Arizona Chickens

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An Easter Egger. And they lay colorful eggs.
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Hopefully teh blue stuff works and you wont need to get rid of her, bu tif u do let me know I am just gettign started I get my coop Saturday and I am goign to be looking for a few laying hens to start with.


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The Blue Kote stuff? Even though there isn't any blood? You can see her skin a little though. Hmmm where do you get it? The feed store?

You could just use mine. I have a little feather eating problem too. When Ginger dust bathes she gets shavings on her back and somebody is plucking her there. Just broken feathers but I'm going to spray her tomorrow.
 
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Are you sure you need to vaccinate for Marek's? After doing the research about the disease, I think it is a good idea, but I thought that if they were raised with turkeys, the chicks would acquire immunity through the turkey strain.

Not entirely true.

First: the turkeys would have to have Marek's which would kill the turkeys.

Second: The chickens would have to be exposed to the dander of the turkeys before they were exposed to chicken Marek's. Even then, without a blood-borne injection, you are gambling.

I think Laree makes a very good and important point about the timing of exposure. I don't agree that the turkeys would have had to have the lethal form of the Merek's virus for the chickens to gain the immunity. From Merck Vet Manual, the strain of Merek's in turkeys is not always lethal, but may be so (40-80% lethality in recent European outbreaks, which is far too high a risk for me). More importantly, turkeys also carry a related form of the herpesvirus that is used to make the poultry vaccine: "Turkeys are also commonly infected with turkey herpesvirus, an avirulent strain related to Marek’s disease virus.Three serotypes of the cell-associated herpesvirus are recognized. Serotypes 1 and 2 designate virulent and avirulent chicken isolates, respectively; serotype 3 designates the related avirulent turkey herpesvirus. Serotypes 2 and 3, as well as attenuated serotype 1 viruses, have been used as vaccines." The vaccine I used for my chicks from Jeffers is the avirulent turkey Serotype 3 form.

There are so many posts back and forth about some of these issues (BYC and elsewhere) that it can be hard to get a comprehensible answer, and I read lots of people saying don't bother if you have turkeys around your chickens. Although not an issue for me, (no turkeys), given Laree's salient point, I don't agree. The gist of the comments was that given the extensive spread of the disease, and the different forms the virus can take (lethal to living carriers) the turkeys should be carriers of a non-lethal form and the related form and the chickens would gain a similar immunity as from the vaccine. Which still does not at all address the point about the timing of exposure. Well, duh, that should be obvious but I for one didn't think about it. Of course, even when raised with turkeys, chicks should be vaccinated! Mea culpa! For me, I totally agree that vaccination should happen for all as early as possible. I can't believe the crappy advice I was given by "experts" when I got my hens and wish I had done further research the first time around. That said, it took a lot of searching to get clear answers this time. This is a devastating disease, easily avoided. We should be learning about it as the "small pox" of poultry. A simple preventative vaccination, routinely done could stop the spread of this disease. It really helped to have people nearby in the state, like Laree, give their experiences and opinion. To me, is why this group is so valuable.
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Are grackles protected? They're nasty and prolific.

But OH so intelligent! Yes, all three kinds are protected.

Funny your talking about this. I've got a bird stalking my roosters. Its been out here flying pretty low trying to get a good look. I got a picture of it today. Not sure what it is.
 
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The Grackles we have are nasty, they will go into other bird's nests and eat their babies
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Okay, if anyone's still following the subject, crow is legal Sep - Dec, no limit. Raven isn't mentioned in the AZ Game & Fish site http://www.azgfd.gov/h_f/hunting_rules.shtml We're in the range of both crows and ravens, and I couldn't find any endangered varieties in wikipedia, so I won't exactly be wracked with guilt if I pop one attacking my birds.

They are Federally protected by the Migratory Birds Treaty Act. http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/regulationspolicies/mbta/mbtandx.html
 

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