[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Take action now to save mail order shipping of poultry.




I agree with the sentiments expressed below but in practice it hasn't 
worked here in New Mexico.  The only local hatchery went out of business 
last year due to lack of high enough volume and high taxes on his 
business.  Our only source of chicks has been from large hatcheries.  Our 
attempts to find breeds that still have the brooding instinct has thus far 
not produced any results.  We have tried breeds, like the Rhoad Island Red, 
and others which seem to loose interest in setting after a day or two.  I 
attribute this to them having lost this basic instinct over many 
generations of incubation in an incubator instead of under a mama 
hen.  Meanwhile we are ordering over forty chickens a year for meat and 
layer replacement.

Until there is a consistent local supplier or we find a good brood hen or 
hens we are dependent on shipping our birds in.

Scott

At 12:25 PM 8/14/01 -0500, you wrote:
>I don't know that I agree with opposing this ban.  Lack of access
>to air shipping is likely to spark the development of local
>hatcheries.   All things considered, local hatcheries and even
>setting your own eggs and hatching your own chicks are much more
>"green' and sustainable it seems to me than a few large
>hatcheries shipping little birds around the country by air plane.
>
>Robert Waldrop, OKC
>http://www.bettertimesinfo.org