Broody Hen and Marek's Disease

[microchick]

I haven't faced this problem before and need some advice from somebody who is dealing with Marek's disease in their flocks.

I have 8 Buff O hens, three years old that so far have proven themselves to be resistant to the strain of Marek's that hit my flock over a year ago. One of these little old hens had decided she needs some chicks to drool over. So far I have been able to divert her attention a bit by keeping the eggs picked up and booting her off the next and out into the run. But since she is walking around all puffed up and softly clucking to herself, I know I'm trying to put out a forest fire with a garden hose and that sooner or later she is going to go full broody on me. I've tried breaking these girls before and they just keep going broody on me all over again a couple of months later so I've learned that it's better to just toss them a few fertile eggs and let them have their way when all else fails.

So what should I do giving that yes, the hen is a resistant carrier of Marek's disease ( I had to put a BO hen down with Ocular Marek's blindness last week so it's still there although I haven't seen any new cases of active disease in over a year.) and yes, I'm probably going to have to give her a few fertile eggs at some point which I do have on hand.

Will removing her from the flock and into her own 'broody coop and pen' help lessen her stress and increase her chances of the dormant disease not flaring? This is a beautiful little hen who at this point of time is of good weight and overall health.

What about her chicks should she hatch any? Once they pop out of the shell, they are exposed to mamma's dander.

Am I over thinking this and should just give Madonna her hearts desire and see what happens? The fertile eggs I'd be giving her are from resistant bantam (OEGB/BBR) crosses from a local farm stock.

Open to conversation and suggestions.

 

[sylviethecochin]

I don't let hens who have shown signs of Marek's hatch their own babies. To my mind, that's just breeding for susceptibility. I will, however, put eggs from my other birds under them.

I did just that early March, after my (now) 10-month old girl (whom I nursed through Marek's last spring) had been setting for two weeks. (Her nest was extremely well-hidden. And dead, due to having more eggs than she could possibly warm.) Five weeks after she began setting, she hatched out a full clutch, and showed no flare-ups of Marek's, despite the length of the setting and the fairly bad few weeks of weather right before she began.

Thus far, the chicks seem pretty lively. It's early days.

Of course, I'm actually fairly new to hatching with standard fowl, and the bantams with which I grew up never showed signs of Marek's. So take that as one of two encounters of broody hens that had Marek's (the other one was fine as well) and hardly a representative sample.

EDT'd for grammar.

 

[microchick]

Thank you sylviethecochin.

I agree.

This hen is not showing signs of Marek's. Just exposed to the disease at this point and I too would be giving her OEGB/BBR eggs from my own birds.

I have to admit I was wondering if the stress of brooding might push her exposure over the edge. She isn't a young hen any longer but seems pretty sincere in her desire.

Pretty funny to be a first time broody in your 'golden years', LOL.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Thank you sylviethecochin.

I agree.

This hen is not showing signs of Marek's. Just exposed to the disease at this point and I too would be giving her OEGB/BBR eggs from my own birds.

I have to admit I was wondering if the stress of brooding might push her exposure over the edge. She isn't a young hen any longer but seems pretty sincere in her desire.

Pretty funny to be a first time broody in your 'golden years', LOL.

Yeah. Though I've heard that hens do get broodier as they age?

It was quite a surprise when my girl went broody (at eight months, no less.) Her mother was a black sexlink, and her father was a Leghorn/EE. I did not expect broody out of that combination.

 

[microchick]

I had the same thing happen last year with a Welsummer hen. Not known to be broody machines, but she did a fantastic job. Stayed with her little ones for 9 weeks. The day I turned them out with the flock she went back to being a hen and never went near her babies again.

Every broody should be as good a mom as Dolly was.

 

[karint]

I haven't faced this problem before and need some advice from somebody who is dealing with Marek's disease in their flocks.

I have 8 Buff O hens, three years old that so far have proven themselves to be resistant to the strain of Marek's that hit my flock over a year ago. One of these little old hens had decided she needs some chicks to drool over. So far I have been able to divert her attention a bit by keeping the eggs picked up and booting her off the next and out into the run. But since she is walking around all puffed up and softly clucking to herself, I know I'm trying to put out a forest fire with a garden hose and that sooner or later she is going to go full broody on me. I've tried breaking these girls before and they just keep going broody on me all over again a couple of months later so I've learned that it's better to just toss them a few fertile eggs and let them have their way when all else fails.

So what should I do giving that yes, the hen is a resistant carrier of Marek's disease ( I had to put a BO hen down with Ocular Marek's blindness last week so it's still there although I haven't seen any new cases of active disease in over a year.) and yes, I'm probably going to have to give her a few fertile eggs at some point which I do have on hand.

Will removing her from the flock and into her own 'broody coop and pen' help lessen her stress and increase her chances of the dormant disease not flaring? This is a beautiful little hen who at this point of time is of good weight and overall health.

What about her chicks should she hatch any? Once they pop out of the shell, they are exposed to mamma's dander.

Am I over thinking this and should just give Madonna her hearts desire and see what happens? The fertile eggs I'd be giving her are from resistant bantam (OEGB/BBR) crosses from a local farm stock.

Open to conversation and suggestions.

Can I ask what you did? I have mareks in my flock but my older silkies seem to somehow have not have succumbed to it. However now it’s getting close to spring and I know they will try to be broody. I don’t want to loose them and I also don’t want to hatch chicks that will just die. I do have a vaccine but it won’t help if mom hatches them I don’t think.

 

[microchick]

Can I ask what you did? I have mareks in my flock but my older silkies seem to somehow have not have succumbed to it. However now it’s getting close to spring and I know they will try to be broody. I don’t want to loose them and I also don’t want to hatch chicks that will just die. I do have a vaccine but it won’t help if mom hatches them I don’t think.

I wound up culling all of my original hens. I don't know what was different with mine but every chick I hatched from those hens would live to about a year and then die, both pullets and cockerels. I suspect that it was because they were brooded under Marek's exposed/carrier hens but out of approximately 20+ chicks I hatched only one made it to maturity.

I also suspect that part of the problem was that my pure bred roosters (Buff O's and Welsummers) all succumbed at an early age. The Veterinary Doctor I talked to at the University of Missouri at Columbia said that the trick was to get some of your birds to survive to the age of 3-4, the longer the better, and then hatch eggs from them I was able to get the hens to 3+ years of age but never one of the roosters. I finally gave up after I was able to successfully hatch what I hoped would be resistant birds from a local Amish neighbor's flock.. Those birds are now going on 4+ years old.

No, you cannot vaccinate chicks brooded by a hen. If you plan to hatch chicks and vaccinate them, you will have to brood them as far as you can from your carrier flock and keep them away from them as long as possible so their immune system has a chance to work on the vaccine and develop resistance to the virus. Plus it sounds as though you are still going through the initial phase of this disease with your flock where you are still loosing birds.

You are faced with a dilemma. Chicks under a Marek's positive hen will be constantly fed/inhaled a mega dose of virus from Momma's dander. Personally I wouldn't advise brooding one of your hens but breaking any that go broody on you at least for the time being.

Possibly you could let the hen brood the chicks until lockdown and then remove the eggs from under her and hatch them in an incubator after carefully wiping the eggs down and then vaccinate but you are still going to be dealing with a mad broody hen at that point so frankly, I'm at a loss for a solution. I never had much luck breaking BO's when they go broody. They always tend to go broody again in a month or two, also.

How are your second generation chicks doing would be the first thing I would want to know. If they are thriving even though exposed then even though you may lose some chicks you might be able to hatch some eggs under a positive hen.

I have brought vaccinated bantam chicks into my flock after brooding them indoors for 8-12 weeks and they are doing well. Every time I say that, I knock on wood and cross my fingers.

One thing I have noticed is that my hatching rate from my eggs isn't the greatest. I usually have several dead in the shell and/or several that fail to hatch. Usually I just toss extra eggs under the broody to make up for any potential losses.

In an incubator though, my hatch rates are generally 80-90% so yes, there is a difference in how I hatch.

 

[microchick]

Plus, I wanted to add, you will be taking a chance with the broody hen being stressed and causing the Marek's to flare if she broods.

I lost one hen after she hatched and brooded 3 chicks last year. She was a barnyard mix and the only hen that this happened to out of 4 broodies but I can't help but wonder if brooding stress and being Marek's exposed didn't trigger her sudden death. When I found her dead, she was in a nesting box. No outward signs of sickness, no wasting, no sign of being egg bound, just dead when her chicks were just 11 weeks old and still following her around at times. 2 of the chicks were okay on their own. The third I fostered as she was just lost without mamma to cuddle up to at night.

This is little Peanut shortly after her mom died. She followed me around for months and still flies to me when I enter the coop and sits on my shoulder or in the hood of my coat waiting for a cuddle and a pet from me.

I didn't open the hen up but could it have ultimately been a Marek's related death? Can't help but wonder. Resistant doesn't mean immune. It means they are able to resist and fight off the infection even though they are carriers having been exposed to the disease.