[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Free Range Chickens
One exempary operation involving a system of movable cage "free range"
chickens is that of Joel Salatin in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
These birds are contained in open-bottomed cages which are moved daily
across pasture fields. The birds are sold in advance to subscription
customers, killed and cleaned in an on-farm facility, and picked up on the
day of slaughter by the customer. The quality of the meat from birds who
have lived outdoors, eaten fresh forage daily and had the opportunity to
have sunshine, fresh air, and exercise is phenomenal. It is not comparable
to factory-raised meat at all.
Joel has produced a manual entitled "Pastured Poultry Manual" is available
for $15. This manual describes the process as well as the enterprise
budgets. He has also developed a video on his technique. Contact Joel
Salatin 703 885-3590, Rt. 1 Box 281 Swoope, VA 24479.
John M. Luna
Department of Horticulture
4143 Agriculture & Life Sciences Bldg.
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331
503-737-5430 FAX 503 737-3479
E-mail LUNAJ@bcc.orst.edu
] . i .. ] "keeping-qualities-of-unwashed-eggs Article 617 of alt.agriculture.misc:
Path: bigblue.oit.unc.edu!concert!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!news.intercon.com!udel!pacs.sunbelt.net!vader.york.tec.sc.us!wtraylor
Newsgroups: alt.agriculture.misc
Subject: Chicken Hatcheries List
Message-ID: <1994Feb28.082626.1@vader.york.tec.sc.us>
From: wtraylor@vader.york.tec.sc.us
Date: 28 Feb 94 08:26:26 -0500
Organization: York Technical College
Nntp-Posting-Host: default-gateway
Lines: 96
Poultry Hatcheries
Stromberg's Marti Poultry Farm
Pine River 41C, MN 56474 Box 27-5
Windsor, MO 65360
Inman Hatcheries Hoffman Hatchery
PO Box 616 Gratz, PA 17030
Aberdeen, SD 57402-0616
1-800-843-1962
Oakwood Game Farm MacFarlane Pheasant Farm, Inc.
PO Box 274 2821A Center Avenue
Princeton, MN 55371 Janesville, WI 53546
1-800-328-6647 1-800-345-8348
Wild Wings Clearview Hatchery
Dept. SF Box 399
9491 152nd St. North Gratz, PA 17030
Hugo, MN 55038
Hoover's Hatchery Rouse Game Farm
1-800-247-7014 RR #4
Moravia, NY 13118
Mother Goose Hatchery Atlas Chicks
1-800-A1 GOOSE 2651 Chouteau
St. Louis, MO 63103
Sunny Creek Hatchery The Country Boy
Red Lake Falls, MN 56750 3428 Beret Lane
Dept. F&S
Wheaton, MD 20906
Wildlife Nurseries, Inc. Cross Keys Pheasantry
PO Box 2724-F PO Box 594
Oshkosh, WI 54903 Dept FS.
Hollidaysburg, PA 16648
Crow Poultry Comstock
Box 106-10 Beaumont, TX 77708
Windsor, MO 65360
Grain Belt Hatchery Horan's
Box 125-AA Box 417-0
Windsor, MO 65360 Tamaqua, PA 18252
Oakridge Outdoors Meadowbrook Game Birds
Maysville, AR 72747 Richfield, PA 17086
Clinton Chicks Reed's Hatchery
Box 548-FS 208 College
Clinton, MO 64735 Alva, OK 73717
Ridgway Hatcheries Blue Ribbon Chickens
Box 306 Box 850830
LaRue 18, Ohio 43332 Yukon, OK 73085
1-800-323-3825
Bedwell Farms Glacier Springs
1500 Hunsaker Rd. 190A Becumier Lane
Boonville , Indiana 47601 Sobieski, WI 54171
Texas Longnecks Chick Master Incubator Co.
PO Box 156 945 Lafayette Rd.
McKinney, TX 75069 Medina, Ohio 44256-3510
Poultry Products of Maine Poultry Specialties, Inc.
433 Bemis Rd. 517 East 5th St.
Hookett, NH 03106-0000 Russellville, AR 72801-0000
National Poultry News Fett
Dept. UIPD RR 1ME24
Box 1647 Minden, IA 51553
Easley, SC 29641
PHR Hatchery Conn Hatchery
Box 428 Rt. 3 2005 Penoak
Squires, MO 65755 Roswell, MN 88201
Hall Brothers Hatchery Holderread's Waterfowl Farm
PO Box 1026-ME PO Box 492
Norwich, CT 06360 Corvallis, OR 97399
This is not a complete list, so I will be posting more later. I have
received catalogs and price lists from a majority of these, but some
of them I haven't written to, so I don't if they still exist. Anyway,
I'll try to get the other ones on later this week, and if anyone has
an address to add, post it where I may see it also.
Happy Hatching,
Ernie Traylor
wtraylor@york.tec.sc.us
Subject: Guniea Hens against ticks & fleas
Date: Tue, 19 May 92 20:00:25 GMT
Guinea hens, free-ranging, eat lots of fleas and ticks.
Raising them is neither hard nor expensive. They cost $2 per/chick
in my area (NE). Initially they must be kept in a wire cage inside,
with a light bulb burning (this is when they're newly-hatched). At
this point they eat a mash(check with your local feed barn). In a
few weeks (they're fast growers) they need a bigger cage. After
3-4 months, they are ready to be released, but don't release all of
them at once. They have a nasty, ungrateful habit of simply making
fast feet to parts unknown and you never see them again.
To prevent this, release only 2 of them at first. They like to
flock and will hang around waiting for the rest of their flock to
join them. After a week, let out another one; after 4 days,
release another and so on. The idea is that by the time the entire
flock is released(usually folks buy 9-12 of them) they're used to
the area and stay there.
Foxes and raccoons do eat them, so stock replenishment is usually
required from time to time. Some seem to be smaarter than others
and survive our foxes, raccoons, and coyotes. Guinea hens roost in
trees at night so that keeps them safe at the worst predator times.
My cats are terrorized by them and leave them alone. I'm not sure
about dogs.
They're awfully funny. They sound like someone breaking a bunch of
dishes when they cackle. They run real fast and altogether
resemble something a cartoonist would have created.
Good Luck
Kathy
Subject: ticks
Date: 18 May 92 18:10:17 GMT
Guinea hens!!! They eat ticks and fleas--they eat a whole lot of
them. I never believed this until I moved to a 32 acre farm with
guinea hens(the farm has had them for the last 10 years). The farm
has NOT had fleas or ticks for the last 10 years. This is
remarkable because other places in the area (where I lived) had
many fleas and , dangerously enough, deer ticks. They're pretty
cheap to buy around here--2 bucks a chick.
Kathy
Subject: Turkey Genetic Conservation
Date: 5 Dec 91 17:19:01 GMT
(Holiday repost on Turkey genetic conservation)
The author of the article below, David Sullenberger, is a professor of
biology at New Mexico State University. He is an AMBC member, and keeps
a flock of Wishard Bronze turkeys. For a copy of the entire article plus
the bibliography, send a 45-cent SASE to AMBC, Box 477, Pittsboro, NC 27312.
In the not too distant past turkey was strictly holiday fare. Supply was
seasonal and nearly always lagging demand, which made turkey too expensive
for everyday meals. Intense management, close confinement, balanced
rations, sub-therapeutic medication, growth hormones, selective breeding
and artificial insemination (AI) have changed all that.
The use of AI has been critical, because over the past 25 years breeders
have been busy putting more meat on the birds - especially breast meat -
and those large, meaty breasts very effectively prevent the toms from
mating.
There is, however, at least one breed of domestic turkey that can procreate
without aid from man. The "unimproved" breed is the Wishard strain of
naturally mating Bronze turkeys. Wishard naturally mating bronze turkeys
are vigorous, flight-capable, intelligent, good-looking, weather-tolerant
and disease resistant. They got that way by virture of nearly 50 years of
what for all practical purposes amounts to natural selection - Wishard
turkeys have never been pampered.
"They either made it or they didn't. They flew to avoid coyotes, hid to
avoid hawks, foraged for a lot of their diet ant if they got sick they lived
or died on their own." Wishard hatched eggs from his own hens, raised the
poults to 8 weeks on wire, then turned them out to pasture to fend for
themselves until harvest. The ranging birds were provided with minimal
care in simple facilities consisting of pastures enclosed by woven wire
fence, elementary shelters and roots, feeding and watering stations
which were moved a few yards each week to minimize ground contamination,
and rotation to new pasture as appropriate. Breeding stock were those
birds held over at harvest time. No formal selective or pedigree breeding
was practiced and all mating was the responsibility of the toms - exclusively.
The Wishard strain of bronze turkeys represents an invaluable genetic
resourse of highly adapted, low-input, production meat birds. As we enter
the 1990's - a period in which our nation's agricultural productions
practices will be seriously questioned by chemically-conscious consumers,
environmentalists and politicians - there is comfort in knowing that at
least one low-input, self-propagating turkey breed is still around and
competing nicely.
If you are interested in beginning a flock of Wishard Bronze turkeys,
contact Wish Hatchery, Box 362, Prairie City, OR 97869, (503) 820-3509.
AMBC member Peter Jorgensen also has a flock of Wishard Bronze, and can
be reached at CS Fund Conservancy, 469 Bohemian Highway, Freestone,
CA 95472, (707) 874-2942.
Newsgroups: alt.agriculture.misc
Subject: Chicken Hatcheries List
Message-ID: <1994Feb28.082626.1@vader.york.tec.sc.us>
From: wtraylor@vader.york.tec.sc.us
Date: 28 Feb 94 08:26:26 -0500
Organization: York Technical College
Nntp-Posting-Host: default-gateway
Lines: 96
Poultry Hatcheries
Stromberg's Marti Poultry Farm
Pine River 41C, MN 56474 Box 27-5
Windsor, MO 65360
Inman Hatcheries Hoffman Hatchery
PO Box 616 Gratz, PA 17030
Aberdeen, SD 57402-0616
1-800-843-1962
Oakwood Game Farm MacFarlane Pheasant Farm, Inc.
PO Box 274 2821A Center Avenue
Princeton, MN 55371 Janesville, WI 53546
1-800-328-6647 1-800-345-8348
Wild Wings Clearview Hatchery
Dept. SF Box 399
9491 152nd St. North Gratz, PA 17030
Hugo, MN 55038
Hoover's Hatchery Rouse Game Farm
1-800-247-7014 RR #4
Moravia, NY 13118
Mother Goose Hatchery Atlas Chicks
1-800-A1 GOOSE 2651 Chouteau
St. Louis, MO 63103
Sunny Creek Hatchery The Country Boy
Red Lake Falls, MN 56750 3428 Beret Lane
Dept. F&S
Wheaton, MD 20906
Wildlife Nurseries, Inc. Cross Keys Pheasantry
PO Box 2724-F PO Box 594
Oshkosh, WI 54903 Dept FS.
Hollidaysburg, PA 16648
Crow Poultry Comstock
Box 106-10 Beaumont, TX 77708
Windsor, MO 65360
Grain Belt Hatchery Horan's
Box 125-AA Box 417-0
Windsor, MO 65360 Tamaqua, PA 18252
Oakridge Outdoors Meadowbrook Game Birds
Maysville, AR 72747 Richfield, PA 17086
Clinton Chicks Reed's Hatchery
Box 548-FS 208 College
Clinton, MO 64735 Alva, OK 73717
Ridgway Hatcheries Blue Ribbon Chickens
Box 306 Box 850830
LaRue 18, Ohio 43332 Yukon, OK 73085
1-800-323-3825
Bedwell Farms Glacier Springs
1500 Hunsaker Rd. 190A Becumier Lane
Boonville , Indiana 47601 Sobieski, WI 54171
Texas Longnecks Chick Master Incubator Co.
PO Box 156 945 Lafayette Rd.
McKinney, TX 75069 Medina, Ohio 44256-3510
Poultry Products of Maine Poultry Specialties, Inc.
433 Bemis Rd. 517 East 5th St.
Hookett, NH 03106-0000 Russellville, AR 72801-0000
National Poultry News Fett
Dept. UIPD RR 1ME24
Box 1647 Minden, IA 51553
Easley, SC 29641
PHR Hatchery Conn Hatchery
Box 428 Rt. 3 2005 Penoak
Squires, MO 65755 Roswell, MN 88201
Hall Brothers Hatchery Holderread's Waterfowl Farm
PO Box 1026-ME PO Box 492
Norwich, CT 06360 Corvallis, OR 97399
-------------------------------------------------------------
Murray McMurray Hatchery
1-800-456-3280
Webster City, Iowa, 50595-0458
1-515-832-3280
Rare Breeds
bantams
chickens (they sell Dominiques ["Domineckers"] and Araucanas)
guineas
turkeys
peafowl
partridge
pheasants
goslings (they sell "weeder geese")
ducklings
supplies
equipment
books
- this entry added by london@sunSITE.unc.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------
This is not a complete list, so I will be posting more later. I have
received catalogs and price lists from a majority of these, but some
of them I haven't written to, so I don't if they still exist. Anyway,
I'll try to get the other ones on later this week, and if anyone has
an address to add, post it where I may see it also.
Happy Hatching,
Ernie Traylor
wtraylor@york.tec.sc.us
Article 8587 of misc.rural:
Newsgroups: misc.rural
Path: bigblue.oit.unc.edu!concert!inxs.concert.net!taco.cc.ncsu.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mlfarm!auda!ron
From: ron@mlfarm.com (Ronald Florence)
Subject: Re: HELP, SHEEP OWNERS!
In-Reply-To: ALICIAM@MAINE.MAINE.EDU's message of Thu, 14 Apr 1994 17:21:30 EDT
Message-ID: <CoAK92.2Er@mlfarm.com>
Lines: 45
Nntp-Posting-Host: auda.mlfarm.com
Organization: Maple Lawn Farm, Stonington, CT
References: <Co7tqy.DK1@oakhill.sps.mot.com> <2ojki6$ien@search01.news.aol.com>
<2ojvcj$5ti@convex.convex.com> <94104.172130ALICIAM@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 1994 08:14:57 GMT
ALICIAM@MAINE.MAINE.EDU writes:
Wednesday morning we found our youngest ewe flat on her back on a
completely flat piece of ground, all 4 legs up in the air. [...]
called the vet; he couldn't find a thing wrong with her except
elevated heart rate an slow moving rumen [...] She tried many
times to get up but couldn't. [...] Her legs are stretched right
out straight behind her.
I'm reluctant to second-guess a vet or try long-distance diagnosis,
but three possibilities spring to mind: tetanus, white-muscle disease,
or some form of bloat.
Tetanus is endemic on any farm with equines. Sheep can be vaccinated
with an annual injection of tetanus toxoid; there is also an antitoxin
which confers immediate short-term immunity. The _TV Vet Sheep Book_
says that mild cases respond to daily injections of penicillin (6cc of
300,000 units/cc). The prognosis for an acute case is not good.
White-muscle disease is caused by a deficiency of selenium and/or
vitamin E. Soils in many areas of the US, including the northeast,
are low on selenium, so the sheep receive little in pasture and hay;
the selenium in commercially processed grains is limited because of
problems with toxicity. White-muscle disease usually strikes young
lambs, presenting first as a stiffness in the rear legs. The muscular
atrophy ultimately affects the heart muscles. The treatment is an
injection of BOSE. The recommended dosage for ewes is 2.5ml per 100
pounds of body weight. It is best to err on the side of underdosage,
as selenium is highly toxic to sheep. Recovery after an injection of
BOSE is quite spectacular.
Bloat is possible if the ewe was suddenly on lush alfalfa or clover
pasture (unlikely in April in Maine). You would probably notice the
swollen left flank of the sheep. The classic treatment is to puncture
the rumen with a trochar (the operation is described in Thomas Hardy's
_Far From the Madding Crowd_). The more modern treatment is to
relieve the mass of foamy gas in the rumen by getting the sheep to
swallow one end of a hose. There are also anti-bloat medications
available.
Good luck with the ewe.
--
Ronald Florence
ron@mlfarm.com
Article 7923 of misc.rural:
Path: bigblue.oit.unc.edu!concert!corpgate!news.utdallas.edu!convex!darwin.sura.net!spitfire.navo.navy.mil!enterprise!jkc
From: jkc@pops.navo.navy.mil (Jay Cliburn)
Newsgroups: misc.rural
Subject: On raising chickens commercially...
Date: 2 Mar 1994 19:34:20 GMT
Organization: POPS Supercomputer Center
Lines: 195
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <2l2pns$aau@spitfire.navo.navy.mil>
Reply-To: jkc@pops.navo.navy.mil
NNTP-Posting-Host: enterprise.navo.navy.mil
The long term readers of this group may remember my query of about two
years ago when I sought information on the pros and cons of commercially
raising vast numbers of chickens. At the time, my father was contemplating
retiring from his riverboat captain job and entering the poultry business
full time on our farm in Lawrence county, Mississippi. I received several
responses to my initial post of oh-so-long-ago -- mostly negative
recommendations -- but, alas, despite the naysayers, Daddy went ahead with
the effort. This is a followup to that post. It's LONG (~190 lines), so
bail out if you're not interested.
( First, something totally unrelated to the subject. You may have
chuckled at my use of the term "Daddy." However, virtually all
adult men and women in rural Mississippi (including this 37-year
old male) refer to their fathers as "Daddy" -- pronounced "Deddy."
Mom is called "Mama." Is this true in other areas as well?
)
I'll start by describing the buildings that house the chickens. There are
four houses; each house measures (about) 400' x 40'. The construction
utilizes regularly spaced, opposing, angular steel trusses with the bottom
end of each truss attached to the concrete foundation wall and the other
(top) end connected to the top end of the opposing truss at the crown
of the roof. The trusses form the structure for the walls and roof. The
side walls are made of heavy vinyl/canvas type material which can be
raised and lowered automatically by a motorized system of pulleys to allow
ventilation and assist in temperature control. There are four wall-mounted
ventilation fans -- two on one wall bring fresh air into the house and two
on the opposite wall exhaust air from the house. These fans activate for
30 seconds every 10 minutes.
The floor of each house is dirt, but is covered with about four inches
of heavy pine sawdust (and smells wonderful to me when it's fresh and no
chickens have yet soiled it). A thin layer of fresh sawdust is added
atop soiled litter prior to the arrival of each new batch of chicks after
the soiled litter is "cleaned". Cleaning is accomplished by a specialized
piece of machinery towed behind a tractor. It scoops up the soiled litter,
filters out the larger, chunky stuff and lays the finer sawdust back down
onto the floor. We then use this same pooper scooper machine (which has
a spreader mechanism on the back) to distribute the manure on our pastures.
After cleaning, we get the thin layer of new sawdust spread over the old
stuff so the next batch of chicks won't get their little feet dirty. :)
After seven batches of chickens, the litter is completely removed and
replaced. This occurs about once per year. Removal is performed by a
nice man with a front loader and several tractor-trailer dump rigs. He
comes in at no cost to us, loads up the manure/sawdust mixture, and takes
it to various points on the globe to sell it. We then notify the chicken
processor that we have clean floors and are ready for "shavings." Several
truckloads of the sweet-smelling pine sawdust arrive over the next couple
of days. The trucks simply drive slowly through each house and spread the
shavings over the floor.
At each end of the house is a large door to allow trucks and machinery
to pass into and through the house. Personnel access to each house is
normally gained by passing through a small equipment control room annex,
located at the midpoint of the building. Inside this control room are
the various timers, valves, compressed air lines, and controls for feeding
and watering the birds and maintaining the feed and water lines.
Lighting inside each house is provided by incandescent bulbs (lots of them)
on a timer circuit. The on/off ratio varies according to the age of
the chickens. The side walls described above are opaque and are sometimes
lowered (that is, opened; they open downward), so lights are only used
during hours of outside darkness. There must be two independent sources
of electricity for each house. Our sources are (1) the standard supply
provided by the local REA affiliate, and (2) a diesel generator used
during outages of (1).
Heating is provided by four large, high capacity, thermostatically-
controlled, gas-fired heaters. Four fans mounted on poles hang down from
the ceiling to provide internal air circulation. The poles are hinged at
the ceiling to allow the fans to be raised (in unison, by pulleys) to the
ceiling to allow clearance for trucks and machinery passing through the house.
The heaters are suspended by cables from the ceiling and may be raised
to the ceiling as well.
The chickens receive water through an automatic watering system. There are
four water lines that run the length of each house. These lines sit atop
the litter and are attached to thin cables connected to a ceiling-mounted
pulley system used to raise the water lines up to the ceiling. (Keep in
mind that *everything* must be raised to the ceiling during evolutions that
require passage of machinery through the house.) Conical, plastic, water cups,
spaced at two foot intervals, are mounted to the top of each water line.
An inlet valve at the bottom of each cup (the apex of the cone) sports a
vertical appendage, which, when moved slightly to one side or the other,
opens the valve to allow water into the cup (from the bottom). A one-inch
diameter plastic ball floats in the cup, and when the water level gets
low enough, the ball comes into contact with the valve appendage, opens
the valve, and water enters the cup. Like electricity, two sources of
water are required. We use (1) what we call "city" water, piped in from
the local water authority, and (2) a well for backup. Water lines can
become plugged from time to time, and we clear them by blowing compressed
air through them. Antibiotics and such are injected into the watering
system through a special fitting within the equipment control room.
The feeding system is designed to be automatic, although in practice it
is much less so than the watering system. Bulk feed is trucked in
periodically and loaded into two 25-ton feed silos at each house. The
formulation of the feed varies with the age of the chickens. Feed is
provided by the processor. (FWIW, the processor in our case is Sanderson
Farms, Inc., of Laurel, Mississippi). There are two feed lines which
run the length of each house, each line originating from its own 50 pound
feed hopper. Again, like everything else in the house, all feed lines and
hoppers are configured so that they may be raised to the ceiling. The
hoppers are filled from the silos using motorized Archimedes screws.
Similarly, the feed lines themselves use Archimedes screws to take feed
from the hoppers. Evenly spaced about every two feet along each feed
line are feed distribution ports. When the chicks are very young, the
feed simply dumps into shallow trays which the chicks can easily hop into.
(We place these trays on the floor prior to the chicks' arrival.)
At this age, the chicks are fed as much as they can eat. When the birds
are ten days old, the trays are removed and cleaned (a dreadful task) and
the feed is distributed into circular feed troughs, also spaced at two
foot intervals along, and permantently mounted to, the feed lines. We
close off the ports along the feed line which dumped into the trays. From
this time onward, feeding occurs every six hours and care must be used
not to overfeed or underfeed the birds. A timer is used to distribute
"x" amount of feed at each feeding, where we have control over "x". As
you might expect, chickens will just about eat themselves to death if
provided with enough feed, so we can't feed too much. On the other hand,
we don't want to underfeed either, since that produces smaller chickens,
and hence less money. The trick is to find that elusive balance of
maximum bird weight with minimum feed consumption and mortality rates.
That about wraps it up for the particulars of the houses. Are you still
here? :) Now I'll talk briefly about the day to day operations involved
in raising the chickens.
We raise broilers. We receive 22,400 chicks from the hatchery into each
(preheated) house at or before dawn on delivery day (it's no accident
that we refer to this as D-Day). We end up with a total of 89,600 chicks
entrusted to our loving care for about 41 days. The chicks arrive aboard
specially modified school buses (without seats, of course) in stacked,
shallow plastic crates, not unlike the ones that you find holding your
drinking glasses in your high school cafeteria. We simply dump the little
fellers out onto the floor of their new home, and the hatchery folks load up
their empty trays and hit the road. For the first few days, we check
on the chicks frequently; replenishing food and carefully monitoring their
health and condition. Each morning we walk through the houses to pick up
the birds that died the day before. The highest mortality is almost always
suffered on day four -- about 40 - 50 chicks per house. (In one "defective"
batch early this year we suffered a staggering day four loss of over 300
birds in a single house!) Carcasses are buried in pits about 100 meters
away from the houses.
As mentioned earlier, on day 10 we remove the feed trays, convert
to the circular troughs, and begin 6-hour feeding intervals. Life gets a
little easier at this point. The birds grow pretty rapidly, and on day
39 or 40 have reached about 4.0 - 4.5 pounds. The processor comes to
pick up the chickens after dark on day 40 or 41 -- after dark because
the birds are somewhat calmer than during daylight hours. It's a busy
evening for us, which starts four hours before the pickup crews arrive.
We have to empty feed and water lines and raise all lines, heaters, and
fans to the ceiling to make way for the pickup crews. They come at the
prearranged time (hopefully) and spend the rest of the night -- usually
until dawn -- picking up chickens by hand and putting them into stacked
cages on semi trucks. Mortality is fairly high during this evolution;
a poultry biologist told us it's due to heart attacks and smothering as
the frightened birds pile onto one another to avoid their captors. By
dawn, the trucks rumble off into the distance carrying a few tens of
thousands of bewildered chickens to meet their destiny and leaving a
red-eyed and haggard family behind.
Once the chickens are gone and we've caught up on our sleep, we "clean"
the litter, wash down and disinfect the inside of each house, and spread
a thin layer of new pine shavings on the floor (or replace it altogether,
if it's time). Any maintenance on the various suspension equipment in the
houses is performed at this time, and if we want to go on vacation or
anything, now is the time to do it. We have about two weeks of "empty
time," and four days prior to the arrival of the next batch of chicks,
we check out all heaters, fans, feed lines, water lines, and controls.
Twenty-four hours prior to their arrival, we lay down the feed trays,
lower the feed and water lines, light off the heaters and bring the
temperature in the houses up to 88 degrees F. This must be done at
the prescribed time in order to bring the litter up to temperature,
otherwise the chicks suffer hypothermia from the "cold" floor. The
chick buses return the next morning and we start the cycle all over
again! And we love it!
Well, I've rambled on long enough. Just thought I'd pass along our
experiences. If you're ever in south Mississippi, give me a heads up.
I'd be delighted to show you around. The sight and sound of 20,000+
chickens in one room never ceases to amaze. :-)
--
***************************************************************************
* *
* Jay Cliburn jkc@navo.navy.mil *
* Empress Software (601) 688-5083 *
* Stennis Space Center, Mississippi *
* *
***************************************************************************
Be prepared to undergo privation and labor with cheerfulness and alacrity.
Braxton Bragg