I have to cull my flock.... ***UPDATE*** :)

I have been suspecting Infectious Bronchitis in my older chickens, and was hoping that my younger ones (15-18 weeks old) had not been infected as they were not put with the older ones until the end of July, well, I went out to the coop tonight, and several of them were sneezing, and I picked up Rudy, my RIR roo and he had a runny nose. Also, when I collected eggs there were 3 weird mis-shaped eggs. I am 99.9% sure that IB has reared its ugly head and my entire flock has been infected.

Since, I plan on selling hatching eggs and chicks from my chickens that I am hatching out now, I have to cull my entire flock and start over again. I can't believe this has happened. I wish I knew where they got it from.


******UPDATE: I talked with the Poultry Expert at Utah State University today. I learned some very useful information from him. First off, when your birds get Infectious Bronchitis (IB) they are not carriers for life, if they survive it, they become immune for life. Next, if birds are infected by IB and become immune to it before they go into laying production, then the chances of having damage to their reproductive system is very minimal. The biggest problem with chickens getting IB is malformed, mis-shaped eggs, which if you are just eating them, there is no problem with that. I personally wouldn't sell a weird shaped egg to a customer, but they are perfectly safe to eat. He told me to keep my babies away from the older ones, which I was going to do anyway, until they were much bigger, so that they do not become infected, because IB has a much higher mortality rate in chicks that older birds. He thought that I should be able to "naturally vaccinate" my chickens by introducing them to the flock 4-6 weeks before they start laying to prevent any damage to them, and that is if the virus is even still in my flock. If it ends up being more of an issue, then there are vaccinations that I can get and vaccinate my chicks so that they have an immunity to it from the beginning. He told me that Infectious Bronchitis, especially the mild strain, that he suspects my flock had, since there were absolutely no symptoms other than weird eggs, is very common, and it can go through an entire flock without you even knowing it. Which is what happened to me. So long story short, I do not have to kill my chickens, they will be just fine, and there is no concern in eating the eggs, selling hatching eggs or chicks. WOOHOO!!!!!!!

 

I posted pictures of the mis-shaped eggs on Dr. Brown's website, and he confirmed that the weird eggs were from Infectious Bronchitis. I was hoping that it was only in my older hens and that the younger ones had not contracted it. But after finding them sneezing and runny noses with more weird eggs, it looks like they all have contracted it. Since I want to sell hatching eggs and chicks, I have to cull them all and sanitize my coop so that no one else gets it and I am not selling eggs from infected birds. There is no medicine to give them. IB will run its course and either they survive or they don't, which all of mine have survived, but then they are carriers for life. As sad as it makes me, I also don't want to take the chance of infecting future chicks.