Breda Fowl thread

[BlueJayFarm]

I'm glad I didn't know all this before I got mine!! Sounds like there are some health issues to be reckoned with. I hope breeders here are able to work on that and make progress. Sorry to hear about your ones that died.

 

[DutchChicky]

We have had no problems with CRD in our Breda's. Found them to be very hardy. Of course we've only had them for less than 2 years, but so far so good
Keeping my fingers crossed!
Always a chance for diseases if you have your chickens outside. Wild birds are carriers and always come in to get a drink or bite. We are closing our tops of the pens, so hopefully it will eliminate a lot of that. Only the smaller birds will still be able to get in, thru the dog fence wiring.
Also on a different note, MG is transferable in eggs if I'm not mistaken. So even if you only bring in new birds by hatching, you might have carriers in there.

 

[BlueJayFarm]

MG is transferable in eggs

Dang it!!

 

[Sylvester017]

It sounds like you and I are of the same bio-security opinion. I only bring in hatching eggs and when selling birds I state that visitors must wear shoes that they don't wear around their birds. I had problems with northern fowl mites in my birds (and egg sucking) last year due to the scrub jays. I was once one of those "Not in MY birds" people until THAT happened.

So no more feeding the wild birds for us, unfortunately.

I found that review about the CRD etc. I am really surprised. For sure these birds have been seriously linebred, but I have not experienced any of those problems. I find the Breda to be hardy and very alert to predators. Also my roosters are just as friendly as my hens. I'll be bringing in more hatching eggs this spring from another line, so hopefully things will go well. Now I'm a tad concerned!

Thank you, I adore my blue pullet as well! She is a doll. Her sister is my little punk rocker with her mohawk. And my splash rooster is something else. He's a real pal. Here they are (including my blue, in the shadows):


I've never been a fan of the feather-footed breeds, but you gotta love those bell-bottoms! I'm going to start moving the flock over to the gentler breeds as well. However, I have to have blue isbars. They don't seem real gentle, but I have to have them.

A lavender orp might look good in the flock you describe!

I lost my whole flock to MG and the first breeds to die out were the Breda and Isbars.

Mary from the Egg Farm had problems with Isbars because of some bacterial infection. The first line she got from GFF had a bad problem with bacteria - she was losing Isbar hatches and chicks where other breeds in the same incubators were doing fine. Her customers were losing hatches and chicks from her Isbar eggs too. Discouraged she closed up her Isbar sales and didn't try the second GFF importations. I wanted to share that the thing about CRD/MG/MS is that it can transfer from parent to eggs so just importing eggs onto our property to avoid infection is not a guarantee that the eggs are disease-free. Up to 98% of USA flocks are infected at some point without the owners' knowledge because they are unaware of how prevalent it is and not having symptom outbreaks you'd never know unless the flock was tested specifically for it. Another added problem about CRD/MS/MG is that an adult bird that carries the latent bacteria can walk around forever immune to the symptoms while another bird can just suddenly drop over dead from it or another bird can come down with visible symptoms every year during a time of stress (like brooding, sudden weather change, prolific egg-laying, molting, etc). Of course the only true determination would be a necropsy on a dead bird or vet test on a live bird. But this is the kind of research I've been coming across about CRDs. Still I keep up the bio-security practices the best I can and have my vet on my phone's speed-dial. Yes, a Lavender Orp sounds gorgeous - however in my gentle flock I consider Orps too large and have seen many a bit bossy with gentler smaller breeds. My friend's Orp was a bossy large hen. Orps do exceptionally well with other dual purpose breeds but we find them too assertive around bantams/gentles.

CRDs are horrible and Bredas and Isbars are not the hardiest of breeds. Kind of makes you want to think about getting those hardy landrace breeds or South African breeds that seem to survive all kinds of tough conditions and diseases.

Well, here's hoping the best for all our future endeavors!

 

[familypendragon]

I have lots of links to MG info including how to treat hatching eggs to prevent vertical transmission if anyone wants to do more reading about that https://www.facebook.com/notes/pend...-helpful-poultry-information/1611694419054116 I have lots of research time on my hands while I wait to start my new flock next year

 

[BlueJayFarm]

Nice, that is a lot of information, thank you!

 

[BlueJayFarm]

Oh, and.... HAPPY NEW YEAR and good health to us and all our birds!

 

[familypendragon]

Oh, and.... HAPPY NEW YEAR and good health to us and all our birds! 

Yes, please!!

 

[GaryDean26]

Dang it!!

It is a 10% transfer rate through egg from hens in their first laying season and 2% in hens over 2 years old. So you may not to get it even if the parent stock has it. This is one of the reasons that breeding hens should be over 2 years old. Hatching eggs can also be treated with heat (115 deg for 8 hours prior to incubation) or dipped in an antibiotic solution ( set eggs in warm water for 15 minutes that has tylosin in it) to prevent the transmission to egg. Chicks can also be treated with a strong antibiotic (dengard, tylan 200, etc.) during their first 10 days to prevent the chicks from getting MG. So you can clean up a flock that has had MG (losses are typically 15-20% of the flock so you have survivers/carriers that you can collect eggs from, cull, and then sanitize pens before their offspring are brought back in). All it takes is one chick to get it though and then everyone in the brooder has it so unless you have breeding stock that can not be easily replaces it is probablly easier to just start over again with stock from a MG free flock.

 

[Sylvester017]

It is a 10% transfer rate through egg from hens in their first laying season and 2% in hens over 2 years old. So you may not to get it even if the parent stock has it. This is one of the reasons that breeding hens should be over 2 years old. Hatching eggs can also be treated with heat (115 deg for 8 hours prior to incubation) or dipped in an antibiotic solution ( set eggs in warm water for 15 minutes that has tylosin in it) to prevent the transmission to egg. Chicks can also be treated with a strong antibiotic (dengard, tylan 200, etc.) during their first 10 days to prevent the chicks from getting MG. So you can clean up a flock that has had MG (losses are typically 15-20% of the flock so you have survivers/carriers that you can collect eggs from, cull, and then sanitize pens before their offspring are brought back in). All it takes is one chick to get it though and then everyone in the brooder has it so unless you have breeding stock that can not be easily replaces it is probablly easier to just start over again with stock from a MG free flock.

Problem seems to be that many owners don't realize they have latent CRD carriers when they sell their hatching stock, so, many newbies import the latent disease/s. It is prevalent/latent that an owner may blissfully think they don't have it simply because their hens don't display symptoms. But with 98% approx USA flocks exposed to it there's a good chance of it getting imported to our property through new eggs/chicks/birds added to our flock or from wild garden birds. Just because there are no symptoms doesn't mean we don't have it - it could just be that our hardy birds are immune to coming down with an outbreak. If you're lucky - a breed can be immune enough to not come down with symptoms while a delicate breed or chicken can suddenly drop dead. I do like the idea of Denagard treatments monthly to control outbreaks and will try that on my adult flock to see if it deters outbreaks and generally eggs need not be withheld. With using Tylan from the vet and giving a couple drops a week of Poly-Vi-Sol vitamins to my hens I've already seen an improvement in egg production while we're in our shortest daylight hours and with below freezing temps (I don't use heat lamps). Tylan works well but eggs have to be withheld for 7-14 days. In Asia, Europe, and U.K. Denagard is actively used and as usual the USA needs to catch up with available resources.

I don't breed or hatch eggs but your treatment info is helpful for those who do plan on raising new chicks.

The disease that freaks me out WAY more than CRDs is Fowl Pox (dry or wet) from what I've read about it!!! So many dedicated owners will do their best to treat their flocks through outbreaks while others with too large a population find it easier and more humane to put the birds out of their misery. I guess the wet form added to the dry form is almost always fatal or at the very least leaves the hen blind after recovery. With all the incureable diseases that poultry can contract it's no wonder people are afraid to keep poultry. There are some vaccinations for some conditions yet owners have still had incidents of symptom outbreaks in spite of precautions. So sad

One happy note however! In our area of SoCalif - Leghorns have been used as bait for detecting West Nile Virus. The Legs are penned in areas of suspected mosquito invasion and then blood tested for signs of the virus. Apparently the Legs are immune to the disease even if it shows up in their blood but it lets control agencies know that there are infected mosquitos in the area so measures for pest control can be taken by the agencies. Hurray for the Legs! At least it's ONE virus/disease they have a natural immunity to! The following link is about Contra Costa County's Red Leghorns but there was a similar news article in our area using White Legs. http://contracostamosquito.com/chickens_retire.htm