Springer Mountain Farm Chickens

Do any of you, are know some one that raises cheekins for Springer Mountain?
Their advertisement is a little deceiving if one doesn't understand the way cheekins are razed.
In the commercial its stated that they are cage free. "That part is true." Broilers aren't raised in cages anywhere that I know of. They claim no antibiotics. What do they do if the birds get seek?

Antibiotics haven't been around for ever maybe they are doing the same thing they did before antibiotics came on the scene.

My wife worked for Murphy Hogs and toured one of the barns that was raised antibiotic free. She said it was the worst looking group of pigs she ever saw.

Here's what the American Chicken Council says:

“Raised without Antibiotics” on a package of chicken indicates that the flock was raised without the use of products classified as antibiotics for animal health maintenance, disease prevention or treatment of disease. Animal health products not classified as antibiotics (such as some coccidiostats, which control protozoal parasites) may still be used. “Antibiotic free” is not allowed to be used on a label but may be found in marketing materials not regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It means the same thing as “Raised without Antibiotics.” All chicken is “antibiotic-free” in the sense that no antibiotic residues are present in the meat due to the withdrawal periods and other precautions required by the government and observed by the chicken companies.

So they are still feeding a coccidiostat, with cocci being one of the main diseases they solve that problem. The other thing they can do is practice judicious bio-security, start with a clean barn, house clean chicks, keep them clean.

I have to shower into my barn 3 times a day, everything I need is already in the barn and sanitized between flocks. If it can't be sanitized it is thrown away, any paper work is removed, even the toilet paper is trashed. After the flock leaves they have a crew come in and power-wash, then disinfect, then disinfect, then I take swabs and send those to a lab and they fumigate with formaldehyde, more swabs and one more round of disinfection. Weekly swabs until the barn is empty again. I'm not raising broilers though.

Nate

What is that? Lose a lot of birds?

Why would you ask if anybody grows them FOR Springer Mountain Farms?

Gus raises all of them right in his back yard doesn't he?

Exactly! Lots of losses. Back in the day, raising hogs, we only used meds if we had a problem. Some farmers around us never used any, just lost a lot. I suspect that was due to no cash. We tried feeding antibiotics in the feed but that got cost prohibitive and didn't really help us a lot.

Vith the help of Jean Shepard, he does.
Gus did send me a sign fur the yard a while back.
Now all I have to do is raise a chicken house, get me some birds and I can give everybody the bird, without the free freezer.

The thing that aggravates me the most is when he claims other companies feed corn grown in China. Really? Somebody already had my brother in law convinced that they were sending live chickens to China,where they're killed,processed and sent back here.

I raise hogs and the only time I give antibiotics in the first week of weaning. I don't even give iron shots when I cut teeth and boys. I raise on dirt and have been very fortunate. I know the time will come when that all catches up with me.

I think it probably helps that I don't have any sick cattle around any of the hog pens. All of the cattle are nnalert twice a year and the infirmary is far from the hogs.

Haven't ever had to give antibiotics to sick layers or broilers but I am pretty rigid about cleanliness there. Vet said that cats can carry coccidiosis, so strays get dispatched pretty quick.