She said/He said Who's right? Who's wrong? No one!

[holm25]

I don't think so. Didn't you say you used to be the quiet one?

Lol u might get a smsck for that one!!!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

You've introduced new birds and had new construction. It's disrupted their patterns. They will find their way back to the nests. Mine haven't laid on the floor at all this year

Yes, the new birds is a factor I've considered. The "construction" isn't in the close vicinity to their coop, so that really shouldn't bother them that much. Speaking of which, I plan to have that done this week one way or another and have these other 15 out of here. It just needs the roof, and small stuff (plus the batten strips). I have to make the roosts, but need the roof up first and I have to make the nest boxes. The run isn't up yet, but I plan on doing that last. I still have to get my fence posts.

Oh, I almost forgot to close up the coop last night. Very first time since they've been out there I almost forget. It was like 10 o'clock before I remembered them!

 

[WVduckchick]

You've introduced new birds and had new construction. It's disrupted their patterns. They will find their way back to the nests. Mine haven't laid on the floor at all this year

That's a good point! Are they near the new construction?

He's shy....lol   Quite chicks turn into loudmouth chickens....  (OK, I made that up.)

Bite your tongue!! I'm glad you said you made that up! Lol

You will be into the chocolate milk before he comes out

Highly likely...

 

[scflock]

I have about 170 layers in the layer house, and 2 banks of 10 nest boxes set back to back with wire between. So there should be 8-9 eggs per box if all the hens were laying (they are not, this batch I would love to cull and start again) but I will find 8 eggs in one box, nothing in 12, and one or two in most and 5-6 in another. Plus half a dozen on the floor in one corner, and one in another corner, and a couple under the feeder. Every once in a while one will be pushed through the wire into the feed room.

The nests are Kuhl front rollouts, with plastic turf bedding. The floor is straw.

How is your feed and water set up? I'm over 100 birds now, and food and water are the most labor intensive parts. I have moved to gravity fed nipple waterers, and that has helped a ton, and I'm thinking of going to 6" PVC for feeders. My birds are in 7 different pens, so that's a lot to keep up with, especially in the winter when it's dark when I get home

 

[AmyLynn2374]

I don't think so. Didn't you say you used to be the quiet one?

I was. My teachers always told my parents I never talked. I was always quiet they didn't know I was there...lol

It's always the quiet ones you have to watch

I agree...lol

That's a good point! Are they near the new construction?
Bite your tongue!! I'm glad you said you made that up! Lol
Highly likely...

LMAO

 

[WVduckchick]

It's always the quiet ones you have to watch

Yes, the new birds is a factor I've considered. The "construction" isn't in the close vicinity to their coop, so that really shouldn't bother them that much. Speaking of which, I plan to have that done this week one way or another and have these other 15 out of here. It just needs the roof, and small stuff (plus the batten strips). I have to make the roosts, but need the roof up first and I have to make the nest boxes. The run isn't up yet, but I plan on doing that last. I still have to get my fence posts.

Oh, I almost forgot to close up the coop last night. Very first time since they've been out there I almost forget. It was like 10 o'clock before I remembered them!

Still sounds like alot to be done. We keep having sporadic thunderstorms. Always has to ruin whatever I try to do outside!

 

[AmyLynn2374]

Still sounds like alot to be done. We keep having sporadic thunderstorms. Always has to ruin whatever I try to do outside!

We've been having rain and/or storms at somepoint almost every day/evening. We are starting to feel like Florida..lol I think we've had mabe one day in the past week with absolutely no rain. Maybe two.

 

[lazy gardener]

Lazy! I wanted to tell you that I fermented feed this weekend and my older chicks went crazy over it!! The newborns, not so much but they get scared over everything that's new! Thank you so much!! And thanks for the kind words. I asked my oldest son to sit with me and help with the eggtopsys. After the second one, I was okay with doing it. But I needed support to get through the first two. It was very interesting. Now I will take my findings and do some research to see if any of the deaths were incubation issues and apply it from there.
Thank you for this!! ^

Thank you.

Does any one vaccinate their chicks if so what do you generally vaccinate for?

Don't vaccinate, don't intend to. From the Mareks research I've done: Vaccine only masks the disease in that the lethal tumors don't show up. Vaccinated poultry can catch it, can spread it. So, you may have vaccinated your first flock, and continued with a closed flock, only to still end up with it infecting your flock (chicks you've hatched yourself), and you may never know that the disease came from one of your vaccinated birds. Also, it is most likely to show up in over crowded conditions and in immune compromised birds. Well tended poultry with healthy immune systems are not likely to become ill with it. (I'm not saying they WONT, but I'm saying it's less likely to have it show up in a home flock. The commercial folks vaccinate b/c their flocks are over crowded, stressed, living in filth, and immune compromised. Furthermore, turkeys carry a strain of Mareks, which is less lethal to chickens. So, if you have a population of turkeys around your flock (I have tons of wild turkeys), your chickies are most likely to pick up that strain, which will afford them immunity to the more lethal strains. (Similar to the milk maids of the past being immune to small pox b/c they'd been infected with cow pox.) As far as other diseases, I have similar opinion: it's a shot in the dark. Money spent for a disease that may never be encountered, and if your flock is healthy, they will most likely not get sick.

How to build flock immunity? I'm a fan of getting chicks exposed to native soils while their "peri-hatch" immunity is highest. (within the first 2 weeks) I give them a plug of sod: toss it right into the shavings in the brooder (upside down). I also put them on fermented feed. If you don't want to do FF, then you can do natural ACV with the mother, plus the sod, and add some packaged probiotics.

Update on the tag team silkie hatch. Over the course of 8 days, I wound up with 15 chicks and 2 unhatched eggs. I have been getting a chick a day for the last week. My assumption is that those were the eggs that were laid after the broodies first set. I had hens swapping positions as the chicks made their ways out. There were a couple of days that I would come home to 3 hens on the nest. I know this will drive Amy nuts, but I just let them be. I did have to remove a couple of chicks myself, just because I was afraid they had been on the nest too long, but I still wound up with 15/17 in what was a staggered hatch. Tough to beat broodies

I appreciate the rep that silkies have as excellent broodies... and have occasionally considered getting one for that purpose... but. When I look at pic #2, it looks like a flock of mutant sheep to me!

How close is MO to the AI outbreak? After reading the thread that was posted in here last week, I did a lot of research over the weekend. That is some scary stuff! I have a closed flock, and don't live near any major waterways, but some say that when the waterfow migrate south for the winter, they may bring it with them. I haven't gotten my NPIP certification, because I haven't needed it, but with all of this going around I think it may be time

I'd do a lot of research before jumping on the NPIP band wagon. There are very few diseases included in the testing, and all the NPIP certification does is state that your flock tested negative at the time you had the testing done. Personally, with all of the AI hype going on, the last thing I'd want to do is put my flock on a national registry. I'll take care of my flock, cull as needed, and fly under the radar.

 

[scflock]

Thank you.

Don't vaccinate, don't intend to. From the Mareks research I've done: Vaccine only masks the disease in that the lethal tumors don't show up. Vaccinated poultry can catch it, can spread it. So, you may have vaccinated your first flock, and continued with a closed flock, only to still end up with it infecting your flock (chicks you've hatched yourself), and you may never know that the disease came from one of your vaccinated birds. Also, it is most likely to show up in over crowded conditions and in immune compromised birds. Well tended poultry with healthy immune systems are not likely to become ill with it. (I'm not saying they WONT, but I'm saying it's less likely to have it show up in a home flock. The commercial folks vaccinate b/c their flocks are over crowded, stressed, living in filth, and immune compromised. Furthermore, turkeys carry a strain of Mareks, which is less lethal to chickens. So, if you have a population of turkeys around your flock (I have tons of wild turkeys), your chickies are most likely to pick up that strain, which will afford them immunity to the more lethal strains. (Similar to the milk maids of the past being immune to small pox b/c they'd been infected with cow pox.) As far as other diseases, I have similar opinion: it's a shot in the dark. Money spent for a disease that may never be encountered, and if your flock is healthy, they will most likely not get sick.

How to build flock immunity? I'm a fan of getting chicks exposed to native soils while their "peri-hatch" immunity is highest. (within the first 2 weeks) I give them a plug of sod: toss it right into the shavings in the brooder (upside down). I also put them on fermented feed. If you don't want to do FF, then you can do natural ACV with the mother, plus the sod, and add some packaged probiotics.


I appreciate the rep that silkies have as excellent broodies... and have occasionally considered getting one for that purpose... but. When I look at pic #2, it looks like a flock of mutant sheep to me!
I'd do a lot of research before jumping on the NPIP band wagon. There are very few diseases included in the testing, and all the NPIP certification does is state that your flock tested negative at the time you had the testing done. Personally, with all of the AI hype going on, the last thing I'd want to do is put my flock on a national registry. I'll take care of my flock, cull as needed, and fly under the radar.

That is the best post I have read in a long time. I had read all that you said about vaccinating, and that is why I don't. I totally agree with the native soils, and I won't totally clean out a brooder in between bacthes of chicks. I will put in mostly new material, but I will also purposely leave a little of the old droppings just to seed the material.

The silkies really do look like mutant sheep. You can't tell it in the picture, but each of the adults is over 80lbs

As far as your post on NPIP, I think you totally changed my mind with 2 sentences

 

[cppeace]

Thank you.

Don't vaccinate, don't intend to. From the Mareks research I've done: Vaccine only masks the disease in that the lethal tumors don't show up. Vaccinated poultry can catch it, can spread it. So, you may have vaccinated your first flock, and continued with a closed flock, only to still end up with it infecting your flock (chicks you've hatched yourself), and you may never know that the disease came from one of your vaccinated birds. Also, it is most likely to show up in over crowded conditions and in immune compromised birds. Well tended poultry with healthy immune systems are not likely to become ill with it. (I'm not saying they WONT, but I'm saying it's less likely to have it show up in a home flock. The commercial folks vaccinate b/c their flocks are over crowded, stressed, living in filth, and immune compromised. Furthermore, turkeys carry a strain of Mareks, which is less lethal to chickens. So, if you have a population of turkeys around your flock (I have tons of wild turkeys), your chickies are most likely to pick up that strain, which will afford them immunity to the more lethal strains. (Similar to the milk maids of the past being immune to small pox b/c they'd been infected with cow pox.) As far as other diseases, I have similar opinion: it's a shot in the dark. Money spent for a disease that may never be encountered, and if your flock is healthy, they will most likely not get sick.

How to build flock immunity? I'm a fan of getting chicks exposed to native soils while their "peri-hatch" immunity is highest. (within the first 2 weeks) I give them a plug of sod: toss it right into the shavings in the brooder (upside down). I also put them on fermented feed. If you don't want to do FF, then you can do natural ACV with the mother, plus the sod, and add some packaged probiotics.


I appreciate the rep that silkies have as excellent broodies... and have occasionally considered getting one for that purpose... but. When I look at pic #2, it looks like a flock of mutant sheep to me!
I'd do a lot of research before jumping on the NPIP band wagon. There are very few diseases included in the testing, and all the NPIP certification does is state that your flock tested negative at the time you had the testing done. Personally, with all of the AI hype going on, the last thing I'd want to do is put my flock on a national registry. I'll take care of my flock, cull as needed, and fly under the radar.

I agree, I don't plan on registering anytime soon. Don't like the restrictions Missouri puts on you when you register.