Colorado

[Mtn Margie]

Yay! It is a functional/innocent murmur! No treatment or special care needed. He should grow out of it in his teens.

Very happy it is nothing!

 

[Chook Chick]

Hello all! I just saw the CO thread! How exciting!! I am on the western slope & have been working really hard to make some chicken contacts! I have high hopes that this will help! I LOVE my birds, so I think this is the best place for me to 'roost'! I have Salmon Fav's, BCM's (with more in the 'bator), a tiny Frizzle with a Silkie best friend and a Silkie bf, a couple of Brahmas, some backyard mix layers and hopefully this weekend I will add some Lavender Orpingtons. I lost my Salmon Fav roo a while back so I am on the lookout for another in my neck of the woods if possible. It will be wonderful to have a source for hatching eggs at our high altitude, and I should have some soon as well. It's great to be here!!

Welcome to the flock!!

 

[samsr]

My broody cochin finally came off her eggs for a few minutes today. I took a look at the eggs she has been sitting on. They are covered in poo and i dont have high hopes of them hatching. She started with 8 and now only has three. We only took out one that she had kicked out. I have no idea where the other 4 went. Could she have eaten them?
Is there any chance the poo covered eggs will hatch? She has been patiently been sitting on them and i cant imagine just letting it end without a chick or tho for her. I may end up getting some chicks from bigr for her to raise. I wonder if she would raise the quail that i have in the incubator? They are going to be mighty tiny in comparison.

 

[Chook Chick]

I catch mean roos when they are sleeping......   much easier.  Dog carriers work well for transporting birds.  Good luck.  Wish I could help.

Well, it looks like I will be delayed for my Roo's cull anyway, I have no one home for the next 3 days to help me catch him....bummer. On the other hand, that gives me 3 more days to try and re-home him first!!


Thanks!!

 

[rj23]

Stetson Hills, north side of the Springs. If you want one or both I could meet you on the southern side; maybe at Fountains Big R...

Do you still have to roosters

 

[Chook Chick]

I wish someone would want my EE Roo

 

[FrogEggs]

Yay! It is a functional/innocent murmur! No treatment or special care needed. He should grow out of it in his teens.

YAY!!!

Hello all! I just saw the CO thread! How exciting!! I am on the western slope & have been working really hard to make some chicken contacts! I have high hopes that this will help! I LOVE my birds, so I think this is the best place for me to 'roost'! I have Salmon Fav's, BCM's (with more in the 'bator), a tiny Frizzle with a Silkie best friend and a Silkie bf, a couple of Brahmas, some backyard mix layers and hopefully this weekend I will add some Lavender Orpingtons. I lost my Salmon Fav roo a while back so I am on the lookout for another in my neck of the woods if possible. It will be wonderful to have a source for hatching eggs at our high altitude, and I should have some soon as well. It's great to be here!!

Welcome!!!

 

[Pozees]

Greetings all, Sorry I have been largely absent the last few weeks, have had issues at work and issues at home. Work is just work, I can leave it there (mostly), home is another story - I have chicken issues here, and now that I feel I have my head wrapped around it I want to share what I've experienced and learned.

About 3 weeks ago, I had a pullet and a cockerel become ill. The pullet died, the cockerel I put down when it was obvious he was going to die. Both Speckled Sussex. A week later, another SS pullet became ill, who subsequently died. I emailed the breeder to ask if he had ever seen the symptoms I was seeing. He was unsure what had happened with the pullets, but the cockerel he thought had Marek's. Since then I've lost another pullet and 2 more cockerels plus a RIR cockerel, and have 2 pullets in a brooder in my bathroom who have the occular version of Marek's - they are blind, probably for life, and will have to be put down. All these birds have died from Marek's I believe.

I started doing research and asking questions of people with more experience than I and have learned a lot. The University of New Hampshire published a page on Marek's that says if you have an adult flock of poultry, they have been exposed to Marek's and have survived, so are immune; it is everywhere. Longtime breeders confirm this, and do not vaccinate for it, for a variety of reasons.

After all is said and done, I believe I actually created the situation. I had chicks here from hatcheries earlier in the year, all of whom were vaccinated for Marek's. The version of vaccine we can buy and use is the Turkey version of Marek's, which works by stimulating the immune system of the chickens - it is a live vaccine, but the vaccinated birds shedding that virus essentially works to do the same in unvaccinated birds, stimulating the immune system without killing them. The hatcheries use a triple vaccine which includes live chicken Marek's virus. When they shed that, it can infect and kill unvaccinated chickens.

I have been told multiple times to either get a Turkey, or get some waste and bedding from someone who has Turkeys and spread it in my pens and runs. I will be doing one or the other. Meanwhile, I thought it useful information to share. Marek's is everywhere, and Turkeys or their waste can protect chickens from the chicken versions of Marek's by telling their immune systems to fight this virus. Birds who are still alive past six months of age are generally thought to be immune, as the virus mainly affects birds 5-25 weeks of age.

I am hopeful but not certain the birds still here are nearly out of the woods. Soon most of my birds will have passed the 6 month mark. The chicks the Silkies are raising all seem fine, there are the 2 SLWs from Paul, and 3 Cream Legbars, and one of the hens is on 6 more CL eggs and 2 Silkie eggs. I am operating under the belief the Silkies are immune and are passing along their immunities to the chicks they are raising. The eggs in the incubators (yes I still have them running, have 6 more CL eggs, 10 shipped Silkie eggs, 12 shipped BR eggs, and a couple of dozen Egyptian Fayoumi x Speckled Sussex eggs in there) I'll probably give to the Silkies to raise if I can, to provide them with their immunities. If they are overrun I'll raise the chicks in brooders under the house. I may buy vaccine for them to ensure they receive proper immunities. EF x SS should start hatching next week.
.

 

[Pozees]

Chick in the burbs, great news, hurray!

 

[FrogEggs]

I so appreciate the information and head's up from Pozee (she also contacted me privately, to give me this info). This is what I love about this board, and especially this Colorado group; looking out for one another, and sharing info.

Thank you, Pozee, for your willingness to help me. And thanks to those of you willing to join me. It would have been fun to meet those of you in my same boat, and for us to all work together. But given the young ages of my flock, and my own lack of experience in these matters, I am going to err on the side of caution, and just process my 2 cockerels alone tomorrow. I don't have facilities to quarantine or separate flocks, and noob-that-I-am, in my excitement didn't even think about biosecurity.