Who isn't excited to take new birds home! You may be going to pick up a few birds who need good homes sometime soon, congratulations!
As exciting as it is to get new birds, there are still important things to look out for upon picking them up. This article can be a guide showing what to look for, why to look for it, and what it can mean for your current flock.
Why is this important?
Birds from other homes, farms, and facilities can have dangerous diseases you don’t want to spread to your healthy flock. Diseases like Marek’s can be deadly, and other diseases the birds can carry for life. This means you won’t be able to get rid of them. These diseases are easily spread to your flock through other poultry and poultry farmers after coming into contact with them. You can carry the disease to your flock on your shoes, hands, and clothes. None of this is anything you want to deal with.
What to look for
Whenever you go to adopt new poultry, keep an eye out for a variety of things-
Always: Check the bird’s housing.
Why? Unsanitary, soiled, filthy housing is like a petri dish for disease and parasites. It also shows how the owner treats their birds, and how likely it is that the owner is practicing their own biosecurity to keep the flock from catching dangerous diseases. Check for muddy, fly ridden, smelly, soiled runs, and soiled bedding when checking the housing. Red flags should be obvious if you see them. When checking the housing, try to glance at the feeder as well. Is it filled with a balanced commercial chicken feed? Good! I’ve heard of experiences where the owners are feeding a homemade feed that isn’t balanced. Check the water too. It’s very important that it’s clean and full.
Always: Look the birds over.
Watch for parasites. This is something I always look for. Then look for anything obviously abnormal. Look for symptoms of disease, or poor living situation. Common diseases and oddities are-
Bumble foot-
This looks like small round black scabs or calluses on the bird’s feet. It’s an infection that causes a bumble on the foot. Caused by the feet getting cut or punctured, jumping from high perches and rocky or hard ground. It’s more common in heavy breeds.
Respiratory symptoms-
This will show its self in several ways as there are multiple types of respiratory infection. It’s highly contagious, and nothing to mess around with. Symptoms are- Head shaking, bubbles in eye/s, nasal or ocular discharge, sneezing, and coughing or wheezing. The owner can play a role here by bringing infected birds into the flock. Wild birds can also give it to the chickens. The birds carry it for life, meaning antibiotic treatments every time symptoms occur are necessary. This isn’t always the owner’s fault, but uneducated caretakers won’t notice the disease, and try to give the birds away without knowing. That’s why it’s always important to keep an eye out.
Fowl pox-
Fowl pox is a highly contagious infection in poultry, that results in lesions on the poultry’s face, wet fowl pox occurs in the mouth. Wet pox looks like wet sores usually combined with canker. When dealing with dry fowl pox, there isn’t much you can do. You can apply iodine to the lesions, but be patient, and the chickens to fight it. It will disappear on its own. It’s transmitted to poultry through biting insects, usually mosquitoes. You can treat Fowlpox, but strict quarantine will have to be followed, and risks are high for the illness infecting your flock.
Photo by- @JustAChickenLoverOverHere
Feather loss/poor feather quality-
Parasites can cause feather loss, but bullying, protein deficiency, boredom, and over-mating can also be the cause. Chickens in tight living quarters can suffer bullying from boredom, which usually looks like bare spots or scabbing. Bored chickens target hens lower on the pecking order and pluck their feathers. It’s simply an exciting game for them.
Low protein feed resulting in a protein deficiency can also cause feather loss. Feathers are full of protein, and chickens will target birds lower on the pecking order to get the protein from their feathers. Itchy chickens will also pluck their own feathers because of parasites. Parasites like lice lay eggs on, and live off the feathers, and chickens will pluck the feathers to get rid of the itchy bugs. Last, over-mating from roosters can cause feather loss. Roosters they will break off feathers while mating, and roosters can pull out feathers on the neck.
Good news, you can treat these conditions. Lice and mites you can treat with permethrin spray, or powder. By practicing biosecurity between your new bird’s quarantine pen and your flock’s, you can reduce the risk of spreading. Adding Permethrin powder to your flock’s coop bedding can discourage the parasites from hanging around. Over-mating, tight living quarters, or protein deficiency you can treat with some TLC. You could be the perfect person to help get them back to their healthy, happy selves.
The hen above suffered over-mating from a rooster
Parasites-
The parasites you’ll find on chickens are most commonly lice and mites. Mites will appear tiny, about the size of a pen tip. They’ll be brown or red and round. Skin sometimes appears dry and flaky when mites are present. Mites easily spotted at night, but can be visible during the day. They’re harder to find than lice, as some species live in the wooden coop, and come out to pester the chickens when they roost. Lice are larger than mites, and white or grey. They’re more similar to an oval in shape, and you’ll see eggs spiraling up and around the feather shafts. When checking for lice or mites, check the base of the neck, the back, under the wings and should be easy to see around the vent. Poop stuck to the vent feathers of the bird is also a sign of lice or mites, since they cause diarrhea.
The hens above have plucked their own feathers to get rid of mites as seen on the first hen's face.
Unusual symptoms-
There are plenty of things that chickens can get that I didn’t add to this list. It’ll be easy to tell a sick chicken from a healthy one, and at that point a lot of things could be wrong. Chickens aren’t easy to keep and are commonly mistaken to be. This happens far too often, and poultry can end up in awful shape. If you decide to take poultry home after noticing unusual symptoms, posting a thread on BYC can help you figure out what to do, or what might be an issue for your hen. It’s hard to know what exactly might be wrong without knowing specific symptoms.
When to say no
If you see something concerning, it’s time to evaluate what you can do for that bird. Along with protecting your flock and helping that bird at the same time. Diseases like respiratory infection or Mareks are highly contagious, and it would be likely impossible to keep the bird without spreading the disease. Respiratory infection spreads through infected dander, and poultry will carry it for life, so it’s not something you can treat, or get rid of. Mareks is another one I highly suggest not bringing back to your flock. Mareks will infect your healthy poultry, and it will live in the ground for years after infected chickens have passed. Like I said above in the Marek’s paragraph, symptoms may not show when you are there to pick them up. Symptoms will probably occur after you have taken them home. This is because of the stress of moving. Another reason quarantine is so important, read more on this below.
Maybe you see something more simple. Missing feathers, or parasites, you can treat. I’ve taken in birds with parasites, while in quarantine, I successfully treated them without giving mites to my flock. Feather loss is also something that you can treat with some TLC and love. Make sure you properly diagnose missing feathers before you bring the birds home. If you overlook mites or lice, you could risk accidentally spreading them to your flock.
Maybe you found something concerning, or symptoms that may be an issue, but you still want to give treatment a go. Just make sure you have an adequate setup for quarantine, plus time to spend on treatments. Treatments can be costly, take that into account as well. If you can check all the boxes, that bird needs some help, and you’re the perfect educated person to give her the love and care she needs. Just make sure you know what you’re getting into, and ask questions in a BYC thread if you’re unsure. ;0)
Quarantine
Just because you didn’t see symptoms doesn’t mean the birds are healthy, or you’re out of the woods. Especially if you’re skeptical of the coop or run setup, you should never skip this very important step. Every time you get new birds, it’s very important to quarantine new birds at least 100 feet from where your flock roams, and don’t introduce them for at 30 least days. This will allow you to watch for symptoms of highly contagious diseases. If the birds have it and aren’t showing symptoms yet, they will show in 30 days or more. Stress takes a toll on birds, so the move to an unfamiliar environment may trigger symptoms you didn’t see before.
It’s really easy to skip this step. It’s much too easy to say, “they look fine, I don’t think they have anything”. Most of the time, it’s likely safe to say that, but do you really want to risk spreading a highly contagious disease to your flock because of an impatient mistake? I’ve heard plenty of stories where new birds have brought disease to a healthy flock. It’s not something you want to experience. It’s truly heartbreaking, especially if there’s nothing you can do for the birds. Don’t skip this step, it’s not worth the risk.
Always wash your hands, change your clothes, shoes and even shower, after interacting with and handling other poultry, or your quarantined poultry. If you skip this part of quarantine, then you could spread potential disease to your healthy flock on your clothes and hands.
After 30 days with no concerns, it’s time to add your newbies to your existing flock!
The rooster above was quarantined for 30 days while I treated him for mites, before adding him to my flock.
A note on biosecurity
You won’t always see symptoms when you go to pick up new poultry. If a respiratory issue is present, you may not see concerns until you take them home. Stress takes a toll on birds, so symptoms usually show up because of it. That’s why this step is so important. Especially if you’re skeptical of the coop or run setup. Every time you get new birds, it’s very important to quarantine at least 100 feet from where your flock roams, and don’t introduce them for at 30 least days. This will allow you to watch for symptoms of contagious diseases. Symptoms will show in 30 days after you bring them home.
It’s easy to skip this step. I’ve heard plenty of stories where new birds have brought disease to a healthy flock. This is not something you want to experience. It’s heartbreaking, especially if there’s nothing you can do for the birds. It’s not worth the risk.
Always wash your hands, change your clothes, shoes and even shower, after interacting with and handling other poultry, or your quarantined poultry. If you skip this part of quarantine, then you could spread potential disease to your healthy flock on your clothes and hands.
After 30 days with no concerns, it’s time to add your newbies to your existing flock!
Enjoy your new additions!
Thanks for reading the article! I hope I could help answer some of your questions about what to look for when picking up new additions. Alwasy be aware that you could find something that’s more than you bargained for. Be prepared to do an inspection so you know what you may be getting into. Hopefully, you find exactly what you're looking for, and quarantine goes well. I also want to say great job for adopting poultry! There’s a lot of birds that need homes, not all of them get them. I hope you enjoy your new featherd babies, and your flock does as well.
What to give a shout out to-
@JustAChickenLoverOverHere
Thanks for helping me with additional pictures!
