Hello BYC folks!
I *know* that the easiest answer to most of my problems right now would be to cull my entire flock and start over. However, I have a possible solution, but I need some answers first before I move forward with my plan.
Some background:
Bought new property in North Georgia, moved entire farm from Colorado. Had a few health incidents in Colorado, but nothing like what happened after being in our new place in GA after a year. So, right when we moved in (August 2015), we put our chickens in the onsite coop - and the next day discovered two dead birds from previous owner that had been hiding (we didn't get to GA until PM when we moved - no lights in the coop, lesson #1 learned). Quickly removed the dead birds - but honestly, things were so hectic after the move, I don't remember throwing them away - although I'm sure we did as we didn't have a compost established yet etc. Cleaned out the coop real well, sprayed it down, etc and chickens were happy for about 6+months. Spring of 2016, we got a chicken lice problem, and lost a few birds to anemia etc and honestly, now looking back, who knows what else? But only symptom then was the itching/visible lice. We treated it naturally, lice went away, everybody happy. Then summer hits, and suddenly one bird has foamy eye in just one eye, and what at the time I thought was just a cold. Treated it - and she was happy as a clam with no symptoms, and then two weeks later dead in the morning. Another bird got the same thing and died as well (my favorite of all time, my very first chicken, miss her dearly RIP Betty). That's when I started panicking and actually researching. Those two birds had been in a separate coop, so my main flock was still good. No more symptoms from any of my birds though, until maybe 4 months later (Novemberish) - and suddenly it seemed like a quarter of my birds were sick, some far worse than others and with way more symptoms than just foamy eye. I have concluded the most likely culprit is Infectious Coryza. I treated multiple ways, even did antibiotics (I try to do everything 100% natural/organic when able), lost a few despite the treatment, but it's been two months now with no symptoms and they have begun laying again.
Here's where my questions come in, that I haven't found a solid answer for online. I plan on calling a poultry vet this week too.
1. Can IC live in the soil? If yes, how long and in what conditions?
2. Do birds need to be showing symptoms in order to shed the virus and pass it to others?
3. Do wild birds, guineas, or turkeys get IC?
My truly biggest concern is not knowing where my ladies got this illness from. We only introduced 6 new birds, all adult, all from the same place at the same time, all visibly healthy that we know of. At least none of these girls showed anything until this past December, and they weren't the first ones to show signs. There's so many farms around here, and I know it could have been on clothes, my shoes from the feed stores, etc.
My plan instead of culling, is to build a chicken tractor to keep them all in as a closed flock in my horse pastures. I'm going to turn the old coop into a large rabbit hutch/colony. And I'm building a new coop in my garden that I will get new birds in.
Any sources for info would be greatly appreciated!!
I *know* that the easiest answer to most of my problems right now would be to cull my entire flock and start over. However, I have a possible solution, but I need some answers first before I move forward with my plan.
Some background:
Bought new property in North Georgia, moved entire farm from Colorado. Had a few health incidents in Colorado, but nothing like what happened after being in our new place in GA after a year. So, right when we moved in (August 2015), we put our chickens in the onsite coop - and the next day discovered two dead birds from previous owner that had been hiding (we didn't get to GA until PM when we moved - no lights in the coop, lesson #1 learned). Quickly removed the dead birds - but honestly, things were so hectic after the move, I don't remember throwing them away - although I'm sure we did as we didn't have a compost established yet etc. Cleaned out the coop real well, sprayed it down, etc and chickens were happy for about 6+months. Spring of 2016, we got a chicken lice problem, and lost a few birds to anemia etc and honestly, now looking back, who knows what else? But only symptom then was the itching/visible lice. We treated it naturally, lice went away, everybody happy. Then summer hits, and suddenly one bird has foamy eye in just one eye, and what at the time I thought was just a cold. Treated it - and she was happy as a clam with no symptoms, and then two weeks later dead in the morning. Another bird got the same thing and died as well (my favorite of all time, my very first chicken, miss her dearly RIP Betty). That's when I started panicking and actually researching. Those two birds had been in a separate coop, so my main flock was still good. No more symptoms from any of my birds though, until maybe 4 months later (Novemberish) - and suddenly it seemed like a quarter of my birds were sick, some far worse than others and with way more symptoms than just foamy eye. I have concluded the most likely culprit is Infectious Coryza. I treated multiple ways, even did antibiotics (I try to do everything 100% natural/organic when able), lost a few despite the treatment, but it's been two months now with no symptoms and they have begun laying again.
Here's where my questions come in, that I haven't found a solid answer for online. I plan on calling a poultry vet this week too.
1. Can IC live in the soil? If yes, how long and in what conditions?
2. Do birds need to be showing symptoms in order to shed the virus and pass it to others?
3. Do wild birds, guineas, or turkeys get IC?
My truly biggest concern is not knowing where my ladies got this illness from. We only introduced 6 new birds, all adult, all from the same place at the same time, all visibly healthy that we know of. At least none of these girls showed anything until this past December, and they weren't the first ones to show signs. There's so many farms around here, and I know it could have been on clothes, my shoes from the feed stores, etc.
My plan instead of culling, is to build a chicken tractor to keep them all in as a closed flock in my horse pastures. I'm going to turn the old coop into a large rabbit hutch/colony. And I'm building a new coop in my garden that I will get new birds in.
Any sources for info would be greatly appreciated!!