How quickly does bird flu spread in flock?

[heather134]

We have a backyard flock in Indiana with ten hens and I haven't been able to find anything that tells how quickly bird flu can spread within a flock. Four days ago one hen died suddenly. She didn't have any purplish coloring, or a swollen head. She was about seven or eight years old. The rest of the flock looks fine, I've been checking them daily and they all appear healthy. This morning I found an egg in the nest with a soft end. That could be because of dozens of things - but the sudden bird death has me a little panicked now.

We don't have any other flocks near us, so if there's an outbreak it will be isolated to just our coop. There's a roof and small mesh around the run so no other birds can get in. The flock is able to free range in our yard on occasion. We were out of town last week so I think the neighbor allowed them to free range a lot. We don't feed wild birds but our neighbor does. Still, we have lots of wrens, cardinals and robins and that's about it (the robins didn't ever seem to leave this winter, so maybe some migrated but not all).

I honestly wouldn't have even thought about bird flu as a cause of death but there was an article in the paper yesterday about outbreaks in the state. Then I read that soft shells are another symptom.

 

[Stipenvlerk]

Where I live the RIVM ( equivalent of the CDC here in the Netherlands) says hours to 3 days

 

[Iluveggers]

We have a backyard flock in Indiana with ten hens and I haven't been able to find anything that tells how quickly bird flu can spread within a flock. Four days ago one hen died suddenly. She didn't have any purplish coloring, or a swollen head. She was about seven or eight years old. The rest of the flock looks fine, I've been checking them daily and they all appear healthy. This morning I found an egg in the nest with a soft end. That could be because of dozens of things - but the sudden bird death has me a little panicked now.

We don't have any other flocks near us, so if there's an outbreak it will be isolated to just our coop. There's a roof and small mesh around the run so no other birds can get in. The flock is able to free range in our yard on occasion. We were out of town last week so I think the neighbor allowed them to free range a lot. We don't feed wild birds but our neighbor does. Still, we have lots of wrens, cardinals and robins and that's about it (the robins didn't ever seem to leave this winter, so maybe some migrated but not all).

I honestly wouldn't have even thought about bird flu as a cause of death but there was an article in the paper yesterday about outbreaks in the state. Then I read that soft shells are another symptom.

If you have another bird pass in the next few days, I would call your state Ag department. They will come & conduct testing.

 

[heather134]

If you have another bird pass in the next few days, I would call your state Ag department. They will come & conduct testing.

Absolutely. Big reason I'm keeping a watchful eye.
If there aren't any other symptoms by next week I'll be able to breathe easy.