Consolidated Kansas

[ChooksChick]

I can't stand following a bunch of different threads that only get hit occasionally...

I'd like to form a consolidated Kansas thread and point the other Kansas threads to it- so this is the new Consolidated Kansas thread, and I'll post a link to it on the other threads.

Hooray!! Go Oz chickens!!!

 

[AmeraucanaHank]

We are moving back to the subburbs

So we have to sell all my birds. I have a wide variety of chickens and ducks. Just shoot me a pm if interested.

 

[Nana2KJS]

Does seem like there should be more of us, doesn't it? Perhaps we're afraid to come out of the woodwork

!

 

[MaidenWolf]

Ok you know your SO gets you on a deep level when instead of a dozen roses he brings you a dosen chicks. He's not chicken crazy like me so it's a huge deal.

 

[ChooksChick]

Why, thank you! I've gone through and hit all the zillions of other Kansas threads with the same message, so hopefully folks won't post to the others.

Too hard to keep up with like 12 threads when there are hardly that many BYCers in Kansas!

 

[sentoku]

Hello. I just registered a couple minutes ago. I'm glad I found an active Kansas thread. I live in Wellsville, just north of Ottawa.

 

[Kansas Prairie]

JOSIE,
This one is for your DH!

COLLEGE EXAM

Bob from Youngstown,Ohio was in an advanced Biology class at Y.S.U.(YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY) and was taking his mid-term exam. The last question was, 'Name seven advantages of Mother's Milk.' The question was worth 70 points or none at all. Bob, in particular found it difficult to think of six, much less seven advantages. However,Bob thinking what he would like to write instead wrote: 1) It is the perfect formula for the child.2) It provides immunity against several diseases.3) It is always the right temperature.4) It is inexpensive.5) It bonds the child to mother, and vice versa.6) It is always available as needed. And then Bob was stuck. Finally, in desperation, just before the bell rang indicating the end of the test, he wrote: 7) It comes in two very attractive containers of various sizes and it's high enough off the ground where the cat can't get it. Bob got an A.

 

[ashncarson]

I hope you guys don't mind me sharing some chick photos. I think people on my facebook will soon be getting tired of seeing them
https://instagram.com/ashncarson/ Here is my instagram, if anyone wants to follow it.

 

[chicken danz]

@chicken danz , thank you for the feedback on the farm-fresh egg sheet I made for my customers. I do NOT need Big Brother Government meddling in my chicken-raising or small-scale selling of eggs. I found the KS Dept of Agriculture's "Egg Fact Sheet," and I am a little confused about the wording. I cannot tell if, since I have 1-50 hens, I have no obligation to any of the rules, or if I fall under the same rules as those with 51-200 chickens are subject to. Here's the KS Dept. of Agriculture's Egg Fact Sheet for anyone curious.

Well, once I got my head wrapped around the coccidiosis thing, I realized my chicks were vaccinated for Merek's Disease not coccidiosis. Danz, I still don't know about the whole way that coccidiosis vaccine and medicated feed work when used together. There are many sources that say that the medicated feed nullifies the vaccine, but I can't find anything addressing this question (to find the truth) on USDA or KS Dept. of Ag site. I wasn't able to get to the feed store to get the Corid today, but I plan on going and getting some in the morning. I did think, upon feeling and inspecting our dead hen last night, that she seemed a little slim, but I didn't think much of it, because the bird was only 8 weeks old and it was laid out, stiff. Regardless if that was what took her, the bloody poo makes me almost positive we have coccidiosis somewhere in the flock.

Let me try to explain this a little more thorough. All chickens have some form of coccidia in their systems at all times. Some kinds are much more invasive than others. If stress or wet conditions, crowding, poor health, etc etc come into play it allows these coccidia to grow more rapidly. My understanding is that amprolium halts the cycle so the coccidia don't mature and reinfect the birds. They infect the chicken in the small intestine but then are starved because amprolium prevents them from absorbing thiamin. Coccidia oocysts are released in the chickens' poop and then eaten by other chickens and in turn infect them. So starving them in the early stages prevents the further spread and damaging infections. If you do a fecal float you will almost always find coccidia in every bird. It's the infections and lesions caused by them that actually make the bird ill.
If a chicken is vaccinated, part of how it works is that the bird is infected with a milder strain of coccidia. That forms antibodies. Then they poop out the oocysts and eat it and re-infect themselves which increases their antibodies to the disease.
If you give birds a cure dose of amprolium it WILL interrupt the cycle to form the excess antibodies. So this could negate the vaccination for the most part. If you have a preventive dosage as that that is found in medicated food, it will simply reduce the number of ocysts that the bird will poop out. So if medicated feed has any effect on the birds it would be within a matter of about 7 days from the vaccination and won't stop the vaccination from working, but might lower the amount of antibodies the chickens form against coccidiosis. These antibodies don't last a lifetime but a normal chicken will continue to build antibodies through out their life as they pick up oocysts here and there. But the infection from them is the greatest in the first few weeks of life or when a bird gets stressed or worn down. So does this explain why there is so much confusion over using medicated feed negates a vaccination?
I've had birds shipped in that were vaccinated and arrived with a terrible case of cocci due to shipping stress. So nothing is foolproof for sure.
Does this make sense? Biology is my big thing. I constantly quest to learn more and more about animal health.
HOWEVER, many professional chicken breeders prefer their chickens get a case of coccidiosis infection so they will have a resistance to it later on.
I am glad to hear you had merek's vaccination instead. It's much more useful than cocci vaccinations. Mereks is a sad terrible disease.
Well as far as the government goes on eggs, Big Brother can make your life miserable regardless of your individual circumstances. My suggestion was just that if you sell to strangers give them no ammunition to use against you. KingBee pointed that out in the guy who bought eggs on the internet from a flock that tested positive. He almost lost his birds due to government interpretation.
I have less than 50 laying hens that I use for eating eggs, but way over that for breeding. Are they going to differentiate? So much is up to interpretation.
I have noticed that people who sell eggs at farmers markets etc usually are following those rules to a T.
Isn't all this stuff amazing? I really don't mean to sound like a know it all... cause I'm not. I am just totally fascinated by all the stuff that one can learn. And I have had so many acquaintances that have had to learn this stuff by their own terrible experiences. Not to mention all the things that happen here.
@KsKingBee , Speaking of that one of my white peahens was wing down this evening and I searched the pen and found a shelless egg. I mixed up some poultry cell and calcium in a syringe and tried to dose her, but I'm afraid more ran out than got in. I sure hope she comes out of it. I put calcium and vitamin D in their water as well. If I had had someone to hold her while I dosed her I would have done a much better job. I sure hope she pulls through. Those creatures are such an investment after you've put a few years into them. I'd hate to loose one.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

awesome we need to really schedule a Meet and Greet for everyone so we can put faces with names for everyone!!!

I am in Merriam (Sub of Kansas City) at least for the next couple years then I will be moving to the "dark side" Missouri