Ex-battery hens. How long to recuperate?

[The Chickeneer]

I really hope it goes well for you. We had a terrible time joining flocks like this, so I only wanted to give you the warning we never had.

Of course, you may have a completely different experience, and I truly hope you do.

FTR, our rescue birds were carriers of Marek's Disease, very rarely found in any other bird. We lost our entire flock to that disease, cost us hundreds of dollars to get back to where we were and took months of a 'clean up' or replace program. If only we had warning before hand. Was not until it was too late and birds were limping around and dying that we found it was on our property, too late to do anything about.

Fingers crossed we have it sorted now, just unlucky and unwise I guess.

All the best, hopefully scaley legs mites is the worst of it.

Thanks, and is there any way you can tell if a chicken has Marek's disease? I know you cant really tell if one carries it, but what about the ones that contract the disease? And both the hens are laying now, they seem very good and much happier too.

 

[Bens-Hens]

No not really visible to the first timer.

There are some symptoms sometimes visible before the main ones, but I think some could be from a number of illness. i.e., different droppings etc.

It can take weeks for it to develop to a stage where the signs of limping or dropped wing are visible.

It is completely up to you with how you look after these birds. There is a very good chance that there is nothing wrong. I am just over cautious as I had the worst experience, with trying to do the right thing with rescue birds.

Because most commercial birds are vaccinated for MD, they are usually 2 years old and in their first moult when they are sold or culled from the producing stock. The birds we had, were vaccinated, but were still carriers.

About 7 weeks later, our back yard birds got sick, the commercials (all but one) were fine.

There are some live testing methods about that I have recently read about, but how available, and viable they it for you I am not sure.

 

[The Chickeneer]

Well thanks, Im going to have to look into that more...

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Scruffy looking or broken feathers will be molted and regrown during the normal molting season. Any feathers that are missing will regrow right away, as soon as they have enough of the nutrients they need to grow the feathers in their system. Usually bodies rebuild organs first, then muscle, then things like fur and feathers.