http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-chicks-have-arrived.html?m=1
Not aware of a Mt Healthy Hatchery based out of PA, but there is a poultry distributor (including mail order) out of Cincinnati, OH.
Unfortunately this is what one finds...
Center of Disease Control and Prevention - Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report - 3/22/2013 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6211a5.htm?mobile=nocontent&s_cid=mm6211a5_w and
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/08/more-salmonella-cases-linked-to-chicks-and-ducklings/
The number of people sickened by Salmonella traced to chicks and ducklings from an Ohio mail order hatchery has risen from 123 to 163, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The illnesses – linked to contact with live baby poultry sold by Mt. Hatchery of Cincinnati, OH –began in March of this year. Three strains of Salmonella – Salmonella Infantis, Salmonella Lille and Salmonella Newport – have been associated with animals from the hatchery.
Mt. Healthy Hatchery is the same company that was linked to illnesses from Salmonella Altona and Salmonella Johannesburg in 2011. Those joint outbreaks sickened at least 96 people.
Veterinarians from the Ohio Department of Health visited the hatchery in May of 2012 and made recommendations for safety improvement.
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/10/cdc-months-long-live-poultry-salmonella-outbreak-over-195-ill-2-dead/
10/29/2012
The long-running multistate Salmonella outbreak tied to live poultry now appears to be over, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In all, 195 persons infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Infantis, Salmonella Newport, and Salmonella Lille were reported from 27 states, including two deaths.
“Epidemiologic, laboratory, and traceback findings linked this outbreak of human Salmonella infections to contact with live poultry from Mt. Healthy Hatchery in Ohio,” noted CDC in the final update. “Mail-order hatcheries, agricultural feed stores, and others that sell or display chicks, ducklings, and other live poultry should provide health-related information to owners and potential purchasers of these birds prior to the point of purchase. This should include information about the risk of acquiring a Salmonella infection from contact with live poultry.”
The agency offers the following recommendations to consumers to help avoid Salmonella infection when handling live baby poultry:
- Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water right after touching live poultry or anything in the area where they live and roam. Adults should supervise hand washing for young children.
- If soap and water are not readily available, use hand sanitizer until you are able to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water.
- Clean any equipment or materials associated with raising or caring for live poultry outside the house, such as cages or feed or water containers.
- Do not let children younger than 5 years of age, elderly persons, or people with weak immune systems handle or touch chicks, ducklings, or other live poultry.
- Do not let live poultry inside the house, in bathrooms, or especially in areas where food or drink is prepared, served, or stored, such as kitchens, or outdoor patios.
- Do not snuggle or kiss the birds, touch your mouth, or eat or drink around live poultry.
Symptoms of Salmonella infection can appear anywhere from 6 hours to several days after exposure, and include fever, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, headache and body aches.
No fear mongering here, just facts.
Being a farmer takes more than disseminating chicks and self authored books.
When a workshop host advertises the following "And if you haven't sat in a backyard holding a chick in your palm while a goat yells at you to scratch her neck, then you haven't lived!"
Keep in mind the hatchery where those chicks are from (am assuming PA was a typo for OH) has had salmonella outbreaks traced back to their mail order chicks in 2011 and 2012.
"Joel's comments are wonderful, but one thing he didn't mention to the concerned folks was that these hatcheries that deliver rare breed and heritage chicks in boxes are the main alternative to corporate hatcheries and battery-hen hatcheries owned by folks like Tyson. A sustainable farmer can not order chicks from Tyson breeders unless he is a contracted grower, so he either has to breed his own stock, buy hen-sat chicks from a local farmer, order chicks from a hatchery. Now, for a backyard flock I can provide for you 3-7 home brewed chicks of various breed mixes and unknown gender. But if you wanted a predictable breed of quality laying hen, or fifty of them, you need to call the folks at a place like Mt. Healthy. Same goes for birds raised for meat. So think twice about tsk-tsking mail-order livestock. The people who are doing it are doing it so they don't have to buy animals who lived in cages out of sunlight their whole lives, and are offering a quality of life to those box birds few chickens (less than a .001%) ever could dream of. If I were a laying hen I'd take an overnight plane ride to Cold Antler over a life in a battery cage any day. ANY DAY!"
With a track record of salmonella outbreaks, makes one curious what type of environment Mt Healthy Hatchery keeps their brooding stock?
Oh, for an additional .15 cents per 'service' Mt Healthy Hatchery will debeak and/or decomb your chicks?
Why decomb? Avoid frostbite, they say.
Better yet, purchase breeds suitable for the climate in which they will be kept.
What does the comb do?
Ornamental in attracting mates, but more importantly keeps chickens cool in the summer. Chickens do not sweat. Blood flows to the comb and as air passes over the comb the blood is cooled before recirculating through the chickens body. Both genders have combs.
Why debeak? To prevent chickens from pecking and damaging one another in overcrowded stressful settings.
There is NO purpose to debeak in situations where birds are humanely kept and given adequate space and feed.
This hatchery appears to be akin to a puppy mill. 1.How are breeding stock cared for and kept? No mention on their website. What comes first...chicken or egg? Fertilization. If they are willing (well, for additional fees) to provide the unnecessary practices of decombing and debeaking, makes one wonder why? I imagine (and look forward to making a call and finding out) their hens confined in the most cramped conditions...are are all debeaked because of it. It doesn't matter how cute a chick (or puppy) is...or how well you intend to raise it when purchasing these animals contributes to a corrupt and unethical industry. No local farmers with chicks available at last weeks poultry swap? No fertile eggs to collect and incubate on your own? No ethical individual to purchase mail order fertilized eggs from to incubate/hatch yourself? Mt Healthy Hatchery chicks are the best choice is the best choice to those attending your workshop? I'm shocked this is a business you support morally and financially. Oh, I believe all Tyson chickens are produced cage free...where does the following stat come from? "The people who are doing it are doing it so they don't have to buy animals who lived in cages out of sunlight their whole lives, and are offering a quality of life to those box birds few chickens (less than a .001%) ever could dream of."
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