central hatchery

[TommyVT05]

Hello,

How are dem chicks doing : )

- Tommy

 

[Western Chick]

They're growing just as well as any other broiler chicks I've had. So far only one has died, I think it got stuck under the feeder and got chilled. I'm at 103 birds out of 104 after a week and a half. I figure that's pretty good.

 

[TommyVT05]

103/104 made it till now? I think that is REALLY REALLY good considering the larger amount : )
Thats 99% for you! Wow...

I am still bummed out to hear that they will be "food" later on but hey, its life I guess. I am just not used to hearing it because I raise mainly the exotics and had NEVER eatten anything that I have raised before so yeah. I have raised production birds before that was donated to me from classrooms that I have helped at with "aiding" the students and all that but I end up giving most away and selling some to get some feed money. I guess I am the "odd" one here, not liking slaugter, but it could just be that I am more city than rural so I don't know whats it like to raise "your own food" sort to speak.

Nevertheless, I understand (or at least try to) and again, like I would always say, "everything is a learning process...as long as you open up your heart to it then you can get it done" : )

- Tommy

 

[johnwilly1962]

Quote:
Going a little off-topic here...

I have to put in a defense for the folks on Dirty Jobs with the turkeys. I know those guys personally and they run a very nice operation. Do you really think those turkeys would be better off to roam outside in a MN winter? No Way! Even if given the opportunity they would stay in their nice warm barns. That was filmed during the coldest part of a very long and nasty winter. Of course the birds are going to look ugly (besides they're turkeys, not exactly my pick for cutest bird!)

Turkey farms in MN used to pasture turkeys in the summer, imagine hundres of acres of continuous grass with turkeys all over, quite a site. They've since moved to the confinement barn because of the decreased hardiness of the broad-breasted turkey strain, not to mention loss to predators.

As long as Americans demand cheap food (and yes folks, it is still cheap compared to other corners of the globe), and fewer people are willing to do the work of providing it, we will have to learn to tolerate the practices that have become common in large scale agriculture. Until everyone moves back to the family farm, growing food for their own family and local community the only way we'll be able to provide is through large-scale agriculture.

Oakdale Farms (the one on the TV show) is a family run operation. They hire a few local individuals as full-time help. They only raise breeding turkeys and sell hatching eggs on a large scale. The hens have plenty of room to roam as they please in the barns- on the show they were crowded in for insemination. The site is located in a beautiful setting nestled into the hills along side a lake. It typically does not smell as most turkey farms do, the owners live right in the middle of it all with barns on both sides of them. They are very conscientious to their neighbors, never wanting to offend.

On another note, I'm liking the prices on broilers from this hatchery, I think I might give them a try.

I saw that episode of Dirty Jobs with the turkeys. I thought I was watching a PETA video. I couldn't believe they were showing that in prime time TV and they thought the care and treatment of those turkeys was acceptable. That was the last straw for me, I became a vegetarian the next day and it has been one year now with no regrets.

 

[OSUman]

Quote:
the drawers of baby chicks where when they were first coming out of the hatcher thats not where the store them thats where they start out.

 

[TommyVT05]

Dirty Jobs...

I love that show. It really does bring out the under-represented folks who work in those places. You must either

1.) Really enjoy what you are doing
or
2.) Have no choice whatsoever

You won't find your "avg. Joes" anywhere in those kinda jobs...

Nevertheless, the show is very informative and usuful. : )

 

[oldtimeway]

I love the ideas many of you have of these idealistic hatcheries where the birds are free ranging and you think the hens are setting on the eggs or something. Most small hatcheries actually don't even maintain their own hatching flocks but buy their eggs from a big outfit.

Hatching flocks are not "birds stacked in cages" as some one claimed in one post. You sure never saw those pictures on Central's site or any other hatchery as hatching flocks have to be on the floor where the hens and roosters can mate, duh.

The folks at Central are wonderful people and their birds are well cared for, healthy and content. In fact, they are one of the few small hatcheries that has their own hatching flocks. The only thing they don't have their own broiler hatching flock and like all hatcheries that offer Hy-Lines, those eggs come from the Hy-Line genetics company.

Their service is great, their prices can't be beat, I can not say enough good about them.

Chicks in drawers? Excuse me, but have any of you ever really seen a hatchery? How else are they to be hatched. City people who think they're experts really get me upset.

I have been through their hatchery and have personally seen their hatching flocks. I have ordered hundreds of chicks and usually drive down to pick them up as they're only fifty miles away but have also rec'd them in the mail or had them deliver to me with their truck when going by.

Central is the best I've dealt with and I've raised thousands of birds in the past fifty years.

 

[Oceanseve]

Wow is that hatchery a normal one? Do all the chickens in these hatcheries have such dismal existences? Drawers of baby chicks - and stacks of laying hens? Those were some really sad photos.

Without a doubt when money and animals are involved together the animals always suffer. I don't think I'll ever be ordering from large hatcheries again.

Thanks for the wakeup call.

That picture says it's their laying stock, you can see they are chicks not adult chickens. All hatchery chicks start out in drawers. If they were to have floor space it would be impossible to handle such large amounts of animals. Most of those chicks are being shipped within the first few days of hatch, they spend a day or two in those drawers (if that) and whatever you do with them is their life. They are doing nothing wrong. The chicks are not being abused. No they aren't being naturally incubated and free ranged. If you want that then start your own farm and do it yourself, you'll see how pricey it is. If you want chicks at a cheap price this is what is necessary.

Anyway, for anyone still looking up this thread. I ordered from them in 2009, 25 chicks, got 27, all survived till butcher minus two in the last week, but we were behind schedule and for those who haven't read up on cornishx, most will die if allowed to reach maturity. Their organs cannot handle the genetics of such large bodies. Not sure what the person on here talking about keeping and breeding them was thinking, a couple may live short lives, but most will die early. We gave up chickens for a few years, but are getting back to it this year and I cannot wait to order from Central again. Wonderful experience with them.

 

[OkChickens]

I have ordered a 200 Cornish X Last Year. A friend of mine split the order with me. They were very healthy birds with a low mortality rate for Cornish X. As stated above they are a family ran operation with their own birds on their own farm. They are a small % of hatcheries that actually have there stock on their own farm. The chicks in the drawers are newly hatched fowl that are probably on there way to the sorting area to be shipped. I was very happy with their service and I plan on ordering CX from them sometime this spring.

A lot of the "Big Name Hatcheries" spend more money on advertizing than the small family operations. If they were to free range every one of there birds(who knows how many) the prices for day old chicks would be triple the price if not more. A lot of people have in pictures in their minds of a hatchery with a 1,000 acre field with thousands of birds free ranging. That is not how hatcheries work. They raise chickens, turkeys, and ducks as a business to make a living. Do I agree with 1-2 sq ft per bird? No I don't but I understand that they have it that way to cut costs to make a profit. I cant even imagine the work and labor it takes to set, hatch, sex, and ship out thousands of chicks each week. In Centrals pictures their pens look pretty clean and their fowl looks healthy. Who has seen a "Big Name Hatchery" with their breeding stock pictures posted on the internet? It seems that this hatchery is proud of their birds and they are not afraid to show their stock.

Nate

 

[western edge]

I was in need of a good utility strain of rir pullets for a rhodebar project. I was hesitant to order hatchery ckicks but finally settled on Mcmurray. Also ordered some Lt. Br. leghorns for the legbar project. Needing another strain of the rir to increase genetics for down the road, I was pleased to find Central Hatchery over there in Nebraska, which is about as close as hatcheries get to me, with their rir stock they use for their layer hens which might be the old rir strains that over the years have been bred for laying instead of to standard or show only. Nothing even remote to that locally. I ordered the minimum 50 for April 2nd.. Wish i had ordered more.
Hand writing the order, filling out the check, addressing the envelope and dropping it in the mail, what a great tradition, along with Central Hatchery and their years of service to this great agricultural community we call the United States of America.