO is safe or not. The FDA approves drugs all the time and says they are safe, yet five or ten years down the road, that safe drug is now harming people. Kinda hard to know what to believe sometimes when there is so much conflicting data and study results can be skewed any way that the author wants. But the one thing I am positive about with the GMO issue, is that it's another food monopoly. And that is a problem in my book even if GMOs are safe.

I'm with you on growing food and becoming self sustaining. It's already easy enough to have problems with food supplies during a storm/disaster. The food monopolies we have going on and the ability of companies and our government of controlling people using food can become a reality without much work on their part.

 

[chickadoodles]

I am so glad that we buy from a local outlet that buys meat direct from the local farmers and we can cut costs buying pks. of meat for 2-4.00 per pkg. I just bought a months worth of meat for under 100.00. You can't do that at walmart. I have not shopped at walmart for many years except for milk and bread and frozen pizza. lol I may just raise all my roosters this year for my own freezer. I had been selling them to the local neighbors.