California - Northern

[HighNDryFarm]

Quote: Thanks, we hadn't been on our yearly family Fort Bragg vacation for 2 years because of my back surgery about a year ago so it was very appreciated! The Olive egg I've been trying to hatch for the last year and only got one OE so I was really excited to see it's great color.

I won't have any Marans pullets until possibly next year. I'm working on a project with SunnyDawn for the darkest Marans eggs we can get, so we'll cull heavily. I only have three Black Copper Marans pullets that haven't laid yet but if their egg isn't dark enough for the project, at this point they'll stay for layers until I need room next year.

 

[1sttimr]

Hello there, I'm new to the chicken world and this thread. I'm in the SF Bay area and have five 10 week old chickens. They were supposed to be all girls but it looks like I have a bantam EE roo! I need to find a new home for him. Anyone interested? Free to a good home.

 

[ronott1]

Hello there, I'm new to the chicken world and this thread. I'm in the SF Bay area and have five 10 week old chickens. They were supposed to be all girls but it looks like I have a bantam EE roo! I need to find a new home for him. Anyone interested? Free to a good home.

He is a nice looking boy!

I can't have Roosters in Town. I hope you can find a home for him.

 

[chiqita]

Good Monday morning! Love the pics that people have been posting especially the chick pics!

It seems to be constant drama around here. I have a BW Ameraucana hen who is a first time broody. 2 weeks ago, I gave her 5 fertile eggs from the farm and placed her nest box in a secluded area of our predator proof run. The very next day, my 2 year old granddaughter played with them and broke all but 2 of them. So I gave her 4 more which brought her total to 6. She has been doing a great job sitting on them and the granddaughter is not allowed off the patio without supervision. They are due to hatch next Sun or Mon so we candled them last night. The 2 Bresse eggs that Adel played with showed signs of early quitting and 2 others lit up like neon lights so not fertile. Cossette is down to 2 but I have a full incubator so may slip some chicks under her if hers don't hatch. I am going to rearrange the pens so she has a pen all to herself. I've not had much broody success this year so I'm holding my breath.

Good things are happening in my incubator! It was day 9 for the Pita Pinta eggs plus an assorted group of eggs from the farm so we went ahead and candled them last night while we were candling. The 14 PP eggs are going strong and look great!!!

21 of our farm eggs are also developing and we only pulled out 6 eggs (4 neon glowing and 2 early quitters). The farm chicks are going to be an interesting mix. There are a few Bresse eggs in there so they will be easy to tell what they are shortly after hatch but the rest of them are going to be fun to guess who's your mama/daddy. We have our laying and breeding hens in a temporary pen that was supposed to be separated from the boys. Our Langshan roos were way too amorous for the number of hens that we have so for the hens' safety we had to separate them a couple months ago. We are planning on decreasing the number of roos to 4 or 5 at the next processing day and then the hens can go back into the field with the boys. The pen that the girls are in has tall sides but is mostly open on the top. We have a group of cockerels that are mostly marans and CL mixes. Well, the CL mixes are great fliers and they managed to get in with the hens. The young boys are obviously doing their duty because most of the eggs are fertile!

On the home front, we have had a few cases of cocci in my 10-12 week old Bresse chicks. I treated all the outside brooder areas with amprolium and all chicks are better. But then it spread to my quail pens that are raised off the ground but above the aviary chick area. I lost one 4 1/2 month Bobwhite and thought that my dog had barked, scared her, and caused her to fly & break her neck. Two days later, there were 2 more dead and fluffed up quail in both pens. I started treating them with amprolium and the top pen seems to have recovered. The quail in the pen closest to the ground do not look good. Most of them are still fluffed up after 7 days of treatment, they aren't eating much, and I saw a bloody poo this morning. So, what do you recommend that I try now? I do have Sulmet. Should I switch to that and treat both pens? I am seriously thinking that I will not be continuing with quail.

Check the post I made on cocci. Isla has 2 drugs she uses in tandaem. The vets I have talked to are REALLY down on sulmet for birds, says it kills the liver and can kill them weeks later. So I stopped useing it.

That being said, I have never had quail get cocci, but I don't have bobwhites....

On further reserch, cocci is "fowl specific" so the cocci from your chickens won t be the same ones that would affect quail. Cant find if you treat with different things for bobwhites. This is a study that talks about the drugs they used that were sucessful in bobwhites. Dnt know what is around commercially
http://www.mwpoultry.org/ProjectPDFs/08-08.pdf

also! I forgot don't give b vitamans while treating for cocci! You are trying to kill the virus with LACK of b's.. Here is a quote

"Cocci is a protozoan parasitic disease. The medication in medicated feed is usually amprolium. It works by mimicing thiamin (Vitamin B1) which is required by coccidia for normal growth and reproduction. When coccidia ingest amprolium, they experience thiamin deficiency and starve from malnutrition. I do not believe that amprolium is an antibiotic. It is designed to allow the chicks a chance to build a natural immunity. If your birds have cocci, the damage can cause infections that are treated with antibiotics. The antibiotics treat the infection, and gives the chicks' bodies the opportunity to beat the parasite. If I a wrong, I hope someone will correct me and post better info."

 

[chiqita]

One more thing, are they dumping their water? damp ground is likely to create cocci. Dumping the water is the easiest way to get it in adults ( at least in coturnix quails could be not true in bobwhites)

 

[PetRock]

Check the post I made on cocci. Isla has 2 drugs she uses in tandaem. The vets I have talked to are REALLY down on sulmet for birds, says it kills the liver and can kill them weeks later. So I stopped useing it.

That being said, I have never had quail get cocci, but I don't have bobwhites....

On further reserch, cocci is "fowl specific" so the cocci from your chickens won t be the same ones that would affect quail. Cant find if you treat with different things for bobwhites. This is a study that talks about the drugs they used that were sucessful in bobwhites. Dnt know what is around commercially
http://www.mwpoultry.org/ProjectPDFs/08-08.pdf

also! I forgot don't give b vitamans while treating for cocci! You are trying to kill the virus with LACK of b's.. Here is a quote

"Cocci is a protozoan parasitic disease. The medication in medicated feed is usually amprolium. It works by mimicing thiamin (Vitamin B1) which is required by coccidia for normal growth and reproduction. When coccidia ingest amprolium, they experience thiamin deficiency and starve from malnutrition. I do not believe that amprolium is an antibiotic. It is designed to allow the chicks a chance to build a natural immunity. If your birds have cocci, the damage can cause infections that are treated with antibiotics. The antibiotics treat the infection, and gives the chicks' bodies the opportunity to beat the parasite. If I a wrong, I hope someone will correct me and post better info."

Thank you for the link! It's an interesting article. Of course, I would have the one kind of quail that has problems with cocci and the test results showed that Amprol was not effective against it! So, I started Sulmet in the lower pen this morning but I haven't started the Vit B so I guess that's good. According to the study, Clinacox 2 PPM (Diclazuril) is the most effective med for treating cocci in Bobwhites. But I haven't been able to find an online source for it. Deccox was also effective and Jeffers Livestock carries it but it is $44.95 for a 5 lb bag. That is more than I can spend on quail dinner. These "free" quail eggs have been quite an expensive learning exerience!

 

[PetRock]

One more thing, are they dumping their water? damp ground is likely to create cocci. Dumping the water is the easiest way to get it in adults ( at least in coturnix quails could be not true in bobwhites)

They are not dumping their water. The pens are stacked one on top of the other and raised off of the ground about 15 in. They have two small areas on each end with solid plywood and the rest is 1/2 hardware cloth. The top pen has a solid shelf under the hardware cloth area to collect the droppings. The droppings from the bottom pen just fall through to the ground.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

Forgot we're barely at 14 hours of light! No wonder my new chickens aren't laying!!

 

[ronott1]

Forgot we're barely at 14 hours of light! No wonder my new chickens aren't laying!!

They will start soon and lay until the first week in November. They will start back up quickly in January.

Unless you give them light.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

They will start soon and lay until the first week in November. They will start back up quickly in January.

Unless you give them light.

Ok so probably not lacking light yet. I'm "patiently" waiting for eggs!!!