Michigan

[M.sue]

I thought I would make a brave showing for the other end of the spectrum a moment.

And I am even going to start with a disclaimer and hope it reduces the damage. (Please don't hate me?)

No one will hate you but value & respect your opinion. I think this is great because we (BYCer's) are able to obtain so much knowledge & information, and hear different views. From all of this we are then able draw a conclusion of our own on what we are comfortable with and what is best for each of us.

Ah, they sweet!
Carl is the neighbor.

Ah, the neighbor....now I remember!

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Adorable children and nice chickens!!

RBahmer - whoa...what in the world are you going to do with all those chicks!? LOL!!

Didn't you know chicks are an addicting habit?

I have an entire bag of layer PELLETS bought by accident. Nobody here eats pellets.

I also got a home for the beagle yesterday. YAY me.. I hope I made the right decision..

I almost grabbed pellets on Sunday by mistake too. Luckily I noticed.

Glad you found a home for the beagle. Beagles love to run & hunt. You did make the right decision....you found him a good home!

 

[snowflake]

133 posts to catch up on, will do that later. Just want to say the classes yesterday were very informative! met a lot of nice people, some of you were there, and Nancy gave an invite for all to join, hope to see some new posters!!! Sorry Daran missed it, I think you would have enjoyed it. They had slides to go with every talk, so you could read as well as listen plus MANY hand-outs. Chickengrandma, got copies and plans to get them to Daran. I think that if there is something specific you are interested in and they know in advance they will discuss that topic. I knew nothing about Pullorum so the AM class was very informative for me, and we got to test live birds.All in All I think it was well worth the $$ and I hope more of you can go next year.
Have an appt. in GR at 9AM with Soc. Sec. so Good morning to all and have a wonderful sunny day. will catch up later.

 

[M.sue]

133 posts to catch up on, will do that later. Just want to say the classes yesterday were very informative! met a lot of nice people, some of you were there, and Nancy gave an invite for all to join, hope to see some new posters!!! Sorry Daran missed it, I think you would have enjoyed it. They had slides to go with every talk, so you could read as well as listen plus MANY hand-outs. Chickengrandma, got copies and plans to get them to Daran. I think that if there is something specific you are interested in and they know in advance they will discuss that topic. I knew nothing about Pullorum so the AM class was very informative for me, and we got to test live birds.All in All I think it was well worth the $$ and I hope more of you can go next year.
Have an appt. in GR at 9AM with Soc. Sec. so Good morning to all and have a wonderful sunny day. will catch up later.

I would love to go next year if I knew well enough in advance to make arrangements. Wish they held something like that up here around me. They might but probably on a smaller and not so in depth scale.....something for me to keep an ear open to.

 

[Olive Hill]

Well, ya'll made up for having such a quiet day, didn't ya?! LOL!


I'm not going to respond to each statement individually, will just urge you all to do your research and be wary of "false idols". Ph.Ds are human and there is much at play in the world of livestock politics. Anytime hard and fast rules are bandied about -- especially those that, when translated to your situation increase risks -- you should know it's time for you to start looking for more information.

 

[Olive Hill]

Woah. Okay, I still need to go back and pick up the posts that my reply disappeared on, and I have more I wanted to respond to now, too, but...

I thought I would make a brave showing for the other end of the spectrum a moment.

And I am even going to start with a disclaimer and hope it reduces the damage. (Please don't hate me?)

***The following message has been brought to you by... er, *ehem*, I mean, what I am about to say is how I feel personally, what works for me, my family, and our lifestyle. It is not meant as criticism directed toward any of you kind people personally. We all make our own decisions based on our own lives, and our own hearts. We do the best we can with what we know, and try to make sure we do know, for ourselves, our families, and the animals in our lives. I am not a judgmental kind of person, though I may be a bit unfairly pessimistic, skeptical, and suspicious.***

Okay, now I am going to speak my mind about those experts, and I will also note that I am not making any comment on what kind of human beings they are, just on what I think of their theories.

That is crazy! And I absolutely wonder where the money comes from. Always wonder where the money is. Vaccinations are BIG business, and BIG money, and factory "farms" / huge commercial "farms" are right up there, too. And they don't want to make things easy for us. I have done a whole goat load of vaccine research, and while I am always open to learning more, it would take some really good sh..tuff... to convince me it's better for the average backyard chicken to be pumped full of disgusting chemicals than to lead a natural life. I think so many other lifestyle factors are far more important in disease prevention and raising healthy birds. (No, I don't vaccinate my children, either.

)

I also think a lot of their info probably comes from, and more closely pertains to, commercial "farming", where chickens are going to be far more susceptible to illness based on their lifestyle, environment, and population.

I don't understand, either, where the idea of keeping all new chickens completely separate comes from, and I would be very interested to hear the reasoning behind that, thank you Chicken Grandma for asking for us.

Everyone I know integrates younger chickens into their "old" flock. As noted by someone else, this also means either you never get new chickens, or it is not possible to free range, which is of considerable importance to me.

As to temps, I do think it is nice for chickens to be a little warmer in the Winter, though I think of it as more of a bit of pampering rather than a necessity if you're staying below 0 for long periods of time. Birds do not experience, or deal with, heat and cold the same way humans do. I question what the "ideal" and stable temperatures are actually supposed to be "ideal" for, and I suspect it has a great deal more to do with egg production ($$$) than it does the actual birds. They are real live animals, for pete's sake, not some sort of laboratory test tube chemical compound that's going to all go wahooey and put a great big hole in the ceiling if the temps drop by 10 degrees.

It's okay, yo can come back out, I'm done now.

I congratulate anyone who read all the way through that rant! Now it is late, maybe tomorrow I will get to make my other random comments on much less controversial topics.

I'll tell you the same thing I tell everyone on this thread who makes it their mission to be the next Food, Inc. I hope you're putting your money where your mouth is. Farmers are running businesses. Don't like the way the business is run? Don't buy its products. Support the farmers who are doing it the way you'd like it done or they can't keep doing what they're doing.

 

[taprock]

We lost almost 2 foot of snow last night with the warm weather and wind!

I can see dirt in two spots! My boulder and bird bath in the flower bed have reappeared. Hopefully the wind will die down some. I need to clean out the little coop and move Blackberry in as her babies are due to hatch Saturday night.

 

[swampducks]

May I ask, who is Carl? I know a Carl, it's a nice name. I know more than one in fact.

nm, I saw late you mentioned it was your neighbor. Still like the name, married one.

Carl mixes his as soon as they are near the same size...

 

[swampducks]

LOL good for you! Yeah, I need Isas and BSLs. But you're probably too far away to make it an economical trip. Gas would eat that savings right up! Where the heck IS Olivet anyway? I am not a native and too lazy to google.

. Anyone need chicks LOL ?

 

[b737drvr]

Juise - nice post.

Cute kids!

 

[swampducks]

Yes, but it was inspired chicken math!

Well that is just chicken math run completely amok!