Coccidiosis growth stunt, will this affect the breeding quality of a bird?

[StrawHatHolly]

I had a couple of sapphire gem chicks that fell ill with coccidiosis when they were around 7 weeks old. Not all the chicks in the flock got sick because we separated them after we found out what was going on and after we nursed the last sick one back to health we introduced him back into the flock and all as been well. The surviving chick is a rooster and has two brothers that are the same age as him that did not get sick. They will be turning 12 weeks in a few days. I’ve noticed a pretty stark size difference between him and his brothers. He is quite a bit smaller then both of them and one is slightly larger than all three. I have literally a small, medium, and large. I planned on keeping only one of them as the rooster for my flock. My husband thinks it would be a good idea to keep the survivor because he has been handled more and is less scared of us and having a friendlier rooster is very important to us. He also thinks his small size would be a plus because less feed going in a rooster. But I’m worried about his health and the quality of his genetics in the long run and I’m not sure if the growth stunt will be a negative thing when we breed him with our hens later on. I’m worried he is eating food but not gaining all the nutrients from it. We want the best quality chickens we can have because they are a food source for us because of their eggs. We don’t put a lot of money into feeding them because we free range them on a large property. We like our chickens to mostly pay for themselves. What should we do? Will his run in with coccidiosis leave a negative effect on him forever? Should we just keep one of the other two roos instead? And if so, should we keep the medium or large one?

 

[WonkierZulu]

You know it might have negative impact on nutrient absorption. But I would keep the friendlier rooster that is good with the ladies. Also the behavior and calls he makes.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

@aart @azygous ,any chance either of you two know?

 

[WonkierZulu]

Also that had a bad case of coccidious might give a better resistance to his offspring. Also keep corid on hand in the future life saver.

 

[SpotTheCat]

I had a couple of sapphire gem chicks that fell ill with coccidiosis when they were around 7 weeks old. Not all the chicks in the flock got sick because we separated them after we found out what was going on and after we nursed the last sick one back to health we introduced him back into the flock and all as been well. The surviving chick is a rooster and has two brothers that are the same age as him that did not get sick. They will be turning 12 weeks in a few days. I’ve noticed a pretty stark size difference between him and his brothers. He is quite a bit smaller then both of them and one is slightly larger than all three. I have literally a small, medium, and large. I planned on keeping only one of them as the rooster for my flock. My husband thinks it would be a good idea to keep the survivor because he has been handled more and is less scared of us and having a friendlier rooster is very important to us. He also thinks his small size would be a plus because less feed going in a rooster. But I’m worried about his health and the quality of his genetics in the long run and I’m not sure if the growth stunt will be a negative thing when we breed him with our hens later on. I’m worried he is eating food but not gaining all the nutrients from it. We want the best quality chickens we can have because they are a food source for us because of their eggs. We don’t put a lot of money into feeding them because we free range them on a large property. We like our chickens to mostly pay for themselves. What should we do? Will his run in with coccidiosis leave a negative effect on him forever? Should we just keep one of the other two roos instead? And if so, should we keep the medium or large one?

I would keep one of the ones that did not get sick, because they may be more resistant to coccidiosis, since they lived in the same space as the stunted cockerel before you know he was sick and did not get it

 

[StrawHatHolly]

I would keep one of the ones that did not get sick, because they may be more resistant to coccidiosis, since they lived in the same space as the stunted cockerel before you know he was sick and did not get it

I was hoping someone would say this about the other two possibly being more resistant to it after exposure. There’s no doubt they were exposed. I started corid immediately after noticing something was wrong and nobody else got sick. I just wasn’t sure if they would build a resistance or not.

 

[SpotTheCat]

I was hoping someone would say this about the other two possibly being more resistant to it after exposure. There’s no doubt they were exposed. I started corid immediately after noticing something was wrong and nobody else got sick. I just wasn’t sure if they would build a resistance or not.

I think it is more likely they where more resistant before there was coccidiosis, but I am not sure if that is true or not. the runt cockerel might just be naturally more unhealthy then the other two which made him get sick before them

 

[StrawHatHolly]

I think it is more likely they where more resistant before there was coccidiosis, but I am not sure if that is true or not. the runt cockerel might just be naturally more unhealthy then the other two which made him get sick before them

See the weirdest thing about this was that all the chicks that got sick and died came from the same brooder. I had two groups of other chicks from two different brooders mixed in with them and they all lived. I had 1 sapphire gem and 3 amberlink pullets and 3 sapphire gem cockerels. I lost all the pullets and only one cockerel got sick but lived. I’ve started to think something was just wrong with them to begin with. Maybe those two healthier cockerels are my best bet.

 

[Mosey2003]

Use the one that was least affected by the coccidiosis. When you have a choice, always choose birds that have shown the most disease resistance - if you go to great efforts to save birds from things that normal birds shake off, and continue to breed them forward, you'll create a flock of naturally weaker birds.