Speckledhen's Ten Commandments of Good Flock Management

[speckledhen]

Yes, by culling, I mean euthanizing/killing. And if you've separated the bird immediately, which you should do the moment you see respiratory symptoms, you cull that bird, not the entire flock, unless they all come down with symptoms, too. Being exposed doesn't necessarily mean being infected--if it did, you could never go to the doctor's office for fear of catching everything in the room.

 

[TallChickMagnet]

Chickens may be livestock or they may be pets, but they deserve and desire attention and care. If you are going to maintain a healthy backyard flock, there are certain rules that should be followed. For those of you who frequently PM me for advice, or for those of you who are new to chicken-keeping, here is the "Speckledhen Method" in a nutshell.

Speckledhen's Ten Commandments of Good Flock Management

1) Keep a clean, dry environment...change bedding as needed, watch out for leaky waterers/windows/roofs, etc.

2) Fresh air/ventilation is essential..poop and respiration add moisture in the air. Ventilation overhead, not at roost or floor level.

3) Provide fresh water, daily. Would you take a sip out of the waterer? If not, clean it.

4) Give fresh, nutritious food, formulated for the age/function of the birds

5) Provide a safe, predator-proofed, uncrowded coop and run...they depend on you for protection

6) Periodically, check over each bird in the flock for lice, mites, wounds, etc.

7) Practice good biosecurity..disinfect shoes before and after visting the feedstore and shows, quarantine new birds, etc Under no circumstances, sell, trade, or give away a bird that shows sign of infection or has contacted another bird who shows signs of infection, or comes from a flock that has shown signs of infection, now or in the past.

8) At the first sign of contagious respiratory illness, i.e., discharges from nose or eyes or bad smell, cull, cull, cull...birds don't get colds, per se; they contract diseases, many of which make them carriers for their lifetime. That means they are able to infect others even if they seem to recover themselves. See Rule #7.

9) Do not medicate unnecessarily, including wormers and antibiotics

10) DO YOUR RESEARCH! There are numerous books and articles profiling poultry management and poultry disease. Read, study and then formulate a plan of action, should the worst happen, before it happens.


Happy Chicken-Keeping!

This is one of the best things that I've read since joining this site!!

 

[speckledhen]

Thank you!

 

[canesisters]

I wish this article could be given out to everyone who decides to bring home a chick.

I first read this about 2 weeks after my very first chicks arrived. By then, I had already lost one to impacted crop, nursed another through a minor impaction and was in the middle of a long bout of 'failure to thrive' (or whatever was wrong with her) with a 3rd one. In the middle of all this I was ignorantly unconcerned when a 4th one started to sneeze and by the time I realized that I should be concerned, my soft heart had over ridden my good sense.
I now have a flock of 6 who get wheezy & sneeze periodically. I have not given any 'meds' and the symptoms come and go. I'm pretty sure that if I had read this prior to the chicks arriving, I might have been able to cull the sick chicks in the name of a healthy flock and increased ability to enjoy my birds. Don't get me wrong, they are not suffering and miserable. They appear to be happy healthy little guys except when what 'appears' to be a bout of allergies hits. It passes quickly (couple of days) and whoever is sneezy gets back to normal.
My original plan had been to give any roos away, since they are purebreds, I thought that finding a good home would be pretty easy. However, for the remainder of my chicken keeping experience, no live birds will ever leave my land. Which means that now - as they approach 3 months old and have become very dear to me - I will have to take some very hard action if any of my chicks turn out to be roos. (Which, thankfully, so far does not appear to be the case).
Thank you Speckledhen - and oh so many others on BYC - for sharing your wisdom.

 

[Suzierd]

As far as being exposed but not infected if a flock of chickens had been exposed to MG is it possible that some are carriers that are infected and some not carriers living among it but not getting infected? Then you would need to have them all tested to know who's carrier or not?
I love the ten commandments thanks for sharing.

 

[speckledhen]

If no one is showing symptoms, I don't know how you would know if anyone was a carrier. You'd almost have to have them tested to find out. I'm not a vet, never claimed to be. I just know that if you have a bird showing respiratory symptoms, you snatch that one out of the flock immediately, dump and clean out the waterers especially, more important than the feeders, and then observe that one bird, as well as the flock it came out of, to see what develops.

One warning for this summer, folks:

This time of year, some may develop fungal infections. With all the wetting down of pens to keep birds cool, it's a common issue, but not that well known, seems to me.

When you have very wet conditions, fungi grow. Then, if conditions become highly dry and dusty, the spores can be released into the air. Birds breathe them in and the wet conditions in the lungs cause the spores to grow again. The bird starts sounding like a coffee percolator deep in the lungs. That is a fungal lung infection, often mistaken for CRD/mycoplasma. The eyes are usually still clear, no nasal involvement, just gurgly breathing.

You do not give antibiotics for fungal lung infections! They can make it worse. I dealt with this last summer in some older hens and my Delaware rooster and you can read about it and how we fixed the problem on this thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=560301

 

[Suzierd]

I had one hen get a very rattley voice and rattled when she slept and sneezed a lot. No bubbly eyes or nose drainage, snot or anything like that she only had the two symptoms. She still ate good I noticed she was the first one to go to bed early. But she is a older hen. I thought I heard a sneeze now and then from the other chickens but not sure if I was being paranoid or not. I do have a dirt floor in the run that gets dusty. No one else has gotten sick and she did recover. I brought home some new silkies about a month before and I added pine shavings about a week before she got sick. They all look fine now but it continues to nag at me what it could have been after reading so much about disease on here. I am picking up a few new silkies today and I'm more worried they could catch something from my chickens. I will even be gettin a paint which is a rare find in my area. I feel pretty good about them because the lady ordered eggs from a good breeder and hatched them out herself. I am deffently going to keep them separate from my flock and call the state lab and see about getting a MG test done. And hope and pray I have clean chickens. I have been a nervous wreck about this, once I have a decent flock I will keep it closed. I read about people going to auctions getting birds and selling them time and time again and I just cringe. I won't even walk into one for fear of germs. I really hope this was fungal or worms. I had never wormed before, never seen worms in the poop. So I wormed her and put her on antibiotics (not sure if that was a good idea) and sprayed the heck out of everybody and everything with Oxine. Now I read someone say Oxine doesn't kill MG organisms so I changed to bleach on spaying my boots going in and out of the coop. The sad thing is every one I called said not to worry about it. Not even a reason to test. I called OSU they told me to call department of agriculture. DOA told me to call OSU. I finally talked to a man at DOA that laughed and said MG is everywhere. The only vet that will even see a chicken didn't feel I had anything to worry about testing would be expensive and probably not accurate since she's not sick anymore she said if anybody gets sick again bring them in. She said I could be opening a can of worms I had no symptoms for. But yet I have this nagging feeling of not knowing and worry over the new chickens. I found a test and price list with OSU so I was thinking of calling them and not even telling them my story just saying I want a test done. I don't know do you think I'm overreacting?
Thanks for taking the time to talk with me I really value your opinion.

 

[speckledhen]

Oxine does kill MG. Oxine kills many more organisms than bleach does, being several hundred times more effective than plain bleach.

The lackadaisical attitude of some folks you talk to boggles the mind. They act like MG is so prevalent, that it is impossible to avoid, that all flocks have it, so why bother worrying. That is simply NOT true! Mine do not have it-NPIP breeders have purchased birds from me, though they weren't really supposed to do so, then had them tested with their own for the usual things, plus MG and MS and they tested negative. I get hatching eggs from MG-free flocks as well.

 

[nuchickontheblock]

I have a small flock of three and one of my hens has had an intermittent wheeze and "laryngitis" voice for a couple of years. She sounds like she has asthma! She never had a runny nose or eyes or other illness symptoms. She is a sweet bird and eats, drinks and runs around. But we have never brought another bird into the flock (although we are mighty tempted every Spring with all the little chick pics), because I believe she is a chronic carrier of some type of viral infection. The other girls don't have any respiratory symptoms and never have, but I often wonder if they are infected and are just asymptomatic.

Anyway, we have a closed flock for the present. We'll re-evaluate our situation when our current feathered pets are gone to the big coop in the sky.

 

[Suzierd]

Speckeiedhen are you sure it Oxine kills MG that's great news. A member here said they called the company and they said it didn't. It's a great feeling to know your flock is healthy I hope to have that feeling some day soon.
Nuchickontheblock maybe shes prone to fungal problems since nobody else has had any symptoms. I don't know I'm praying that it's something like that my one hen got and it's over now. Do you treat her with anything when she gets that way? I just want to know for sure. I would love to hatch out some babies next year. Wish you the best with yours.