Exposing chicks to soil to prevent coccidiosis

[Mosey2003]

My lawn is covered in snow, is it worth it to shovel snow away to get to sod? Will the frozen ground still have a cocci load?

I'm sure it will, Cocci is notoriously hard to kill off.

 

[SueT]

My 5 new chicks got their first 'cocci inoculation ' today with this small clump of sod from the yard. Everyone pecked at it and ate some, and when they lost interest, I removed it, thinking a little exposure at a time might be prudent. Or should I just leave it in and keep adding more regularly?
I got them at the hatchery Monday so they are 3-4 days old.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

My 5 new chicks got their first 'cocci inoculation ' today with this small clump of sod from the yard. Everyone pecked at it and ate some, and when they moved elsewhere I removed it, thinking a little exposure at a time was best. Or should I just leave it in and keep adding more regularly?
I got them at the hatchery Monday so they are 3-4 days old.
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I always just leave the sod or soil mix in the brooder. It's really all up to you how you want to do it though

 

[Mosey2003]

You can leave it or not, if they pecked it, they got some cocci in them and it will replicate.

 

[SueT]

The 5 chicks are 5-6 days old now. By the end of yesterday they had dismantled the little clump of sod, and I added more today. These first clumps of sod came from the yard where chickens have been, but it's a big area with not more than 4 chickens at a time. They probably range over an acre.
In 3-4 weeks they will be moved to a sectioned off part of the coop and run which has had chickens for 3 years so it will be more heavily populated with cocci. Should my next scoop of sod come from the run? I have not been using medicated feed. Do you think it would be a good idea to start now? (I've been feeding fermented Purina Flock raiser. They have dry crumbles available too, but don't eat much of that)
This will be my 4th batch of chicks and none have experienced coccidiosis.
@Folly's place @azygous @lazy gardener and anyone else, THANKS your advice is always greatly appreciated!!!!

 

[azygous]

Coccidia are everywhere. Everywhere. So no need to go hunting for them. Just keep supplying sod clumps and be confident the chicks are being exposed to them.

You may feed medicated feed but it really isn't necessary unless conditions for a heavy load of coccidia are suspected. Many of us keep Corid on hand just in case. But you really don't need to worry about it.

 

[lazy gardener]

What Azygous said. I've never put my chicks on medicated feed, and never had issues. Amprolium is a Thiamine blocker, which the cocci need to replicate. I prefer my chicks to have their full compliment of vitamins. I've not seen any studies or literature, but it makes sense that blocking thiamine uptake in the cocci might also = blocking thiamine uptake in the chick.

 

[SueT]

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

 

[lazy gardener]

No that’s what I’m worried about. They have been in the house in the brooder. I want to move them out in 2-3 weeks.

Best case scenario, give them a clump of sod. My ground will be frozen until mid April, and I doubt I'll see much bare ground before then, either. This time of year, in snow country, we must improvise. Do you have a flower garden at the front of your house with "safe" soil? (not loaded with cat or dog poo, no insecticides/herbicides.) Usually, the ground is thawed up against the foundation such that you could scrape up a bit of soil. Otherwise, you could give them some bedding from your coop, or if there is a bare spot in your run, a few "scrapings" from there?

This is yet one more reason why I put off brooding chicks until April (no sod available!) and I won't brood chicks in the house. April weather is much more amenable to outdoor brooding.

 

[preciouschick]

We use a plug of sod, dirt, grass and roots intact, from the areas where our chickens free-range. Whatever species of coccidia inhabiting your area, and there are seven different ones all together, will be living in that plug of soil. Coccidia are present everywhere.

Baby chicks have a window during the first two weeks or so where they are building immunities and their immune systems will create antibodies against that species of coccidia, making them resistant.

This does not mean that they will be immune against all coccidia, just have a resistance to those in their vicinity. If you go visit Aunt Mabel on the farm and run around in her pasture and come home and go into your chicken run wearing the same shoes, if the species of coccidia on her farm are different than the ones in your yard, your chickens could get sick because they haven't built resistance to them.

Also, if the conditions are just right, warm and wet, a coccidia population explosion can occur that can make all your chickens sick even though they have resistance.

It's sort of like our flu outbreaks. You do what you can to protect yourself and hope the strain you aren't resistant to isn't floating around when you go to the grocery store.

I picked some greens with a dirt plug and put it in the brooder because the 3-6week old like to forage in it. could i have had introduced coccidia to them? i just had a 2 week old chick die. if anyone is reading this look up my user name and read my post. Is the symptoms in my post coccidia?