disease hardy breeds?

[millipede]

I've seen a few discussions on this already where, it hasn't really been answered. Is there a good list somewhere of breeds that are resistant to different maladies?

We only have so much space at the moment and my wife has been buying eggs to hatch(as well as a few sebright chicks) and I'm trying to figure out which ones to keep, which ones to part with, which ones to potentially add, etc.. The MAIN purpose is supposed to be for eggs and meat... you know, in case the world catches fire and we can't go to the store. But the golden sebrights caught her eye so she picked up 6 chicks...(though one looks to be more game chick... oops)

So I'm trying real hard to determine how many breeds we can keep, where I'll put them, etc... Was thinking about building a chicken tractor for the few sebrights and using the main pens(that I have to rebuild) for the useful birds. While looking at a site to get ideas on the space requirements, Some of the breeds we're thinking of said they were pretty hardy for illnesses, like the speckled sussex... But the sebright page said they were especially susceptible to mareks. That's had me TRYING to search the internet for breeds that are not as prone to stuff like that. That's in case we "need" to have something interesting to look at whether or not they provide food. I mean, we can always just raise something and sell hatching eggs or chicks.
I'm a bit paranoid of diseases I guess and reading about mareks and how devastating it is, I don't want to have birds that are MORE likely to get it than others.

So, does anyone know of a good source that lists breeds and how resistant/resilient they are when it comes to mareks and other issues?

Right now we have about 5 speckled sussex chicks and we plan on keeping that breed for eggs and meat. We have ONE wyandotte and will either sell it off or consider trying to hatch some more and have that be another breed... OR expand on the 3 maran chicks we have... OR go with barred rocks(which was supposed to be the plan at one point) And then decide if we want a more ornamental breed just for fun or not... but I need to have good ideas ahead of time.

 

[AltonaAcres]

Egyptian Fayoumis are somewhat resistant to Mareks. Raising young chicks with turkey poults also improves resistance.

 

[Folly's place]

Welcome!
Your goal needs to be to avoid those diseases in the first place! Read up on and practice good biosecurity, and be very careful where you source your birds.
Best breeds are somewhat dependent on your climate; cold tolerant vs. heat tolerant especially.
Fayoumis are noted for their greater tolerance to Marek's disease, true, and they are cute, mature early, and do lay eggs. They are also small, not really dual purpose.
Starting out, it's fun and interesting to get a variety of breeds, and see what works for you. Look at Henderson's breed chart, and feathersite, and make lists, and just order some that look good. You will love some, and dislike others, and may make different choices in coming years. That's fine!
Mary

 

[Teenybeeny]

I practice extremely care with my chickens. We love them and they live in the lap of luxury. Their coop is climate controlled as just one example. My chickens were not vaccinated which was a terrible mistake and we will regret it for the rest of our lives. We lost 4 chickens. 2 of them were absolutely amazing animals. Anyway, the best answer for your question is to vaccinate for Merricks and Mycoplasma. Even if you buy the stuff and do it yourself. Please for the love of all that is clucking vaccinate every chicken you can. In fact as far as I'm concerned all chickens should be vaccinated for these 2 diseases by default, it should be special order to get them unvaccinated.

There is no real way to prevent them from catching these 2 if you let them out of their run to roam. If you feed the birds, even bigger chance they will catch it. Buy a few several week old chickens from a farm or poultry swap, chances increase exponentially, take a few from someone trying to get rid of some, chances are your hens will get sick.

If you keep them locked up 100% in a run within a fenced in area, keep all other birds far away, never introduce any chickens that are not a few days old and clean that area daily or 2x a day you might be able to prevent sickness but the quality of life for those poor imprisoned birds will not be good.

Get them vaccinated. Simple as that. And just to make sure there are no crazy right wingers getting any thoughts about my intentions with this message... you're wrong. I'm only talking about chickens. I love them, they are amazing and I lost several of which some were significantly more amazing them the others. It was a terrible loss that could have easily ben prevented...