How can i keep my new flock healthy?

gotpotbellypig

Songster
7 Years
Mar 27, 2012
478
13
103
Las Vegas, Nevada
Our flock has always been healthy but the stopped laying eggs after one year. Slowly their health decreased and eventually some died. I tried to help them by giving them special feed and vitamins. nothin worked. We got more chicks this spring and i am determined to keep these guys healthy and make sure they keep laying eggs. Any tips on how to keep my flock healthy and make sure they keep layin eggs?
 
Our flock has always been healthy but the stopped laying eggs after one year. Slowly their health decreased and eventually some died. I tried to help them by giving them special feed and vitamins. nothin worked. We got more chicks this spring and i am determined to keep these guys healthy and make sure they keep laying eggs. Any tips on how to keep my flock healthy and make sure they keep layin eggs?


Had you dewormed them and checked for external parasites? What was their symptoms?
 
seems like you wouldn't have quite the climate we have here---but have you considered treating your chickens for worms?



Lots of folks worm on a regular schedule - spring and fall. --- It could be one thing for you to consider.
how? take it to the vet? i have 19 chickens now. would it be expensive?
 
how? take it to the vet? i have 19 chickens now. would it be expensive?
It seems that vets cost a lot...and lots of vets don't work on chickens. That being said when you actually need a good vet there is nothing that can replace their skills.... In this case however.............

Most people worm their own chickens.

If you have chicks, and they are growing well, you probably would want to do the first worming when they are about 15-16 weeks old, before they begin to lay eggs. Some, probably most, worming methods have a period of egg discard in the event that any of the wormer medicine would pass to the egg and a person who consumed the egg would be alergic to ingredients in the wormer.....

It is easy to do, and you can definitely do it yourself. If you go to the search bar and type in "woming". You will find tons of posts.
 
they were sneezing and would just sit there not movin. i have 19 chicks right now. how do i get them all wormed? take it to the vet?
Sneezing and just sitting there is a cause for concern - sounds like they have a respiratory illness. Search the boards for respiratory illness or check on the emergencies/sick birds board.

As for worming - some do, some don't... if you do, it is something that you can do on your own. Research it on the boards as a previous poster wrote.
 
they were sneezing and would just sit there not movin. i have 19 chicks right now. how do i get them all wormed? take it to the vet? 

Sneezing and just sitting there is a cause for concern - sounds like they have a respiratory illness.  Search the boards for respiratory illness or check on the emergencies/sick birds board.

As for worming - some do, some don't... if you do, it is something that you can do on your own.  Research it on the boards as a previous poster wrote.



Seeing how you had a whole flock die you are going to need to do a very thorough cleaning/decontamination. This means sterilizing anywhere the sick chickens were, all their feeders/waterers, any shoes worn in their area, and discarding all the waste instead of composting it. You need to make sure whatever you use is anti-viral and anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal would also be good.

i would also discard any feed you had left over, and sterilize the scoop you used.

I am including a link for a very comprehensive list of diseases.

Chicken illness links

Excellent descriptions and symptom chart at the end:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044

Common stuff, good article
http://www.motherearthnews.com/sustainable-farming/chicken-diseases-and-treatment-zmaz74zhol.aspx
 
thanks yall so much. we cleaned out most of it but are finishing up tonight. because we have more chickens than we had before, we built more nesting boxes and and a second story.(they climb up on a ramp.) sanitized everything today.
 
If you let the coop set empty for a few weeks most diseases will not be an issue. Some stay in the ground like bacteria but any viral disease will not last very long without a host.
Do some research to see how to treat the soil.. good luck!
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom