February Meeting Everyone was anxiously awaiting the Treasurer's report, as expected, we did well. In addition, I would like to congratulate all of you on what I think was our "Best Ever Show". We owe lot of thanks to a lot of people and Maryann is taking care of that. Don Myerscough is going to make us some name tags and we voted to purchase laminating machine. The wish list for next years fair will include: chips instead of mulch, panels for floor pens when the new wire wears out, and perhaps, some automatic waters for one row of Bantam cages. This will be fairly expensive ($5.00 per cage) so we voted to hold off on this item. The Livestock meeting will not be moved to Okeechobee. Only the cattle people will meet there. We signed up for refreshments for the year. We will remind you at meetings and in the newsletter when your turn is coming up. Everyone seemed to enjoy the Broccoli Salad so much, that I will bring another batch to the picnic in April. That's it for this month. See you soon.
Spring Family Festival The above photo appeared on the front page of the Palm Beach Post Times local news section. Ashley and her father, Mike Robinson, were helping out at the club's exhibit. Ashley, above, is holding a white call duck that was in the exhibit. The festival is held every year in the Mounts Botanical Garden behind the Mounts building where the club holds it's monthly meetings nearby.
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Classified Rate: $1 per line. Members get first three lines free. Send check payable to PBCPFA to Rose Greggs, 8643 El Paso Dr., Lake Worth, FL 33467-1109.
FOR SALE: Rhode Island Red Pullets and Cockerels of various ages. Contact Richard Greggs at (561) 433-8157. Chickens for sale. Various breeds, ages, and prices. We also have live meat birds. Call Richard or Linda Wright at Heavenly Acres: 561-793-5696. Hovabator Incubators: Used. Still air for $20, turbo-fan for $35. Mike Robinson: 561-968-0940.
WANTED: Rhode Island Red Cockerel. Must be genetically unrelated to my existing stock. If you have one, Contact Richard Greggs at (561) 433-8157.
Refreshments for the Meetings
March - Jamie Gatchel
PETA Photography & News One of Peta's favorite tools is to take pictures of horribly maimed animals and show them to people to try to get more members. However, recently someone asked the question as to how PETA could live with itself knowing that film was made from animal by-products. PETA responded by saying that they would continue to use film despite the fact that animals are killed to produce it. Last month we printed an article requesting that you write and ask that poultry be continued to be allowed to be shipped on airplanes. Contact Lee, 686-4774, for the addresses if you are interested in helping to thwart PETA's anti-poultry agenda. |
The Fancy and the Internet Why would poultry people want to be on the information highway? Well, for one thing, for information; for another, for contacts. Today you just need a computer, modem and phone line and you can be chatting about your birds with folks in Australia or Alabama, or even Zaire. And you can be nearly computer illiterate and still successfully use e-mail and surf the web. What's there for me? you ask. E-mail allows quick contact with folks from almost anywhere; and it allows you to subscribe to Mailing Lists. Once you've subscribed you can send a message to the list address and it will go to everyone who is subscribed. Anyone can answer it and often many will. The poultry lists have a varied "cast of characters" including people who breed and show, vets, and backyarders with various levels of knowledge. so you can learn a lot and/or help others learn. There are three main poultry mailing lists at present: "DOM_BIRD" and "poultry" are pretty on-topic with regards to poultry, and "bird_farm" is poultry-based but has a much more chatty, over-the-backyard-fence style. Subscription to all these lists is free. Quite a few of the subscribers to these lists made plans to meet at the Nationals in Ohio - including people from places as varied as Michigan, Arizona, Washington state and England - most of whom had never met except on-line. An enjoyable time was had and we even had our picture taken (well, most of us). The group of people who gathered from the mailing lists included: Beth Adams (NY), Doug & Pete Akers (IN), Frances Bassom (England), Stoney Cuthrell (VA), Brian Decker (WA), Tim Jones (VA), Mark & Debra Kingery (IN), Barry Koffler (NY), Larry Long (IA), Andy Marsinko (VA), Ben Maurer (MD), Claude & Nancy McAllister (NC), Dennis Pearce (WA), Kay St. Amour (MD), Cari Shaefer (MS), Jeannie Smith (MI), John Soper |
(England), Stacy Spitz (NY), Denise & Bill Taylor (MI),
Naola Thimesch (AZ), and Fred Zillich (MO).
In addition to e-mail, you can learn to use a web browser and surf the World Wide Web for poultry info. There's everything from technical sites on poultry genetics to personal pages with pictures of pet chickens. A few of the breed clubs, and the SPPA, have gotten pages up with information on various breeds, also. Once you're on the web you can find information about breeds, find show schedules, buy and sell birds, make bids on poultry items at auction, get on message boards (which are web-based versions of mailing lists), or even go into chat rooms about birds. Fanciers new to the web might want to start accessing poultry-related information through Loren Hadley's site "The Coop," my "FeatherSite - The Poultry Page," or the "Poultry Info Exchange." All three will lead you to new levels of fowl addiction. Afterthought: We want to keep the Fancy growing and it's good to remember that today's kids *are* computer literate and the more poultry-conscious we make the Internet the more future fanciers we're likely to encourage. I know that there are folks out there who got on the mailing lists because they had a few pet chickens and after interacting with fanciers for a while, now they've developed interest in breeding or showing particular breeds. So it's already starting to work. Come join us! SUBSCRIBING TO FREE POULTRY LISTS: DOM_BIRD: Send an Email to: Dom_bird-subscribe@egroups.com bird_farm: Send an e-mail to bird_farm-request@eskimo.com. poultry: Send an empty message to poultry-subscribe@makelist.com |
| WEB SITES OF INTEREST | |
| The Coop:
http://www.transport.com/~lhadley/index.html Feathersite: http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKPoultryPage.html The Poultry Info Exchange: http://www.ameraserve.com/chicken.html
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Looking for Egg Cartons? DOLCO Packaging is the manufacturer that makes egg cartons for the big poultry farms that sell to your local grocery store. They make all of their egg cartons from 100% styrofoam which means that you can easily wash and recycle them. They are plain and come in various pastel colors. If interested, you can call them for the latest pricing. The last time I checked, the price was $13.40 per box (200 egg cartons) and $7.00 for shipping. This works out to about 10 cents per carton delivered. They won't ship until they get your check and do not accept credit card orders. The minimum order is one box. They will not bend on this rule so don't even think about asking. They can be contacted at the following address:
DOLCO PACKAGING CORP |
Shown above are several types of egg cartons made by DOLCO Packaging. Preprinted cartons with a generic label are available for an extra charge. |
