Wow you guys!!! I don't know much about my family history and was always leery of digging too deeply. I'm afraid my "tree" would turn out to be a bowl of granola loaded with too many fruits, nuts and flakes!!!
Well, I did it. DH and I have been working for almost a week now, weather permitting, to put a small addition onto our little coop which will be able to serve as a safe brooder room, growout pen (it will have it's own pophole and separate little run connected to the main run) and isolation area if necessary. Major project for two fogies. This will allow me, among other things, to finally be able to brood chicks in a safe environment, OUTSIDE, instead of in the front bedroom, which will make the DH very happy. This will also allow us to be able to leave overnight if needed (remember the dying BIL) and set the chicks up with only the need for my (fellow) crazy chicken lady to pop over and check on everybody.
This leads up to the "I did it" part. I ordered new chicks from a hatchery last night. Some of you might remember the total horror show I experienced with my attempts early last month to get chicks delivered alive. This time I decided to go with Hoover's Hatchery for several reasons. One, they are only one state away in Iowa so as long as the post office doesn't send them to the wrong city first, again, they stand a good chance of arriving within a reasonable time frame, they have good prices and FREE shipping (great prices right now with their sale), they don't offer a ton of different breeds, instead choosing to focus on maintaining healthy solid stock and then there's this;
"HOOVER’S BIOSECURITY CERTIFICATION STATEMENT Poultry sold is originated directly from parent stock tested and found negative for pullorum typhoid diseases within the past 12 months. All of our breeders have had no incident of AI (avian influenza) shown with our blood testing. We also vaccinate all of our breeders for marek’s, Bronchitis-Newcastle, bursal, fowl pox, laryngotracheitis, and salmonella. Hoover’s Hatchery works to receive permits from each state we ship to as a part of our business."
This is a family business that was founded in the 40's and every single one of their breeder farms is located in the surrounding area. Only their meat chicks are purchased from another farm and trucked to them daily.
I really don't know a lot about the quality of their birds except that they state on their site these are not show quality but they supply many of the TS stores chicks and folks who have bought those have posted on here that they were happy with them.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that they offer several different vaccination options and only charge 20 cents a piece per shot! This is a whole lot less than what I have paid in the past. They ship next Monday soooooo,
, I'll post pics when they arrive.
and to the Old Folks Home!
It's great to meet you!
I was still hauling cattle with the grain truck close to 2000.
