The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[speckledhen]

Oh, this is why I'd rather not live in NC. Note the wording here. Yeah, sure, you only want to help. You want to help commercial flocks by killing off mine if a commercial flock is in danger, even if mine is healthy. But, I'd never register my flock no matter where I live. Not their business.
http://www.ncagr.gov/ncfarmid/poultry.htm

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

We have to report also critter we keep here in Wisconsin. Not sure why, as they have never done anything with it but to charge us a fee every few years.

I like going to swaps on occasion but I personally would never bring home any chickens, but like you said even if the birds aren't sick they could be carrying stuff that could wipe out my whole flock. That they don't warn people about.

 

[speckledhen]

We have to report also critter we keep here in Wisconsin. Not sure why, as they have never done anything with it but to charge us a fee every few years.

I like going to swaps on occasion but I personally would never bring home any chickens, but like you said even if the birds aren't sick they could be carrying stuff that could wipe out my whole flock. That they don't warn people about.

I remember that WI was one of the very first, if not the first state, to jump on the boat with animal registration. I say it's none of their business how many or what chickens I own.

When I posted that caution, I was only saying to be careful and asking if folks with obviously ill animals would be turned away from the swap. If not, they are doing a disservice to everyone there. Ladyhawk's swap group was always on the spot to get rid of nasty sellers. The state vet would even cruise through there, though he was a bit of a jerk at times. Still, it keep things cleaner for them all.

 

[Pyxis]

His answer:

I do not disagree that people should be cautious when buying poultry from anywhere, however I do not agree that there are that many sick birds coming from swaps, not in Georgia anyway, I just do not want people getting away from swaps, due to the fact that agriculture is a dying breed and I have worked my whole life to get it to where it is now, do not need it going down hill.

Well, there it is right there - it's selfish. He doesn't want people to know the truth of swaps and how cautious you really have to be because he doesn't want to lose out on sales. That's why he's defending it so hard.

Swaps can be total cesspools of disease. I never did the Facebook thing before but recently started because I created a farm page on Facebook. I joined a local bird fanciers group that holds swaps.

Turns out the whole group is a total petri dish of diseases. I've seen people pick up birds from swaps and have their flocks contract coryza four times so far, and that's just what people are posting about in the group. There's got to a be a whole lot more that just think their birds have a 'cold' and don't post anything.

I've also seen at least one person who got MG from someone in the group - that one is reportable, so she had to report it to the state.

And one woman, who I actually did buy from because she was on the level and honest and NPIP (I'm NPIP so I have to buy from NPIP people) told me that before she had her current flock, someone dropped several roosters on her property. That had ILT. And infected her whole flock, which was then destroyed by the state.

 

[speckledhen]

Well, there it is right there - it's selfish. He doesn't want people to know the truth of swaps and how cautious you really have to be because he doesn't want to lose out on sales. That's why he's defending it so hard.

Swaps can be total cesspools of disease. I never did the Facebook thing before but recently started because I created a farm page on Facebook. I joined a local bird fanciers group that holds swaps.

Turns out the whole group is a total petri dish of diseases. I've seen people pick up birds from swaps and have their flocks contract coryza four times so far, and that's just what people are posting about in the group. There's got to a be a whole lot more that just think their birds have a 'cold' and don't post anything.

I've also seen at least one person who got MG from someone in the group - that one is reportable, so she had to report it to the state.

And one woman, who I actually did buy from because she was on the level and honest and NPIP (I'm NPIP so I have to buy from NPIP people) told me that before she had her current flock, someone dropped several roosters on her property. That had ILT. And infected her whole flock, which was then destroyed by the state.

I wish I could put 100 likes on that post, thank you! If I need to go back to that guy, can I quote what you said here, keeping you anonymous, of course? He acts like what state you live in has something to do with whether or not your birds are healthy. How asinine that is! I have nightmares about folks dropping birds over my fence just because I have chickens and tossing in disease along with them.

 

[speckledhen]

Another thing that bothers me is an attitude I see even among very old time breeders, and sadly, some state vets as well. One breeder recently came here and balked at spraying his shoes with Virkon-S. He was of the opinion that all wild birds carry disease and chickens get it and that's that. I said none of my chickens had anything contagious and I am trying to keep it that way to the best of my ability, that most disease was spread horizontally by buying birds from other people and throwing them in with your flocks, quarantine or no quarantine. So, no one goes past my steps without spraying with Virkon, period. He acted as if he didn't believe that my birds were contagion-free.
If you don't even try, sooner or later, you'll end up with something in the flocks. That attitude is the "I can't beat it, so I'll just give up trying" attitude. If my birds contract something, at least I can say with a clear conscience that I did everything humanly possible to keep disease out of here.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Just as a matter of courtesy, I always have a pair of freshly washed shoes in a bag when I go to someone else's property. I take my shoes off in the car without touching the floor with my feet, then put on the clean shoes with my feet and shoes outside my car. Then I remove them to the plastic bag in the same way.

Just one of those things I do.

And, so far, I havn't had anyone come on my property to get a bird. I always meet them elsewhere.

 

[Pyxis]

I wish I could put 100 likes on that post, thank you! If I need to go back to that guy, can I quote what you said here, keeping you anonymous, of course? He acts like what state you live in has something to do with whether or not your birds are healthy. How asinine that is! I have nightmares about folks dropping birds over my fence just because I have chickens and tossing in disease along with them.

Definitely, I don't mind at all if you want to quote that

I too am terrified of getting birds dumped on me, especially after hearing that woman's horror stories.

He was of the opinion that all wild birds carry disease and chickens get it and that's that. I said none of my chickens had anything contagious and I am trying to keep it that way to the best of my ability, that most disease was spread horizontally by buying birds from other people and throwing them in with your flocks, quarantine or no quarantine. So, no one goes past my steps without spraying with Virkon, period. He acted as if he didn't believe that my birds were contagion-free.

That same thing happened in the group when I and several others finally got fed up and posted about the fact that people in this group were swapping and collecting diseases like they were trading cards. Someone tried to say that it's impossible to have a free range flock and never have them catch a disease. I had a free range flock for ten years, and they WERE disease free until I bought some guineas from a woman in that group (yes, this March I had to totally cull my flock and start over with eggs hatched from my birds; guess who one of those four people who got coryza was, even with quarantine?).

And now they're disease free again, and you can feel free to have them tested if you don't believe me. When I had testing done, all they had was the coryza they picked up from those guineas.

Even the admins of this group, who are the officers of the actual club, seem to have diseases and not care.

 

[h2oratt]

I had the mod lock the article comments and leave the ones up there that already existed. People can get the information from it without commenting and if they want, they can PM me. There is a glitch in the article system where you can reply to the first comment someone makes, but if they reply with a second, you have no option to reply to it. She's asking Rob about that issue. I do not mind talking about it and my choices in a civil manner, but no one gets to tell me that I must do it their way or I'm a horrible person.


This troll followed me to my channel and harrassed me there, too. WTH?
It was on a video about euthanizing deformed, just-hatched chicks, as if that was the same thing at all. Said but I won't kill all my dwarf gene carriers. How is that relevant?

Guess I have my next video subject!

In purebred dogs we have learned over the years that we need that genetic diversity. Granted we have a test now for some deadly defects but if we were to neuter all the carriers it wouldn’t solve the problem , we would have a genetic bottleneck.

 

[speckledhen]

Someone tried to say that it's impossible to have a free range flock and never have them catch a disease. I had a free range flock for ten years, and they WERE disease free until I bought some guineas from a woman in that group (yes, this March I had to totally cull my flock and start over with eggs hatched from my birds; guess who one of those four people who got coryza was, even with quarantine?).

First, I'm sorry you have to deal with that. It surprises me that it was the guineas. They are usually more disease resistant, or so I thought. Someone I knew once joked that you can't kill a guinea with a .22, meaning disease bullet-proof.

I have always free ranged my flocks, always. That's over 12 years now. I don't put out bird feeders to get wild birds to hang around, but every year, phoebes build nests on my house and wrens sometimes build theirs on the old coop in the back. So far, no illness that I know of was in any of those wild birds. Generally, I think they go off and die (probably in those big chicken warehouse operations, LOL)