All New chicken owners

[chickengrl]

Quote:
Fabulous advice! I'm a newbie flock keeper, but from my research - and quite frankly plain common sense - your advice is apropos. If I bring a new dog into the pack or a new cat into the house, they are quarantined from the rest until the vet gives them a clean bill of health. I'm not being mean, I'm being safe for all parties concerned. Why would it be any different for chickens or other fowl?

I have read many post about people adding older birds that they just got at an auction, or swap right into their flocks. I don't think people understand that just because a bird looks great and healthy does not mean it is. This time of year it seems the post about infections in people flocks go on the up and so do adding new birds. Just a reminder because sometimes we forget.

Thanks for posting this Schellie69, I cringe everytime I read another happy and excited post raving about the new birds they bought at auction or off Craigs list. We have lived the horror of having ILT diagnosed in our flock. This one is a real killer and we our certain we bought the sick birds at a poultry swap. They looked perfectly healthy and stayed that way for months. We have birds as pets and sell extra eating eggs only. We did not cull, although I honestly would suggest it to anyone who wants to sell chicks. We are now commited to vaccinating any new chicks we buy or hatch before they can ever go outside with the rest of the birds. ILT is super contagious and DH and I go to extaordinary measures to protect the new chicks we brrod in our basement, but we live with knowing that just one slip up and we could kill a bunch of them. We now follow strict biosecurity and will NEVER buy another adult bird again. We hatch our own, or day old chicks from good breeders and hatcheries only. The scary thing is we will still be vulnerable to MG, it seems to be everywhere and you can bring it to your flock easily when buying hatching eggs. Hopefully, we will not go down that road!

 

[schellie69]

chickengrl I remember your post I cried when I read it. I know you are working really hard on bio. I am glad that it seems the worse is over for you right now. This is one of the reason I wrote this. I saw people who posted about buying new stater birds and adding them to the flock with no quarantine or anything. I have decided not to buy hatching eggs from anyone except a few people on BYC and day old's from the farm store. I don't think I will buy another adult or starter bird again.

 

[MeowCluckBark]

I absolutely agree with your post! I am new myself to all of this. I've been researching for almost a year before I bought a bird. My best friend had chicks last year and I enjoyed going to her house and watching them grow and learning about them. When my daughter wanted them and I wanted them, but my fiance (at the time) didn't want them I decided I'd research to see if it was a good idea for us. After my relationship ended a few months later (yay!) I wasn't thinking about jumping out to get chickens right then, but when I went to buy a house I found one with enough land for us to have a reasonable small flock to keep in town.

While there are some steps that get rushed along or fudged a bit (ie not being ready with the coop when your chicks already want out at 4 weeks) there are some things that you just have to follow the 'rules' or guidelines if you want to do this successfully. I tiptoed around that a bit by letting 2 4 week old birds go to my friends house for a few days (there wasn't much choice) she didn't keep them away from her birds but they didn't intermingle of their own choice. My girls just went out to enjoy the lawn a bit during the day. Still I wouldn't do that for most people. I wasn't even sure it was a great idea at the time.



Some people that are new kind of scare me a bit at the store. I was picking up my EE chicks that came in and this couple came in with a plastic shoebox full of wood shavings. They didn't even know what it was they were getting or what a cockerel or pullet was. They had no idea what a straight run meant or what the different breeds did for laying, temperament, anything. Because they were so ill-educated on some of those basic things I really wondered how much they knew about their future care. They just wanted birds that would lay eggs. I tried to give them as much info as I could while they picked out chicks and I pointed them here to read more info. As they walked off with their plastic shoebox I kept thinking, I hope they remembered to leave it open for air. Yes, it was that scary. These are animals not just food producers. They have a range of needs and should be treated with care. I'm ok with people not keeping them as pets and treating them more as livestock, but livestock is usually well cared for by people who care too.


/rant

 

[MeowCluckBark]

Oh yeah, plus I know that I still know next to nothing after a year of learning about it all and there are a lot of lessons I will have to learn the hard way too. I've helped her care for many a bird that was chased down by a dog, helped her brood chicks and ducklings, and even with her experience added to me I still know nothing. I have a lot to learn still and I hope that people will remember, when I do something stupid, that it wasn't intentionally stupid. Usually it was just ignorance.

 

[schellie69]

Quote:
We all do this when I first got my flock I got my original girls all from one farmer who had to down size due to his wife's health problems I got 5 girls the 1st trip and about a month later got 5 more then in Oct I was given a Ameraucana hen I did quarantine just took her and placed her in the pen. I did not do the introduction I just didn't know I came here and read and learned a lot. When I got my rooster from another byc member I did the quarantine thing well I tried till my 2 barred rock diva's broke him out and I found him free ranging the girls and making his moves. When I got a couple of starter pullets last summer they spent 45 days away from my girls before they were introduced. I will never get a lone hen to introduce again that was not a good thing her life got better when I got my rooster she was his favorite girl. I lost her last winter to a dog attack. So yes we all do something just because we forgot or do not know. It is all about learning I just wanted to put up this reminder because I have read some post that break my heart of people who have had to cull their whole flock, I know I don't want that to be me so I just thought I would remind people and put that information out for all the new people who might not know. I just want everyone to really enjoy owing chickens and hate to see someone buy a great bird only to end with losing their whole flock. I read a post one year from another member reminding everyone to quarantine new birds so just passing the favor on.

 

[Mallory]

Thanks for the important reminder.

 

[MeowCluckBark]

Quote:
I appreciate the reminder. It's easy to get carried away in the excitement of new birds and remember the best protocols to keep them healthy at times. Thank you for passing on the lesson!

 

[Arielle]

My husband reminds me that at the University where we studied the rule was clear: when a chicken was removed from the flock for ANY reason, it was not returned to the flock. THis is disease prevention at the extreme. So I don't buy birds from swaps or CL. I'll stick with good hatcheries. ANd hope for the best!

 

[schellie69]

Quote:
Yep That is part of the flock management that I follow I took what speckledhen wrote and I use that for my chickens. I also would buy chicks and eggs from some of the breeders and members on here. I think doing everything we can do is the best we can do.

 

[AuntieE]

Good advice. I was planning on getting some older pullets from CL so I didn't have to do the brooder thing again, but after reading your post, I think I'll stick to hatchery chicks to be on the safer side.