We have 4 Silkies. We were hoping for 1 roo and 3 hens. We have 4 roo's. We plan on rehoming 2 of them and want to get some hens. What is the best thing to do? I have read that you are supposed to confine the new ones for a month to be sure they are healthy. Also so they don't get your flock sick. What do you do?? Thanks
If you get chicks from a hatchery, I don't quarantine. Of course they have to be separated for other reasons though. What should be done and what IS done are different things. I would NEVER bring birds into my flock without a quarantine period if I didn't know the person I was getting them from. We've taken a roo from DH's friend (and I had been to his farm/around his flock several times), and I only isolated him because he'd had scaley leg mites and lice, not for disease. Had he been clean, I probably would only have kept him separated for a week, just to slowly work him in. I bought two pullets from some fellow BYCer's - the birds were very clean, but I still quarantined for about three weeks (a month is suggested). All my other birds have come from hatcheries, so I haven't quarantined them.
