You'd be surprised...the old timey field corn had surprisingly soft, red cob leavin's so if you had a particularly dirty job that the slick catalog pages could not handle, the cobs were the best option. The catalog was more for number one than number two, but could be utilized for the fine tuning on the number two. My favorite and the most coveted? The comics section out of the Sunday newspaper...soft, soft paper on those. How's that for a glimpse of the old times?
Quote: I am truely grateful for indoor plumbing at this point in the conversation!!
You'd be surprised...the old timey field corn had surprisingly soft, red cob leavin's so if you had a particularly dirty job that the slick catalog pages could not handle, the cobs were the best option. The catalog was more for number one than number two, but could be utilized for the fine tuning on the number two. My favorite and the most coveted? The comics section out of the Sunday newspaper...soft, soft paper on those. How's that for a glimpse of the old times?
I happened to get the state vet that day.
Buying South to North and East to West leaves those of us in the southwest with few options.
Which is why I expected more problems with my birds from Minnesota (I am in southern Arizona). I am very happy with the overall vigor of the birds I got from Mr. Urch. They've had a few issues. Not anywhere near as severe as I expected due to the change in conditions from one place to the other. Now I am going to focus on breeding birds to optimize for my location and management conditions. Still holding off on deciding whether or not to show them. They're going into a molt now, so may not be ready for the November show here anyway. I don't mind delaying that show/no show decision. Looking forward to seeing if I can improve the feather quality with some feed changes.
For what it's worth, my chickens showed signs of a very mild Mycoplasma gallisepticum episode back in June. Occasional sneezes and minor sniffles ran through both pens of chickens and symptoms cleared on their own after 24-48 hours. If symptoms had been severe enough to require treatment I would have culled the birds. I also have pet cockatiels. The cockatiels are 20 years old. They have not gotten MG. My chickens run free outside, mingling with the wild birds. The cockatiels are indoors. I usually wash my hands before handling the cockatiels if I have been handling chickens, but I am not obsessive about biosecurity. Since both pens of my chickens were exposed to the wild bird population here, and since both pens of chickens got MG about the same time, I suspect that the wild birds were the source of this episode. If that is the case I could cull all of my chickens and still have to deal with MG in the future, because I am not going to keep the chickens locked inside all the time. If I had to have indoor chickens I would just buy the cheap chicken meat at the grocery store and save myself a lot of money.
If I thought that the chickens themselves were the source of the MG and not the wild birds, I would cull the whole flock and start over. But it looks like the source was the wild birds, so culling the chickens makes little sense. Breeding resistant chickens seems to be the way to go in my location because any new chickens from outside will also be exposed and may not be resistant. So that is what I will work toward. Vigor first, and if I can improve type at the same time that's great.
These decisions are based on my personal goal for my flock: eggs and meat from healthy, beautiful birds that are good foragers. Showing and sales are not top on my list. The only reason I am considering showing is because the breed is relatively rare (black javas) and showing is one of the best ways to increase awareness of the breed. It is a way of giving back to the poultry community and helping the breed survive.
