California - Northern

[debs_flock]

Deb, are you going to Paso Robles? The partridge silkies are ready to go, but I think the Iowa blue is too young to put in the car.

I'm not going to Paso Robles. I'm at the end of what I need to do on my kitchen remodel. Contractor is in here ripping out tile and cabinets right now. This weekend I need to buy the last of the things I need to get (4 doors, select the lights and a couple of odds and ends). I also need to finish stripping wallpaper (I saved $1,000 on the bid by saying I would remove the wallpaper and do my own painting). The electrician, plumber, roofer & drywall people will all be here next week. Appliances deliver on the 12th and cabinets on the 17th. Yikes!!!

I'll see if I can make arrangements soon.

Maybe someone on here will be coming from your direction towards the Sacramento direction???

Deb

 

[zooweemama]

Bantams are usually broody little suckers! But if you want chicks w/o an incubator

you need a couple of those. Orps are so sweet and usually great layers. I know you fell for them right from the start. The EE's seem to take a long time to begin to lay and quit laying during molt or if anything is off. I'm getting all brown eggs right now so all my colored egg layers have not started back laying again. Of course two EE's were broody, one twice so we've been missing they're beautiful green eggs!

I figured with Orps I have my broody needs covered. Looks like Lady (my little banty hen) will be a good helper lol. I was considering Leghorns for my non-broody egg layers. But we do enjoy friendly chickens. Well by friendly I mean letting us walk around them for the most part without flipping out and running away. Someone recommended Mille Fleur Leghorns since they are so pretty. I just don't want another broody breed. Need some eggs.

 

[ronott1]

Quote: For the "cold" symptoms, the worst one that causes lots of problems is:

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/disea...ction-mg-chronic-respiratory-disease-chickens

That one even passes through the eggs. If that is the cause and the other chickens have been exposed, you have to either close your flock and never sell them or hatching eggs from them or cull them all, clean up and wait the 6 weeks or so and then start again.

The Black mold is probably the least bad because it is not infectious.

The Necropsy is the way to tell. If it is one of the bad ones, pick a random chicken and have it necropsied at a different Lab. There are four of them in the CAHFS network that test for free.

Ron

 

[zooweemama]

I will have 8 chickens to process. Some won't dress out to even 2 pounds lol. BUT I would like to get it done. Would it be worth my while to take these guys to Sac to have it done? I cannot process 8 chickens in one day- I might be able to do 3. (i have other stuff to do) So this might take me 2 weekends to get done plus feeding them all more food. Would it be worth it to save time to drive them to Sac and have them done? Do I pick them up the same day? If so maybe we could take the kids for a trip to the zoo or something while we wait.

 

[AnonAMauze]

....not sure I should do this ... but here, try to imagine what THIS chicken would look like in real life: kippenjungle.nl/kipkiezer_bestanden/Mblauwuitgebreidgezoomd.JPG

And now I shall leave before the obessed-and-fighting-it come for me with pitchforks!

I think I figure out how to get the black-laced blue ... start with a Blue Andalusian or a Blue Orp and cross it with a Silver-laced Wyandotte. Then in the offspring find a blue roo and a blue hen and cross them, that will get you a possibility of a white chicken, a black-laced blue, and a straight blue. Keep the black-laced hens and roos and cross them and that should be the beginning of establishing the new color. If I were doing it I'd go with the Blue Orp rather than the Andalusian so the resulting chicken will be large and lay brown eggs. If one started with the Andalusian I think one would wind up with a smaller chicken that laid only slightly tinted eggs. I'm rather partial to brown eggs.......

 

[debs_flock]

I will have 8 chickens to process. Some won't dress out to even 2 pounds lol. BUT I would like to get it done. Would it be worth my while to take these guys to Sac to have it done? I cannot process 8 chickens in one day- I might be able to do 3. (i have other stuff to do) So this might take me 2 weekends to get done plus feeding them all more food. Would it be worth it to save time to drive them to Sac and have them done? Do I pick them up the same day? If so maybe we could take the kids for a trip to the zoo or something while we wait.

The last I took chickens to be processed in Sac was nearly 20 years ago, but it's still the same company.

In those days, you had to have your birds there very early. I remember dropping them off around 6am. Then you go back to pick them up around 3pm. They were packed in a waxed box on ice. There is a price per bird, with a minimum per order, so if you don't have enough birds it runs up the price per bird. In those days, I was dropping off 30-40 meat birds at a time.

If you don't factor in a value for your time, it would probably be better to do a few at a time at home. I find 3 per setting is my limit since I do them by myself. I do like to know I'm capable of doing it myself, also I know how my birds died and what they were exposed to as they were processed. The operation is very clean (you can see everything they are doing when you drop off your birds), but don't forget, it would be a communal dunk vat for scalding and the equipment is only cleaned at the end of the day, not between people's birds.

Deb

 

[zooweemama]

Can anyone share the link to the processing place in Sac? I can't find anything!

 

[debs_flock]

Can anyone share the link to the processing place in Sac? I can't find anything!

I don't have the link (and I don't think they have a website), but it's called New American Poultry.

Deb

 

[zooweemama]

The last I took chickens to be processed in Sac was nearly 20 years ago, but it's still the same company.

In those days, you had to have your birds there very early. I remember dropping them off around 6am. Then you go back to pick them up around 3pm. They were packed in a waxed box on ice. There is a price per bird, with a minimum per order, so if you don't have enough birds it runs up the price per bird. In those days, I was dropping off 30-40 meat birds at a time.

If you don't factor in a value for your time, it would probably be better to do a few at a time at home. I find 3 per setting is my limit since I do them by myself. I do like to know I'm capable of doing it myself, also I know how my birds died and what they were exposed to as they were processed. The operation is very clean (you can see everything they are doing when you drop off your birds), but don't forget, it would be a communal dunk vat for scalding and the equipment is only cleaned at the end of the day, not between people's birds.

Deb

Thank you for weighing in on this! Too bad there is nothing like it in Redding (that I know of). Less of a drive would make it more worth my while for sure. It's 3 to 3 1/2 hour drive from me.

 

[debs_flock]

Thank you for weighing in on this! Too bad there is nothing like it in Redding (that I know of). Less of a drive would make it more worth my while for sure. It's 3 to 3 1/2 hour drive from me.

Yes, I don't think the two round trips (or hanging out all day) would be worth it for you. I know the only reason I went was to get my son's 4H meat birds processed. Then we could legally sell off the excess since they were processed in a licensed plant. CA has very strict rules about home slaughter and what you do with the meat. My son was selling his meat pen through auction and when a group of guys were chipping in their money and giving him $2,000, I thought I should give them something besides two live chickens

The meat pens were always bought by a group of about 30 guys, so I would give them all the birds he raised and they would have a big BBQ.

Deb