I have to agree with Magic Chicken. I can understand why you would be bored with us "newbies", and I've been following long enough to know you've all covered these subjects over and over.But the bottom line is that newbies aren't going to look at this thread if it isn't active. Let me tell you why this thread is so important. I started raising chickens in June of this year. I researched breeds, coop designs, feeding, etc. for a couple of months before I decided to do this. I've never been one to just jump into anything. Drives my DH crazy. The problem was, and I didn't know this then, was that I was on other sites and different threads on BYC. So here I go making my DH, who is disabled, and his family (carpenters) build a run and modify a garden shed into a coop based on specifications that I had researched. It was labor intensive, costly, and I endured a whole lot of mockery in the process while I insisted it had to be done this way. THEN, I found this thread. And everything I thought I had right......was so, so wrong. So then the dilemma. How do you go back and tell your DH that pretty much everything has to be redone? Well, it wasn't received well. My DH became as familiar with Bee, Al, and Walt as I was, but his eyes sort of glared at the mention of their names. Anyway, I envy those newbies who find this thread at the start. The OT's have saved them a whole lot of money and time, but most importantly they have taught all of us the proper way to manage their flock to prevent disease instead of treating it. To raise healthy, productive chickens. And to give those chickens the kind of life that every living creature deserves. I know I'm probably one of the ones that Bee talks about. You know the ones with air between their ears that don't listen. BUT, she is wrong, at least about me. Because even though people might question the OT's methods or even initially disagree, that doesn't mean they aren't learning. Sometimes it takes a bit of time before some can wrap their heads around things. Especially when there is so much misinformation out there given with so much conviction. You may never reach everyone, but for the ones you do, there are countless chickens being managed properly. That makes a difference. And most people aren't researchers. They need a "live" someone to ask questions to and get answers from. You may find those types lazy and a bore to you, but I don't. That's what teaching is. Now if it's the same person, asking the same questions, then yes. But you are reaching new group of people all the time. They don't have backgrounds in farming or animal husbandry.' And even if they have, they have forgotten or learned it wrong. I didn't know even the simplest of things. I felt stupid and I'm a well educated person. Sometimes I was afraid to ask a question because I felt it was something I should know, but then was grateful to see someone else had asked it. Bottom line....you all have a lot to offer. Knowledge is to be shared not held hostage for your own use. When I worked (retired now) I was a mentor. I've answered thousands of questions, the same ones over and over, to newbies in my field. I always found it to be very rewarding. I know it can be frustrating too and you can get burned out, but try to work through that because if you can't, then it's going to be a sad day for a whole lot of chickens. Newbies will be left with the Internet crowd of pet chickens and diapers and there's a lot of them out there with raising chickens being the new craze. What a shame that would be.
