Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[dheltzel]

Your project hen, are you breeding her back to the WFS ? I suppose half the F2's would lay white eggs though.

I'm interested in getting CCL and WFS eggs once I get my incubator going. And maybe some chicks later too, though I love to hatch my own. That's the best part of chicken raising for me.

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

so even mixes you will raise for food? cool I wish I had more room! My dogs take so much of the yard! My hens are terrible broods, the serama I let sit has been the only good one! and I had to sell her little ones after two weeks because of getting the NPIP testing done and having to clean everything and revamp!

Congrats on going NPIP!..I hear it is not too bad once you make "the change"..IDK..only what i read...hahha..lot of work either way!!..so great job! Love the blue eggs Sally!!

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: Thank you Danielle, it was a pain in the bleep and very stressful, however Burce said he didnt have any issues,, breezed through it. I guess its all in who you work with. Dh and I need to get the Health inspector out for our field test part of our CPT yet and we are pretty much set then.

Chad has been a blessing with the lab end of the NPIP stuff. Nan at the state is extremely busy but we worked through all the strange stuff we needed to, paperwork and more paperwork, I didnt just do the independent breeder I did Hatchery as well. We are PT & AI clean, what stinks is now I will have to find equal or better testing if I want to add to my flock. I am an addicted hatcher so it certainly will put a damper on my fun plus it was nice to swap and hatch some really cool stuff, my fav was hatching my friend sara's ancona ducks, I love them!

But Chad is going to get NPIP and I can do his hatching of his cool future fowl, peacocks and pheasants!

So if anyone is thinking about npip I can help and I know quite a few tips at this point!

 

[fisherlady]

so even mixes you will raise for food? cool I wish I had more room! My dogs take so much of the yard! My hens are terrible broods, the serama I let sit has been the only good one! and I had to sell her little ones after two weeks because of getting the NPIP testing done and having to clean everything and revamp!

We have geared our flock toward larger, heavy bodied hens and have been selecting our hatching eggs either because of the hen /roo combo (to allow for a nice sized offspring who would lay decent eggs) or for broody tendencies (Pidgy and Gracie's last hatch, 3 each, were eggs of their own) We currently have 3 Silver Pencil Rock Hens and 3 Black Jersey Giant hens who were unexpected 'extras' which I would like to sell, just haven't put the on Craig's list yet. We didn't expect to have as many females hatch as what we got, so have more than we need.

 

[wingstone]

Quote: fisherlady,,,I had to go look up the pencil rock,,,,beautiful birds,,,can you tell me about the temperment of them...I am asking because years ago when i started I really liked the silver and gold wyandotte....I have gotten away from them because they were always mean even the hens got mean....these rocks look alot like them.....do they go broody,,,how are they in the heat.......yes I coul look all of this up but first hand advice is always better

thought I had my meat birds with the bresse, but i am fining them not to be very winter hardy, and also very slow to mature......but they are great additions otherwise ... very friendly and curious birds

 

[fisherlady]

fisherlady,,,I had to go look up the pencil rock,,,,beautiful birds,,,can you tell me about the temperment of them...I am asking because years ago when i started I really liked the silver and gold wyandotte....I have gotten away from them because they were always mean even the hens got mean....these rocks look alot like them.....do they go broody,,,how are they in the heat.......yes I coul look all of this up but first hand advice is always better

thought I had my meat birds with the bresse, but i am fining them not to be very winter hardy, and also very slow to mature......but they are great additions otherwise ... very friendly and curious birds

I am enjoying them so far, but am hesitant to give them 2 thumbs up quite yet... they are friendly and curious but have been slow to mature. They were born in mid May but hadn't started to lay before cold weather got here. I think their late spring hatch may have effected their laying start though. They didn't gain size/weight over the summer as quick as our barnyard mixes, but have noticeably gained the last 2 months, so I would hold off till the 10 or 12 month date to decide if I like more than their personality. They are absolutely gorgeous birds though, and the roos are very impressive. When ours hatched in May I had a friend who had only 1 egg hatch from an incubator run. We had 7, so gave him 2 and unknown to us I gave him the only roo from the hatch. He was an absolutely stunning bird, and was already over 10 pounds when he was killed by a predator which tried to get into their coop (no other birds were lost in the attack, so I guess he did his job)

Edit to add... they are supposed to be broody, but too young to tell yet, though one in particular stays by the broody pen almost constantly since Gracie has chicks now. They haven't seemed to have any trouble with the rest of the flock... are holding what I would call a 'middle ground' on the pecking order. They didn't have any noticeable trouble with the summer heat, but have numerous areas of shady woods and such here. This winter they can often be found most of the day hanging out on the perching boards I have under their outside covered porch. Only days I have seen them stay inside it was under 15 degrees and windy here.



I am thinking of hatching some more in the spring to get another roo, but haven't decided for sure yet.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

 

 
so even mixes you will raise for food? cool I wish I had more room!  My dogs take so much of the yard! My hens are terrible broods, the serama I let sit has been the only good one! and I had to sell her little ones after two weeks because of getting the NPIP testing done and having to clean everything and revamp! 

Congrats on going NPIP!..I hear it is not too bad once you make "the change"..IDK..only what i read...hahha..lot of work either way!!..so great job!  Love the blue eggs Sally!! 

Thank you Danielle, it was a pain in the bleep and very stressful, however Burce said he didnt have any issues,, breezed through it.  I guess its all in who you work with. Dh and I need to get the Health inspector out for our field test part of our CPT yet and we are pretty much set then.  

Chad has been a blessing with the lab end of the NPIP stuff.  Nan at the state is extremely busy but we worked through all the strange stuff we needed to, paperwork and more paperwork, I didnt just do the independent breeder I did Hatchery as well.  We are PT & AI clean, what stinks is now I will have to find equal or better testing if I want to add to my flock.  I am an addicted hatcher so it certainly will put a damper on my fun plus it was nice to swap and hatch some really cool stuff, my fav was hatching my friend sara's ancona ducks, I love them! 

But Chad is going to get NPIP and I can do his hatching of his cool future fowl, peacocks and pheasants! 

So if anyone is thinking about npip I can help and I know quite a few tips at this point! 

Hey Sally! Good to see you! I also have been having trouble with the screen freezing, unable to quote, ect...I'm hoping BYC straightens it out. I would love to hear more about NPIP, are you really able to free range on the program? I understand I was given some bum information at the class, where I asked about it....or it could be that Free Range is such a broad term...do you have to keep your runs covered or what? I'm really interested.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: fisherlady,,,I had to go look up the pencil rock,,,,beautiful birds,,,can you tell me about the temperment of them...I am asking because years ago when i started I really liked the silver and gold wyandotte....I have gotten away from them because they were always mean even the hens got mean....these rocks look alot like them.....do they go broody,,,how are they in the heat.......yes I coul look all of this up but first hand advice is always better

thought I had my meat birds with the bresse, but i am fining them not to be very winter hardy, and also very slow to mature......but they are great additions otherwise ... very friendly and curious birds
Wing they are really cool, they look almost like my dark brahma did. Ed was raising them as well. Not sure if he still is? Does he still pop on here? swataracreek?

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: Karen are you on Facebook? on several of the chicken groups I am on there were some asking for hens. Not sure their location vs you but if your on FB send me a link and I can friend and add you to the lists, most times I dont even have to post on CL anymore. I think alot of PA BYC are on them too.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: Thank you Danielle, it was a pain in the bleep and very stressful, however Burce said he didnt have any issues,, breezed through it. I guess its all in who you work with. Dh and I need to get the Health inspector out for our field test part of our CPT yet and we are pretty much set then.

Chad has been a blessing with the lab end of the NPIP stuff. Nan at the state is extremely busy but we worked through all the strange stuff we needed to, paperwork and more paperwork, I didnt just do the independent breeder I did Hatchery as well. We are PT & AI clean, what stinks is now I will have to find equal or better testing if I want to add to my flock. I am an addicted hatcher so it certainly will put a damper on my fun

plus it was nice to swap and hatch some really cool stuff, my fav was hatching my friend sara's ancona ducks, I love them!

But Chad is going to get NPIP and I can do his hatching of his cool future fowl, peacocks and pheasants!

So if anyone is thinking about npip I can help and I know quite a few tips at this point!

Hey Sally! Good to see you! I also have been having trouble with the screen freezing, unable to quote, ect...I'm hoping BYC straightens it out. I would love to hear more about NPIP, are you really able to free range on the program? I understand I was given some bum information at the class, where I asked about it....or it could be that Free Range is such a broad term...do you have to keep your runs covered or what? I'm really interested.
technically you cannot free range as anything you do that doesnt fall under their provisions will void your testing and inturn void your NPIP status. I know most just dont listen to the guidelines, but after having several hours conversation with the health inspector here and some of the disease he ran into I am not sure I WONT follow their guidelines. Its so easy for them to pick stuff up, but again thats why we test every 90 days. Yes we covered our runs with cheap bush netting and let me tell you its hanging low from all this ice, a temp fix to pass inspection.

I am sure your clean Blarney if you have an enclosed area when the inspector comes, fresh water food, screened windows and such, rodent control and your birds look good you will NOT have an issue. I am thinking Chris would be your health inspector and also your field test inspector for the CPT, if you go through this I suggest while chris is there you do the blood draw even if you didnt have nans course yet! He was here and now he has to run all the way back out just for that. I didnt know he was the same go to guy at the time!

The paperwork is done on my end and I have the word files to edit, and yours will look exactly like mine so its a simple email to Nan, Chris will do the rest for you! I have questioned that provisions book over and over and even Harrisburg is confused with alot of it! Its all in who reads it and what they get out of it! But after Chad figuring out the labwork paperwork and Nan finishing up my application and forms it was a fast process. The cpt course helped me with understanding the lab paperwork which we were a tad confused on so I wrote notes all over my example paperwork so I wouldnt forget them!

Let me know when your ready, paperwork is basically done, you will first need your premise number if you dont have one, but your a farm so I will assume you do have one. If not here is the link to do it online, they dont come out or anything they just sent me a number. http://www.agriculture.state.pa.us/...3/AgWebsite/contact/PremisesRegistration.aspx

You dont HAVE to do the hatchery and do the AI clean every 90 but I highly suggest it. And you started to show not?

If anyone else is interested I can walk you through with Martha on here instead of Emails with my application/s and explain anything you need to understand about my answers on the form, because they were changed NUMEROUS TIMES for different reasons!