Farm chatter

[black_cat]

Tillie: good chicken
Round: good chicken
Poppy: good chicken
Ruth: bad chicken

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

Tillie: good chicken
Round: good chicken
Poppy: good chicken
Ruth: bad chicken

Uh, oh. What did she do?

 

[black_cat]

Uh, oh. What did she do?

She decided
that the best place to sleep
was not on the roost like the good chickens
or in her usual spot in the nest box
but NO
it was best to sleep in a RANDOM SPOT ON THE COOP FLOOR
WORST
CHICKEN

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

She decided
that the best place to sleep
was not on the roost like the good chickens
or in her usual spot in the nest box
but NO
it was best to sleep in a RANDOM SPOT ON THE COOP FLOOR
WORST
CHICKEN

I went to count my chickens after youth group tonight and a 2 out of the 56 hens were on the floor.

 

[chickentrains]

all of my chickens are bad chickens

 

[ackie]

is there a chicken disease that isnt mareks that has inability to stand with curled up feet?

 

[ackie]

or is it only mareks?

 

[ackie]

basically I've been nervous about Mareks since I've had one chicken die from it. I dunno how I had only one, but maybe it's because I've had gamefowl and they're hearty, idk. So getting fancy more selectively engineered chickens (whitings) made me nervous but I went for it. i am opposed to the vaccine - it doesnt work like the chicken pox vaccine where you dont get the chicken pox and dont pass the chicken pox on to other people; the Mareks vaccine allows the chicken to get Mareks and reduces how sick / if they get physically sick BUT they can still spread the virus to other chickens & since the virus gets to hang out and replicate all the time (since it has a nice healthy host to live a long life in) more aggressive strains can develop and eventually the vaccine wont even work on those new strains. soooo anyway they're unvaccinated because I'd rather them die than just be very enthusiastic carriers, even though that sucks in reality. I did just realize that having an unvaccinated chicken get Mareks and recover makes it just as much of a carrier as a vaccinated chicken that gets exposed and never falls ill. so anyway no longer fussing on the ethics of that one.

so, fast forward to today. my chicks are ~6 weeks old which is textbook time for Mareks to start showing up. one little dude was laying on the floor today and his leg was out but I thought he was just stretching and dust bathing like a normal chicken. he was in the same spot just now when I checked on them for the night (yes at 3am). he is interested in eating and drinking if I offer it to him but he has that typical curled up feet / legs dont work / cant stand thing. hes separated so that he can get extra care and not starve or get trampled, but if the others are gonna get it, they're gunna get it either way.

anyway, could it be anything else? should I be doing anything for her (I just realized I default to calling most animals boys even though this is like 95% likely to be a girl) other than keeping her somewhere small so that food and water are actually where she can reach them, and probably clean up her butt every now and then since she will be pooping on herself? I know theres a whole camp of people who would say to just put her down right now but that's not really how I do things.

 

[black_cat]

I think that this is beyond the realm of farm chatter's expertise, I'd make a new thread

 

[black_cat]

I had this weird dream that there was crazy rain and I didn't close the windows to the chicken coop so anyway all of the bedding got soaked and so did the chickens but it was ok because it was hot out
idek what's going on in my brain anymore