Poultrykeeping Resources

Chicken Jokes

Our own collection of chicken jokes, most of which are actually funny!
 

Internet Resources

American Pastured Poultry Producers' Association (APPPA).  An organization of folks who are raising pastured broilers and eggs. Most are serious about the money-making side of this; all are delighted by the quality of the meat and eggs. There's some good stuff on the site, and if you join, your membership will include a subscription to APPPA Grit, which has all sorts of fascinating articles written by the members. Highly recommended.

YahooGroups Pastured Poultry Discussion Forum. An excellent e-mail discussion forum about pastured broilers and free-range eggs.

ATTRA Poultry Pages: Lots of practical information about pastured poultry.

Feathersite: A poultry site with a lot of stuff on it, including vast numbers of links to other poultry sites.
 

Recommended Hatcheries and Suppliers

We've purchased chicks or supplies from all of these vendors, and we recommend them.

Egg Washers

National Poultry Equipment Company. Makers of the Sani-Touch (Aquamagic) egg cleaner. Great machine; great folks.

Hatcheries

Privett Hatchery. An excellent hatchery with a great selection of breeds, including a wonderful selection of rare breeds,  high-producing brown-egg and white-egg birds, and slower-growing Cornish Cross broilers that don't have the health problems of the current commercial birds.

McMurray Hatchery. Another fine hatchery, this one with an emphasis on standard breeds rather than commercial ones. They have an large, free color catalog that is an education in itself.

Stromberg's. A hatchery and mail-order poultry supply source. Stromberg's also has an extensive collection of books for sale, some of which aren't available elsewhere.

Poultry Supplies

Kuhl Corporation makes a wide variety of poultry products, from feeders to high-volume egg-washing machines.

NASCO Farm and Ranch has a general farm catalog with a good poultry section.

GQF Manufacturing. Suppliers of incubators, brooders, and accessories.

Little Giant (Miller Manufacturing). Feeders,  waterers, and small incubators.

Egg Cartons. See my egg carton page.

You Can Find Anything on eBay

Really! Anything! If I can't find it locally, I can find it on eBay, at least once in a while. And you find the most amazing bargains!

For example, it's hard to find old AquaMagic egg washers. In the almost ten years I've been paying attention, I've seen more of them for sale on eBay than in our regional farm paper. Yes, many were too far away from us, but you get the idea. And although AquaMagics are hard to find, sometimes people get them on eBay for really low prices (say, around $1,000, which is plenty cheap for such a fancy machine).

Anyway, the lists below ought to give you an idea of the kinds of poultry stuff you can find on eBay.

Egg Washers

There are many different kinds of egg-washing tools: automatic egg cleaners, manual egg brushes, immersion washers, etc. Quality and general utility varies. I like the AquaMagic automatic egg washer, but this is suitable only for folks with commercial flocks.

General Poultry Equipment

Feeders, waterers, brooder, scalders, pickers, and other poultry equipment are in this category.

Egg Cartons

I have never bought egg cartons on eBay, but if you want to buy cartons less than a "bundle" of 200 at a time, eBay might be your best source.

Incubators

The incubator market is very competitive, and all the popular models are plentiful on eBay. We've used both the cheap GQF styrofoam incubators and the much larger GQF "Sportsman" incubators. The styrofaom incubators are how everyone starts, but they're hard to clean and aren't suitable if you do a lot of incubation. As far as I can tell, everyone uses the GQF Sportsman incubators unless they move up to much larger commercial models.

Hatching Eggs

Hatching eggs are almost unbelievably popular on eBay, allowing hobbyists to buy exactly the breed they want, even if none of the major hatcheries stock it. It's practically the only way of getting exotic or semi-exotic stock like Muscovy ducks, which for some reason the hatcheries avoid carrying.

Hatching eggs can be shipped through the mail or by other carriers. The hatching rate with eggs that have been shipped isn't as good as local eggs, but a lot of people find that it suits their needs.

Links to Other Farms' Web Pages

The old-fashioned chicken farming business has as many variations as it has farmers. My Web site features my farm and my methods, of course, but the diversity of methods out there is enormous. The thing we seem to have in common is that grass-fed eggs and broilers always taste a lot better than the confinement-reared stuff, and of course an old-fashioned farm is 'way more photogenic than a modern confinement operation!

(I haven't actually visited the farms in this list -- except for mine -- or tasted their products. I farm. That means I don't get out much!)

Norton Creek Farm. My farm.(Blodgett, Oregon.)

Peaceful Pastures. Live in an urban area? Want to buy free-range chicken (or other pastured products) anyway? It can be shipped to you in coolers! (Hickman, Tennessee).

Oaklyn Plantation. Another farm that can ship product to you in coolers, if you aren't local. (Darlington, South Carolina)

Other Links

Farmlinks Poultry Resource Network - The #1-rated poultry information website. Visit today for a FREE subscription to The Poultry Gazette! Articles, guides, tips, and many more resources on raising poultry - All for free!

Tracker-Outdoors.com - The definitive source for hunting, fishing, gardening, agriculture and livestock. We offer articles, information, classifieds, forums, online auctions, products and services for hunters, fishermen, guides, gardeners and livestock enthusiasts. http://www.tracker-outdoors.com

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