Feed store rant!

[Straw Hat Kikos]

No they aren't. They are keeping them clean of disease. It's great practice and very good bio-security.

 

[Back to Nature]

And as bio-security to my farm, if I buy an animal, I WILL look at it for disease first. If they don't like that, then I'll shop somewhere else. I would understand if they had me wash my hands first or offered to show it to me, but they did neither, so..

 

[Southern by choice]

I run a bio-secure poultry farm...by ME letting YOU handle my chicks I have possibly exposed my chicks to a serious poultry illness. NO-ONE handles my poultry...EVER!

You cannot "see" CRD's yet they are passed along on your hands, hair, clothes, shoes etc.

Are you at all familiar with poultry illnesses? Most are not evident...they are often dormant and are triggered by an event.

I do hold up my birds so that feet, toes beaks, butts etc can be seen by the buyer. My customers appreciate that I have a farm that practices such intense bio-security.

A few years back after a long quarantine I put some birds in with my flock... short end of the matter is the new birds were carriers of MG and I had an outbreak.. I had to KILL 200+/- birds. My farm was quarantined til all MG was eradicated.

Set me back $3000 with total loss approx $5000. Had to start all over with expensive hatching eggs treat with special egg "dip" to eradicate any carriers in the hatching eggs then grow them back up wait til they were old enough to breed out. That is a BIG loss.

So... one person being offended... oh well... that just means they have no clue of the seriousness of bio-security. When I share with my customers the "whys" of our practices they usually ask for more info on keeping a healthy flock and generally appreciate it.

 

[PendergrassRanch]

Wow I would be so mad! Thankfully our feed store in town is awesome and family owned. What a bunch of baloney!

 

[CocoNUT]

I have to agree. We have all kinds at both our local TSCs AND the feed store. Fortunately, i go frequently enough, that I know WHO to ask questions to and who to avoid! When we had JUST gotten Snuggles, I took her with me to one of our local TSCs. One of the ladies there (also a bus driver in our area) gave me all kinds of information on what to have, feed, do etc. Turns out she also runs a sheep (meat) farm!Another girl who works at another TSC is so AWESOME! She'll do whatever she can to help you out, is alway nice, and remembers us everytime we go!

At our local feed stores, one of them, the people are really nice and helpful. Know me by name. The other...they're helpful and nice (their customers are a little more territorial about THEIR store...if they don't KNOW you....). They each have their own benefits...and drawbacks. Just wish our local feed store had longer weekend hours!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Absolutely, they cannot and should not take that kind of risk in letting people handle poultry they are selling. Even with washed hands. I would be highly upset to learn that, if I were to buy our birds from a place like TSC, that they had allowed the birds to be touched and handled by random people before selling them to me, creating the possibility for sickness and disease to come onto my property.

 

[Southern by choice]

Our local feed store...not a TSC.... changed their whole set up and policy after we shared what had happened to us. They were devastated for us too. They no longer let anyone touch the chicks.

Our local TSC began the NO-handle policy last year too. They have panels all around the brooders so that no one can get to them.

 

[Back to Nature]

I run a bio-secure poultry farm...by ME letting YOU handle my chicks I have possibly exposed my chicks to a serious poultry illness. NO-ONE handles my poultry...EVER!

You cannot "see" CRD's yet they are passed along on your hands, hair, clothes, shoes etc.

Are you at all familiar with poultry illnesses? Most are not evident...they are often dormant and are triggered by an event.

I do hold up my birds so that feet, toes beaks, butts etc can be seen by the buyer. My customers appreciate that I have a farm that practices such intense bio-security.

A few years back after a long quarantine I put some birds in with my flock... short end of the matter is the new birds were carriers of MG and I had an outbreak.. I had to KILL 200+/- birds. My farm was quarantined til all MG was eradicated.

Set me back $3000 with total loss approx $5000. Had to start all over with expensive hatching eggs treat with special egg "dip" to eradicate any carriers in the hatching eggs then grow them back up wait til they were old enough to breed out. That is a BIG loss.

So... one person being offended... oh well... that just means they have no clue of the seriousness of bio-security. When I share with my customers the "whys" of our practices they usually ask for more info on keeping a healthy flock and generally appreciate it.

I don't think you read the part where I said "or offered to show it to me" before you got all offended.

 

[Southern by choice]

I run a bio-secure poultry farm...by ME letting YOU handle my chicks I have possibly exposed my chicks to a serious poultry illness. NO-ONE handles my poultry...EVER!

You cannot "see" CRD's yet they are passed along on your hands, hair, clothes, shoes etc.

Are you at all familiar with poultry illnesses? Most are not evident...they are often dormant and are triggered by an event.

I do hold up my birds so that feet, toes beaks, butts etc can be seen by the buyer. My customers appreciate that I have a farm that practices such intense bio-security.

A few years back after a long quarantine I put some birds in with my flock... short end of the matter is the new birds were carriers of MG and I had an outbreak.. I had to KILL 200+/- birds. My farm was quarantined til all MG was eradicated.

Set me back $3000 with total loss approx $5000. Had to start all over with expensive hatching eggs treat with special egg "dip" to eradicate any carriers in the hatching eggs then grow them back up wait til they were old enough to breed out. That is a BIG loss.

So... one person being offended... oh well... that just means they have no clue of the seriousness of bio-security. When I share with my customers the "whys" of our practices they usually ask for more info on keeping a healthy flock and generally appreciate it.

I don't think you read the part where I said "or offered to show it to me" before you got all offended.

Wasn't offended at all. Sorry if it came across that way. I was trying to show a broader picture, and yes they could have held up the chicks for you. It is more about the way diseases are transferred and that most poultry diseases cannot be seen. Maybe you are not this way but I have seen too many times people get really angry about not being able to handle the chicks at the feed stores and really it is the establishment trying to make sure the birds are not getting "contaminated". There is also an issue of salmonella, a hatchery that ships all over the US had a huge public notice announcement when people, in I think it was 26 states, had gotten sick from handling their ducks, all at feed stores.

Most chicken fanciers really don't know much about poultry illnesses. Just look at how many "swaps" occur all the time, then people wonder why they have sick chickens and marecks and CRD's.

 

[Dino]

Gotta play the devil's advocate here. Of course, I'm talking about a small town, locally owned, neighbor-run, family business thats been around since the 20s. Gotta be doing something right, huh?
Its on my way home from work, they stock locally grown grain products that are cheaper & fresher by far than the "other" stores, they have a good variety of products (goats, emu, alpaca, cow, horse) plus a miscellany of other stuff. Bagged compost, plants, you get the picture.
The absolute BEST part about their store? You can walk in, ask a question or six and leave without buying anything. If you need something ordered, its there and you are called within a week (usually less than that) They will TELL you if someone else has the same thing for cheaper than they can get it. They don't call me crazy for feeding whole grains to my chickens. They pass along messages from person to person (So and so is looking for a Dexter 3 in 1, would you give em a call?)
And when I walk in I get greeted by name. Since the second time I stepped foot in the store.
I avoid the "other" feed store at all costs now.

+1! Love our home grown "feed mills" aka elevators. They have it or can and will get it. They know you by name and how you like your feed mixed.