registering chicks?

<snort>

This government regulation stuff is getting absurd... they can't even keep track of which politicians have paid their taxes in the past decade, but they want to number and track every CHICKEN that lives in the USA

I'd find an "underground" source of poultry if I were you...

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Look on Craig's List for your area, there are frequently chicks and chickens for sale there.

Well... They are much better at tracking us than they are at tracking themselves.

LOL!

I think we probably aren't too far honestly from blackmarket animals that's for sure!

Marans are also self sustaining, and make a great eating bird. They were developed as a gourmet meat bird in France a long time ago. They are also great foragers and lay a very nice dark brown egg. They have a nice balance of laying/setting, unlike a lot of banties who lay a clutch then want to set.

We still have way too many running around that we didn't get around to butchering last year, and hens are starting to show up with chicks already.

I understand wanting to keep the govt out of one's business, and that govt run programs never work out well enough to be worth the effort they impose upon people.

The paperwork to register a couple of fowl per homestead is rediclous.

But - I disagree with your comment.

The large confignment systems do exactly that - confine the critters into one self-contained group. There is very, very low risk of any disease they get spreading to anyone else.

Perhaps you feel that the odds of birds in such close quarters catching a disease is higher because of the more crowded quarters. Ok, I'll buy that.

But, no one else is going to catch that disease - it will be configned to that one building.

Free ranging chickens, even 10 on a small homestead, are allowed to roam, interact with wild birds, neighboring poultry - these are the exact conditions that allow the spread of poultry diseases from one farm to the next to the next.

It is more likely your small flock will catch a disease than a large confignment operation will. And it is _far_ more likely your small flock will spread the disease to wild birds or other flocks, because they are free to roam & interact.

One only needs to look at the real world. Most of the puoltry disease gets it's start in China & Indonesia, where there are thousands of small flocks of free range poultry located near each other. this is the incubator for starting poultry diseases.

The big confignment operations in the USA watch for disease very closely, and move animals & shower before & after entering barns, with restricted access, just to keep any disease outbreak limited to one building or at worst one farm.

I understand the point of this thread that the govt paperwork is too big a pain for such small operations, but I disagree with your comment - it is the small free-range operations that have the most exposure & are most likely to pass on any disease outbreaks.

That is only common sense, and based on observable facts from China.

--->Paul

And when a disease DOES break out in a CAFO, it sure spreads around to the other CAFO's in the area.

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Until they disperse their birds (as in a confined, cage-free egg layers), offering them to local small farms, before sending them off to the soup shop.

This is what they are supposes to do, but that doesn't mean it happens 100% of the time. At least at our local egg layer confinement farms.

I totally agree that the free range birds that have the most exposure and are likely to pass on disease outbreaks, IF they acquire the disease.

I also thnk that these birds are generally hardier than the confinement birds and better able to fight off diseases.

Still, I don't feel it the gooberment's place to protect me from myself.

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mueller, you just don't get it !!!!

It is the governments job to protect your neighbors from you..... thus the tracking.

If a disease is carried from one flock to another by wild birds, wouldn't the wild birds be a bigger problem?

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Of course, but that would be using logic and common sense, and therefore has NOTHING to do with GOVT

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Oh, I get it alright. Next will be registering all the hay, vegetables & fruits we grow to protect others from us.

Why can't they make a law protecting us (and our neighbors) from the pesticides they spray on the crops next to our home, or quit using the nitrates that are filtering into our aquafer.

Follow the money ....

Just where does it say in the constitution that it is their job to do that???

and when will they make overweight folks register so they can tax them more to pay for the health care cost system....

(and it is MULLER not muEller)

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Chuckle, entertaining bit of misinformation. Nothing like taking a half-baked theory and proclaiming a full meal of hoax from it, as Tim has done in that article.

Bantams. I've had them, don't plan on going back. Seabrights are anything but friendly or broody. As are many other banty breeds. Far too easily snacked on my squirrels and rats. Never have had silkies though. Someday, I'll get some of them for fun.

There's an idea! Tax people based on their BMI! Try game bantams! They sure can take care of themselves, and they sustain themselves very well.

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When your backyard chicken catches the bird flu, it dies. When a confinement chicken catches the flu it spreads the flue to all of the other birds, and to the people who are working at the facility. The people reported dying from bird flu were associated with large confinement facilities, which is where they got it. There was a big scare and lots of misinformation spread about village chickens infecting villagers with the bird flu, but if that was the case, the entire village would be coming down with the disease, not those working in the CAFO.

Really says who?

Yes, but they are protected by the gov't so they won't be hunted to eliminate the problems which might occur. Controlling the wild animals upsets the animal rights groups and gets everything put on an endangered species list. Better that we all beome dependent on the gov't food source

It might help some of us is we knew where you are. For all we know you may be in Russia. So you tell us there is a problem where you are, so what? Some of us could possibly get involved and help if you would just let us know where this is happening.

Hmmm...maybe that is why some bird clubs count wild birds to see how many they are when and if they spead any diseases to other fowl. !!?? But..I do understand that Uncle Sam wants to "protect" its citizens..Because the goverment is all about taking care of us..right. That is not was the goverment is all about.. I certainl think I am grown up enought to care for myself and ..whatever. !! Anyways..I do believe that they are keeping track of the chicks for their own reasons..health or anything else but in my paranoid way of thinking..to be able to see who has livestock so they can take it away for their reasons. Get the book Mad Sheep by Linda Gaillace and see how fair and worried they really are toward us. Pretty soon you will only be able to buy chicks or chickens or eggs from Uncle Sam's chicken farm. Then we will depend on Uncle Sam for all our chicken to eat !!??

A few months ago I wouldn't have given your statement a second thought. But hey, we are going socialized! That may very well happen if WE THE PEOPLE don't start a revolution.

Even my 74 year old mother has decided to go to the Tea Party next week. I hope the Tea Parties get PLENTY of national media coverage (but I'm not holding my breath).

Sorry if it looks like I veered off topic. I didn't actually, if you stop and think about it.

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