Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[fowlman01]

That is so scary. I have had hunters mistake my drive for a public road( yeah, right!!) and my 100# barking black lab told them otherwise. I had my hand on his collar as he's the kind that would back up his threat and has done so before. Guns-- not me.I would rather rely on my dogs. Informed the hunters where public parking lot was: 100 feet before my drive.

Haahaa- GPS for my house ? It is 1 mile off the mark. Last week Coach had a hard time getting my boy home, 1 mile short of destination-- fortunately it was appropriate for my son to tell his coach our location.

Have put up no tresspassing signs, too.

I have not shoed any birds, just for that reason. THough I am becoming more comfortable with the possiblity of bringing home mereks or MG or something else. I would also think that long time poultrymen would know if a bird is sick and not bring it during the active stage of the disease process; however a noobie might not recognise the signs.

For everyone willing to answer-- how do you handle your show birds? A quarentine process? Or not?

Showing birds is not going to increase the risk of disease in your flock. As mentioned wild birds are the real problem. I have shown birds for many, many years without a problem. These big outbreaks of poultry diseases start in commercial poultry facilities, not in back yards. As far as I know there has never been an outbreak of a serious disease in a back yard flock.

Walt

 

[BGMatt]

That is so scary. I have had hunters mistake my drive for a public road(  yeah, right!!) and my 100# barking  black lab told them otherwise. I had my hand on his collar as he's the kind that would back up his threat and has done so before. Guns-- not me.I would rather rely on my dogs. Informed the hunters where public parking lot was: 100 feet before my drive. 

Haahaa- GPS for my house ?  It is 1 mile off the mark. Last week  Coach had a hard time getting my boy home, 1 mile short of destination-- fortunately  it was appropriate for my son to tell his coach our location. 

Have put up no tresspassing signs, too.

I have not shoed any birds, just for that reason. THough I am becoming more comfortable with the possiblity of bringing home mereks or MG or something else.  I would also think that long time poultrymen would know if a bird is sick and not bring it during the active stage of the disease process; however a noobie might not recognise the signs. 

For everyone willing to answer-- how do you handle your show birds? A quarentine process? Or not?

When I was a kid in 4H I quarantined birds coming back from a show, until as a senior I helped my leader and mentor unpack his birds from a show and noticed he just tossed them back in the pen. After that I did not bother, have never had a sick bird coming back from a show. If you have birds too valuable to a breeding program to be shown, either quarantine birds that would go back in that pen, or simply keep breeders and show birds separate.

 

[bnjrob]

THen why does the state require testing for such as pullorum and AI??

My guess is that these are very rare because they do test for it, and affected birds or flocks are destroyed-- I am guessing here.

Commercial poultry industry drives many of the rules/regs that affect everyone with chickens. Generally, we aren't dependent on our chickens for income, so losing them to a disease isn't usually going to bankrupt us. But for a commercial chicken operation - if they lose a lot of chickens, they could quite easily go bankrupt. Then there are the potential lawsuits against the commercial poultry industry from consumers that become ill and choose to sue for damages if they believe that the chicken products they ate is what caused the illness - again causing the commercial poultry entity to have the potential for bankruptcy.

 

[maryhysong]

I am really glad the question of MG came up also as I previously read about having to destroy the flock, ect. That went a bit against my grain and in my case I would probably quit chickens forever if that were the case of having to destroy everything I"ve built up the past two years.

That said, we appear to be having an outbreak of dry fowl pox here. Even the worst affected, a 6 yr old roo in a heavy molt is still eating and drinking so I think everything will be just fine. Many birds do not yet have the sores, even in the same coop.

I am wondering tho does anyone know the incubation period for fowl pox after exposure to infected birds or a mosquito bite? Here they could have been infected either or both ways. Just that was not mentioned in the things I was reading up on it.

While there is an active outbreak I plan to not move birds around which might stress them more, figured I would wait two or three weeks and hopefully everyone would be done and life will go on.

 

[Arielle]

I am venturing a guess here. I believe that the testing for Pullorum and AI are because of the potential harm to the commercial poultry industry. I think that in the years before NPIP that pullorum was wiping out entire flocks of commercial birds and the "reservoirs" for the disease were the backyard flocks. My NPIP tester said that he has been doing the testing for over 20 years and has never had one sample come back positive for pullorum or IA. He has seen some false positives, but when the flock was rechecked in a week, it was always negative.

Quote:

Quote: So what is th point of testing the backyard flocks??? Seems like the backard flocks are not contaiminating the commercial flocks because there is not crossing of paths so to speak. I've read that some facilities don't hire staff if they have poultry and that makes sense to me. BUt if the backyard flocks are not the real issue rather it is the wild birds they why are so many dollars spent on testing?? I"m starting to think this is all pollitical propaganda.

( PLease understand that I came from the univeristy teachings of complete biosecurity: once a bird leaves the barn it doesn't come back. I'm learning!!! Slowly I am coming to understand that backyard flock may actually be the healthiest flocks with very good immune systems. Yah, I'm slow but teachable.)

 

[Arielle]

I am really glad the question of MG came up also as I previously read about having to destroy the flock, ect. That went a bit against my grain and in my case I would probably quit chickens forever if that were the case of having to destroy everything I"ve built up the past two years.

That said, we appear to be having an outbreak of dry fowl pox here. Even the worst affected, a 6 yr old roo in a heavy molt is still eating and drinking so I think everything will be just fine. Many birds do not yet have the sores, even in the same coop.

I am wondering tho does anyone know the incubation period for fowl pox after exposure to infected birds or a mosquito bite? Here they could have been infected either or both ways. Just that was not mentioned in the things I was reading up on it.

While there is an active outbreak I plan to not move birds around which might stress them more, figured I would wait two or three weeks and hopefully everyone would be done and life will go on.

Mary-- while I don't have an answer for you, I would like to adda question.

If birds do not show signs of infection and others do show signs of infection but recover-- are both groups worth keeping as breeders? Or is the line drawn at Very sick and needs nursing and antibiotics to recover?

Was it the bubonic plague in the dark ages where about 1/3 of the world population either died or survived. Among the survivors many never even got the disease despite being surrounded by the disease and the dying. THese are the people that went on and repopulated passing on their innate immunity thru genetics.

 

[BGMatt]

So what is th point of testing the backyard flocks???   Seems like the backard flocks are not contaiminating the commercial flocks because there is not crossing of paths so to speak.  I've read that some facilities don't hire staff if they have poultry and that makes sense to me.  BUt if the backyard flocks are not the real issue rather it is the wild birds they why are so many dollars spent on testing?? I"m starting to think this is all pollitical propaganda.  



( PLease understand that I came from the univeristy teachings of complete biosecurity: once a bird leaves the barn it doesn't come back.  I'm learning!!! Slowly I am coming to understand that backyard flock may actually be the healthiest flocks with very good immune systems. Yah, I'm slow but teachable.)

The ones they do test for are more dangerous and easier to spread and more lethal and thus costly.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: THen the assumption is that these diseases still exists and are an on going problem in the US. Pullorum, THypoid (not sure that one is correct) and AI ( a particular strain). I'm wondering if some of this is just to screen of the entry of the disease into the US.

 

[BGMatt]

THen the assumption is that these diseases still exists and are an on going problem in the US. Pullorum, THypoid (not sure that one is correct) and AI ( a particular strain). I'm wondering if some of this is just to screen of the entry of the disease into the US. 

Exactly (the entry part). And the risk of some backyard novice and their precious "fluffybutt" leading to an outbreak of one of those diseases is too high.

 

[colburg]

Dear Bob,
This was a sad morning for both me and my wife when we learned of your passing. I wish I could have known you better than the few PM's and your posts on BYC and your webpage. I was looking forward to picking your brain and learning even more from you. Even though we don't have any H birds yet, the list of questions was growing. Others on here have knowledge they're willing to share and will hopefully follow your lead with your enthusiasm and continue the tradition of helping others get into H fowl. I had a quick conversation with Marvin Stuckel last night and he said the White Rocks will be available in mid-November. I think it's so cool that even though your not phisically with us, some of us are still getting good chickens because of your direct involvement.

Thank you so much for helping me find good White Rocks to get me started and thouroughly answering what few questions I had a chance to ask. I would like to think that even without you, I would have had the sense to ditch the hatchery, but your enthusiasm for chickens and consistency on BYC got me there quicker lit a fire that I hope burns for a long-long time.

RIP,
Coley