Chicken purchased last Sunday has a respiratory illness. What should I do?

[dawg53]

I'm considering locking them up in their coop all week, to give the sun time to kill anything that may be on the ground in there run and garden areas. Does that seem like a good idea?

Yes, good idea. IF the pullet had a Mycoplasma disease MG or MS, it will be gone in 3 days time from the environment. We dont know if your pullet had MG or not, but it would be best to sanitize their living space, feeder and waterer, bleach water will work fine.

 

[aart]

Good Move!
Sorry you had to go thru that, but Kudos on your decisive action.
Now you can concentrate on your existing birds and coop.
Maybe new chicks next spring.

 

[VinnyVincent]

Good Move!
Maybe new chicks next spring.

It's coming up fast, too!
I'm actually thinking of getting some materials and either building a bigger coop, or a second one like the existing one. Maybe with less of a roof slant this time, and cut out the sides so it makes one big coop, that can still be moved around in two pieces. This way I effectively have two coops, so any new additions can be comfortably quarantined on the opposite end of the yard.
How many chickens do you think I should limit myself to, with my 16'X40' garden space that they have access to? I can build the coop to whatever size it needs to be.

My goal was to get two dozen eggs a week for my family. Unfortunately, now that two of the sexlinks died, I'm left with two easter eggers and one sexlink, so I am thinking I'll be lucky to get more than a dozen a week with the current flock.

I did a little more cleaning today, also cleaned their feeder and waterer for a second time with bleach. I added some apple cider vinegar and a garlic clove to their waterer as well, to boost their immune system in case they were exposed.
Even picked them some Kale from out front, so they can get some phytonutrients in.

I suppose the only way to know for sure if they are carriers would be to get them tested? I'm afraid that I'll add new chicks down the road, and then they'll end up getting exposed if the current flock is carrying a virus.
Perhaps it would be safest to get a few good years of laying out of these three, then completely replace them with new chicks once their laying slows down?

 

[aart]

I'm actually thinking of getting some materials and either building a bigger coop, or a second one like the existing one.

Make it bigger, much bigger. Save the small one for an isolation coop.