The Middle Tennessee Thread

[Troyerchicks]

Hello All!!
It's been a long while since I've been on and I have a quick question: does anyone here process their own chickens? I remember someone mentioning it but I can't remember who! My husband and I want to be able to do this but not sure how to start...

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Thanks, Carol and Lori. It all just stinks.
Lori I hope your grandmother recovers quickly. Those GI problems take a lot out of you.

I'll save the black silkie for you. Don't worry about the Oreo one. I'm sure someone will want him. He's so freakin' cool.


Well, the excitement for this morning is that I have a cocci outbreak. Four of the six wellies were dead this morning and the other two aren't looking so good. I've run back in to find the sulmet and will start dosing the lot of them up. I'm not sure why they have all been infected. They have been on medicated started from day one. That has always handled it in the past. I know that there are cocci spores in the ground around here. Yesterday's brief rain and later heat would have "woken" them up. I just don't understand why the medicated feed hasn't prevented it. It always has in the past. Sigh. Of course it is the wellies that I so want to have. I am not having very good welsummer luck.

I hate cocci. They go from absolutely fine to dead in a heartbeat.

Arg.

 

[CarolJ]

Oh no! I'm so sorry about the cocci outbreak. And to lose four of your six wellies. That stinks.

The NPIP guy just left - and he was such a nice professional young man. It took about an hour - and was much easier than I had anticipated. They only test the chickens that are 6 months or older - so that meant I only had 17 for him to test. The chickens sure did get all riled up, though, when we started catching them one by one. My husband helped and it went really well. I'm so relieved to have that done!

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Yay, Carol! Getting your NPIP is awesome!
Mine ran out at the end of March and I haven't had a chance to get him back out here. Nice to know that he will come on the weekends.

 

[emmalynn]

Anne,
The girls are still laying. Do you want Emma to collect eggs and try again? How is your Dad?

Troyer,
We do and will give a demonstration. I live in Marshall Co. so PM me if we aren't too far away for you to drive.

Carol,
Congrats on the NPIP. It was ridiculously easy for us too. Are you going to show?

 

[CarolJ]

Carol,

Congrats on the NPIP. It was ridiculously easy for us too. Are you going to show?

No plans to show. I had the NPIP done to help sell hatching eggs and chicks later on when my "fancy" breeds start laying.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Well, now you have to tell us which fancy breeds you have. You know someone is gonna want some.

Lori- If Emma doesn't mind I would love to try again. Sigh. The one I forced medicated water into yesterday is doing fine today. A little slower than the others, but at least it is up and running again. I thought for sure it was a goner. All of the other smaller chicks seem fine. It makes me wonder if they can get an immunity in the shell. All of the others out there were from AMs either from my flock or from some that had been from my flock. Weird.
Tell Emma I will happily pay her for some this time or will trade her eggs if she would like. I can also trade chicks if she would prefer.


Dad isn't doing great. He had a horrible night. His back is totally screwed up. He can't even stand up to get to the bedside potty and turn to get back in bed. At home he was going up and down stairs and was walking everywhere! The doctor has started him back on the steroids in an effort to get it under control.
Mom is livid. Dad is on a quarantine ward and yet the nurses/techs are laying equipment on his bed and one actually laid a glucose monitor on his lap. The man has C-diff and is highly contagious!!!! No wonder it is running rampant through the hospital! On top of that, they have messed up his myasthenia meds. Seriously, could kill him, messed them up. Thankfully she was there paying attention. He takes a ton for the myasthenia, so she has them all typed up with what times and how many. He is supposed to take the main one every three hours. Instead they brought him all 8 to take at once. ARGGGG!!
Once she calms down a little she is heading back over to chew out an administrator. Hopefully we can get Dad home before they kill him.

 

[Raven1]

Bless you Anne you do have a hand full right now! I will keep praying for you all, and you too Lori. I wish there was a way to help out I would sure be right there.
Bruce, I will have a couple of Ex. pullets for you before to long now I will let you know.

 

[Texokie1]

No plans to show. I had the NPIP done to help sell hatching eggs and chicks later on when my "fancy" breeds start laying.

CarolJ - just how difficult and/or expensive is it to get your NPIP certification? I am kinda in your situation (where I'd like to sell eggs/chicks on down the line), but wasn't sure how hard it was for a small flock...thanks!

 

[CarolJ]

CarolJ - just how difficult and/or expensive is it to get your NPIP certification? I am kinda in your situation (where I'd like to sell eggs/chicks on down the line), but wasn't sure how hard it was for a small flock...thanks!

Call Tina Rogers at the Dept of Agriculture, (615)837-5120. She will put you in touch with whoever does the testing in your area. The guy that did ours (Thomas Percer - a very nice young man!) called and set up the appointment. We had the chickens in the run where we could catch them easily. He walked right into the run with us and set up his testing supplies there. We'd catch a bird and hold it while he lifted the wing, pricked a spot under the wing to get a drop of blood. After he put the drop of blood onto the testing block he'd set up, he would then swab the chicken's mouth. That was it. They only test the chickens that are 6 months or older. And they don't swab the mouths of all of them. I think he did maybe 10 - just a sampling of the flock. When he finished all the testing, he filled out some paperwork - gave me copies of that. Then he gave me the form I had to complete and send, along with a check for $25, to the Dept of Agriculture. So you don't pay anything the day of testing. You mail it in afterwards. He said it shouldn't take more than a few days to get my certification card. I'll let you know how long it takes. I mailed the form & check this morning.

I have 46 chickens - but only 17 are over 6 months old. So it took less than an hour from the time he drove up to the time he was driving away.

If you have more than one of the same breed, it would make it easier if you have a way to identify which chickens had been tested. We kept catching the same Welsummer. He'd lift the wing and see that he'd already tested that one. It got ridiculous after the third time.

All 3 of my Welsummers look identical, and once we set her down and they were altogether again, there was no way to tell which one she was without catching her and looking. Next time, we will close the pop door to the coop - and as we finish them, we'll put them into the coop. That way we won't catch the same one more than once. But the 3 Welsummers and 2 EEs that look identical were the only ones that caused any confusion for us. So it was no big deal. However, if you have many of the same breed, it could be a major issue!

I almost cancelled having the testing done, but now I'm glad I did. It was much easier than I had anticipated. If you decide to do it, make sure you have an easy way to catch your chickens. We used a large fishing net. Other people put the chickens in crates beforehand.

Hope that's the information you needed! Good luck!