YO GEORGIANS! :)

[speckledhen]

Sometimes...and in the same way! By the time I'm done, I'll have it in my neck more in my back and more than likely in my knees...lol

Pretty soon, we'll be held together with duct tape! At least we wouldn't set off the metal detectors! Falling apart is the pits. But, hey, I'm not slowing down. If you stop, you turn to stone!

 

[ameliadanielle]

All girls is a problem most folks would love to have, but alas, always happens when you want a male to breed them with.

"craziness" is right! Remember West Nile? It just vanished. All the panic and now, nothing. It was, as they say, a "nothingburger".

My birds are not staying in the barn. They will do exactly what they've always done and get fresh air and sunshine out in the pen or free ranging. I live in the woods in the mountains and in the 12 years we've had our own flocks, have never seen anything contagious nor had a predator loss. We have ALWAYS practiced biosecurity and NEVER buy started birds. Only two birds who were not hatched here nor gotten from a hatchery shipment the same day they hit the feed store have ever been here. I still have one of them and she is 9 years old, a gift from a friend with a clean flock (it was an agonizing decision to accept the gift, but she's been a blessing, was in quarantine for 8 weeks)

I'm not stupid, but maybe they think we are? They'd love to scare everyone into the NPIP programs. More $$ for the states for one thing and a nice new list of chicken flocks. I do suspect this stuff when they push for you to join NPIP. I am not commercial, my birds are in no one's food chain except my own. I do sell hatching eggs occasionally and on occasion, the extra chick or two, but if I thought they were carriers of anything, that would stop.

Usually with straight run I'm just crossing my fingers I don't get all boys. Lol. I never buy big quantities because I'm not a breeder. I sell extras sometimes. We usually eat our extras. I keep chickens for my own enjoyment. If I had birds dying I would get them tested to find out why. I had one die and I was worried sick until the necropsy came back, she was egg bound too far up for me to feel it. I also worry about buying day old chicks. Last year I bought some silkie chicks from a breeder and chicks from TSC at the same time. Ended up losing them all but one turken from TSC. One by one they dropped. I didn't buy another chick until this year. My friend and I and another of her friends split a duckling order from ideal. When they came, there were dead ones in the box, all three of us (one a zoo keeper) had loss after loss. No symptoms, just suddenly fine one hour and dead as a door nail the next. They all died in the pose common to ducklings with viral hepatitis. Since all 3 of us have raised ducklings before with no issue and these ducklings hadn't even been outside yet at any of our houses... my friend messaged ideal to let them know so they could check and see if the issue was on their end. They wrote back saying we had let them get chilled and didn't care for them properly. So even babies are scary to me now. That's why I only bought 6 chicks from TSC this year. Just to see if they would make it. They're almost a month old and all six are doing great. I'm still nervous. They'll end up in the brooder in the garage forever until I manage to feel OK enough to put them outside. But I just don't know. I used to buy all my birds as day old chicks, and now... I don't know. I think I would rather risk having to close my flock permanently by buying adults than watch sick chicks die one by one ever again and there's nothing I can do.

 

[speckledhen]

Usually with straight run I'm just crossing my fingers I don't get all boys. Lol. I never buy big quantities because I'm not a breeder. I sell extras sometimes. We usually eat our extras. I keep chickens for my own enjoyment. If I had birds dying I would get them tested to find out why. I had one die and I was worried sick until the necropsy came back, she was egg bound too far up for me to feel it. I also worry about buying day old chicks. Last year I bought some silkie chicks from a breeder and chicks from TSC at the same time. Ended up losing them all but one turken from TSC. One by one they dropped. I didn't buy another chick until this year. My friend and I and another of her friends split a duckling order from ideal. When they came, there were dead ones in the box, all three of us (one a zoo keeper) had loss after loss. No symptoms, just suddenly fine one hour and dead as a door nail the next. They all died in the pose common to ducklings with viral hepatitis. Since all 3 of us have raised ducklings before with no issue and these ducklings hadn't even been outside yet at any of our houses... my friend messaged ideal to let them know so they could check and see if the issue was on their end. They wrote back saying we had let them get chilled and didn't care for them properly. So even babies are scary to me now. That's why I only bought 6 chicks from TSC this year. Just to see if they would make it. They're almost a month old and all six are doing great. I'm still nervous. They'll end up in the brooder in the garage forever until I manage to feel OK enough to put them outside. But I just don't know. I used to buy all my birds as day old chicks, and now... I don't know. I think I would rather risk having to close my flock permanently by buying adults than watch sick chicks die one by one ever again and there's nothing I can do.

I'll NEVER have the State of GA necropsy a bird again. The only time I did it, they cited one thing that I know killed her, a raging abdominal infection, probably EYP, then they drew a completely separate conclusion on the last preliminary diagnosis (never got a final). It made zero sense based on what I know about my flocks, so I sent the report to a vet I know in Kentucky, who is well-known in the thoroughbred community, but is also very well versed in treating chickens as well-my best friend had an Arabian mare and chickens and he treated both-he said the report was the biggest load of crap he'd ever seen, that there was absolutely NO way my bird had what they said it did and they did not test it, only drew a conclusion based on stuff they saw all the time. He also correctly said I'd probably never get a final diagnosis from them. Nope, never came and I'm not contacting them, either. I'm done.

So, I will never trust a state lab after what happened to me and I regret ever getting them involved in the first place. It started when I saw my first odd liver on a hen when I opened her up myself after she died unexpectedly. It could have been several things, but I had one particular thought about it. So, I had the next one to die, her half-sister, necropsied and that was the only reason, them dying so close together that way, being rather young. The state vet said, upon seeing a photo of the liver on the first hen, that she had one thing, while my Kentucky vet said it was entirely something different, coincidentally what I originally had believed it to be, and that the state guy was off-base on that one, too. Apparently, these labs have tunnel vision and can't see anything other than certain diagnoses, nothing out of the norm, so they just spout off something without actual testing, unnecessarily frightening backyard flock owners. From now on, I handle my own chicken necropsies as I did before the state lab debacle.

Though the state lab here will necropsy for free, you get what you pay for. They are all about commercial operations. Your backyard birds are not important to them so what if they give you an erroneous diagnosis?

 

[brucifer]

I'm cynical when it comes to the NPIP program in GA. It's a moneymaker for the state and can set you back a bit, especially if you have a large flock. I raise chickens for enjoyment, so I prefer that the state keep its long nose out of my hen house. It's nice to know if AI is in the area, but again, I'm somewhat cynical when it comes to the guv'ment. You can practice perfect bio-safe methods, be NPIP certified, and still end up with chickens with avian influenza. All it take is one wild bird to drop one toxic dropping on your property. That's it. A wild bird can do this in flight. It doesn't even have to land on your property.

When it comes to acquiring chickens, I have no problem buying and trading eggs, chicks, and chickens from others. It's all part of the fun, but I would feel like a hypocrite if I sold and traded eggs, chicks, and chickens only in return for cash or eggs. At the end of the day though, everyone has to make his or her own decision. It wouldn't hurt my feelings at all if someone didn't want to do business with me because I wasn't NPIP certified. By the same token, there are some folks whose flocks are NPIP certified, but I haven't bought or traded with them because I didn't like the quality of their stock or their high prices. That's just business.

Again, I'm being Mr. Cynical here, but I doubt everyone who says his or her flock is NPIP certified actually is NPIP certified. I mean, when it comes to private sales, who actually asks to see someone's current NPIP certificate? I know this from running a business and competing in the marketplace for many years: Some people will say just about anything to make a sale. Remember Mr. Haney from the TV show Green Acres? That dude is real.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm cynical when it comes to the NPIP program in GA. It's a moneymaker for the state and can set you back a bit, especially if you have a large flock. I raise chickens for enjoyment, so I prefer that the state keep its long nose out of my hen house. It's nice to know if AI is in the area, but again, I'm somewhat cynical when it comes to the guv'ment. You can practice perfect bio-safe methods, be NPIP certified, and still end up with chickens with avian influenza. All it take is one wild bird to drop one toxic dropping on your property. That's it. A wild bird can do this in flight. It doesn't even have to land on your property.

When it comes to acquiring chickens, I have no problem buying and trading eggs, chicks, and chickens from others. It's all part of the fun, but I would feel like a hypocrite if I sold and traded eggs, chicks, and chickens only in return for cash or eggs. At the end of the day though, everyone has to make his or her own decision. It wouldn't hurt my feelings at all if someone didn't want to do business with me because I wasn't NPIP certified. By the same token, there are some folks whose flocks are NPIP certified, but I haven't bought or traded with them because I didn't like the quality of their stock or their high prices. That's just business.

Again, I'm being Mr. Cynical here, but I doubt everyone who says his or her flock is NPIP certified actually is NPIP certified. I mean, when it comes to private sales, who actually asks to see someone's current NPIP certificate? I know this from running a business and competing in the marketplace for many years: Some people will say just about anything to make a sale. Remember Mr. Haney from the TV show Green Acres? That dude is real.

Yeah, I've seen the Mr. Haneys of the chicken world. Not pretty!

NPIP is fairly meaningless. NPIP breeders are just as responsible for spreading disease as anyone else by selling carrier birds. The reason I don't buy started birds and all are hatched here is so I can be a reliable source for other people. I must keep my flock as healthy as possible, which means proper management and keeping strong immune systems so if something passes through, they are strong enough not to be infected in the first place. It's really all anyone can do. Nothing is foolproof because no one can see a germ.

What you need to watch out for are the folks who treat their birds' "colds". No such thing. I once asked a guy if he'd heard of any diseases in our area floating around, as sort of a test. His answer? "No, I just see the usual crud and treat with antibiotics". Well, I would not buy from him! Stay away from those types. I just stay away from everyone, even those I trust. Even if they think their flock is healthy, they can't see germs, either, and if the birds were infected with something just prior to me purchasing the bird and symptoms showed up at my place, my flocks might become infected with whatever it is. Doesn't mean the person was lying, necessarily, though I've watched a lot of folks try to sell what I knew to be carrier birds. Not cool, people, not cool.

I agree with Mr. Cynical. I'm your long-lost cousin, I think. Good point, no one shows their certificate and if they post their number, how many actually check it out? Plus, seems to me that the testers themselves going from farm to farm might be responsible for spreading stuff if they become lax in their sanitation practices. I know one tester for GA, a man I highly respect. I hatched eggs he sent me six years ago. He's been breeding chickens bout as long as I've been alive....and that's a stretch more than 25 years, I can say. He got a breeding rooster direct from a famous breeder out west who has kept up a spectacular line of Plymouth Rocks for over 50 years. Before he would [put the rooster with the hens and before he would even send me eggs, he put that rooster through the usual tests, plus every other test he could come up with and gave him a clean bill of health. It's folks like that I will buy hatching eggs from when I need them, which isn't that often, thankfully.

 

[eclecktic1]

Just listening to y'unz. I appreciate all your opinions about the state's care and concern for backyard flocks.

I am new to all this, so my appreciation is sincere. I have yet to have a single bird. All the upset is making me glad that we've chosen to go the way of hatching eggs, even if we are just starting out.

 

[BantamBonzo]

well my house isn't halfway for her, or I'd volunteer to let y'all meet here   If I hadn't just lost some of mine, I'd give her one of mine....let's see, we're going to Franklin to the Heard County Arena, friday evening the 31st with the camper and the grand daughter who will be riding JR Rodeo on saturday, so if Missy doesn't find something, and y'all get together, I can work it out to get one from you and she can come to Franklin to get one????

what's half way? I am in brunswick and if that works would be happy to put the kettle on.

 

[BantamBonzo]

I think I need an idiots guide to breaking broodie.
no roo in pen, dahlila is trying to brood. I pick her up, give her cuddles and pop in on the far side of the pen. Rinse repeat

 

[Mylied]

I think I need an idiots guide to breaking broodie.
no roo in pen, dahlila is trying to brood. I pick her up, give her cuddles and pop in on the far side of the pen. Rinse repeat

Can you give her some chickies? These silkies are the only ones I've had go seriously broody and they are fairly young, so I'm not experienced with it. A hawk broke my first broody. The second one, I'm letting her do her thing on some eggs. When my other chickens went broody, they seemed to get bored of it after a week or two. We'd pull them off once a day for eating and left them alone the rest of the time. But I didn't really have breeds that were too keen on being a mother.

So, I have a question. I have a trio of easter eggers I was growing out for my sister in law, but she is taking too long to get them and I need to move them out of my silkie pen before my silkie hatches her babies next week. I hatched them from eggs and then moved them in with the silkies since the silkies are gentle. Now they are something like 4-5 months old (I'd have to check my calendar) and way big. I was trying to sell them before the brouhaha (though I'm still willing to if I could find someone). The only other places I can put them is in with month old roosters, which I feel they might destroy. Or in with my cream legbars, which already consists of 3 hens and 2 roosters (the trio is 2 hens and a rooster). I don't want a blood bath. You think I'll have to make a whole new pen just to hold these guys? I don't want to keep them permanently because I switched over to cream legbars as my layers.

 

[BantamBonzo]

I dont have any babies to put under her right now. Just sold 7 and the three I have left I kept with Chicken Jo. I am reaching out to a friend of my old man to see I he has any fertile eggs we could pop under her.