NY chicken lover!!!!

[Amy King Hanson]

Not sure if this link will work but thought I'd pass this along for any up state peeps.

https://m.facebook.com/events/744852218998498

Flock Swap 4133 S Carmen road Middleport, New York 14105

 

[tao chick]

Well, you saw my flock   Nobody is showing any signs of illness.  A few years ago I introduced healthy looking new birds after a month of quarantine and the whole rest of the flock got sick.  I treated and everything turned out okay.  Sometimes you just can't tell.  Because I have a large wild bird population that likes to clean up the morning scratch residue they get exposed to everything.  I breed for a resistant flock as opposed to bio security.  I sell a lot of poultry locally and no one has come back to me with a problem (and I ask them to if there is an issue).  You might try putting one of your chickens in with them to see if it gets sick.  Kind of like a reverse quarantine.  I wouldn't knowingly sell a sick bird, but there is never a 100% guarantee.  Just do what feels safe to you.

Exactly! I have no reason to think that your birds would be carrying anything that my birds haven't already been exposed to. If anything - the birds I got from you have to get used to the shavings I use (hardwood shavings from DH's woodshop) and any feed changes (I sometimes switch brands and protein levels depending on flock need). The only reason I worry is because the internet tells me to. I too attempt to build a resistant flock. Your flock looks great! I shouldn't trust the internet over my own eyes and instinct. Thank you!

 

[Beer can]

Exactly! I have no reason to think that your birds would be carrying anything that my birds haven't already been exposed to. If anything - the birds I got from you have to get used to the shavings I use (hardwood shavings from DH's woodshop) and any feed changes (I sometimes switch brands and protein levels depending on flock need). The only reason I worry is because the internet tells me to. I too attempt to build a resistant flock. Your flock looks great! I shouldn't trust the internet over my own eyes and instinct. Thank you!

I hope you didn't take my bad advice in my comment,

nothing wrong with making sure 100% without a doubt you are protecting your flock. If I was breeding some line of birds and I'm not talking expensive GreenFire fancy breeds or favorite pet birds, but a hard to replace line or my own if I had one of generations of work that would set me back devastatingly I would feel different about the subject. I want strong healthy birds, if they can't survive a healthy bird introduction then I guess I didn't have as good of birds as I thought. IMHO
If, and I wouldn't, too many good hatching eggs out there and good breeders, if I ever took birds in from a swap, sale, auction, etc, they would be quarantined for sure. If not just for disease but for bugs, mites, parasites, whatever, never had that in my birds and don't want it, and have heard horror stories of it.
Not too long ago, last spring I gave my extra white giant rooster I kept for backup to my brother who has a mixed flock, who had to cull a mean hatchery buff orp rooster he had. I almost gave him the spit and spew about quarantining him cause I was so into the advice/knowledge/common practice given on BYC, then I got thinking I know the bird is fine, why would he have to?
I was a little worried for awhile for some reason not telling him the 'proper way' and hoping he didn't kill his flock off....Turned out fine. He's not on BYC but he posts crap on facebook about his chickens worse than a crazy chicken lady, and named the rooster I gave him after our father Lol!

At the end of my long comment, I'd like to get back to reality and why flock protection is so important and not to be held lightly, there is diseases we don't hear much of, more to be worried about than 'bird flu' or marek's, etc I about shed a tear when I read this;
http://nationaljerseygiantclub.com/media/Document_17.pdf

edit: that link doesn't say what it was, was a New Castle outbreak.

 

[Pyxis]

I hope you didn't take my bad advice in my comment,  nothing wrong with making sure 100% without a doubt you are protecting your flock. If I was breeding some line of birds and I'm not talking expensive GreenFire fancy breeds or favorite pet birds, but a hard to replace line or my own if I had one of generations of work that would set me back devastatingly I would feel different about the subject. I want strong healthy birds, if they can't survive a healthy bird introduction then I guess I didn't have as good of birds as I thought. IMHO
If, and I wouldn't, too many good hatching eggs out there and good breeders, if I ever took birds in from a swap, sale, auction, etc, they would be quarantined for sure. If not just for disease but for bugs, mites, parasites, whatever, never had that in my birds and don't want it, and have heard horror stories of it.

The ones that scare me are the respiratory ones, the ones that are carried by birds that look entirely healthy and show no symptoms, because they can be carried and not be currently showing. And then you put that bird in your flock with no quarantine because it looks so healthy and now all your birds have a horrible disease that can never be cured.

But I do agree that I don't really do quarantine with birds from friends that I know have clean flocks. I trust that they would have told me had their flocks caught anything.

 

[mittens4chickns]

I promised pics. I did wing sexing, and there are only 2 boys, both the BSL. Enjoy the cuteness!


One of the 5 look-alikes. I saw in another thread they are likely a RIR X BR


Fluffy Feets! 2 of these.


Group photo! 3 yellows, one Brahma there with the silver back, and the EE in the front.


Another group pic.


Sleepy boy.


Puffy cheeks close up


More puffy cheeks

 

[Pyxis]

I promised pics. I did wing sexing, and there are only 2 boys, both the BSL. Enjoy the cuteness!

Cute pictures!

By the way, wing sexing doesn't work at all unless two parents with specific feathering traits were crossed on purpose to create feather sexing chicks, so it wouldn't work on your chicks, unfortunately. Don't count on having only two boys

 

[mittens4chickns]

Cute pictures!

By the way, wing sexing doesn't work at all unless two parents with specific feathering traits were crossed on purpose to create feather sexing chicks, so it wouldn't work on your chicks, unfortunately. Don't count on having only two boys

Thanks!
And also, thanks, I didn't know that. I saw people do it on a yt video, and thought I'd try.

 

[tao chick]

I have a friend who just asked me about Newcastle symptoms in my flock. She works at DEC so I wonder if she had heard of something nearby recently. I'll check with her. I've read the millions of reasons to quarantine, and I needed some closer-to-me real life support for the logic of 3 weeks or 30 days, etc. My previous quarantine set up was too close to my flock. This set up is in a barn that they can't actually get within sneeze range- not the recommended 100 feet, but should limit contamination of my flock. I'm not trying to take this lightly. I want to protect all of the birds. If my flock is a carrier of something, which I can't be 100% sure about, I want to prevent losing my new birds.
Remember back when I was worried about MG? The peril and pleasure of our information age is that we can find out the worst possible scenarios for every symptom. I started my worry when I introduced new birds from Marq. My flock started sneezing. I contacted Cornell University about the symptoms and quick recovery of my birds without treatment and the leading avian vet there said MG is highly unlikely considering what I described (no deaths related to the respiratory issues) but the only way to be sure is lab testing, which I cannot for the life of me find a vet to do. In the end, the recovery of my birds was very quick and was highly correlated with coop maintenance (complete cleanout the first time and preventative maintenance with shavings and nest boxes). My only surprise death since the meat birds last year has been my roo- no symptoms and likely a digestive or injury related death. I've suspected a ventilation issue played a part in the original sneezing, and the coop is now much more open and I chose not to do the same deep-litter method as last year and the water system went away because of mold/mildew last year. Long story short- I believe that looking healthy is not a perfect indicator for whether a flock really is healthy. So far I've been lucky enough to avoid antibiotics, and now that they're harder to get I hope I can continue to avoid them. I think my closest avian vet is an hour from me -two hours for the best one- so I don't ever want to require a lab draw- which each of my local vets has declined to do.

The quarantine will continue. I'm not setting a timer or anything. I still have to repair some nest boxes, then snow returns next week, I have to start some seeds, loan my incubator to my SIL, paint the baby's room, etc.

Oh. Sleeping would be good too.

 

[tao chick]

Cute pictures!

By the way, wing sexing doesn't work at all unless two parents with specific feathering traits were crossed on purpose to create feather sexing chicks, so it wouldn't work on your chicks, unfortunately. Don't count on having only two boys

i agree. Wing tip sexing has worked about 75% of the time on many of the breeds I've had, but not all. It's a great thing to track though, especially fun when it's right.

 

[Gramma Chick]

I usually quarantine them for 2 - 3 days More for them to get used to me and their new home .
It helps if they can be seen by the flock also ..for a couple days till they released outside with them
What is the light brown one ?