Hen that go ill last winter has relapsed after adding a large group of adolescents to her flock, if she recovers how can i add to the flock safely?

[Anime2lover]

I had a hen that got seriously ill last winter as a chick and nearly died. It took months for her to recuperate and be able to go back outside with a flock. She was doing really well for being handicapped, until we added a large group of adolescents spring chicks. We can't just stop breeding out sale stock for her sake, so how can we best reduce the stress on her each time we need to add more chicks??

 

[aart]

Is she the only bird that you are adding all these chicks with?
What was her illness?
Not really a good idea to sell chicks that have been exposed to a disease.

 

[NatJ]

She was doing really well for being handicapped, until we added a large group of adolescents spring chicks. We can't just stop breeding out sale stock for her sake, so how can we best reduce the stress on her each time we need to add more chicks??

You don't say what handicaps she has, but if adding new chicks caused trouble, you could just have her live in a pen with a group of chickens that does not change.

Have a different pen where you add and remove chickens.

I had a hen that got seriously ill last winter...We can't just stop breeding out sale stock... add more chicks??

If she was sick, did you find out what it was? Some diseases stay around in the environment of your coop, and can spread to all the new chickens too. You don't want to be selling sick chickens, or chickens that look healthy but carry a disease to infect the new flocks they go to.

We can't just stop breeding out sale stock for her sake

Of course, you could euthanize her. She would not be stressed by any new chickens after that. Since you have not already done this, I assume you would prefer not to. But I'm mentioning it just in case you didn't think of it.

 

[Anime2lover]

Is she the only bird that you are adding all these chicks with?
What was her illness?
Not really a good idea to sell chicks that have been exposed to a disease.

You don't say what handicaps she has, but if adding new chicks caused trouble, you could just have her live in a pen with a group of chickens that does not change.

Have a different pen where you add and remove chickens.


If she was sick, did you find out what it was? Some diseases stay around in the environment of your coop, and can spread to all the new chickens too. You don't want to be selling sick chickens, or chickens that look healthy but carry a disease to infect the new flocks they go to.


Of course, you could euthanize her. She would not be stressed by any new chickens after that. Since you have not already done this, I assume you would prefer not to. But I'm mentioning it just in case you didn't think of it.

I don't know what the illness was. When I say sale chicks, I'm more referring to chicks that are only being used to build up breeding stock to sell offspring from next year. Her original flock that we added to and she was good with is a flock of seven birds (she is a silkie, but she got extremely attached to our only sebright that lives with that flock.) We didn't want to stress her out when we moved her outside again so we slowly introduced her to a flock (her current one) that had her friend in it. It worked out good. Until this big group of chicks. She does greate, and is happy when she is not stressed

Ps, I didn't want to put the chicks together with them for biosecurity reasons since all our adults got exposed to it during the winter. But mym mom (the bird's owner) made me...

 

[aart]

But mym mom (the bird's owner) made me...

 

[Anime2lover]

Not sure what was funny? *confused*

You don't say what handicaps she has, but if adding new chicks caused trouble, you could just have her live in a pen with a group of chickens that does not change.

Have a different pen where you add and remove chickens.


If she was sick, did you find out what it was? Some diseases stay around in the environment of your coop, and can spread to all the new chickens too. You don't want to be selling sick chickens, or chickens that look healthy but carry a disease to infect the new flocks they go to.


Of course, you could euthanize her. She would not be stressed by any new chickens after that. Since you have not already done this, I assume you would prefer not to. But I'm mentioning it just in case you didn't think of it.

It isn't out of the question no. But she was doing so well. You think it could mostly have been the size of the group that was introduced? She's doing better since I medicated yesterday and today, never stopped eating and drinking (just had to make sure she left the coop to do so since she never learned to use a ramp.) Maybe smaller groups might not cause a problem? You think separating out my actual breeding stock that I need to expand would be the better choice??

 

[aart]

Not sure what was funny?

That your mom made you do it.


If those birds had/have a respiratory disease, it will linger forever and only show symptoms when stressed. Not sure how easily it can spread without symptoms.

 

[Anime2lover]

That your mom made you do it.


If those birds had/have a respiratory disease, it will linger forever and only show symptoms when stressed. Not sure how easily it can spread without symptoms.

Yea, she's incistant that it's done and over with. There was never any sneezing, coughing, or wheezing, only mucus on one or two of the effected birds, balance issues, weight loss, unexplained death, and fast spread. Started with out main largest flock, and spread like wild fire before we really knew what had hit us. Totally blind sided us. Took out all but four of our 15 silkies, half our main flock, and two out of three of my personal breeding d'uccles (the ones I'm trying to build up breeding stock.) You can see the reason why I didn't want to put them together no??

 

[NatJ]

You think it could mostly have been the size of the group that was introduced? She's doing better since I medicated yesterday and today, never stopped eating and drinking (just had to make sure she left the coop to do so since she never learned to use a ramp.) Maybe smaller groups might not cause a problem? You think separating out my actual breeding stock that I need to expand would be the better choice??

I don't know for sure. I just thought that if she had trouble with the change, then it might help to keep her in the most stable arrangement you can.