News

Workshop – Growing Healthy Meat Chickens – Mon 12th January

The Abattoir and Poultry Club have planned a workshop at the Farmers’ Institute on Monday, January 12 2015 on how to raise healthy meat chickens. Guest speakers will be Lori Gillis, who owns and operates an abattoir in Coombs called The Cluck Stops Here, and a representative from the feed company that supplies Foxglove.

Content will include choosing the breed of chicken, appropriate feeding and housing and correct handling before slaughter, so that carcass damage and condemnations are minimized. Some growers who consistently raise birds of outstanding quality will talk about their methods.

The workshop runs from 10 am to 3 pm and is followed by an extra half hour with Anne Macey on growing and processing poultry organically. The Salt Spring Abattoir now has organic certification.

The workshop costs $25 if you register in advance at Foxglove, or $30 at the door.  A light lunch is included in the cost. For more information, please contact windrush4669@shaw.ca or phone 250 537 4669.

 

POSTPONED – Workshop – Growing Healthy Meat Chickens – Mon 11th August

This workshop has been postponed until the winter.

 

The Abattoir and Poultry Club have planned a workshop at the Farmers Institute on Monday August 11 on how to raise healthy meat chickens. Guest speaker is Lori Gillis, who owns and operates an abattoir in Coombs called The Cluck Stops Here. She has raised her own meat chickens for more than 20 years and is uniquely qualified to teach how to achieve success with meat chickens.

“Success” means a high survival rate for chicks, the right feed for their age and type, adequate space and exercise, and correct handling before slaughter, so that bruising. skin tears and breast blisters are minimised . She emphasizes humane treatment and insists on a high standard of hygiene at all times.

The workshop runs from 10 am to 3 pm and is followed by an extra half hour with Anne Macey on growing and processing poultry organically. The abattoir now has organic certification.

The workshop costs $25 if you register in advance at Foxglove, or $30 at the door. A light lunch is included in the cost. For more information please contact windrush@telus.net or phone 250 537-4669.

AGM – Thu April 24th 7pm, Farmer’s Institute

The Abattoir Society’s second Annual General Meeting will be held at 7 pm on Thursday April 24 at the Farmers Institute. All abattoir clients and supporters of local food processing are invited to become members of the Society and come to the meeting. The annual fee of $25 can be paid by Paypal (no need to have your own account) if you go to the website’s Support Us page. Cheques are also accepted. 

Saturday April 26 is Open House at the abattoir, 1447B Fulford Ganges Rd. It is not a working day, so you can see the animal pens and walk all the way through the slaughter trailer, the coolers and meat cutting area and ask all the questions you want. Tour guides will be the Abattoir Society directors.

Changes to meat inspection

The change from federal to provincial employees to inspect meat at BC’s abattoirs has been taking place over the last few months. For us the official change over is on January 1st. We have said goodbye to the federal team who were incredibly helpful and patient as we were learning. In February we will start working with the new provincial team. They are all newly hired and trained, and may have slightly different methods compared with their predecessors, even though their purpose, safe food, is exactly the same. We are therefore scheduling smaller numbers of animals for the first few slaughter days until we see how things work. 

At present abattoirs do not have to pay for inspection services. It comes out of our tax dollars.