Consolidated Kansas

[rittert3]

Is anyone going to Gardner March 17th? I'm deffinatly going to sell my OEs and possibly some chicks out of them and/or coturnix chicks.

 

[chicken danz]

I've heard excellent things about KSU poultry. They also do a meat bird thing later in the year. That would be excellent to get your meaty birds. I would love to get some production hens but don't know if I can justify it when I hatch birds all the time. My buyer just left and I made just enough to buy one week of feed. I sure hope I make good chick money this spring because I'm not converting my input to cash. But she asked about baby ducks this spring. I've been raising them to partially grown ones for her and if she wants to buy babies to sell that is good with me. I sell lots of them but don't have enough market to sell as many as I hatch.That means less work if I don't have to care for them.
You want smell? Come to my place right after a rain!

 

[chicken danz]

Yeah Rittert, I plan to go to Gardner. I need to get my birds tested and start making cages soon. That is going to be here before you know it. I might even sell some baby chicks but I'd be afraid they would get chilled. I plan to sell some pheasant breeders and maybe some of my other stuff I need to thin down.

 

[Ivywoods]

http://www.asi.ksu.edu/p.aspx?tabindex=651&tabid=229

Here's a link to a little info about the poultry facilities at KSU, just in case anyone has questions about the conditions the birds are raised under.

 

[rittert3]

lol, danz, I bet you do get a bit of a stench with that many birds. K-state may have changed thier ways since the gal I know got her birds from them, who knows when.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Wow, that KSU thing sounds neat! I read the link and they have pictures of their facilities. They say they are a battery operation and that they give tours of their facility... so it can't be that bad! From the K-State University website:

"During the last few years, the farm has undergone an aggressive schedule to update facilities. Recent upgrades have included a new state-of-the-art meat bird research facility, new battery brooding unit facilities, and areas to conduct heritage breed research.

The research facilities also support many youth activities, including 4H and FFA programs. Tours for groups may be available."

I'm glad they are doing all that research-- hopefully they will have more vets come out that know more about birds. Would be nice. I used to live in Jardine married dorms with my parents when my dad was getting his engineering degree there. We would visit their dairy facility and then buy milk and icecream at their store front. I didn't know about the chickens! SOOO neat!!

Well, just got back from piano lessons. Time to wind down for the night.

Thanks Ivy for the heads up. I

 

[rittert3]

I guess where I have a problem with it is that "battery" meens really crowded pens and that just not the way I like to do things, but in a commercial setting like they are it's the only way to do things.

 

[rittert3]

Danz I wish I had space, I want some red golden and lady amherst pheasant, but thats at least a couple years down the road. Hopefully I can get some woodies and mandriens going at that time too!

 

[Ivywoods]

Rittert-"Battery brooder" isn't a bad thing. It's only bad if they are left uncared for, unclean and overcrowded. I have used a battery brooder. Works pretty good, and it's not a bad way to do it. Since BYC deals more with small, backyard and hobby flocks, like many of ours, most people do not have a need to use a battery brooder. Right now I'm kind of wishing I had my battery brooder set up to keep my chicks warm. They are already outgrowing the plastic tubs I have for them in the basement.

Yippee! The long lost sideboard has been found!

My DH and a friend of his had moved it and it was completely hidden by some other stuff. Unfortunately, Danz, your paint was not with it.

My DH's friend will be here tomorrow and he is going to help move the thing out where I can get to it to make the new brooders that I want to make. There's no way I can get to the thing and move it out of where they put it. I KNEW I had to have that thing around here somewhere! I had asked my DH about it, and he didn't know because he thought I was talking about something else. I guess I didn't make myself clear at first. I couldn't believe I could loose something that big!

Now, here is the other embarrassing part. Along with the sideboard was another thing I had bought to make a brooder out of. It is an old bookcase. I forgot I had it.

Okay... go ahead guys... laugh at me. I have broad shoulders and I can take it!

 

[rittert3]

I have more of a problem with the battery laying pens and it's not nessicarily the pen style that bothers me, it's the over crowding, I'm going to use a similar style for my quail breeding pens. To each their own I guess I'm just not a big fan of the way commercial poultry opperations work all around, but I guess they don't have many choices in managing those kind of numbers.