- Dec 29, 2007
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My layer flock has just been diagnosed with cocci...again.
We seem to have it in our soil.
I'm on the antibiotics in the water, but they aren't drinking it! So far no one seems really sick, just afew coughs, not much eating or any laying. I have 32 birds.
Here's my ?? I am pretty much exhausted with my birds, as they have 1 weird thing after another (getting hit by cars, getting cocci, hiding eggs, not laying, laziness, getting killed by our dog, etc.)
So i don't really want to spend the energy to individually medicate them 4x a day. So will the cocci kill all of them if not treated? Can a chicken get over it? Or will they always have it? If I ever get more birds, do I have to treat them all the time since it's in our soil? I am trying to raise healthy, free-range organic eggs. How do you stop this? I think the birds that have it had the cocci vaccine? And never had medicated feed. We first got cocci with a brand new batch, coop, ground everything...never had poultry here before, so its not the clean factor.
Also, I am SEPERATELY raising a batch of meat birds. I actually did 2 batches. The first one had tons of leg problems, but I switched the feed and so the second ones are fine. But both batches are on the small side. (The first butchered between 2-4 lbs at 7 weeks) this batch is 6 weeks and most probably aren't even 2-3 lb yet.
I've noticed that every once in a while I see pink poop by 1 or 2 birds, but they seem healthy. Maybe they have cocci too?????
Could this contribute to slow growth? And is it still ok to eat them? The 1st batch butchered weren't sick-looking.
I am just about at my wits end with chickens. I don't know why i have such bad luck...
We seem to have it in our soil.
I'm on the antibiotics in the water, but they aren't drinking it! So far no one seems really sick, just afew coughs, not much eating or any laying. I have 32 birds.
Here's my ?? I am pretty much exhausted with my birds, as they have 1 weird thing after another (getting hit by cars, getting cocci, hiding eggs, not laying, laziness, getting killed by our dog, etc.)
So i don't really want to spend the energy to individually medicate them 4x a day. So will the cocci kill all of them if not treated? Can a chicken get over it? Or will they always have it? If I ever get more birds, do I have to treat them all the time since it's in our soil? I am trying to raise healthy, free-range organic eggs. How do you stop this? I think the birds that have it had the cocci vaccine? And never had medicated feed. We first got cocci with a brand new batch, coop, ground everything...never had poultry here before, so its not the clean factor.
Also, I am SEPERATELY raising a batch of meat birds. I actually did 2 batches. The first one had tons of leg problems, but I switched the feed and so the second ones are fine. But both batches are on the small side. (The first butchered between 2-4 lbs at 7 weeks) this batch is 6 weeks and most probably aren't even 2-3 lb yet.
I've noticed that every once in a while I see pink poop by 1 or 2 birds, but they seem healthy. Maybe they have cocci too?????
Could this contribute to slow growth? And is it still ok to eat them? The 1st batch butchered weren't sick-looking.
I am just about at my wits end with chickens. I don't know why i have such bad luck...