Anybody up this early?

Selling chickens tonight. Been up since about 730 yesterday morning and now having to sit here waiting for trucks to show up. You Canucks picked a fine time to leave the door open. 22 degrees right now. I know that's nothing to you northerners but us Georgia boys ain't made for this. Once the trucks show up I'll have about 7 hours to go then a shower, some food, and a nap. It might not happen in that order.

I think I'm the only one up, in the people's republic of MD. All the federal "workers" are either furloughed, or have the day off for the mlk holiday...

Hit 20 here at daylight. You boys must have some thick skin or some thick underwear to deal with that -8 crap.

Dusty MI wrote: About 44 here in mid Florida.

I'd be tickled to death with 44. But I suppose that's pretty cold for Floridians. Darrel

     How many chickens do you have to  load?  I'm not familiar with how the new big houses operate. Do you have to catch all those chickens by hand?  Don't suppose they would herd very well.

ac hunter wrote:      How many chickens do you have to  load?  I'm not familiar with how the new big houses operate. Do you have to catch all those chickens by hand?  Don't suppose they would herd very well.

Just got finished. I don't have to load any. Pilgrims sends a crew with 3 to 4 trucks, two Moffitt lifts, and 6 to 7 catchers. I have to get things ready for them. Cut feed off at certain times, raise feeders at certain times, get everything up out of the catchers way. After they finish with a house I have to get rid of anything they leave. They're not supposed to take small birds or any with leg problems. We have 72,000 at this farm. The farm I'm starting on now will house 236,000. We'll have to shut this farm down due to age and location. When they catch they turn the lights off and the birds lay down. Then they walk through and pick them up and put them in cages that the lifts take off the truck and bring inside. Each cage consists of 10 coops. They usually put between 6,600 and 7,200 per trailer

     I'll bet the catchers are young guys. Sounds like a lot of stooping over and standing up and a lot of work.

There use to be a chicken farm operation on the island that we previously lived on. I am not sure how large an operation it was but on when harvesting day came there was either two or three semis with cages come over on the ferry the evening before and leave full of chickens the next morning. You always knew when this happened if you took the ferry that day as there would be chicken feathers blowing around the ferry deck all day. The trucking company was called "Last Ride Trucking". This farm was visible at other times when the bulk carrier brought the feed over. It was a two trailer train that had to be split when loading and unloading on and off the ferry. This often put the ferry off schedule for the rest of the day. It must have been because of weight restrictions on the ramps as the train did not have to split when leaving the island. The farm made it's presence felt one other day as well. A truck carrying chicken poop to a local farm to spread on the fields did not have it's tailgate tightly secured. This chicken poop was semi liquid and spread on one of the main roads circling the island. This chicken poop gradually spread around the island, the shopping area, the ferry deck and some of the main streets of the city on the other side. The flocks gradually got smaller and then a disease problem eventually lead to a complete shut down and it never reopened.

I was up at about 0345, went to coffee in town at 0430, was about 9 degrees out with sum wind. them silly Canadians keep leaving their doors open, that's where we giys all this cold from!

thendrix, it was only 3 or 4 large chicken houses plus feed storage, equipment garage a large house and swimming pool on less than 10 acres of land. They  raised fryers and chicks were brought over from a hatchery. There were 8 or 10 small farms on the island that raised sheep and cattle. A couple of the farms started in the late 1800's. Otherwise there are about 4500 people on the island.

I is up again, think'in bouts going to wally world...then to coffee.

I don't get near the Puter until dogs walked/potty'd/fed, chores done but usually up close to 4.

Edited by DMiller - 22 Jan 2019 at 6:07am

thanks for the update Joe! hope she can keep up her good spirits! got to wally world, boughts lots of TP. a jug of tea and out the doors I went. was coffee time at the gas station! home now, found another hose leaking...oh well, i'll still share with ya'll!

Hubert (Ga)engine7 wrote: About 25 here this morning, somebody up north needs to close that darn door.

I don't know for sure Hubert, but I've been blaming Calvin for a few years now and he's never denied it yet, so..............

Sure, the one night that I'm not here at that time and Tyler starts squawking about chickens.   I gotta get the heck off of here now though,,,,,,,,I got a lot of stuff to do tomor.....er today...Say G'nite Ted....