Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[Leftcoastnative]

maybe mrs oz can get the livehaul job

she wants to drive an 18 wheeler lol

and the chickens would be an added bonus

you should join us in the old folks home thread

I gotta hunch she would get real tired of it real fast. Those "18 wheelers" have a huge gap between the "perception" and the reality.
However, there should be plenty of 'em on the road down there in California (after dark of course) - with beef prices shootin' through the roof, chicken is becoming very popular. National consumption figures are goin' up and up.
Do you happen to know.....is Petaluma still the "chicken capital of the world"?

 

[ozexpat]

I gotta hunch she would get real tired of it real fast. Those "18 wheelers" have a huge gap between the "perception" and the reality.
However, there should be plenty of 'em on the road down there in California (after dark of course) - with beef prices shootin' through the roof, chicken is becoming very popular. National consumption figures are goin' up and up.
Do you happen to know.....is Petaluma still the "chicken capital of the world"?

I reckon you are right about the 18 wheeler gig lol

Petaluma lost its title. Gainseville GA now claims that billboard

 

[Leftcoastnative]

I reckon you are right about the 18 wheeler gig lol

Petaluma lost its title. Gainseville GA now claims that billboard

Hmmmmmm. How 'bout that. It figures. San Francisco is likely into more "progressive" food than the south.
Thanks for responding.

 

[Tomtommom]

everybodystill wants their $10 turkey at thanksgiving

Can't say I haven't been guilty of getting the 39 cent/lb turkey.

Keeping chickens has taught me so much. Every year I'm doing a bit better choosing our health over money. This year I've started buying organic products, which is a first for us. It's just getting more and more important to buy the right things and vote with our dollars.

 

[tntchix]

 

[Amberjem]

 

[AtlantaChick]

Good god, rereading my above post, I realized I sound like a math teacher

.

You're right, though... the only thing I can think is that maybe the house is divided by age range, if it's a grow out facility? The economics of poultry operations don't leave space to test for exposure, and there's not the issue with disposal that you see with larger animals. And honestly, even if the house is divided I'm surprised that the entire flock wasn't destroyed, given the virulence of the disease in question.

(I spent 2007 as a biosecurity researcher focused on H5N1. Corporate meat production is one seriously surreal logistics problem, ethics and health issues aside. My breaking point was sitting through a presentation on a miraculous new orange scented foam that could be sprayed into an infected chicken house to simultaneously smother the birds, disinfect the premises and compost the bodies. The inventor of said foam kept emphasizing how it was orange scented, it would be acceptable to the public!)

 

[gypsy767]

Lefty Native...and Oz..... I live in NW GA about 60 miles from gainsville ga. When I was in high school I caught chickens 2-3 nights a week. The job started around midnight and we usually finished about 5-5:30 AM with $16-18 dollars in our pocket. That was a fortune to myself and the other boys in the mid 1950's. We considered ourselves VERY fortunate to have the job. I Had to hurry home and deliver my newspapers (I also had a paper route) and get a bath (no shower in those days) or jump into the creek in warm weather along the way during the summer.

Also there was a service station on my paper route with a water hose at the back and sometimes that rinse off was all the bath I had before going to school. Obviously we were up all night unless we caught a nap before midnight, which most of the time I didn't. I had a part time job after school at the bowling alley where I set up pins (manually) from 4 PM till 11PM. Also on "off nights" I hauled a little moonshine out of the Georgia mountains...40 gallons at a time and got paid $40. Could only do that while I was 16 years old and after I got my drivers license but before I turned 17...those were the moonshiner's rules...he wouldn't let us run after we turned 17...we couldn't be charged as adults at 16 which guaranteed no jail time if we were ever caught...He had scruples :} I never came close to being caught.

But I have very fond memories of those days. The 18 wheeler arrived loaded with empty wooden chicken coops and we unloaded them from the truck first and then started catching chickens. We caught 9 chickens per trip into the house (5 in one hand, 4 in the other) and cooped them 18 chickens per coop and the loaders loaded the full coops onto the truck. It was GRUELING WORK...!!!! We never even thought of dust mask and it took 12-18 hours to stop spitting/blowing/snorting up the dust crud...ha! We didn't take a break at all once we started.

I was about 14-16 years old and learned some very valuable life lessons while catching chickens and they have served me well throughout my life. I learned to never work by the hour if I could help it...productivity was the name of the game...! And I also learned I didn't want to spend my life WORKING THAT HARD....!!!!

 

[ozexpat]

@gypsy767 great story. you have an amazing work ethic

the best money I made was cleaning bricks paid by the piece.

 

[gypsy767]

Oz...Speaking of work ethic...when do YOU sleep...! I read every day of managing coco beach from CA...buying/receiving eggs to carry on the plane...arranging for poultry/pig sales...transportation to and fro to the airport to ship birds...flying thousands of miles per year between the US and Philippines...managing a full time position in CA...and on and on. I know some of us just simply get by on less sleep, I only sleep max 6 hours a night even now...but I'm wondering if you get even that much...!