Half of vaccinated hens dead from Marek's

[teresavigil]

We purchased Older chicks, they gave us younger one no refund and they had Mareks. 5 dead ( more to come no doubt) later huge bill from euthanizing them, tons of tears I’m am so furious with that company. I basically paid to kill my chickens. Do not buy from them. I really wish I did research before I bought from them.

 

[chrissypeep]

Hello,

In less than four years, we have lost half of our chickens to Marek's Disease (all cases confirmed by necropsies by the lab at UC Davis). Anyone who has dealt with Marek's can attest to how awful this disease is: each case has been unique, confusing, and extremely painful to experience.

We purchased all of our chickens from Dare 2 Dream Farms in Lompoc, CA.

• 7 pullets were purchased in summer 2017. 4 died over the following year.
• 3 pullets were purchased in summer 2019. 1 died this month, just over a year later.

We have very pampered hens that have full-time access to their run and are also allowed to free range most days. They have never had any other apparent health issues.

I spoke with the folks at Dare 2 Dream after the deaths from the first batch, and they said that the vaccine that batch seemed to be weak, which would explain our extremely high mortality rate. OK, fair enough. We waited to see if there would be any more deaths before getting more chickens. I know that Marek's stays with our population for life and within the coop and environment long-term, but our "luck" here seems to be extremely bad from what I've been reading.

Has anyone else had this type of experience? Any possible explanations other than we may just have an extremely virulent strain?

 

[chrissypeep]

Unfortunately, I am in the same boat. I just took my girl to the vet and as soon as the vet examined her, she said, Dare to Dream Farms? I have three others and pray nothing happens to them because I'm so in love with these girls. This is very upsetting. They really need to get their act together. I love the idea of a small family farm but wish I had known about this reputation of Mareks coming out of there.

 

[JedJackson]

I'm sorry you all are having to go through this. My main thought is why is this seller still in business? They should have been shut down years ago.