Ethical Discussion- Should I Add Birds to my Flock?

[SuspiciousChick]

For short reading: I want to add 2 hens/pullets to my flock (all 20 weeks old) infected with mycoplasma. Is this ethical? Will they get badly sick after being exposed? How do I introduce new birds to my infected flock, if I can at all? Am I doomed to never add new birds until my flock passes? (Culling is out of the question).
Hello all! I am wanting to add two more hens/pullets to my main flock, which consists of 6 pullets and 2 cockerels. This is not an ideal male-female ratio obviously, and I’d love to up the number of girls for this reason. (If they start excessively mounting or fighting one of the cockerels will be heading to my bachelor flock.)
Anyways, the ethical situation comes from the fact that all my birds are carriers of mycoplasma. This was confirmed at the vet after bringing in a sick chicken. I feel torn. None of my birds are sickly at the moment, besides the occasional sneeze, and I am ordering Denagard (Tiagard?) off of Amazon to prepare for winter.
I would love to hear your thoughts, opinions, and experiences!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You won't know if you are going to have problems until you try it. Sometimes you have to offer a sacrificial bird. I'd personally pick up some less expensive birds from a clean source and see how it goes. It's the only way you are going to know.

 

[Mrs. K]

I would plan to put both roosters in the bachelor pad until the pullets are laying. They tend to be very hard on flock mate pullets. Two makes it harder, but even one can be a terror especially with only 6 pullets. So if you have a pad - put both in it.

The problem with trying to add chicks to even out numbers is that chickens don't wait, so adding chicks to make up hen numbers for two roosters does not work for months. If you get chicks now, they will not be ready for roosters for 5 pretty long months. The other problem is roosters don't share, as in these are yours, and these are mine...they tend to want all of them and will fight to do so.

Considering the time of year, you might keep the boys in the pad for quite some time. 8 hens is really not enough hens for 2 roosters. The ones you have, won't lay for a month, but you should not hatch out pullet eggs, so it would be better to hatch out eggs in the late spring.

Hatching eggs is a lot of fun, nothing is more fun than broody chicks, but 50% will be roos. Which will compound the problem of rooster/hen ratio. I really don't recommend hatching if processing birds is hard for you.

One of the hardest ideas for new people to chickens, is that the darling rooster you have right now, is no indication how that bird will act tomorrow, next week or next month. There is a good possibility that either or both of these birds could become very aggressive, sometimes towards people, sometimes toward birds, and often times toward each other. I would only keep two roosters if I had more than 25 chickens and mostly free ranged. They don't call it cock fighting for nothing.

As to the disease issue, I would not add very expensive bird to this flock, but I would be willing to risk a few chicks just to see.

Mrs K

 

[Folly's place]

I wouldn't add birds not with this disease in your flock. Additions will stress your current birds, and extra stress isn't good for them either. Bringing healthy chicks home to expose them to this, not ethical IMO.
I agree about separating your cockerels, they won't be all that helpful, and two more pullets or hens won't make the difference between 'peace' and 'drama' out there.
Mary