Arizona Chickens

[Sonoran Silkies]

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I personally would NOT vaccinate against Newcastle. Should an epidemic of Exotic Newcastle occur and they test your birds, ones that are vaccinated for Newcastle would test positive and be depopulated.

 

[bethany83]

I personally would NOT vaccinate against Newcastle. Should an epidemic of Exotic Newcastle occur and they test your birds, ones that are vaccinated for Newcastle would test positive and be depopulated.

How could that be? If you kept documentation of vaccinating them, wouldn't that be enough to keep them from killing the chickens? I mean, its kind of counter-productive if the point is to not keep having it spread...why DISCOURAGE owners from vaccinating???

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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AWESOME! Thanks!

So they need separate housing, but can they share a run? Or will they still fight? Can they share a run with the chickens? They'd have about 10 ft of run if so!

How hard is it to build a mister? We have a hose/faucet right there on the wall where the chicken/rabbits will be. Can we finagle something to that and set it on a timer for summer? If so, how often do we turn the mister on every day when its HOT?

You can buy ready-made misters that ou only need to connect to the faucet. Last year's prices for a 1/4" tubing system were about $15 and for a 3/8" tubing system were about $40. If you add a sprinkler timer in between the hose bib and the mister system, you can arrange for auto-on/auto-off times. Personally I just turn them on for a couple of hours in the middle of the afternoon.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Oi vay. I fear who may be teaching my kids. Be involved in your school!

Good...Grief.

I would like to recomment Summit School of Awahtukee. They've hatched some of my eggs every spring for the last 5 years. The teachers go to INCREDIBLE pains to work up lesson plans and teach the kids. They time incubation so that eggs should hatch during the week. But at the last, they go in on the weekends, just to be sure. They upgraded to better incubators. They would love to have chickens full time, but chickens are not allowed in preschools per Health Department rules.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Is it? You are paying for the convienence of getting pre-vaccinated chicks, and since Mareks rarely kills before 14 weeks, you are saving tons of money by getting them vaccinated. A 16-week non-laying pullet costs about $15.

So say you bought 20 unvaccinated chicks, they get Marek's, and you are SUPER lucky and only 2 die before point-of-lay. You could have saved $10, have an uninfected flock, and not have to deal with semi-retarded chickens for the rest of their lives.

In fairness, he DID offer the name of a different hatchery where Marek's vaccination was considerably less expensive (less than 1/5th of the cost). Murray McMurry is one of the more expensive hatcheries (Strombergs is even more expensive). I read his post as "use this hatchery rather than that one," not "don't vaccinate because it's too expensive.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Is it? You are paying for the convienence of getting pre-vaccinated chicks, and since Mareks rarely kills before 14 weeks, you are saving tons of money by getting them vaccinated. A 16-week non-laying pullet costs about $15.

So say you bought 20 unvaccinated chicks, they get Marek's, and you are SUPER lucky and only 2 die before point-of-lay. You could have saved $10, have an uninfected flock, and not have to deal with semi-retarded chickens for the rest of their lives.

just finish talking with the state vet department of agriculture
usda certified and he told me there has not been any reports
of any poultry having marek's in the state of arizona
also their is no reports of any having new castle
and he said they do research everyday on animals in their labs
the biggest concern for the state is microplasma
and avian influenza

They answered the phone for you?! Wow, that is almost a first.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Is it? You are paying for the convienence of getting pre-vaccinated chicks, and since Mareks rarely kills before 14 weeks, you are saving tons of money by getting them vaccinated. A 16-week non-laying pullet costs about $15.

So say you bought 20 unvaccinated chicks, they get Marek's, and you are SUPER lucky and only 2 die before point-of-lay. You could have saved $10, have an uninfected flock, and not have to deal with semi-retarded chickens for the rest of their lives.

just finish talking with the state vet department of agriculture
usda certified and he told me there has not been any reports
of any poultry having marek's in the state of arizona
also their is no reports of any having new castle
and he said they do research everyday on animals in their labs
the biggest concern for the state is microplasma
and avian influenza

That's mycoplasma: CRD & mycoplasma synoviae, plus a couple of other mycoplasma strains.

Where there are chickens, there is mareks. http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/203602.htm Some breeds of chickens tend to have a natural immunity; other breeds seem to be prone to developing the disease.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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This assumes they are getting birds in from infected flocks. Most folks just take their dead birds, bag em up, and dump them in the trash.

Since you have to overnight a dead bird (within 12 hours of death) to Tucson to get the testing done, and it costs $220 for the test--people just dispose of the animals.

I ahve had MGC, IB, and Mareks hit my flock. We are clean now, but only because we shot-gun approach the flock to keep them that way.

To say "The government says it is safe so don't worry about it" is niave and short-sighted. You have to remember that
1) people are involved and they make decisions based on what is economically feasible and right for their family
2) The testing centers only get a small, small sample of the domesticated and wild bird populations in the state.

To say, "we haven't seen it, so therefore it doesn't exist." is NOT going to protect you--especially if you don't have a closed flock.

I am fairly sure that commercial facilities MUST report suspicious deaths, and that they do indeed actually test the birds on a regular basis. There are also non-commercial flocks around the state that they test routinely to keep a "heads up" of what is out there. BUT, Laree is correct that the vast majority of birds are not tested, owners do not report deaths or ask for necropsy.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Of course htey haven't had any reports. People in AZ dont generally send their animals in for necropsy, because it costs $220 per bird.

I HAVE seen Marek's in AZ, we had a vet involved as well.

The vet recccomended that we did NOT get a necropsy done, because if it was New Castle, then the USDA has the right to come in, put down your flock and all the neighbors', scrape the top 3 feet of soil off your land, and then burn the dirt.

AS FOR THE NEWCASTLE VACCINE: You are NOT vaccinating for NewCastle, which is rare in this part of the country. You are vaccinating for IB, infectious bronchitis, which is covered by the vaccine. IB is common in AZ.

if they determine that an animals has an infectious disease
they will put down the whole flock that would be a big loss
in the east valley they charge 85 dollars to do a necropsy

Cost of a necropsy varies by who does it, and the extent. A few years ago I paid my vet $99 for a necropsy. I later took birds to the state vet (at their expense) and they did a much more thorough necropsy, followed by sending samples to Texas A&M for more thorough testing. All for inconclusive results. Both my vet and I believe my birds were poisoned, the one test that I specifically asked the state to perform, they did not do, and performed a different test--for something where the symptoms did not match at all :rolleyes The state bore the cost because they were concerned that there might be some major epidemic, and wanted to rule it out. Waking up to 15 dead birds that were completely healthy the previous day, with another few dying over the next couple of days (and no symptoms of illness) was not an experience I would ever care to repeat.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Do you mean canvas to cover the top, or the side? Shadecloth will provide ventilation; canvas will not. However shadecloth will not keep out rain, but canvas will (although it may collect it if not angled for run-off.