How do you quarantine one new bird?- UPDATED pics. How does she look?

[clucknpeck]

I found a beautiful white and buff Ameraucana, (probably ee,) on Craigslist and it looks like I may be picking her up tomorrow. She is aprox 5 months old, about the same age as the majority of my flock. She looks healthy from the pictures, and appears to be free ranging in some sort of run/barn.
So I am just wondering how serious I need to be about quarantine? What do you do for living situation with a big chicken for quarantine?
My chickens aren't too ruthless. I let my much younger bantams in with them after sleeping under a laundry basket in their coop for 2 nights and it went mostly smoothly. Yesterday and today I put five 3 week old ducklings in their run and they haven't touched them at all. Maybe it's different with just one chicken as opposed to a group though....?

 

[gamebirdsonly]

Me personally I never quarantine. I just take the chance.

But it's probably the safe thing to do just in case.

 

[clucknpeck]

Me personally I never quarantine. I just take the chance.

But it's probably the safe thing to do just in case.

 

I was thinking of doing that... I may decide when I see the chicken and the living conditions.

 

[cubalaya]

me, i quarantine everything that comes here, no matter who i got the bird from or how healthy it looks.

 

[Fred's Hens]

An over-sized dog crate would work. We have large travel boxes in which we transport chickens back and forth. I'd suggest some creative solution other than just immediately mixing. If no provision can be made, then I would consider not getting birds from different sources and not facing the issue.

 

[speckledhen]

The only grown bird to ever come here was quarantined in a large wire dog crate in the basement for 5 weeks. I have two crates so after a couple of weeks, he was allowed in the other crate up on the elevated sunny deck some afternoons, which at that time, was inaccessible to the hens.

In that time, I had to treat him for lice and favus and borderline malnutrition, so I was very glad to keep him there for that long. And, after where he came from, he seemed perfectly happy to be here, too.


You cannot tell by looking at a bird if it's a carrier or not. And even quarantine is not perfect, but I'd never skip it if I ever decided to buy a bird again (and I can't see myself doing that again, not the way folks seem to throw antibiotics at their flocks and treat everything under the sun).

 

[Mrs. K]

The quantine issue depends on a couple of details.

First what is the value of the flock you have now? If you lost the whole thing would it be a financial hardship? do you have 5 birds, or 50 or 100? Are they heritage breeds, or something that you have been working with for generations. You can see that different flocks have different financial values.

Secondly, many people think that keeping the birds from touching each other is quantine. It is not. In a serious quarantine, the birds need to be separated by a great distance, more than most backyards can accomodate. One needs to wash hands between handling new and old birds, needs different footwear between new and old, and different water and feed bowls. If you can't do this, then you are wasting your time pretending to quarantine.

One must remember that disease can go both ways, from new bird to the flock, or from the flock to the new bird.

Personally, I would take a good look at the place I am getting the birds, looking at all the birds, and their set up. If I was satisfied, I would take the bird and add it to my flock, but I do not have a valuable flock. And it is a small flock.

I would also get at least two birds, and three might be best. If you add one new bird, the whole flock knows it is strange, and will all get their thumps in on one bird. If you add 3, well, it is harder for all of them to get all of the new birds. But it is still going to flip your flock dynamics upside down, and lots of squabbling will go on.

MrsK

 

[speckledhen]

Mrs. K makes some excellent points.


At the time I bought that rooster I mentioned, I had only 10 hatchery hens. I still couldn't just throw him in with them, but then again, he was ragged looking and filthy (and this was an FFA kid, too, who should have known better).

 

[clucknpeck]

Thanks everyone. I am just getting the one because I am pretty much at my max for chickens. One of me ee pullets ended up being a roo. I bought some ee hatching eggs but they cracked in the mail, only one didnt but the mail was rough so I don't have much hope for it.
I will put more thought into how i cn quarantine... I have about 25 chickens, just hatchery birds but I would be very sad if anything happened.

How long should quarantine last? What should I look out for? Should I treat for anything?

 

[speckledhen]

At least 4 weeks, better to do 6 weeks.


Treat for lice/mites and worm the bird, but DO NOT use any antibiotics whatsoever! If the bird is a carrier of some respiratory disease, you want the symptoms to come to the surface so you can cull the bird, not add her to your flock.

Watch eyes and nares (nostrils) and mouth for discharges or growths, listen to lungs by putting your head on her back for unnatural wet wheezy breathing, etc. Check legs for raised scales which would indicate scaly leg mites.