standards and protocal for hatcheries

[smfiaschetti]

Is there a rulebook somewhere that hatcheries have to follow for answering different questions and simple regulations?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm not aware of any rulebook. They have to follow their state's regulations. Each state is different. If they ship across state lines, they have to follow Federal regulations, though there are not as many as many people seem to think. They also have to follow the regulations of the state they are shipping to. Again, each state is different. As an example, Virginia requires a specific test for any chicks coming into Virginia. Some hatcheries don't ship to Virginia because of that restriction. It's not that their chicks are infected. They don't have an affordable lab available to perform the test Virginia requires.

So there would have to be a separate rule bood for each state they operate in and each state they ship to.

I'm not sure why you are asking this. It sounds like you might get a clearer answer if we understood better why you are asking.

 

[smfiaschetti]

I'm asking because there are so many answers to different questions that people have. For example: Brolers. One hatchery will say a red broiler will be ready for harvest in 8 weeks. Another hatchery will say 12 to 13 weeks. Another example: Never use pine chips in with chicks but use shredded newspaper. While others say using newspaper is a bad idea chick paper is best. When people are starting to raise chickens, it can be very confusing as to what to do. What I have done is study many answers to questions I have about my chickens then sometimes I have to just guess what is the right way of doing things because there are sooo many different answers.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That helps quite a bit. I was obviously off-track in my other post.

A lot of the confusion is because so many different things can work and we keep them in such different conditions. There are very few things where there is just one simple answer that is correct for each of us. Not all hatcheries offer the same chickens either. You have different people at each hatchery selecting the breeders and they will choose for different traits. I've gotten Speckled Sussex and Black Australorp from different hatcheries. The basic colors and such were fairly close, but there is a clear differene in configuration and some other things.

Take the red broilers. There are different red broilers from different hatcheries. They don't all have the same genetics. They will grow at different rates. Another big factor is how you feed them. If you feed them a high protein feed with it always available and keep them contained so they don't exercise and walk it off, they will put on weight pretty fast. If you feed a feed less high in protein and let them forage for some of their feed and get exercise while foraging, they will put on weight slower. I don't know which specific hatcheries you are talking about and I'm not that familair with red broilers anyway, but I can easily see where you can get different projected butcher ages from different hatcheries.

As far as bedding in the brooder, we use a lot of different things. paper towels, wood shavings, and sand are some of the more popular, but there are plenty of others. I don't use bedding in the brooder any but raise them on wire instead. One potential problem with newspaper is that it can be slick. They can slip and get splayed legs. If it is shredded, it is no longer slick so shredded newspaper would work.

I'll also point out that there is a difference in what can happen and what will happen. Not all chicks raised on newspaper get splayed legs. If you raise them on newspaper, maybe none of that batch will. But it can happen so it is best to avoid newspaper.

I can understand your frustration, but raising chickens is not cookbook where you have to do exactly this or you will have disaster. There are many different things that work. You do need at look at what people say and see if they are talking about conditions similar to yours. A lot of people post like their way is the only correct way and that is almost always just not correct. We do things in many different ways. You need to pick which of those many different ways will work in your situation. The good thing is that if you provide the basics of food, water, and shelter they will probably do OK.

 

[smfiaschetti]

Thanks for responding back. The information was helpful and a good topic of discussion.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Part of the problem is that hatcheries do not have to answer any questions from buyers. There certainly isn't any rule book that obligates them to answer questions.

Lots of different things work when raising chickens. We all do it a little differently and still mange to raise chickens..

 

[smfiaschetti]

It's like raising children... There are general rules to raise all children then each child is an individual. What works with your child may not be the way another parent would handle it with their child. Yet both children reach adulthood.