California - Northern

[casportpony]

Quote: Great link! Look what I found there. I've been looking for something like this for a long time.
http://www.usaha.org/Portals/6/StateAnimalHealthOfficials.pdf

Kathy

 

[PetRock]

Great link! Look what I found there. I've been looking for something like this for a long time.
http://www.usaha.org/Portals/6/StateAnimalHealthOfficials.pdf

Kathy

Interesting. So, according to the CA website, all imported into the state poultry and that includes hatching eggs that are not from NPIP flocks must have a certificate of veterinary inspection.

http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/Animal_Health/Poultry_Hatching.html

 

[casportpony]

Quote: That's what I understood, but the eggs I got from PA two weeks ago aren't from a NPIP flock and I doubt that the person I got them from has had any inspections.

-Kathy

 

[95030chick]

I am not a veterinarian and do not have a medical background. I am not a long time chicken owner and do not have extensive experience with pets.

Having said that, I would like to share a philosophy that John Brekken shared with me when I picked up some chicks from him. This is paraphrased and may not convey his exact thoughts, since my memory is no longer that good, but I think this might add something since it is related to a current topic on this thread:

John vaccinates for Marek's disease. Since the virus is so widespread, the chickens' immune system has to deal with it whether it gets the antibodies from the vaccine or from other sources. If the chickens' immune systems have the antibodies, they don't have to work as hard to deal with the Marek's virus, so are stronger and more able to deal with other infections. His personal observation is that since he started vaccinating for Marek's, he no longer sees the disease problems associated with poultry flocks.

Anecdotally, is property has a long driveway, and he said to call him one I got there. When I called, he said he would be right out. I thought that was interesting, and that perhaps he was concerned about bio-security and people bringing disease onto his property. Well, there was lots of confusion (including another customer with the same name who, coincidentally, happened to arrive at the same time), and what he meant was that there was a gate on the driveway to keep the children and animals safe. Anyway, we were talking about the confusion and the bio-security aspect, and he said he isn't paranoid about it. He has many customers who come and go, and reiterated that since he started vaccinating from Marek's, the communicable disease problems have virtually disappeared.

I hope I'm not conveying any misinformation here, either by misquoting, or not remembering things correctly.

 

[Mpks92]

I am looking for Jersey Giants too, but have not had much luck finding them. I think I'm just not looking hard enough. With MyPetChicken you can order as few as 3 chicks, but shipping is pretty expensive. However they do have Black Jersey Giants in stock.
Welcome to the group!

Yes that's why have not ordered any. Plus I don't need. 25 of those beasts. Lol

 

[capayvalleychick]

So, if my flock DOES have MG...They will always be carriers and spreaders of the disease. It can live on shoes, hair, water, dirt, etc. for several days. It can spread to the wild birds here, who will in turn spread it to all the other local chickens and birds. It will spread to anyone with chickens who visits my house, and any house I visit where the people have chickens, as it can live on my shoes/body for days. The responsible thing to do so that it does not spread to anyone else(so that they don't have to deal with the devastation I'm dealing with now), is to cull my entire flock and start over. This includes culling the chicks in my brooder in my room, and the eggs in my incubator. Please correct me if any of this information is wrong.

No. Only cull or don't breed from the ones that show symptoms. The ones that don't show symptoms may be resistant. If you choose to sell eggs/chicks from the ones that have never had symptoms, tell potential buyers about your flock health history and let them decide if they want to take the risk.
I eliminated the respiratory issues in my flock by doing it this way.

This test is only going to test for MG, but there are many other diseases that it could be. Did you see the link that Ron posted from the lab? Five separate cases of ILT were found. Similar symptoms to MG. That's why it would have been a good idea to check for all the things that it could have been, not just MG.

 

[AlpineButterfly]

Adventures in Foster Broodies, part 2

Now this is the first time I have had a broody hen raise chicks, so I don't really know what to expect. So chime in any time, if you have helpful hints.

Last night when I got home from work I found a chick under the coop, hanging out in the pile of eggs the other hens laid. It was pretty cute, except for the fact that it is very far away from mommy, since the nestboxes are off of the coop on the "second story", if you will. I think they go out exploring, and then fall off the ramp. This morning I found another one under the coop. It wasn't too cold, so I don't think it had been out long. To prevent this from happening again, I've locked all the other girls out of the coop, so I could lock mom and kids inside.

When watching everyone in the evening, Sybil would try to peck me as I fiddled with food, water, and checking under her wings. Understandable. But I also noted that she pecks at the chicks too. When she turned her head around to pull at a chick's wing that was tucked under hers I started wondering what was going on. I pick that chick up, and it has blood all over its head!

I blotted off the blood, and sprayed blu-kote on the wound. I started looking for my brooder box, towels, heat lamp etc., in case the babies needed to move away from mom. But tucked the injured one back under mom, because that was the warmest convenient place at the time.


At bedtime, everyone seemed to be doing ok, and all the chicks were tucked under mom, so I let them be. One thing to note is that there doesn't seem to be any trouble with the other five hens in the flock. They seem to generally ignore the chicks and foster mom.

I was worried about the injured chick, but in the morning, it was still alive. Drank on its own when I dipped its beak. So I gave it a little poly-vi-sol and tucked it back under a wing. @chiqita said I could bring it back to her, and I might end up doing that, but at lunchtime it still seems ok. (the picture above is from noon today). It had poop stuck to its butt, so I cleaned that off with a wet paper towel. One other chick also had a little poop caked on, so I cleaned that one as well.

Here are a few lunchtime pictures:

Mom seems to be letting scalped baby snuggle.


Kids swarming the food dish.

 

[caychris]

Adventures in Foster Broodies, part 2

Now this is the first time I have had a broody hen raise chicks, so I don't really know what to expect. So chime in any time, if you have helpful hints.

Last night when I got home from work I found a chick under the coop, hanging out in the pile of eggs the other hens laid. It was pretty cute, except for the fact that it is very far away from mommy, since the nestboxes are off of the coop on the "second story", if you will. I think they go out exploring, and then fall off the ramp. This morning I found another one under the coop. It wasn't too cold, so I don't think it had been out long. To prevent this from happening again, I've locked all the other girls out of the coop, so I could lock mom and kids inside.

When watching everyone in the evening, Sybil would try to peck me as I fiddled with food, water, and checking under her wings. Understandable. But I also noted that she pecks at the chicks too. When she turned her head around to pull at a chick's wing that was tucked under hers I started wondering what was going on. I pick that chick up, and it has blood all over its head!

I blotted off the blood, and sprayed blu-kote on the wound. I started looking for my brooder box, towels, heat lamp etc., in case the babies needed to move away from mom. But tucked the injured one back under mom, because that was the warmest convenient place at the time.


At bedtime, everyone seemed to be doing ok, and all the chicks were tucked under mom, so I let them be. One thing to note is that there doesn't seem to be any trouble with the other five hens in the flock. They seem to generally ignore the chicks and foster mom.

I was worried about the injured chick, but in the morning, it was still alive. Drank on its own when I dipped its beak. So I gave it a little poly-vi-sol and tucked it back under a wing. @chiqita said I could bring it back to her, and I might end up doing that, but at lunchtime it still seems ok. (the picture above is from noon today). It had poop stuck to its butt, so I cleaned that off with a wet paper towel. One other chick also had a little poop caked on, so I cleaned that one as well.

Here are a few lunchtime pictures:

Mom seems to be letting scalped baby snuggle.


Kids swarming the food dish.

Too cute. Stupid question but does she still have eggs?

 

[AlpineButterfly]

Too cute. Stupid question but does she still have eggs?

No. She hasn't had eggs most of her broodiness. We collect eggs every day, and the other hens have been laying elsewhere (not in the nestboxes).

 

[debs_flock]

My numbers are going the right way, in the last two days I've sold fourteen hens, thirteen roosters, four ducks and four chicks. I have someone else scheduled to get a chick this afternoon, another rooster and two hens to go on Tuesday and six more hens and three chicks to go next Thursday.

Now if you don't count the seventeen chicks I hatched over the weekend or the call duck egg in lockdown, things are looking good.

Don't look at that other tray of 30 eggs in the cabinet or anything being collected on the kitchen counter.

Those were test hatches..............they don't count!