Colorado

[Ashdoes]

I can't imagine what you're going through. You've had big plans over the years and put time, energy and heart into your birds. I do understand the thought of culling the entire flock. What about replacing them with ducks?

We tried ducks a while back, they're just SO messy. Keeping clean water for them is not easy out here either.
I've almost decided that right before winter would be the best time to cull, I wouldn't be getting eggs then anyways. It takes a lot of talking though, we won't decide anytime soon.
Thank you for the article about the vaccinated birds. I knew that if we did only hatchery birds, I would have to have vaccinated and then not bring in any unvaccinated chicks, or hatch anything. Rough all around.

 

[Travinara]

Question.... do I need to be trying to figure out a way to keep the toads away from the girls? I've searched through the site and read dozens of threads. The answers are all over the map and all seem pretty specific to the geographic area, so I thought I would ask here. I know they release a toxic goo when messed with, so Dog is not allowed anywhere near them (she's pretty good about telling me when she finds one), but what about the chickens?

Toad appears up by the house frequently, near the root cellar.


Other Toad seems to enjoy hanging out with my cucurbits.
This is the one I'm most concerned about because I plan on letting the chickens into the space at a later date.


And recently I've been seeing Mini-Toad in one of my corn patches.


One of the canals travels under the back edge of my property, so attempts to remove them entirely are going to be futile. Fighting nature is not a battle I enjoy.

 

[Ashdoes]

I have mass amounts of toads, in the main fenced acre and the rear unfenced acre. They burrow, and dig and smoosh into any space they can. We fenced a garden area, and I'm now finding little quarter sized and large fist sized toads in there. I don't see why you'd need to keep the chickens away, seems like a lot of work. They might eat the little ones, and I don't think that's a huge problem. My dogs don't mess with them, I mean they jump around and freak out when they see them, but have never tried to eat one.
I enjoy seeing the toads everywhere, we don't get a lot of "wild life" out here. I haven't seen a lizard in three years...not really sure why.

 

[Travinara]

Thanks for that! I'm a whole lot less worried. We got really lucky when we bought the house. The previous owners loved 'natural outside' as much as we do. We've been fighting the usual suspects and I've run across a few tiger salamanders, but no lizards. I think it may have been too wet for them this year. Will next week ever get here?!?! The waiting is terrible and gives me too much room to find new things to fret over.

On a side note, I went ahead and requested the Marek's vaccination for them because of the troubles in this thread. If it makes anyone feel better you might have saved a newbie a whole lot of heartache.

 

[intangible04]

I don't think they are broken. I have 2 old hens that showed that when chicks. They are a mild case of curled toes. Mine get around good and scratch plenty. You may end up needing to keep an eye on the nails to make sure they are trimmed if needed. Mine have done well and I only had to trim once in 5 years.

Thought I would share this about Mareks.......  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/tthis-chicken-vaccine-makes-virus-dangerous/ 

Been a strange year for chickens for sure

Glad you got everyone sold, and wonderful that they went to good homes!!! 

Agree, those toes are not broken, just misshapen, it happens sometimes, is no big deal.

That's what I was thinking too.

Really interesting read. It got me to wondering if the hatcheries have their breeding pairs vaccinated. From the article it appears chicks get the immunity vaccine passed to them. If the hatcheries do have their breeding pairs vaccinated, then presumably, anyone could be getting a mixed order and could be combining vaccinated with an existing un-vaccinated flock. Might explain why or how some can survive while others aren't.

 

[alebuela]

@suncatcher

Your PBS information about Marek's is really good - much more detailed and specific than what I posted a couple of days ago. I remember reading a question on one of the many forums on BYC about unvaccinated chickens, and that poster received contradictory information: Yes, vaccinate and only buy vaccinated chicks; and No, don't vaccinate and don't worry.

Your article reinforces that we really cannot afford NOT to vaccinate - even if the vaccines are "leaky", all we can do is vaccinate and hope for improved, "non-leaky" vaccines to be developed.

I'm sold.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I am sold on vaccinating as well. All my new chickens are vaccinated so that eases my mind. I am hoping I don't have the early age die offs that I had with the others.
If you long timers recall I was totally beside myself when I had an 8 month old cochin bantam fall over dead. I know her issue was not mereks but it was distressing.

I should go cut up that watermelon for the girls. I know they will appreciate it.

 

[uzisuzuki]

I have mass amounts of toads, in the main fenced acre and the rear unfenced acre. They burrow, and dig and smoosh into any space they can. We fenced a garden area, and I'm now finding little quarter sized and large fist sized toads in there. I don't see why you'd need to keep the chickens away, seems like a lot of work. They might eat the little ones, and I don't think that's a huge problem. My dogs don't mess with them, I mean they jump around and freak out when they see them, but have never tried to eat one.
I enjoy seeing the toads everywhere, we don't get a lot of "wild life" out here. I haven't seen a lizard in three years...not really sure why.

I wish my dogs would stop trying to eat them! Without fail, every year one of them will try to eat a toad, causing the toad's defence mechanism to trigger & then I've got a sick dog for the rest of the night. It never sinks in that if they don't want a mouthful of toad pee & a night of puking that they probably should just leave the toads alone.

 

[COChix]

Jumping in on two subjects, toads and vaccinating.

Toads, we have them everywhere and yes usually on of our four dogs every year decides that they would like a toad snack. Our girls gobble up the babies.....crazy dinosaurs.

We got our original flock vaccinated at the hatchery, i am thankful that we did now knowing a heck of a lot more about chickens and diseases.

 

[KLBCOS]

Okay. Just discovered mites in the coop. I checked the chickens and I don't see signs of them under their wings or near vent. I put DE in nest boxes, rubbed into roosts, put into the deep method straw. I also coated each bird with DE being careful to stay away from eyes and beak concentrating on vent area, under wings and around the legs in case they are crawling up their legs at night. I still didn't see evidence of mites on the girls but I figure if there are mites in the coop, there are mites on the birds too.

What have you found to be an effective remedy? Any suggestions will be appreciated. TIA