Mama Heating Pad in the Brooder (Picture Heavy) - UPDATE

OrganicFarmWife said:

Grow her out to eat her? If you do I would seperate her from the flock and avoid any contact with her

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Beekissed said:

That's old enough for eating...she won't get much bigger than she is at 6 mo. old, not enough to count anyway.  I'd kill her and not wait. 

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Thank you both. I will tell my dad in the morning and I think I'll just cull her ASAP. It's sad but she is just so MEAN. Plus her and her buddy are literally huuugeee so she should be pretty big and tasty anyways. Maybe I should cull her and give her buddy a chance? I think it's just her

Beekissed said:

ALL of my bedding is moldy....by intention.      Could be you just need to open up some ventilation and get them some fresh air in that coop?  

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It's the old coal room in my basement...it's ventilated enough not to be damp and I put a louvered door to that room when I set it up as a brooding room. But the brooder is basically a circle of cardboard, which can definitely hold the damp in one place. I was going to move some of the more feathered chicks out to the dog kennel with the ones that I kicked out last week, but now I don't think it would be a good idea just in case of spread. I do have a nylon pet playpen that zippers shut...may move most of them to the garage in that to isolate them. Have to go look up the incubation time for the more common respiratory illnesses to see how long they'll be staying in their new accommodations...this is what most of the cool people do on Saturday nights right? Look up chicken diseases?

Beekissed said:

ALL of my bedding is moldy....by intention.      Could be you just need to open up some ventilation and get them some fresh air in that coop?  

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So curious about your moldy bedding?

Jensownzoo said:

Beekissed said:

ALL of my bedding is moldy....by intention.      Could be you just need to open up some ventilation and get them some fresh air in that coop?  

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It's the old coal room in my basement...it's ventilated enough not to be damp and I put a louvered door to that room when I set it up as a brooding room. But the brooder is basically a circle of cardboard, which can definitely hold the damp in one place. I was going to move some of the more feathered chicks out to the dog kennel with the ones that I kicked out last week, but now I don't think it would be a good idea just in case of spread. I do have a nylon pet playpen that zippers shut...may move most of them to the garage in that to isolate them. Have to go look up the incubation time for the more common respiratory illnesses to see how long they'll be staying in their new accommodations...this is what most of the cool people do on Saturday nights right? Look up chicken diseases?

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Yes

OrganicFarmWife said:

So curious about your moldy bedding?

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I have a deep litter system in my coop and most of the material is leaves. When leaves decompose, most of the leading organisms that accomplish that decomposition are various molds/fungi. As in "leaf mold".

Leaf mold said:

produced by the fungal breakdown[1] of shrub and tree leaves, which are generally too dry, acidic, or low in nitrogen for bacterial decomposition.

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I know that runs counter to all you've ever heard about a healthy environment for chickens, but since my coop is very open air with certain things in place to insure good, fresh air intake and stale air output coupled with the fact that my chickens don't spend more than roosting time in the coop, those mold spores do not become a problem. No more than their scratching up the leaves in the woods while looking for bugs and grubs is a problem.

Quote:
That would be a no....

Jensownzoo said:

...this is what most of the cool people do on Saturday nights right? Look up chicken diseases?

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I do lots of things but looking up chicken disease is not a top priority.

Lets see.... I am writing a book.... researching components to rebuild my coop... Lernin how to live on metformin doing my weight watchers diary. Keeping an ear out for any issues in grandmas bedroom.... Baby monitors work great for 99 year olds.

Watching CSI shows or videos or the Food network. doing crafts I just bought a closet rod I am going to turn it into a walking stick....

any number of things.

needless to say I dont get much night time sleep.

deb

Ugh. Well that was cheerful reading. If she doesn't make it to the morning, she's getting packed up for the state diagnostic lab.

Just got done feeding the four day old kitten which means I have three hours to sleep until the next one. Good night all you night owls!

There are molds and there are molds...so many different kinds fit under that genre.
Many are beneficial, some are toxic...most folks can't tell the difference.
They can be a respiratory irritant, chronically or not.

An antibiotic won't do squat against them and may well compromise the 'natural' immune system enough for other organisms to bloom to the point of unhealthfulness.
Decades old pet peeve of mine to misapply and/or overuse antibiotics...in people or animals(pets and livestock).
Balance of good foods and environment will keep the healthy healthy...the sickly won't survive, as it should be.

My birds regularly have little 'sneezing attacks'...usually after eating or drinking too fast or while dust bathing.
Only had one bird with some kind of respiratory problem, swollen sinus, gunky eye, sneezing.....
...was still fairly active so I didn't treat, she got over it within a week or so. Had slight re-occurance, but she recovered fully.
She's gone now, was an older bird, culled for soup, that I got as an adult as my starter flock.
Might she still have been carrying it, maybe...might the whole flock be carrying it, maybe...but everyone seems healthy so....<shrug>

Early morning ponderings...just another perspective.

Well said aart. And good morning