Arizona Chickens

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

Quote:
I think you can add blackhead disease to the list of maladies we don't see too often. We're so lucky to have a dry climate and an abundance of sunshine to kill germs!

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

This is mostly for tballchicky as I think we're the only ones from Cochise County on here....

I talked to Laurie, the owner of San Pedro Feed and Hardware (and Coffee) yesterday after work. She recently made a deal with Ideal Poultry, where customers order Ideal stock through her at the regular Ideal price. She makes a weekly order, picks them up at the post office, and starts them in a brooder with feed and water until the customer picks them up. Now customers can order less than 25 chicks without paying the small order fees, and avoid the 6am post office run (Yay!). And the selection is anything Ideal sells directly (not drop-shipped turkeys or pheasants for example), not just the typical Rhode Island Reds and Leghorns feed stores seem to prefer. http://www.ideal-poultry.com/

She gets a kickback from Ideal, and of course where else would you buy feed and equipment?

Lovin' it!

 

[constance]

Vaccinating chicks

Laree's posts from a month or so ago were very helpful to me (thanks again!). Check them out (use the BYC search to search this thread for Laree and Marek's or vaccine or vaccination). I'm limiting my comments here to Marek's, but it is worth investigating other diseases that can be prevented.

IMO EVERYONE SHOULD VACCINATE FOR MAREK'S. The argument that small flocks don't need to is bunk (IMO again), and I believe is only made because small flocks are replaceable and not as economically devastating to lose. But then if you do get Mareks, you will lose your lovely chickens, have to vaccinate the replacement flock, and will have helped to spread the disease, so just do it the first time. Better for everyone. If you keep an absolutely closed flock with perfect biosecurity, well maybe, but good luck with that given that chickens are addictive!

If you are getting chicks from the hatchery, have them vaccinated for Marek's, once you add up the cost of the vaccine, shipping, time, and stress (yours, mostly), it is cost-effective.

I vaccinated my new non-hatchery chicks last weekend. It was scary but fine once I got going, and the chicks screamed only at the alcohol swabbing but not the injection. Marek's is a subcutaneous injection, just under the skin. We bought vaccines from Jeffers. The 1000 dose vial comes as a wafer that can be split into quarters in the vial with an exacto knife. It also comes with the fluid needed to "revive" the virus (the diluent), which can also be divided. You mix the dry vaccine with the diluent and inject. You can get 4 mixed "batches" out of one vial and one bottle of diluent. I recommend you go to the careful effort of splitting the vaccine, it is cheaper, and the mixed vaccine is only good for about an hour, so if you panic, are too slow, or mess up, you still have some vaccine to try again. READ the directions that come with the vaccine.

Plan ahead and share a vial with someone else to save costs.

A good description of the disease and HOW TO SPLIT AND MIX the vaccine is here, just follow his directions:
http://www.firststatevetsupply.com/content/view/17/37/

A good tutorial on how to give the vaccination is here (DON'T FOLLOW THE MIXING DIRECTIONS IF YOU ARE SPLITTING THE VACCINE)
http://poultryone.com/articles/mareks.html

A good summary of why and when to vaccinate can be found here:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps030

 

[ca]

from az central:

"HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP, N.J. - A New Jersey town has adopted an ordinance that regulates when chickens and roosters can hook up in backyard henhouses.
Roosters must show they're disease-free and they better not crow about their conquests.
Hopewell Township residents can have up to a half-dozen hens on half-acre lots. Roosters would be allowed only 10 days a year for fertilization purposes.
Mature roosters are not allowed because they're too noisy. Any roosters that crow too long can be banned from the property for two years.
Mayor Jim Burd told The Times of Trenton the ordinance is a compromise between today's lifestyle and the township's agricultural history."


Read more: img/smilies/lau.gif" alt="lau" />">http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2011/04/27/20110427new-jersey-hens-roosters.html#ixzz1Kpu7aFov

use an immature rooster for fertilization purposes. Oh yeah and keep him immature for 350 days to use him again next season. How he "shows" that he is free of disease is not clear to me at this point. Sooo glad we don't have this type of bureaucratic ordinances (yet).

 

[Tanichca]

argh the lakeside show is 5 hours away! I wont be able to go!!!

 

[5pinkarrows]

Quote:
We have a bunny! We have only had him a few weeks. We had him in a cage in the garage, but moved him to the bantam coop the other day. We put his cage in there so he could go back in if he wanted. He LOVES it! He pushes the straw all over the place and just seems generally happier. The chickens are a little nervous around him, but it isn't anything major. He still chooses to spend most of the day in his cage. I wanted a fancy hutch, but this is a lot cheaper and kind of fun!

 

[5pinkarrows]

TT! :

What are you guys feeding your chickens, where do you get it, and how much are you paying?

I got a bag of layena pellets and they hate it. I think it is like $17 a bag or something ridiculous.

I buy the Nutrena layer pellets from AZ Feeds. It is something like $14.50 for a 50lb bag. The ladies seem to like it. What did you not like about the other feed?​

 

[sk acres]

Quote:
There is also tutorial at http:www.shagbarkbantoms.com/mdvac.htm that was very good.

Mahonri, I candled eggs into lockdown 11 clear bwa. and 1 bcm all others looked good I will get pics after they hatch.

thanks again for your help.
scott

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

Quote:
We have a bunny! We have only had him a few weeks. We had him in a cage in the garage, but moved him to the bantam coop the other day. We put his cage in there so he could go back in if he wanted. He LOVES it! He pushes the straw all over the place and just seems generally happier. The chickens are a little nervous around him, but it isn't anything major. He still chooses to spend most of the day in his cage. I wanted a fancy hutch, but this is a lot cheaper and kind of fun!

This is a solid floored coop? (I've heard horror stories about people raising rabbits on chicken wire, which tears up their feet pretty badly.)

 

[5pinkarrows]

Quote:
Oh, no! I am so sorry about your hen. So sad!

And your story is one of the many reasons I homeschool.

Bryan-- Our coop is just dirt with a lot of straw over it. There is chicken wire walls, but he doesn't seem to mess with it. I was more concerned about him eating the chicken feed, but he hasn't. I really don't know what I'm doing here, but my husband works with a guy that keeps his rabbits and chickens together, so I thought I would give it a try. In fact, we gave that guy a rooster once. He gave him back. All of the hens were bald and he was getting amorous with the bunnies. Yikes! So he came back here, only to get eaten by a coyote. Anyway, we are really trying with this bunny. We are his 4th home and he is only a year old. We just wanted to give him a chance at a good life, but we are totally ignorant in the bunny ways.