BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[DesertChic]

Yup about racoon's and skunks if you use ceyana pepper powder on the ground they breath it in though there nose and run like hell and on could days if you put it in your socks and gloves cheap heated aparle
And there was a hunting magazine that had a article about what coyotes can see and they can see red but what there spectrum looks like is grays and yellows and green it's kinda like how they add colour to the old movies the info is there but they have to work at it to differentiate between the colours an there thing that was cool about the article is they talked-about the different calls they make like if you shoot one you can make a death cry and call in more or stop the one that you missed in its tracks
On the bear thing I hope they leave you alone and the only thing that I know that works for them is electric fencing

Cayenne pepper deters skunks? I'm going to buy a few pounds of it then! We have a major problem with rabid skunks out here right now. Thanks for the tip!

 

[angry rooster]

I use Oxine at a 5% spray solution. I use a damp paper towel on the collected eggs as they go in the rocker trays until I have enough eggs for a batch to incubate. I load the incubator trays and spritz the eggs. Let the eggs dry and then put into the incubator. Oxine is an anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and a great disinfectant. I use it to clean incubators, cages, water and feed containers. I also add 1/8tsp per gallon of water to keep down algae in water containers.

Cool I will start washing eggs before I put them into an incubator but I don't think I will with my broody hens but I will try anything once so maybe in the spring I will let you know if there is any difference in hatch rates if I try it on my broodys

 

[angry rooster]

Cayenne pepper deters skunks? I'm going to buy a few pounds of it then! We have a major problem with rabid skunks out here right now. Thanks for the tip!

It probably won't work on a skunk that is in full throws of rabies but any skunk that I have seen sniff the stuff or racoon looked like someone jest forced battery acid up there snout I almost felt sorry for them
Background story is that my grandparents ran a boat yard in Toronto and the city would catch coons and skunks and release them in the park down the street so the would move into a stored boat and destroy it or terrorize the gard dogs so we tried everything from taps to shooting them and a steady suply of pepper powder worked best

 

[angry rooster]

Reapply after rain

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Why put them down? Are you going for total eradication then, you'd have to start entirely over.......... Just wondering if breeding for resistance might be another approach? I had this issue with wondering if it was feasible to have a mycoplasma free flock........... decided to go with the middle route, just cull any symptomatic chickens.

On initial reading in the Merck's Vet Manual, ALL is passed through the egg to the chick, and because the chick has the infection from the beginning, it develops tolerance, and sheds huge, enormous amounts of virus throughout its life before ultimately dying of tumors. It becomes an adorable little bioterrorist. So that's the reasoning (otherwise, if it were ALL, I know it's in the environment, and would indeed breed for resistance - just might not want those virus-bombs hanging around all the other birds). I'll do more careful reading before pulling that trigger, though, and only if it's confirmed ALL (will be sending the specimen tomorrow or Friday for testing). Otherwise, I'll just breed for resistance.

All this talk is scaring me, thanks...
I'm not going to do anything but pray, and no new birds unless they come from known disease free flocks.

IMHO, short of keeping your birds in sterile cages inside a biosecure warehouse, you're not going to be able to avoid diseases. Wild birds carry a lot of them. I don't want chickens if I can't let them be chickens. So I'm going to breed for resistance. I am fortunate in that I have no plans to sell hatching eggs or chicks, so I am not faced with the ethical disclosure issues.

- Ant Farm

Edit: I really hate autocorrect on this forum - it's a rare post that I don't have to correct the autocorrect...

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
I'm going to respectfully disagree with that summation. People all over the world are successfully avoiding diseases in their flocks for many, many years...so it can be done without sterile cages and biosecurity. All super cleaning and disinfecting (can't do sterile unless you autoclave) and biosecurity does is create a place for germs to thrive and grow...and they do. It's counterproductive, as commercial methods show, but they keep insanely doing it year after year and trying to blame outside vectors for their faulty methods of flock management.

Those people who don't get disease in their flocks are not merely lucky, they work at attaining strong flocks and it works...for years upon years it works. Wild birds are not the problem...they've been around since the beginning of time and so have chickens...and they are both still here.

Above all of that, prayer works, especially if you have an intimate relationship with Whom you are praying.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I'm going to respectfully disagree with that summation. People all over the world are successfully avoiding diseases in their flocks for many, many years...so it can be done without sterile cages and biosecurity. All super cleaning and disinfecting (can't do sterile unless you autoclave) and biosecurity does is create a place for germs to thrive and grow...and they do. It's counterproductive, as commercial methods show, but they keep insanely doing it year after year and trying to blame outside vectors for their faulty methods of flock management.

Those people who don't get disease in their flocks are not merely lucky, they work at attaining strong flocks and it works...for years upon years it works. Wild birds are not the problem...they've been around since the beginning of time and so have chickens...and they are both still here.

When I say "avoid diseases", perhaps I was being more imprecise than you would prefer, language-wise. As a medical microbiologist, I will use more precise language.

Infection is defined as exposure to a pathogen.
Disease is defined as tissue/organ/functional/etc. damage due to that pathogen.

One cannot avoid INFECTION. To propose to do so is futile. Rather, one can avoid DISEASE by having stronger birds (using various techniques and management practices discussed here and elsewhere a number of times.)

What I mean is that folks somehow think they should try to get their yard to be "Mycoplasma clean" or "Mareks clean", etc. Rather, one should do exactly as you propose and work to raise strong flocks.

I was saying the exactly same thing you were. You misunderstood me. No need to respectfully disagree.

(edit to add - I was being facetious when describing sterile cages, etc., because it is impractical.)

 

[LindaB220]

And when you kill off top predators like wolves, bears, and mountain lions, you open the door to more problems.  Here in TX, because our ancestors killed off most of the top predators, coyotes are out of control.  They adapt to any situation, including living in the city and feeding out of dumpsters, trash cans, and even people's pets in their yards - they are like rats here.  They are not nearly as afraid of people as they should be, and that is dangerous.  The wildlife dept has to air drop bait laced with rabies vaccine to try to control rabies that is spread by the coyotes.  It is better to learn to live with the wildlife, even the top predators, unless nothing else can be done with a particularly dangerous individual predator, rather than to kill off everything and wind up with problem you didn't count on.

Now, that's scary. What's next?. On a bright note, going out looking tomorrow for a piece of land to build my farm.

Do ducks get AI?

 

[Beer can]

Perhaps I didn't clarify myself.

@Beekissed agree with you entirely. ..Wild birds, far ranging ducks and geese, always been here, never any problems.
@Fire Ant Farm I think I'm already doing what you suggest.
My birds sure as heck are not in a "sterile environment" neither are our children Lol! Sure ain't raising 'bubble boy' kids!
I just mean I will not introduce any poultry onto our property unless I know they are from a disease free flock.
There's many diseases to be worried about, some of them just as devastating as AI.

 

[Mini Meat]

I find it interesting that the two topics being discussed at the moment are two threats to our birds at different ends of the spectrum. Pathogens and predators.

I feel that the best we can hope for is balance. Healthy ecosystems from top to bottom will not eliminate problems but should mitigate them and keep them manageable.