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Robin, it's mostly because of the new law that WA State passed last year which made getting NPIP Certified cost-prohibitive. The new law now requires a fee of $85/hr and the clock starts from the time the vet gets in his car until he arrives back at his office. Given that Oly is 4 hours south of me, that's 8 hours plus another 2.5 hours of prep and testing time. The folks at the Dept. of Ag are trying to work around this by not charging for the commute time IF the vet has to be in the area for something else - like AIV testing.
So even if I didn't have to pay for the whole commute, I'm still looking at over $200. Can you imagine how much I'd have to charge or how many birds I'd have to ship just to make that up? Let alone if I had to fork out the whole $850-900!
Secondly, as you and some others know, I was separated for almost 3 years. So I was just doing everything I could do to keep this place afloat, take care of the birds and what needed to be done - "needed" is the operative word there, and try to work at a job that didn't make a dime in 2009 and hasn't made any money this year. God willing that will change on the 24th when I finally have a guy starting work. Anyways, now that the wife is home, I have some help around here and can devote some attention to things other than that which is just "needed" to be done.
Then lastly, I took a couple of years off from focusing on my Welsummers to devote some attention to the other breeds. Barnies and Buckeys mostly last year. Barnies and Ameraucanas mostly this year. I am quite pleased with the improvements I've experienced thus far. Especially with the Barnies.
Ah, but back to Wellies... I did hatch out a few Wellies this year. I've got three nice cockerels I'm watching now - wait, didn't I write all this already? I think so. Got a phone call & am distracted now. So let me just end by saying that I hope all are doing well with their Wellies. I'd like to encourage everyone working on the Welsummers to keep an eye on leg color. I'm seeing more and more Wellies showing up with VERY poor leg color. Almost white. In fact, I'm hearing and seeing more and more Wellies with white skin instead of yellow. Something to be on guard for too as yellow is recessive and very hard to get back once lost. Plus, how many folks actually even look at the skin color on their birds?
God Bless,
Robin, it's mostly because of the new law that WA State passed last year which made getting NPIP Certified cost-prohibitive. The new law now requires a fee of $85/hr and the clock starts from the time the vet gets in his car until he arrives back at his office. Given that Oly is 4 hours south of me, that's 8 hours plus another 2.5 hours of prep and testing time. The folks at the Dept. of Ag are trying to work around this by not charging for the commute time IF the vet has to be in the area for something else - like AIV testing.
So even if I didn't have to pay for the whole commute, I'm still looking at over $200. Can you imagine how much I'd have to charge or how many birds I'd have to ship just to make that up? Let alone if I had to fork out the whole $850-900!
Secondly, as you and some others know, I was separated for almost 3 years. So I was just doing everything I could do to keep this place afloat, take care of the birds and what needed to be done - "needed" is the operative word there, and try to work at a job that didn't make a dime in 2009 and hasn't made any money this year. God willing that will change on the 24th when I finally have a guy starting work. Anyways, now that the wife is home, I have some help around here and can devote some attention to things other than that which is just "needed" to be done.
Then lastly, I took a couple of years off from focusing on my Welsummers to devote some attention to the other breeds. Barnies and Buckeys mostly last year. Barnies and Ameraucanas mostly this year. I am quite pleased with the improvements I've experienced thus far. Especially with the Barnies.
Ah, but back to Wellies... I did hatch out a few Wellies this year. I've got three nice cockerels I'm watching now - wait, didn't I write all this already? I think so. Got a phone call & am distracted now. So let me just end by saying that I hope all are doing well with their Wellies. I'd like to encourage everyone working on the Welsummers to keep an eye on leg color. I'm seeing more and more Wellies showing up with VERY poor leg color. Almost white. In fact, I'm hearing and seeing more and more Wellies with white skin instead of yellow. Something to be on guard for too as yellow is recessive and very hard to get back once lost. Plus, how many folks actually even look at the skin color on their birds?
God Bless,
