Do I need to quarantine?

[Realtree4]

I have 22 chicks that are 6 weeks old....and they're going out to their coop tomorrow! Yay!

I'm getting one more 6 week old chick from a friend and I need to know if I need to quarantine?

Mine came from McMurray and hers came from TSC...which they get their chicks from Mt. Healthy.

 

[SA Farm]

Depends on if you trust your friend to know what a healthy bird looks like or not, how long they've had it, and whether you're willing to risk your 22 on your friend's word.

 

[Realtree4]

Depends on if you trust your friend to know what a healthy bird looks like or not, how long they've had it, and whether you're willing to risk your 22 on your friend's word.

I will be quarantining then

 

[aart]

I would hesitate to try to integrate 1 chick into a group of 22....
........or even keep 1 chick alone for the length of time(30 days) you need to do a true medical quarantine, they don't do well alone.

Chances are if you both have just started with chicks and they have not been exposed to other chickens a medical quarantine is probably not necessary.

If you decide to quarantine, read up on medical quarantine.....you need a separate building, equipment, clothing, etc.

 

[Realtree4]

I would hesitate to try to integrate 1 chick into a group of 22....
........or even keep 1 chick alone for the length of time(30 days) you need to do a true medical quarantine, they don't do well alone.

Chances are if you both have just started with chicks and they have not been exposed to other chickens a medical quarantine is probably not necessary.

If you decide to quarantine, read up on medical quarantine.....you need a separate building, equipment, clothing, etc.

I have 3 grown hens now that my new chicks haven't been around yet....they've been brooding in the house. The new chicks are going into the "new" coop which is really big. The older hens will be able to see them through the hardware cloth, but they won't be mixed together (have their own smaller coop) until the new chicks are big enough to free range. So it will be awhile for that.

As far as the new "new" single chick, here's the story: The person that I'm getting it from wants to get rid of it because her daughters boyfriend thought it would be a good idea to get her baby chicks from TSC because they're "cute". Needless to say, the mom didn't approve

So my sister in law called me to see if I would take it because this person got rid of all the others and this one has been alone for about 3 weeks? They obviously don't have any other chickens and it went directly from TSC to their house, then theoretically to mine. I have an X-large dog kennel that I was planning on putting in our new coop and putting that one in there so they can get to know each other. I have no intentions of just throwing it in. I know that none of this is ideal though.

If I needed to quarantine,mi can put it on our enclosed porch in the kennel....again, none of this is ideal.

I really don't have any other ideas.....if anyone has better ideas, please let me know!

Why do I always take in the strays????

 

[Mrs. K]

I think I might pick a middle of the road pecking order chick, and place that one with the 'new' chick. Yes you will be risking a disease trade, but one is not much to risk, and you should know rather quickly if there was a problem. That way when you did decide to integrate, you would at least be adding a pair instead of a single chick.

And depending on your time frame, I might even do that once more, adding two chicks to the new +one pair..... then waiting a week, and then adding the foursome to the big house

Mrs K

 

[SA Farm]

I agree with Mrs. K's suggestion