"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

[campingshaws]

I'm not having any luck finding regulations for farm eggs in commercial use in Louisiana. I've found a few things from other states. Surely there's a precedent? I'm willing to jump through ALL the hoops. I was hoping to be really prepared with info before I actually called the hd. :/

 

[rlcrow]

I'm not having any luck finding regulations for farm eggs in commercial use in Louisiana. I've found a few things from other states. Surely there's a precedent? I'm willing to jump through ALL the hoops. I was hoping to be really prepared with info before I actually called the hd. :/

If your looking to sell eggs out of state you need to be NPIP approved. It's really no big deal, super easy! I sent am email over a weekend and by the next Wednesday they were out testing. All the results are immediate and you get your paperwork then and there. I'm still waiting for the official word from the FDA but that should come pretty quick now. If you are selling locally I don't think you need to do anything.

 

[rlcrow]

Anyone have any experience with raising red wigglers for worm castings for the garden? Or whatever kind of worm works for that. Worm castings are SO expensive. I don't mind doing the work to get them going. Also wondering about anyone else's composting bin. I decided to just make a whole garden bed into a compost bed for a few months. It's been the best compost pile we've ever done. Cooking like crazy. Not because we know what we are doing of course. Lol. It's just the worms in there getting after it I guess.

I knew people who raised earthworms and they always said it was easy and well worth the effort! I think it does get smelly and it needs fairly good temp regulation, like no freezing Temps and nothing baking. But besides that they eat anything and turn it into fantastic compost. My mother in law had some and she would give them veggie scraps and shredded newspaper and said she had the most amazing compost. Everything grew for her.

 

[rlcrow]

Hey everyone. Just checking in to see how everyone's doing. I'm getting a little spring fever reading about y'all hatching chicks! Wish I could get some new girls this year but I'll have to wait till next year. My ten girls are doing fine. They loved the uptake in the temps a few days ago. Went from three eggs a day to 9 for three days in a row. Then the temps dropped and we're back to 5 at the moment. I'm thinking I will have more eggs than last summer once the warm weather hits. They will be one year old in March. I do have a question about worming though. How do you know you need to worm or should it just be part of a maintenance program? I feed my chickens organic feed so I would like to keep them organic if possible. I have read some people use pumpkin seeds and such. Any advice on this? I have a autoimmune liver disease so I try to carefully monitor what my body processes such as food and meds so that's why I try to eat as organic as possible. Thanks for any advice you can help with about the worming!

.

Young living recently came out with some pet oils and one is for parasites. I add a few drops to their water and it seems to work well, vet rx also had a natural product I have used and it seemed to work great as well.
And you can still eat the eggs.

 

[rlcrow]

So if you guys were starting a chicken program with a focus on education, what breeds would you use? I'm thinking of EEs for egg diversity, and maybe silkies. I've even tried to figure out how to get hatches rotating so I could be hatching every week, for the kids to see, and selling the chicks at $1-2 just to offset feed a bit. But that's not a 2015 plan.

So EEs and silkies. Anything else cool? Maybe a jersey giant and a serama?

That is such a great idea! Though I would sell the chicks for more. If you are trying to show what the breed really looks like you probably shouldn't buy from a hatchery. My hatchery jersey giant doesn't even come close to comparing with the heritage ones! Americans are fun or salmon faverolles, they have the cute tuffs on the face. Marans are fun because of the dark egg color and one you have a blue layer and a dark brown layer you can make olive Eggers or even your own ee if you have a tan layer. It's fun!

 

[Ron Skekel]

Whew! That's a lot of catch up reading on my part! Glad to see all the hatchings! From my previous hatch it turns out I have pair of Black Jersey Giants!

I hatched out some Rhodebars, 4 hatched, but 3 had problems, got 2 left. And I hatched it 5 white bresse! All healthy and doing well! And I added isbars, Legbars, and Barnevelders.
I have black, black copper and Birchen Marans eggs coming in the mail along the Marraduna Basque and more white bresse. Plus we have been modifying our new coop and set the silver appleyards in a breeding pen.

All that plus life as homeschoolers and a Six month old baby girl who likes to keep her mama up! Life has been busy!

Not sure you can see the appleyards here. Unfortunately, my boys forgot to latch the coop when closing it up for the night and I lost the baby duck and 5 silkies! I was not a happy mama the next morning!

So sorry to hear that your birds were so nice. That really sucks. Pam

 

[rlcrow]

So sorry to hear that your birds were so nice. That really sucks. Pam

Thanks! We do have a bunch of night predators here. But one the bright side I can stay collecting appleyard eggs to hatch in another week! Then I can re populate what was lost and sell some to!

 

[Ron Skekel]

Anyone have any experience with raising red wigglers for worm castings for the garden? Or whatever kind of worm works for that. Worm castings are SO expensive. I don't mind doing the work to get them going. Also wondering about anyone else's composting bin. I decided to just make a whole garden bed into a compost bed for a few months. It's been the best compost pile we've ever done. Cooking like crazy. Not because we know what we are doing of course. Lol. It's just the worms in there getting after it I guess.

I have two worm factories. It's easy, You do need to get the red worms not earth worms out your yard.I ordered from Uncle Jims. The hardest part is keeping them from over heating in the heat of summer. I moved mine in the garage and that was cool enough. Pam

 

[Ron Skekel]

I knew people who raised earthworms and they always said it was easy and well worth the effort! I think it does get smelly and it needs fairly good temp regulation, like no freezing Temps and nothing baking. But besides that they eat anything and turn it into fantastic compost. My mother in law had some and she would give them veggie scraps and shredded newspaper and said she had the most amazing compost. Everything grew for her.

If it smells you have something out of balance. You need paper coconut bedding and kitchen scrapes and moisture. If done right no smell.Pam

 

[Ron Skekel]

.

Young living recently came out with some pet oils and one is for parasites. I add a few drops to their water and it seems to work well, vet rx also had a natural product I have used and it seemed to work great as well.
And you can still eat the eggs.

I'm going to look in to this. Do you have a list of which oils? I have a lot. I might have everything in the blend. Pam