Mt Healthy Hatchery

[boundtogoboogie]

TSC does not use "local breeders" All of our chicks come from hatcheries.

 

[Wol1]

I think each store has its own "personality". In some stores, there's a bad atmosphere all around, management to floor staff. Other stores are full of enthusiastic employees. Feed stores or groceries. Some stores show care of chicks and some treat them as baby meat.

I liked the chicks at our local TSC. Properly labeled. Healthy. Fresh water, clean feed. Only question they couldn't answer at our local store was how much shipping was to special order. I thought it strange that they didn't know. I think I would have ordered our Americaunas that way but I didn't want to get stuck with $25 shipping. It would be nice if they offered free to store shipping.

However, at the Rural King where we went to get Americaunas, they had filthy water and food. The signage called them Auracanas, which they aren't. Period. They don't quite look like Americaunas. Probably generic easter eggers. Doesn't matter in my case, but mislabeled. The brooder lamps were situated for customer convenience more than chick warmth. They were piled on top of each other on one side of the bin trying to be warm. One had a serious case of pasty butt and couldn't open her eyes (pecked?), but the guy was too busy to take care of it. Seriously, he was. He cared... and he knew about the different breeds, he was just asked to handle too much alone. He let us take her for free because "we can't take care of the sick ones" and he would rather she had a chance with us. We nursed her through it. We called her Angel and she feathered in all white. !!

 

[boundtogoboogie]

Not sure about your area, but in mine the shipping is included in the cost of the birds, pretty sure

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Not sure about your area, but in mine the shipping is included in the cost of the birds, pretty sure

I've never seen ANY hatchery that had the shipping included. You may want to check that out a bit.

 

[boundtogoboogie]

The barriers were to protect both the chicks and the result of public health concerns. With the salmonella outbreaks here and there the company did not want to risk any issues with customers handling the birds and getting sick in the event of a case. There was a pretty comprehensive training module that all employees were required to take. I don't know about other areas of the country, but I don't believe we've ever had a problem in my region's stores. The big issue for me is that so many people have zero common sense when it comes to letting their children handle these tiny, fragile little creatures. Before the mandate against allowing people to touch the birds came out I used to hold chicks so that little people could touch and pet them gently. That way I was in control of the safety of the peeps. My other beef is the idiots who think it will be so cute to buy their children chicks for easter and don't seem to understand that this is a living animal which carries the same committment as any pet. Then after the holiday they are looking for someplace to dump them! It infuriates me.

 

[Wol1]

Some of those idiots live next door to us. Guess who ended up with the chickens when they got smelly and weren't cute anymore. Two of the six died because they didn't give them a safe enclosure. He brought them (4 two month olds) over in a sack. Singular.

Before I could take it from him and gently extract them, he upended the sack in the door of our coop where they were promptly set upon by the big girls. The poor dears were traumatized. They're darlings, though. Very happy girls now.

 

[boundtogoboogie]

Grrrrrrrr. I'd probably have put him in a sack and upended him, the miserable so and so. Then id have set my dogs on him. Guess its a good thing it was you and not me

 

[Wol1]

Grrrrrrrr. I'd probably have put him in a sack and upended him, the miserable so and so. Then id have set my dogs on him. Guess its a good thing it was you and not me

Why didn't I think of that?

 

[sickchicks]

2011, 2012, 2013, 2014....

When you talk Mt. Healthy Hatchery salmonella outbreaks, you are also talking Tractor Supply outbreaks. Most hatcheries can and do do a great job in sanitation. The problems tend to arise as they get into mail ordering and signing agreements with large feed supply chains. This immediate and exponential increase in demands inevitably leads to sanitation issues!

KNOW YOUR SOURCE!

http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/live-poultry-05-14/index.html

Have questions? Don't think it's serious? Talk to The Chicken Whisperer about this very subject this Sunday...

From his FB page:
BREAKING NEWS ALERT! I was just contacted by CDC Headquarters in Atlanta. The first Salmonella outbreak notice of 2014 related to live poultry in backyard flocks has been released. Please read the following report and educate yourselves on ...the risks. (For those of you that think this is a case of Big Brother, Big Ag, Big Pharma, or Anti-Backyard Poultry Groups, you are wrong. I understand if you have been a chicken farmer for 80 years and have never had Salmonella, you may think this is hogwash, but if your four-year-old daughter died from getting Salmonella from handling infected baby chicks, you know this is serious business.)SPECIAL SALMONELLA BROADCAST! This Monday, May 12th, at 2:00pm EST, I will have a special "LIVE" broadcast regarding this national Salmonella outbreak. My special guests will be, Dr. Casey Barton Behravesh, MS, DVM, DrPH, DACVPM, Deputy Branch Chief for the Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch at the CDC; Dr. Brigid McCrea, PhD, poultry scientist, professor, and poultry extension small flock sp...ecialist; Peter Brown, aka The Chicken Doctor, and founder of, First State Vet Supply; and I have an invitation still pending from Dr. Maurice Pitesky, DVM, MPVM, DACVPM from UC Davis University in California. This panel of poultry experts will not only be explaining everything you need to know about the current outbreak and Salmonella treatment and prevention, but also what to do if you have a batch of chicks or chickens from this hatchery. We will also be taking your "LIVE" phone calls! I will post how to listen "LIVE" starting Sunday afternoon. Hope you can make it!

 

[boundtogoboogie]

And this is why we don't let customers handle the chicks