Questions about organic chicken

[greyfields]

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You have to adminster them under the observation of your compliance officer then have to remove the animal from your organic marketing program. You can keep it, but cannot sell it as organic (or 'organically raised'). That would be a severe violation.

A lot of people who are successful with organics are picking the correct crop (be it plant or beast) for their climate. You want to marry-up what your land and climate can support, which means choosing livestock which won't be susceptible to parasites in yoru climate. You cannot deworm, either.

In some sense, Organic is hard farming. On the other hand, your inputs go down and your revenue goes up. And the people who inspect the organic program really do bend over to help little guys like us. We are their ideals for the NoP, even though, of course, giants have converted part of their operations to organic as well.

 

[greyfields]

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This is what I do as well. Inform the customer. I don't claim to be organic, simply natural. I tell them I deworm animals. I tell them that yeah, one pig had a bad hoof and got some penecillin a few months ago. It hasn't harmed sales and I've never had anyone flinch.

I would be 1000% more worried about pesticide residue on your fruit than anything I could pump into a beef you're going to eat.

 

[momofchicks]

I didn't realize I was going to get so much feed back. Thanks. Okay, okay, so don't use the O word I gotcha. I have a friend who mentioned if it was Organic she would buy some.

Greyfields - (One more thing, you can vaccinate organic animals. You just cannot medicate.

If you read the NOP law, they stress wanting animals to be treated humanely and with respect. Denying them vaccines against preventable diseases would be considered cruel. Therefore vaccines are allowed.... antibiotics are not.)
Does that mean actually giving them a vaccine shot or the medicated feed for chicks?

I am going to go to Bowling Green for the USDA processing. Now my husband wants to get about 25 birds. So we can sell a few. Thanks again for all your information. Oh, we did process a few of our own personal flock and it went great, DH just isn't up for doing 10 or more at a time.

 

[MissPrissy]

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You can administer antibiotics BUT the chicken has to be taken out of the organic pen forever. It is no longer 'organic'. You must put it in a different pen and never the twain shall meet.

 

[greyfields]

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Medicated feed is a medication and classified as an antibiotic by the USDA. So they cannot get medicated feeds, period.

You can do the vaccinations yourself or have the hatchery do them. But geneally, broilers are never vaccinated since their lifespan is so brief. However, a lot of organic producers have been using the coccidiossis vaccine, since that gives them at least something they can do. Coccidiossis is the #1 issue with poultry producers.

 

[dancingbear]

There are herbal de-wormers, such as black walnut hull, wormwood, and others. Diatomaceous earth (food grade, NOT pool filter grade!) will also kill worms and external parasites, and is ok for organics.

 

[greyfields]

You are correct. Homeopathic remedies are allowes. Synthetic substances are not allowed.

I'd caution you all on DE, though. It's shown to be effective against external parasites (flies, ticks, lice, etc) but there is slim to no evidence that it's effective on **internal** parasites. Save your money. If you're not organic, take a fecal to your vet and get a prescribe dewormer if you indeed have a problem.

I wish DE worked like they allege it does, I really do. But, it simply doesn't.

 

[dancingbear]

The DE has worked well for me, on my dogs and cats, and a friend of mine has had good results with her horses. I think a lot of people don't give enough of it, then think it doesn't work, when the problem is really that they under-dosed.

Homeopathy is a separate branch of natural medicine. Homeopathic remedies are naturopathic, but not all herbal or naturopathic remedies are homeopathic. I make a lot of my own herbal remedies, but not homeopathics. They're a lot more complicated to produce.

 

[AnthonyT]

Every study I have seen on DE as a wormer shows no effect, no matter what the dose. The fact that it is supposed to work by slicing the bodies of worms and killing them is also quite interesting considering the lining of the gut is not exactly hard. If DE is cutting worms it is also cutting the cut to some extent.

 

[greyfields]

The only scientific study we were able to dig-up (my Extension Agent and I researched this a ton when I got started in livestock) from a University showed only a 'trend' towards lower parasite loading on animals given DE. However, the DE did not give a theraputic benefit to the animal at any does administered.

So it's an order of magnitude. If you are all for DE and 'believe' in it, that would satisfy you. If you actually compare fecal samples before and after, then realize the DE was not getting you below the threshold after which parasites won't hurt your animal, then it's Snakejuice.