Seamless Bands

[blackred]

Quote:
All bird or just adult birds?
It would be a little hard to permanently banded a day old chick.

Chris

We were talking about exhibition birds here but it will probably extend beyond that.
Being from Texas and seeing first hand what power the Commercial people have over the lawmakers ( as in money) I can see it coming someday. They are going to do everything in their power to keep us from having poultry. They see us as a threat when it comes to diseases.
For the record I am not an alarmist or anti-government or a conspiracy theory kind of guy but I have seen the handwriting on the wall here.

Bob

 

[Arielle]

I hear what you are saying Blackred, the European system is different; It's hard to explain in a couple sentences.

I have horses of Dutch and German breeding; all identification is on record by DNA and markings. Some/most have microchips. I like that the judges rank an animal against the standard and the paper with the written details helps with breeding by understanding weak areas and strengths. At the breed shows each animal is openly reviewed by the head inspector for everyone to hear as he explains the order of placing.

THe Europeans are more willing to do what is best for everyone; we value the individual in the US. I do think that as back yard flocks continue to increase in numbers, poultry owners need to understand the need for biosecurity and why. It is a disease control method that benefits everyone; but as I said earlier in the US we value individuality. That doesn't work to contain or prevent diseases. I've bred horses for years and have come to understand and value the european breeding strategy.

I wish more people would understand why some poultry events are fun but pose a disease disaster. More education is needed and rules. I really don't want to see back yard chickens be eliminated; it would be a great loss in many ways.

 

[blackred]

Arielle
I agree 100% that we should all be practicing better bio security whether you show chickens or not. But I think the paranoia of poultry shows and diseases is unfounded but I understand how some can think that. I also think that we should be banding or identifying our birds in a permanent sort of way but you can not in any way compare horses ( micro chipping) to poultry.

The difference between poultry and other livestock including dogs is mostly money but also in longevity and breeding. We can breed 100's of birds form a mating, how often can you breed a horse, goat or dog? The cost ( worth ) of a chicken is less that what it takes to feed a horse in a day. A horse lives 20-30 years so micro chipping makes sense. There is money in horse shows but not in Poultry shows so of course they are run different.

You are also right about the individual rights in a way. I don't know that much about Germany or the Dutch but do they have individual States with state rights like we do? One of the biggest hurdles that the ABA and APA have in getting some form of poultry regulations to be the same across the country is that the states have their own regulating entities and are not going to give them up. We have tried here in Texas to get the TAHC to be reasonable with their rules by comparing Texas to other states but they basically don't care. The Texas Poultry Federation got the laws put into the Texas Constitution and it can't be changed by a bunch of exhibition and backyard poultry people. Luckily Texas is big enough that we can still have our in-state only shows and survive but some states may not be able to.

The next time that some big Commercial poultry company gets a bad case of AI in the US you will see some of the things that happened in Europe happen here. Restriction of poultry movement will be mandatory and those of us who are just hobbyist will take the biggest hit.

Bob