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- #11
This makes so much sense. Thank you!!Local soil contains local pathogens, both good and bad ones. Your adult chickens have become resistant to the bad ones by being exposed to them over their lives, and the good pathogens live happily and productively in their guts.
Baby chicks can also build resistance to these bad pathogens by being exposed to them during the first couple of weeks when their immune systems are developing immunities to many things, just as human infants are gradually exposed to germs and developing resistance. And the good pathogens will install themselves in the baby guts, providing good intestinal health.
Bringing in a clump of living sod from your yard and given to the chicks to play with will expose them to very small amounts of good and bad pathogens and they will build up their immune systems from this exposure. There is even a very mild form of Marek's in the soil where there are local populations of wild turkeys that can confer some resistance to the chicken form of Marek's.
This is why many of us simply do not bother with medicated feed. It's benefits are overblown. There is also the fact that the medicated feed discourages the absorption of thiamine, a very crucial B-vitamin for new chicks. Chicks should be receiving the full benefit of all the nutrients in their feed as they are developing so rapidly. A deficiency can be quite problematic and many of us feel the risk isn't worth it.