Rare breed poultry HUGE FLOCK SALE

[fishingman]

HI,

Looking for a >>>>>>>>> Wheaten Maran Roo<<<<<<< no more then 1yr old

 

[rainbowhatchery]

Yes they can get pricey. We are just a hobby farm, both work full time and this is just a great fun family hobby for us so we try and keep our pricing around half of everyone else. Not to ruffle feathers (pun intended lol) but just so everyone can enjoy owning rare birds and as long as it covers our cost of owning the birds Im happy with that. Not everyone can say their hobby pays for itself.

 

[enola]

Are you NPIP certified??

 

[rainbowhatchery]

No we do not vaccinate for Mareks, its not financially realistic. Mareks is extremely cheap to vaccinate for, like 1,000 doses for $20 however the vaccine is only good for a couple hours after you mix it which means you have to use all 1,000 doses the same day you cant put it away for the next week or whatever. For large hatcheries pumping out thousands of birds a hatch that is easy enough to do. For small hobby farms such as mine where we only hatch maybe 25-50 a hatch its just not possible because I would have to buy the vaccine every week and throw away 950 doses. Just a bit of information for you though we do vaccinate our parent birds plus Markes is not transmitted through the egg so if you got chicks from anywhere and in the first 2 weeks buy the vaccine and give it to your own birds your good. I try and do that and if Im ordering new birds clump it up so they are all coming at about the same couple weeks so I can vaccinate. I hope this helps but sadly that is probably not something we will ever do because I dont see us ever hatching that many chicks a week.

 

[rainbowhatchery]

With Mareks it honestly depends on who you ask lol. Most research today says that mareks is so wide spread that if you own poultry for a long period of time your eventually going to have to deal with it. It typically (not always) but typically does not really affect your birds after sexual maturity, they can still get it but its typically not fatal, its an age thing so your adult birds may even have it and you dont know. The vaccine after 1 day is also probably up for debate on who you ask. It says 1 day but I know people that will give it to adult birds just to be safe. I personally will give it to young juvenile birds. You also have those that argue Mareks vaccination at its core because your technically giving the bird a form of Mareks and even more will argue with you that they can pass on Mareks from the vaccine itself and about 1-5% of birds will die from the vaccine. Its a very hotly debated topic depending on who you ask. I have had birds die from who knows what over the years and reality is with chickens if you have enough and long enough you will have some die and you will have no clue why. Obviously its very different if large numbers of your birds die which luckily I have never had to deal with. The way we handle it is relying on the aging process and its worked great for us. All new birds and young birds stay separate from the rest of our flock until they reach about 6 months old and laying age then they go in with the older birds. That 6 months of quarantine I guess you can call it has worked for us really well. Plus if I have a bird that starts acting odd or lethargic or really odd in any way I immediately remove and kill it. I know alot of people love their chickens and try to doctor them and medicate or whatever, I dont do that. I live by the old standard of only the strongest survive because I only want strong birds breeding so I dont really doctor my birds unless its an injury I can help with but anything else we just cull immediately. Diseases are scary thats for sure and vaccines are a hot debate, just like in people I guess some think they are great some refuse them, I suppose its a risk either way. Not commonly know the vaccine does not even stop the bird from getting mareks, there is no vaccine or cure for it, all the vaccine does is hopefully stop if from being fatal if they get it. Luckily Mareks is not transmitted to eggs so even if mom and dad have it and you get chicks they wont have it unless they get it from your flock or wherever they go. Our hatchery room is is a completely different building to once again try and quarantine day old chicks from older birds so our day old chicks never come within about 50 yards of our older birds from hatching to shipped out. Reality is you can be as careful as you want and then some person could come over to visit you and bring it on their shoes or pants right into your barn. We try and have a lock down barn in that nobody but the 3 of us (wife and son) are ever in the barns. That works out for us because we also own and breed livestock guard dogs so nobody can get inside our fencing and be in the barns anyway. I hope that answered your questions. I figured I would write alot since other can read the reply as well in case they had the same question. Oh and yes NPIP number will be on packages once we start shipping again in 2015.

 

[rainbowhatchery]

Not a problem. Our birds and their health are very important to us just like yours are to you. We are not some huge hatchery with thousands of birds we dont care about. We just have to call ourself a hatchery so we are listed as a business for local zoning issues where we live and plus we like to be legal and do our taxes. We are just a hobby farm with about 250 birds give or take and we love our birds just as much as everyone else, they are spoiled rotten with enormous indoor and outdoor runs, unlimited feed, heated waters in the winter and predator stress free with our Anatolian Shepherds.

 

[joleneschix]

I am curious do you only sell day old chicks? Or do you also sell older? I am quite a ways from you is why I ask. Not sure I trust our wonderful postal service with older chicks. And if you only sell day olds, do you take orders then tell people when it can be filled? How does it work? Thanks for your input.

 

[enola]

Do you allow customers to pick up ordered chicks?

 

[rainbowhatchery]

Yes we typically only sell day old chicks because that is the only way I am able to offer the free shipping is to ship out priority at day old. Yes if you ask I can usually give an estimate on when your order will be available. I cant be near as accurate as the big hatcheries but I can usually give an estimate within a few weeks. In the winter I dont hatch everything that is when I alternate out breeding stock or change out breeds ect.... and birds molt so its much harder to estimate than in the spring when Im hatching everything. Yes we use USPS but we guarantee live arrival so you dont have to worry about the post office handling because we guarantee you get what you ordered, we have good luck with USPS for the most part. Yes we allow customers to pick up orders, people do it all the time we just do not allow anyone in the barns, we try and keep others out of our barn just for bio security and that others with birds at home could un wittingly bring in a disease or virus on their clothes or shoes. New Pullet I did get a couple voicemails and I will return you call I just have family over for our annual christmas party so I have not returned voicemails yet but I will. About the only thing we are hatching regularly right now are marans and olive eggers.

 

[enola]

I understand about biosecurity. Where are you located.