Bob Blosl's Heritage Large Fowl Thread

[Bentley]

I determined several years a go if I did not use wire floors in my brooder box would not have a problem with cocci. If you have wire floors just dampen some news paper and lay over the wire . Put some feed right on the damp paper. I have not had cocci since I started doing the brooder like this. I raise several hundred show fowl eack year. They will become immune to cocci with this method.

Sorry, bu this makes no sense for the control of cocci. Chicks get Cocci from having contact with feces, often from used litter and the feces from previous flocks, that is contaminated with cocci. When people raise chicks on wire it is to prevent the exposure to cocci while they are young. So what you are saying is you raise them on wire and then add wet paper to try and encourage their exposure to coccidiosis? Even then they will only have exposure to coccidiosis if the birds themselves already have it. If they already have it then adding the wet paper is doing nothing more than helping them find feed. Just curious what your thought process was here.

 

[7961]

Instead of using Corid powder or liquid, wouln't a good amprolium added chick starter feed work just as well?

 

[Chris09]

Instead of using Corid powder or liquid, wouln't a good amprolium added chick starter feed work just as well?

No,
The Amprolium (corid) that is used in chick starter is at such a low amount that it only works if your either using it as a preventive or if you have a low infestation of Cocci.

Chris

 

[FOGELLY]

 =========================================
 Hi Ron,
 Several years ago, I bought some rare day old chicks for 15.00 each. ...let me back up a minute.
When I got my first Marans from Kelly Cratty in 2005, he told me to always raise my chicks on wire. He said I would never have crooked toes if I did this.
To make the brooder and put in a platform of 1/4 inch hardware-cloth for the newly hatched chicks. (up to 1 week old). The platform would raise the chicks 1 inch above the pine shavings so their waste would drop thru. When the chicks were 1 week old, I would swap out the 1/4 inch for 1/2 inch hardware cloth. They would stay on this size wire until they left the brooder.
 Ok, fast forward to 2009.. I bought these 10quan., one day old chicks for 15.00 each. They were the 1st inbreeding of a rare color of Marans. Decided to do something different and this time raised them in  the oft touted  "newspaper lined floor within a cardboard stockade" set-up. Every one of those chicks turned out to be badly crippled with crooked toes. All hoped for BBR chicks,  were millefluer mismarks with a single recessive-black chick.  (breeder was embarrassed and offered full refund. I told them no. genetics lesson was worth it).  I gave them away and sought to discover what caused the badly crooked toes. It was the 1st in-breeding of a developing strain which originated from divergent sources.  So I was wondering if it truly was the inbreeding which caused this??
     Mentioned the problem to another breeder who also raised on wire. She told me that when chicks are raised on smooth surfaces, they tend to curl their toes underneath them when they sleep. That this can cause their toes to grow crooked. That's why she raised on wire. When chicks are raised on wire, they didn't curl toes underneath them when sleeping and no crooked toes. By now, Kelly Cratty had been out of Marans for years so couldn't ask him. But makes sense to me.
 Now I have wooden brooders with wire floors of the correct gauge for age and plastic  pans mounted underneath filled with pine shavings. I can dump the shavings and refill if they start to get rancid.
Karen

Interesting stuff.
The main reason I use newspaper for the first few weeks is because the wire is a little big for small chicks.

It makes sense that chicks can't give themselves cocci if they have not been exposed to other chickens droppings, so their own droppings would not help them develop immunity to cocci.

Bentley, can cocci show up if you have never had it to begin with? I try not to over medicate and only use meds if it is a must.

Ron

 

[melroseladi]

I use no medications or vaccinations on my birds. I start my chicks on unmedicated game bird starter, then move them up to grower. I have had a few guinea keets that had failure to thrive but I have never seen any signs of cocci in any of my birds.

My belief is I want my birds to build up there own immunity based on what is on my property. I only want to breed from the strongest of the birds. Birds that die are birds I would not have wanted to breed from had they lived, which they may have done had they been medicated. So if they do die then it is pretty much a natural culling of birds that were not strong enough to survive on my property. Hope that makes sense.

Penny

 

[Chris09]

Interesting stuff.
The main reason I use newspaper for the first few weeks is because the wire is a little big for small chicks.

It makes sense that chicks can't give themselves cocci if they have not been exposed to other chickens droppings, so their own droppings would not help them develop immunity to cocci.

Bentley, can cocci show up if you have never had it to begin with? I try not to over medicate and only use meds if it is a must.

Ron

Chicken can get Cocci from the ground and wild birds that my be able to get around you flock.

I treat for Cocci, Worm, Mites and Lice all at the same time and I am a firm believer that poultry (like all other animals) can never really grow a immunity to these parasites.

Chris

 

[Chris09]

I use no medications or vaccinations on my birds. I start my chicks on unmedicated game bird starter, then move them up to grower. I have had a few guinea keets that had failure to thrive but I have never seen any signs of cocci in any of my birds.

My belief is I want my birds to build up there own immunity based on what is on my property. I only want to breed from the strongest of the birds. Birds that die are birds I would not have wanted to breed from had they lived, which they may have done had they been medicated. So if they do die then it is pretty much a natural culling of birds that were not strong enough to survive on my property. Hope that makes sense.

Penny

How does a animal build up immunity to a parasite? That cant but they can cope with the parasite eating off of them.

Chris

 

[Arielle]

I use no medications or vaccinations on my birds. I start my chicks on unmedicated game bird starter, then move them up to grower. I have had a few guinea keets that had failure to thrive but I have never seen any signs of cocci in any of my birds.

My belief is I want my birds to build up there own immunity based on what is on my property. I only want to breed from the strongest of the birds. Birds that die are birds I would not have wanted to breed from had they lived, which they may have done had they been medicated. So if they do die then it is pretty much a natural culling of birds that were not strong enough to survive on my property. Hope that makes sense.

Penny

Maybe you already answered my question . . . . . WOuld you expand on how you rear them? Broodie, on the ground? In a brooder?

 

[FOGELLY]

How does a animal build up immunity to a parasite? That cant but they can cope with the parasite eating off of them.

Chris

Chris,
I wasn't considering parasite control as meds. We do treat for internal parasites a couple times a year. Mites and lice have not been a problem, but I would treat for them if they were.

Ron

 

[melroseladi]

I have not had an issue with worms, lice, mites or cocci, thus far. Cocci is a disease that is caused by a parasite. Maybe the birds can not become immune to parasites but they certainly can become resistant to the effects, diseases, that can be caused by those parasites. I am not a scientist and really don't know how it all works, but I do know what has been working for me.

Penny