My passion for poultry did not start when I was little. I wanted to be a veterinarian for a long time. I went to Oregon State University to pursue this dream.
I started Oregon State University studying Animal Sciences with only a pre-vet option. There are many options within this major. Animal Sciences is a section of the College of Agricultural Sciences.
Classes were not as I expected. I was under a lot of stress with the basic science classes such as Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics, mathematics such as Calculus (I like math so this was not a huge deal but a lot of work). There were the required classes by the University, and the classes for the Animal Sciences major, included those for the pre-vet option.
As my freshman year zoomed by, I still wanted to be a veterinarian, mainly because it was my parents' expectation of me and I had no clue what my options were. I needed to pick two industry classes as prerequisites for the more advance classes. The first one was easy, Companion Animals. The second one, not so much. Looking through the options I had: Equine (hmm, horses are cool but I don't know much about them), Swine/sheep: (It just does not fit me, I want to be an exotic veterinarian, not a farmer), Cattle (Cows?), lastly, there was poultry. I thought to myself "I want to be an exotic veterinarian specializing in the avian species, this could work. " I signed up for the Introduction to Poultry Science. It was an introduction class. We learned little by little really to prepare us for the advanced classes. I did come back to the dorms smelling like chicken after some visits to farms.
One farm required the class to wear plastic booties over our shoes. It is Oregon so it obviously was rainy weather. I was wearing a sweatshirt, jeans, no change of clothes...the owner of the farm gave us the booties for biosecurity purposes and warned us to be careful because the grounds are wet. I was doing so well until I saw the free-range chicken, and did not watch where I was walking and slipped on chicken poop. It was all over my butt and down my jeans. People saw me but what I did was slip, got up, and continued my way. I took my sweatshirt off and wrapped it over my butt area so the poop didn't show so much. I saw my professors giggle a bit. I was not a farmer, but I sure was clumsy.
Since I completed all the required prerequisites, I needed to take some industry courses as the years progressed. I decided to add the poultry option to my degree, since it was bird related after all. I was getting more and more interested in poultry though. I took a 2 day seminar at the vet school on poultry diseases. I took an egg production class and then a poultry production class (basically processing birds). I had to go to the brooder (it was a large brooder) before work every morning and observe the birds before they were taken off to slaughter.
The class that really changed my life dream was my Avian Embryo Class which was a combination of lectures and labs. We learned about genetics, genetic disorders, theories behind genetics, embryology. We incubated chicken eggs from various stages and broke open the eggs to see the development of the embryos, dissecting them and analyzing if there were any deformities present.
I loved the lab, because occasionally we opened the hatcher and saw baby chicks. Many people in my class have already owned chickens so they were not very excited and were texting on their cell phones or chattering amongst peers. I was waiting to see the chicks!
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| Holding the Hatcher (2006) |
I was so excited when I pulled out the hatcher from the incubator. 3 out of 4 eggs hatched! The fourth egg was a late dead so we opened it up. This was my first hatch ever! And the beginning of many. I took sheep classes as well but the poultry stuck to me. I really have a passion for these birds and I want to continue that passion.
It's 2010 and I have a Poultry farm. Me? I actually live on a farm? yep! I raise quails, chicken, and ducks. I am gamebird licensed and an NPIP participant. I would have never imagined myself doing this but I am extremely happy in what I do and nothing can change that.
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| ME! |
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