ok, yes I am a newbie after 20 years of not having birds. I now have a dozen that I got from Tractor Supply this spring and they are now 17 weeks old. finally laying!!! its so nice to have fresh eggs again. Anyway, I found out that they never had any kind of vaccinations. I have heard that we MUST vaccinate our chicks. Is this true? My one little Roo seems to have had runny poo for a few weeks. Looks like water and runny brown. There is no white stuff at all. Now it seems that quite a few have started to get diarrhea or runny poos too. Could i have something going around? or is it just to much 'junk food'?????
It's up to you whether you want to have them vaccinated or not. There are many vaccinations out there and I have no clue where you could start. I've never had mine vaccinated and it's not mandatory that you do. Most likely the heat has caused your chickens to have diarrhea. Since they started laying, you should be feeding them layer feed with 16% protein in it. Skip the junk food and get their innards back in proper working order by giving them plain yogurt or buttermilk (probiotics), scrambled eggs (extra protein) all mixed in their feed to make a mash and give it to them for several days. Good luck.
thank you!!! should we be concerned with this Mareks disease? I live in a farm community with my nearest neighbor through the woods about 1000 feet. he does have birds also. Our heat here in Ohio was really bad the last few weeks. 90+. the things i have done to keep them cool would make you laugh. I will follow your advise on that one. I have moved them on to Layena and they like it better than the starter. have you ever heard of a chicken with blue/green eyes?
