Registration of backyard chicken flocks

Ed in S. AL None of their business what you have in your backyard. If you comply then your an idiot!

An acquaintance of our family became county commisioner here.
He told us about an educational experience he had that I thought was very scary.

The new commisioners and city councilmen went to the county law enforcement building soon after taking office. They were taken into a highly secure room with a bank of computers and monitors. One of the computer operators asked for one of the visitor's home address. He typed it into the computer and came up with an aerial view of the home, zooming in enough that everyone could make out the type of dog he had in his back yard.

If you want to keep unregistered animals you'd better start growing your own feed. There is no way that the feed store owner/operators are not going to turn you in once the screws are put to them by the government. And don't be foolish enough to think that paying cash will guarantee your anonimity- presumably you will be driving a vehicle when you go to pick up your feed? They'll take down your tag #. That is of course, if they don't already know who you are.

I think we are all a day late and a $ short here- this legislation has already been passed and is currently being implemented- a bit late to start protesting. And yes, we will be footing the bill for this one, and it won't be cheap.

I am keeping an eye on Wisconsin to see how they are going to handle this once 1-1-06 rolls around. They have been very vocal about enforcing the new law.

Yes a few months back I had also mentioned about the Pa Arg. Dept sent everyone a form to fill out telling what and how many animals you had on your property..farm animals. I some how lost mine walking in from the mailbox to the house ??!! But..I understand what they "seem' to be saying about safety with animal diseases and able to help us citizens in case there is an outbreak of it but...why do we always think that the government is "out to get us"..duh ?? I really don't know how they can enforce this as someone mentioned about the baby chicks in the house. My chickens hatch so many chicks all over the barn in the spring that I don't know how many chickens I really actually have running around the homestead. They still can't make people buy a dog license every year how can they enforce this rule/law? My thought on this was the eventually you will only be able to buy chicken or beef from Uncle Sam's Farm. Have you ever noticed how most supermarkets now a days have their "cards' so you can buy items that are on sale..they know exactly what and how many you buy..when you shop and how often by that little "bonus" type of card. My husband is a meat cutter and last month his company had a guest night just for the customers that shop the most in that store..how did they know..they did !! So..yes we don't think that Uncle Sam knows what we are doing but I'm sure they do. It's just that most of us aren't worth the trouble to check out for now..anyways. Can you move and hide in the mountains ?? I thought I had done that years ago..but I think I was wrong. People know you and what you have in a small town more so than in the big city. So..keep count of your old biddies..one just might come up missing !!

I went to the MFA yesterday and was told to fill out the form if I wanted to buy feed. Soc. Sec # name address date of birth and phone # !!!! they said they are the first to have to do it (gov enforced) but by spring 06 it will be everywhere required. We considered we might just grow our own feed, however there will probably be a tally on seed bought as well.

Sandi: our privacy and rights are being deminished quickly, all under the guise of health and safety. you say to protect our freedom, but it is freedom that is being lost - and commun-ism that is being nurtured.

There is the old adage; give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime. Well, it just is not so anymore is it? now to fish that man must be able to afford the license, catch during season - have the correct size and not go over the set limit. It is getting to be such that a person is being restricted from fending for himself thereby controlling the quality and healthfulness of what he consumes.

Shoot, can't even be a good old fashioned hermit these days - all the caves are privately or govt owned and cost near a days wages just to 'tour'

Great...now I'll have to dress the poultry and call them children. They are only bantams, does that count?

Its the NewWorldOrder,us tinfoilers are right on this one.

BooBoo

Ding Dong someone just turned the light on......I'm buying wild bird food at Walmart if I have to register or the feed store asks questions....suet at the butcher....worm farming anyone?

I would not give them any info...especially SS#. No tresspassing signs and a little bird shot....what about the wild turkeys that come to everyone's bird feeders and eat whats on the ground? Those arent my chickens I just think they are pretty so I lure them to my feeder when the neighbor free ranges....we even get wild geese and ducks in the pond....I suppose I'd be charged for them too?

Its crazy....

What chickens? I lost six out of eleven free rangers the other day to a hunting pack of coyotes...guess the other five chickens got taken inside their pen by fence-climbing coyotes...or something...don't you hate that?

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Gun-toting, church-going, homeschooling, right-wing conservative, happily married, stay-at-home mom of three living in the real United States of America!

I would not give out SSN, name, address, phone # and DOB to someone just to buy feed.

The opportunities for identity theft are staggering, to start with. And I ain't giving out an SSN for CHICKEN FEED>

Hey, chooks can live on leftovers, salad, rice, corn, unground wheat and grains (you know, the kind you buy to "grind into your own flour"). They can have oyster shell for calcium. I suppose at worst you could give 'em Tums for calcium (joking, joking). And yeah, wild bird food at WalMart. AT worst, grow sunflowers and other seed-bearing plants and harvest that instead. Chooks loves greens, and we loves salads, so who's gonna keep track of that? And so forth and so on.

I can say flat out that *ahem* IF I were to have any more chickens if some, say, magically hatched from eggs that were being magically kept warm, I certainly wouldn't be registering them with anyone.

Point is, this is fed.gov intrusion in the worst way. And as was said above, any time there's registration, there are ALWAYS fees to be levied. It COSTS to maintain that database, and counties, cities, states, etc. will be happy to jump on the bandwagon of yet another source of revenue.

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Gun-toting, church-going, homeschooling, right-wing conservative, happily married, stay-at-home mom of three living in the real United States of America!

Unfortunately, I wish that were true.

Idaho is right on board, and even doing experimental RFID implants to see how they work.,

http://animalid.aphis.usda.gov/nais/...light_0605.pdf

(link requires Adobe Viewer to view .pdf document)

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Gun-toting, church-going, homeschooling, right-wing conservative, happily married, stay-at-home mom of three living in the real United States of America!

There are folks where I live that scare the crap out of our various county and state officials. My husb and I were out in the nat'l forest gathering dead and downed for our wood supply with a couple of locals. The Forest Service saw the truck and came by for a little chat. Both of these FS dudes kept their hands on their guns when they talked to us!! One of the locals called them "the Forest Circus" to their faces and asked them to please remove their hands from their guns. The younger FS guy was actually SHAKING.

Idaho has a reputation, but I don't think we are the only state that prides itself on being antiestablishment. I think if the gov tried something like this here, the enforcers would be telling stories about them real durn smart coyotes and saying "what chickens??"

Where's Ruby Ridge???

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All of this stuff just makes me want to vomit.

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www.MontanaSticksAndStones.com at Goshen Farm

I can say with complete confidence that whatever chickens we get will not be registered with anyone, and if it comes to giving out personal information to buy feed... those chickens will be eating oyster shells, wild bird feed, and left-overs through the winter and free range in the summer. What a crock of spit. We were thinking we'd want Kinders for dairy and meat, but they are such a small population that it would probably be impossible to get them unregistered.

Good point about the ducks and turkeys and whatnot that live and feed on your property but aren't actually kept by you. What will they do about the wild animals? "I'm sorry to tell you this, sir, but we have to fine you for the flock of unregistered turkeys we found on your back forty this morning."

Bunch o' crazies.

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Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Mark Twain

About 19 miles northeast of my house.

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Gun-toting, church-going, homeschooling, right-wing conservative, happily married, stay-at-home mom of three living in the real United States of America!

Yep, I've seen some (and TALKED to some, OhMyGosh my city friends were horrified) that are straight out of "deliverance" country.

I went riding with a slightly insane woman one time. All I wanted to do was ask her if I could ride on the mountain or was it private property. It turned into a two hour fiasco, her on her quad, me on my dirtbike, both of us lost, riding on trails WAAAAY too advanced for either of us.

Boy it was fun. Even though she was nuts.

The sad part is that there are people like that everywhere, even in civilized SoCal. *rolls eyes* They'se people, just like us, go figure. *rolls eyes twice*

'sides, if enforcers showed up to ask me about my chickens, I'd say, "Chickens? What chickens? Those are bald eagles that I hatched from eggs I stole outta some nest!"

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Gun-toting, church-going, homeschooling, right-wing conservative, happily married, stay-at-home mom of three living in the real United States of America!

This seems to be my day for multiple posts on the same thread but...

I've always wanted to rescue ten or twelve of those pitiful chickens and bring 'em home, let them have some of the comforts of a REAL chicken's life before they die, like eating grass, grazing on bugs, preening in the sunshine, bathing in the dirt...

Wish I knew how I could adopt some battery chickens.

Don't laugh, I am serious. I look at my chooks and I look at those chooks and just feel horrible for them.

'course, I feel bad for downer cows, downer pigs, veal calves...you name it, they all make me feel sad. But I could adopt chooks today, if I wanted to.

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Gun-toting, church-going, homeschooling, right-wing conservative, happily married, stay-at-home mom of three living in the real United States of America!

I got a postcard last week from USDA offering free informational cds on how to recognize bird flu symptoms in poultry.

As much as I dread the idea, I do have a massive slaughter plan in the books if avian flu strikes this country...

I wonder how many of you decrying the loss of their 'rights' will be the first to ask for help, if your spouse or children start dropping like flies, from the avian flu.

Reminds me of everyone wanting to keep their lovely trees on their places, when the electric company came around wanting to trim trees. Most folks told the trimmers to go away. After an ice storm a few years back, and all of the folks who didn't want their tree limbs trimmed, found theirselves without power for two weeks, they begged the trimmers to come to their houses and cut the whole tree down.

I love my flock, but if it means I die....well....hmmm.... nah... they gotta go.... of course, I'll be waiting for it to get pretty bad first.....

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

I am not concerned in the least about bird flu. Media hype.

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I believe in God's willingness to heal.

Cyngbaeld's Keep Heritage Farm, breeding a variety of historical birds and LaMancha goats. (It is pronounced King Bold.)

Now I know for sure I'm goin' to raise corn come spring.

Now I know for sure I'm puttin' a non-see-through cover on their summer run.

Gotta go sew up some tutu's for em...