***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[Ksane]

These turkeys are only 3 1/2 months old and they're so big already. The tom is a Bourbon Red and the hen is a Blue Slate. The tom's name is Cory (after Poco lol). When you whistle at him and tell him how pretty he is he puffs up his feathers and struts lol It's hilarious to see a turkey baby strutting. I put them in one of the layer yards with chickens last week and surprisingly enough they've done great with those bossy ole hens. I still separate at bedtime though. I didn't want to lock them up in a building at night together quite yet.
Then one of my precious Dark Brahma girls. All 4 are photo-bombers so they always get in the pictures.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I'm thinking about getting my birds NPIP tested. And possibly paying to get approval (not sure what it's called, but I think it's $50ish). Thoughts? Reasons for? Reasons against?

What do you mean approval? You pay $5 each year you have them come out and test your flock. It usually takes them a few weeks to get to you after you schedule. If you want to take the class to become a tester and test your own flock I think the fee is $35 every 3 years if I remember correctly.

Plusses- you can legally ship chicks and eggs across state lines. More buyers because some people will only buy NPIP.

Minuses- the diseases they test for are very rarely found anymore, so NPIP doesn't really mean much anymore. The diseases that are problems now are not normally tested for unless you request it or you suspect a problem. It can take several weeks for them to come out, I've waited as long as two months (I had to call the DOA twice to get the tester to call me back). You can only buy from NPIP people to add to your flocks, even hatching eggs should come from NPIP flocks so it really limits what you can bring in. If you become a tester yourself you can test new birds as you bring them in- but please still do a proper quarantine!

 

[HeyBigRhondaq]

What do you mean approval?  You pay $5 each year you have them come out and test your flock.  It usually takes them a few weeks to get to you after you schedule.  If you want to take the class to become a tester and test your own flock I think the fee is $35 every 3 years if I remember correctly.

Plusses- you can legally ship chicks and eggs across state lines.  More buyers because some people will only buy NPIP.

Minuses- the diseases they test for are very rarely found anymore, so NPIP doesn't really mean much anymore.  The diseases that are problems now are not normally tested for unless you request it or you suspect a problem.  It can take several weeks for them to come out, I've waited as long as two months (I had to call the DOA twice to get the tester to call me back).  You can only buy from NPIP people to add to your flocks, even hatching eggs should come from NPIP flocks so it really limits what you can bring in.  If you become a tester yourself you can test new birds as you bring them in- but please still do a proper quarantine!

The $50 refers to the ability to sell eating eggs (a license, I guess). If you have it, you have to sort and clean the eggs, but can sell them to anyone. If you don't, in theory, you don't have to clean or sort, but are only supposed to sell from your own property. The guy I talked to at the state said it probably wouldn't be checked if I weren't at farmer's markets or selling to a restaurant or something. This far I haven't felt the need to get the license. But, I'm a rule follower at heart.

 

[hotcurltr]

@lonnyandrinda So glad you found two. I know how it hurts to lose something you have your hopes on. Sorry about the chick.
One of my sons just called me and said my other sons wife, my DIL was in a horse accident today. He and my other son aren't sure.exactly what happened, but she is critical and was Air Lifted to Corpus Cristi. They just know it was a green horse she was training for barrels and it blew up. She lost her right kidney completely as it is no longer functional, her liver is lacerated, and one of her arteries was bleeding into her stomach. I think that's what he said about the artery. The paramedics had an ultrasound on the ambulance and saw she was bleeding internally, so they called Flight for Life, because the nearest trauma center was an hour and a halt away. My son was 5 hours away, so he wasn't there for the surgery as they took her in right away, so she was there by herself. My son should just about be there now. He broke his back two years ago bull fighting(rodeo clown) so they have been going through really hard times. Please pray for both of them, it sounds like it's going to be a tough road. I haven't heard how the surgery went yet.
They were working on a horse ranch, as I used to. She was training horses, and he wad doing maintenance and shoeing. He has had all the breaking and training other peoples horses he wants. But she really likes doing it, still.

 

[Ksane]

@lonnyandrinda
  So glad you found two.  I know how it hurts to lose something you have your hopes on. Sorry about the chick.
One of my sons just called me and said my other sons wife, my DIL was in a horse accident today.  He and my other son aren't sure.exactly what happened, but she is critical and was  Air Lifted to Corpus Cristi.  They just know it was a green horse she was training for barrels and it blew up.  She lost her right kidney completely as it is no longer functional, her liver is lacerated, and one of her arteries was bleeding into her stomach.  I think that's what he said about the artery.  The paramedics had an ultrasound on the ambulance and saw she was bleeding internally, so they called Flight for Life, because the nearest trauma center was an hour and a halt away.  My son was 5 hours away, so he wasn't there for the surgery as they took her in right away, so she was there by herself.  My son should just about be there now.  He broke his back two years ago bull fighting(rodeo clown) so they have been going through really hard times.  Please pray for both of them, it sounds like it's going to be a tough road.  I haven't heard how the surgery went yet.
They were working on a horse ranch, as I used to.  She was training horses, and he wad doing maintenance and shoeing.  He has had all the breaking and training other peoples horses he wants.  But she really likes doing it, still.

Oh man, I hope she's alright! Horses scare the bejesus out of me. I can handle every other animal in the world but I've never liked or trusted horses. Even less so after I'd owned a few. It sounds like he stepped on her or something. She must have been in horrific pain. Please let us know how she does. I'm sending good thoughts and hopes her way.

 

[hotcurltr]

Oh man, I hope she's alright! Horses scare the bejesus out of me. I can handle every other animal in the world but I've never liked or trusted horses. Even less so after I'd owned a few. It sounds like he stepped on her or something. She must have been in horrific pain. Please let us know how she does. I'm sending good thoughts and hopes her way.

Just had an update that the other kidney might be starting to fail too. I just hate it, for her and the way my son hurts. I seem to always hurt for my kids more than they are hurt. Thank you for your kind words. Yes, horses can be scary, but most want to be friendly. I'm going on over two years since my accident. But I think hers is worse. At least everything has healed on me but my leg, and hopefully this skin graft will do the job. Mitzi, I'm just in knotts. I guess no sleep tonight. I have so much to do with the chickens tomorrow., too.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

The $50 refers to the ability to sell eating eggs (a license, I guess). If you have it, you have to sort and clean the eggs, but can sell them to anyone. If you don't, in theory, you don't have to clean or sort, but are only supposed to sell from your own property. The guy I talked to at the state said it probably wouldn't be checked if I weren't at farmer's markets or selling to a restaurant or something. This far I haven't felt the need to get the license. But, I'm a rule follower at heart.

I don't know the details but I'm sure someone else will chime in tomorrow. I know when we inquired at the farmer's market near Catoosa you had to have the license and you had to use new cartons only- no recycled ones. I think it was also required to wash the eggs but I'm not sure if that was a state requirement or a requirement of the farmer's market, also required a food handler's permit but I think that was a rule they added for themselves. Whatever rules that farmer's market wants to set you have to follow. We would be allowed to sell "hatching eggs" without those things and we can't control if they eat those darn barnyard mix eggs!

@lonnyandrinda So glad you found two. I know how it hurts to lose something you have your hopes on. Sorry about the chick.
One of my sons just called me and said my other sons wife, my DIL was in a horse accident today. He and my other son aren't sure.exactly what happened, but she is critical and was Air Lifted to Corpus Cristi. They just know it was a green horse she was training for barrels and it blew up. She lost her right kidney completely as it is no longer functional, her liver is lacerated, and one of her arteries was bleeding into her stomach. I think that's what he said about the artery. The paramedics had an ultrasound on the ambulance and saw she was bleeding internally, so they called Flight for Life, because the nearest trauma center was an hour and a halt away. My son was 5 hours away, so he wasn't there for the surgery as they took her in right away, so she was there by herself. My son should just about be there now. He broke his back two years ago bull fighting(rodeo clown) so they have been going through really hard times. Please pray for both of them, it sounds like it's going to be a tough road. I haven't heard how the surgery went yet.
They were working on a horse ranch, as I used to. She was training horses, and he wad doing maintenance and shoeing. He has had all the breaking and training other peoples horses he wants. But she really likes doing it, still.

Just had an update that the other kidney might be starting to fail too. I just hate it, for her and the way my son hurts. I seem to always hurt for my kids more than they are hurt. Thank you for your kind words. Yes, horses can be scary, but most want to be friendly. I'm going on over two years since my accident. But I think hers is worse. At least everything has healed on me but my leg, and hopefully this skin graft will do the job. Mitzi, I'm just in knotts. I guess no sleep tonight. I have so much to do with the chickens tomorrow., too.

I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter-in-law. Prayers for you and your family, and for healing for her. Do they have any kids to worry about or is it just them?

 

[NanaKat]

Diana, prayers for your daughter in law and your son. Hopefully the doctors can get her stabilized so the kidney heals. A bleeding artery is scary business! I know you must be beside yourself with worry. Please try to get some rest.

 

[BetsyOK]

My flock has been NPIP certified for mor than 10 years. It costs me only the $5 fee for the paperwork. The OK Ag Dept. does the testing, and they also test for Avan Influenza. If you have an individual who is a certified tested, they'll usually charge a small fee per bird. I oiginally had it done because some of my keets were sick, and I worried greatly over it. Also planned to sell some of my birds, and didn't want to be possibly carrying a bad disease. The keets had coccidiosis, and my birds have always tested clean. However, it doesn't test for a lot of things. If you show or sell birds at most (or all?) shows, either your flock or each individual bird must be NPIP certified. It gives me a certain amount of peace of mind. I have to help, and the occasional bird wil bleed quit a bit, but it isn't really difficult.

The first five years all your birds are tested; the second five half are tested, and after that only a quarte are tested. I think after you reach a certain number of years, they only "spot" test a few of your birds.

 

[BetsyOK]

Should have read on down before I answered. Most of the information I gave was already given. You do have to provide a copy of your NPIP certificate when you show, and I'm sure if you ship birds there's a requirement also.

So sorry to hear about your DIL. The kidneys are different from the other organs, and can recover better in some cases. Our oldest grandson was shot through and through his abdomen around 10 years ago. One bullet went clear through both kidneys, and nicked his liver and his spleen. The surgeon elected not to remove the kidneys, which would have put this young man on dialysis the rest of his life, but rather cleaned them up and hoped for the best. Everything healed well and he has no problems whatsoever from any of it. Hoping for the same for your DIL.