Maine

[athomas718]

Try McChicks hatchery in Denmark Maine. She usually has buff Brahma’s.

I don’t know why I didn’t think of McChicks.

 

[WaddlesInn]

Hi everyone! I am in Levant, ME. I have a male Black Swedish duck that I need to rehome. This is Rowan. I have too many males, especially since I lost one of my girls in December. I’m sad to see him go, but my other 2 boys aren’t very fond of him. Please let me know if you or someone you know would like to take him in and be part of your duck family.

 

[MysteryChicken]

Will someone will be willing to help me understand everything here in section one for fewer then 1,000 birds please? I understand the labeling.

I would like to sell processed poultry locally sometime, but just want things to be abit clearer.

D-1 is alittle hard to understand, as well as F.

What is their Subsection #2?

https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/22/title22sec2517-C.html

Thanks in advance.

 

[iwltfum]

Will someone will be willing to help me understand everything here in section one for fewer then 1,000 birds please? I understand the labeling.

I would like to sell processed poultry locally sometime, but just want things to be abit clearer.

D-1 is alittle hard to understand, as well as F.

What is their Subsection #2?

https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/22/title22sec2517-C.html

Thanks in advance.

Oh man my knowledge of this is not as fresh as it used to be but I spent many hours over these regulations a few years back. Basically, it all boils down to you can butcher 1000 birds at your home as long as you abide by basic food safety requirements in your butchering area (things like running water, access to hand washing with hot water and soap, etc), you can't sell at the big grocery stores, and you have to label the birds with your name (or business name), your physical address and the federal standard "safe handling instructions", technically you need to notify the state that you are selling home butchered poultry and be ready to have the state send someone out to look at your butchering set up if they decide to do that (I never saw an inspector in 7 years of butchering poultry from my home for sale). Oh and also -you are only allowed to butcher birds that you raised on your own property. I think there are some other minor technicalities like the poultry must be frozen when sold. I have a friend that is a law maker in Maine (who is well versed in the farming side of things) and they suggested to be bold and go for it -food laws in Maine do a lot to support small producers -and assured me that I wouldn't have any trouble. I made sure to run my operation as professionally as possible and that meant making double sure things got washed down and sanitized regularly, temps in holding areas/water tanks were staying accurate, birds got cooled down as quickly as possible, etc. hope that helps!

 

[MysteryChicken]

Oh man my knowledge of this is not as fresh as it used to be but I spent many hours over these regulations a few years back. Basically, it all boils down to you can butcher 1000 birds at your home as long as you abide by basic food safety requirements in your butchering area (things like running water, access to hand washing with hot water and soap, etc), you can't sell at the big grocery stores, and you have to label the birds with your name (or business name), your physical address and the federal standard "safe handling instructions", technically you need to notify the state that you are selling home butchered poultry and be ready to have the state send someone out to look at your butchering set up if they decide to do that (I never saw an inspector in 7 years of butchering poultry from my home for sale). Oh and also -you are only allowed to butcher birds that you raised on your own property. I think there are some other minor technicalities like the poultry must be frozen when sold. I have a friend that is a law maker in Maine (who is well versed in the farming side of things) and they suggested to be bold and go for it -food laws in Maine do a lot to support small producers -and assured me that I wouldn't have any trouble. I made sure to run my operation as professionally as possible and that meant making double sure things got washed down and sanitized regularly, temps in holding areas/water tanks were staying accurate, birds got cooled down as quickly as possible, etc. hope that helps!

I was looking at the exemption which states no inspection required. I think you looked completely over that part.
I know about the labeling, which is the safe handling part, & the fact I need to label my product as exempt, & not inspected.
I know I must butcher poultry raised only by me on my property.

It also says something about needing to put Lot Numbers on your processed birds. Which is one thing I don't quite understand as these would be home birds.

 

[iwltfum]

I was looking at the exemption which states no inspection required. I think you looked completely over that part.
I know about the labeling, which is the safe handling part, & the fact I need to label my product as exempt, & not inspected.
I know I must butcher poultry raised only by me on my property.

It also says something about needing to put Lot Numbers on your processed birds. Which is one thing I don't quite understand as these would be home birds.

My understanding is that "inspection" in the clause you are referring to there is an "onsite poultry butchering inspector". Meaning a person that remains through the butchering process and physically watches the birds get butchered. That is a federal requirement for slaughter houses. The inspection I'm referring to is more of a health and safety inspector, like the type that would go into a restaurant and give them a grade on their set up. But you seem to be correct in that that is no longer in that document. It definitely used to be there.

Yeah and whole birds only, no cuts.

And the lot number thing is only for your own records. You don't need to label with it. No one will look at that stuff unless a very sick person reports at a hospital that they ate some of your chicken recently. But essentially, any birds raised as a group should have separate lot numbers. I always just used the butcher date as the lot number since any birds raised a group I would always process on the same day.

 

[MysteryChicken]

My understanding is that "inspection" in the clause you are referring to there is an "onsite poultry butchering inspector". Meaning a person that remains through the butchering process and physically watches the birds get butchered. That is a federal requirement for slaughter houses. The inspection I'm referring to is more of a health and safety inspector, like the type that would go into a restaurant and give them a grade on their set up. But you seem to be correct in that that is no longer in that document. It definitely used to be there.

Yeah and whole birds only, no cuts.

And the lot number thing is only for your own records. You don't need to label with it. No one will look at that stuff unless a very sick person reports at a hospital that they ate some of your chicken recently. But essentially, any birds raised as a group should have separate lot numbers. I always just used the butcher date as the lot number since any birds raised a group I would always process on the same day.

Inspection Not Required. Hard to take a screenshot without my volume bar getting in the way of things.

I'm only talking about this area of the statutes.

How does one get registered?