5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[GerbilsOnToast]

1.

2.

3. How the heck do you vaccinate a chick yourself? where do you put the shot?

It's sub-q at the back of the neck. Actually pretty easy, you just pinch the skin up. I would use a 22 or finer needle for a chick. Mareks vaccine is quite fluid and should flow through that easily.

editing to note that this answer is based on my former life - I was a biologist before I married a farmer

 

[bantambury]

It's sub-q at the back of the neck. Actually pretty easy, you just pinch the skin up. I would use a 22 or finer needle for a chick. Mareks vaccine is quite fluid and should flow through that easily.

editing to note that this answer is based on my former life - I was a biologist before I married a farmer

im pming you a bit more,,,,,so we don't take up too much here

 

[Aphrael]

What!!! Oh my gosh, a bobcat?! I would have had a heart attack. We've seen fox, coyote, raccoon, skunk, and feral cats but that's the extent of it.

We have a bobcat that lives about a block over in an old abandoned house. It hunts on our land some, rabbits, rats, roadrunners and such mostly. Have kept a close eye and haven't seen any tracks anywhere near my chicken yard or coops. But then there is a large amount of small wild game here for them to eat. We have a mated pair of foxes that lives somewhere nearby as well. Been watching for them as well. No signs so far of them messing around anywhere near my chickens. As long as they all stay away from my livestock they can live in peace and keep the wild rodent and rabbit population down. Now if they start causing trouble with my animals then all bets are off and they'll make nice pelts.

 

[Pozees]

Marek's is the bane of my existence. I lost an entire shipment of beautiful Speckled Sussex chicks to Marek's. It has multiple forms, and once a bird becomes symptomatic it is almost always fatal (the percentage of those surviving it is fractional, and most of those birds are compromised for life). Vaccinating all birds will not eliminate it eventually, as it is carried by wild birds. Chicks must be vaccinated in the first 48 (? might be 72, I could have mis-remembered this) hours of life, the vaccine is only good for 48 hours once mixed with the diluent, and the vaccine is live vaccine, meaning vaccinated birds shed the virus for life, exposing all other birds to it. There are many schools of thought on this disease, but after consulting breeders with decades of experience I opted not to vaccinate chicks. My thought was that if there are birds who are naturally resistant and birds who are not, I will never know which are resistant if I vaccinate; if I do not, the birds that live and thrive past 6 months of age are resistant and should pass that resistance on to their offspring.

 

[Aphrael]

Marek's is the bane of my existence. I lost an entire shipment of beautiful Speckled Sussex chicks to Marek's. It has multiple forms, and once a bird becomes symptomatic it is almost always fatal (the percentage of those surviving it is fractional, and most of those birds are compromised for life). Vaccinating all birds will not eliminate it eventually, as it is carried by wild birds. Chicks must be vaccinated in the first 48 (? might be 72, I could have mis-remembered this) hours of life, the vaccine is only good for 48 hours once mixed with the diluent, and the vaccine is live vaccine, meaning vaccinated birds shed the virus for life, exposing all other birds to it. There are many schools of thought on this disease, but after consulting breeders with decades of experience I opted not to vaccinate chicks. My thought was that if there are birds who are naturally resistant and birds who are not, I will never know which are resistant if I vaccinate; if I do not, the birds that live and thrive past 6 months of age are resistant and should pass that resistance on to their offspring.

That is the school of thought I tend to follow as well. I read and debated a lot before I purchased my first chicks. I decided I too would prefer to promote a resistant line of birds.

 

[bantambury]

Marek's is the bane of my existence. I lost an entire shipment of beautiful Speckled Sussex chicks to Marek's. It has multiple forms, and once a bird becomes symptomatic it is almost always fatal (the percentage of those surviving it is fractional, and most of those birds are compromised for life). Vaccinating all birds will not eliminate it eventually, as it is carried by wild birds. Chicks must be vaccinated in the first 48 (? might be 72, I could have mis-remembered this) hours of life, the vaccine is only good for 48 hours once mixed with the diluent, and the vaccine is live vaccine, meaning vaccinated birds shed the virus for life, exposing all other birds to it. There are many schools of thought on this disease, but after consulting breeders with decades of experience I opted not to vaccinate chicks. My thought was that if there are birds who are naturally resistant and birds who are not, I will never know which are resistant if I vaccinate; if I do not, the birds that live and thrive past 6 months of age are resistant and should pass that resistance on to their offspring.

AWESOME HELP! so, I could bring in other eggs, hatch them, vaccinate them, and throw them in with my flock and all should be fine? in that case....COUNT ME IN!

 

[gryeyes]

 
Marek's is the bane of my existence.  I lost an entire shipment of beautiful Speckled Sussex chicks to Marek's.  It has multiple forms, and once a bird becomes symptomatic it is almost always fatal (the percentage of those surviving it is fractional, and most of those birds are compromised for life).  Vaccinating all birds will not eliminate it eventually, as it is carried by wild birds.  Chicks must be vaccinated in the first 48 (? might be 72, I could have mis-remembered this) hours of life, the vaccine is only good for 48 hours once mixed with the diluent, and the vaccine is live vaccine, meaning vaccinated birds shed the virus for life, exposing all other birds to it.  There are many schools of thought on this disease, but after consulting breeders with decades of experience I opted not to vaccinate chicks.  My thought was that if there are birds who are naturally resistant and birds who are not, I will never know which are resistant if I vaccinate; if I do not, the birds that live and thrive past 6 months of age are resistant and should pass that resistance on to their offspring.

That is the school of thought I tend to follow as well.  I read and debated a lot before I purchased my first chicks.  I decided I too would prefer to promote a resistant line of birds.

I do not vaccinate for Marek's, either, neither hatched here nor those purchased from hatcheries under the exact same rationale. However, a feed store where I used to buy chicks sometimes has recently advertised "All chicks now vaccinated for Cocci and Marek's."

Most of my flock is from hatchery stock, with the exception of some wonderful birds hatched from BYCer eggs purchased for this or that Hatch-along. All together, they produce great mutts.

Marek's has cropped up in my flock in the past four years and it IS horrible. Starting with eight original feed store chicks all the way to 60+ chickens, I have dealt with six deaths from what meets the symptoms. Chicken hospice (Supportive care) is heartbreaking - and I suspect it may be cruel, too, but I don't have the fortitude to cull them. I have called other BYC friends who process their cockerels to come put a suffering invalid bird down for me, humanely, when it doesn't turn around after a few days of treatment. Those I suspected Marek's as the reason NEVER recovered.

 

[MontanaDolphin]

@MontanaDolphin could I pm you and maybe you could help me out with telling apart those lines you marked o the wing pictures? I cant tell the gender of ANY of my chicks! im stuck! if you could help me, thst would be totally AWESOME!

I will give it a shot!! What kind of chicks are they? PM me!

My chicks are so called 'flying'


"I believe I can fly I believe I can touch the sky"
no. they cannot. but they think they can. we will talk soon.

That statement had me cracking up!

 

[chicknnugget]

I have also been reading this entire thread and I am not hatching either. Just living vicariously.

See I'm not the only one! I knew there must be others like me! LOL

 

[GerbilsOnToast]

Marek's is the bane of my existence. I lost an entire shipment of beautiful Speckled Sussex chicks to Marek's. It has multiple forms, and once a bird becomes symptomatic it is almost always fatal (the percentage of those surviving it is fractional, and most of those birds are compromised for life). Vaccinating all birds will not eliminate it eventually, as it is carried by wild birds. Chicks must be vaccinated in the first 48 (? might be 72, I could have mis-remembered this) hours of life, the vaccine is only good for 48 hours once mixed with the diluent, and the vaccine is live vaccine, meaning vaccinated birds shed the virus for life, exposing all other birds to it. There are many schools of thought on this disease, but after consulting breeders with decades of experience I opted not to vaccinate chicks. My thought was that if there are birds who are naturally resistant and birds who are not, I will never know which are resistant if I vaccinate; if I do not, the birds that live and thrive past 6 months of age are resistant and should pass that resistance on to their offspring.

The major objection I have to it is that it doesn't actually confer immunity to the disease - it simply leaves me unable to identify an infected bird that should be removed. Fortunately, I have never encountered it, and I'm hoping that if I keep throwing rocks at those darn pigeons... keep everyone in when the starlings swarm us... and keep a calf or two in the area to chase off the Canadian geese, I won't.