Hey guys!
@Junibutt so glad I wasn't forgotten thank you. Yes things have been crazy here. Very crazy.
I don't like the BYC changes much.
Well guys I was going to go about this better but I'm not really sure how to do that so here goes.
We got the necropsy results back on the chocolate cuckoo English Orpington we sent off. And unfortunately due to error on the part of the diagnostic lab we didn't hear for over a month. I finally called them when we had two other birds come down with symptoms. Tired of waiting. Only to be told they had finished and closed that case.
Marek's disease.
Some of you may remember a little of what's been going on with my Grandpa who has Alzheimer's as well. As if we needed anything more going on.
I still haven't been able to get ahold of our local poultry vet. He's mostly retired so I imagine out of town or something.
As of right now our flock is closed to birds leaving. No living birds will be leaving the premises. From my research I can still trade hatching eggs and the eggs and meat are safe to eat. Of course we won't eat symptomatic birds.
Some of you may not agree with our current stance on the problem. In truth I'm at a loss. We weren't expecting that in a million years. From my research we can breed for resistance in our flock.
Oddly the only birds we've lost something like 6 of them were from
@Faraday40 in December. I want to point out that we have previously gotten birds from her and have never had any problems with illness with any of them other than cocci. We will never know how the flock got this but it could have been anywhere. Again I believe that Faraday40's birds may not have had any immunity and that could have been the problem. None of our other birds have been affected even those raised with the ones from Faraday40. It's very strange.
For now we are planning to breed for immunity.
We have something like 60 birds currently that we plan to keep and many of them are pets. Some may say to cull the whole flock. Idk. If any of you have more insight or knowledge or would like to kindly share your opinion I would gladly listen. I'm doing all of the research I can on this in between my other responsibilities.
I would still love to be included in a breeding program or such. Perhaps something where we get together and exchange hatching eggs.
Unfortunately we had already added birds this spring before we knew anything was going on. Thankfully they were still quarantined in the porch(very dusty porch).
We had also spent way more money than we should have to buy the Buckeyes that DH2B has been wanting for more than 2 years from a breeder. Further making us not want to cull the whole flock.
There is no poultry near us for miles.
We haven't lost a bird from it in weeks maybe a month or two. I am hoping it is done.
We had quite the hard time deciding what to do. We are ordering some virucidal and every visitor with have their shoes sprayed. That being said we have separate shoes for chores.
We vaccinated the 14(now 12 Buckeyes- two were pecked to death by some of their brooder mates after being moved outside post vaccine.) 4 Dominiques (the probable pecking culprits)
This brings up another topic
A third buckeye chick was injured and it appears they literally pecked the oil gland thingy off. I'm at a loss as to what to do with this chick too. I have heard that they can live without that. Idk. This was the first case we ever had of chickens of pecking to this extent. The two that died I think died of shock. It all happened very quickly and the ones targeted had some bare skin on their backs. I believe it started as curious pecks.
We also vaccinated the chicks from March that includes 2 buff Orps, 6 ee, 2 barred rocks(the other suspected culprits) a cinnamon queen, and a golden comet. While older we had kept them separate in the porch waiting for the necropsy results. Glad we did. The were separated from the Buckeyes after the two were killed and all the Buckeyes git a blue kote cape painted on. No trouble since then.
We also had two more groups of chicks that we vaccinated. Our Easter Hatchalong hatch (19 chicks mostly barnyard mix with a bunch of Orps also some kind of a CL mix that I am totally in love with.) And a hatch done by a kindergarten class 21 chicks in that group many of which I think are some sort of Orps possibly mauve and mauve cuckoos. Blues and various others. But I'm having a hard time deciding. As during the time we collected the eggs only one cream legbar roo was with the flock the rest were silkies and Orps. The silkies are pretty easy to tell lol.
While the vaccine wasn't given to all of the chicks as day olds, like it called for of course, we were being very careful and strict about biosecurity measures. And none of the older chicks have shown symptoms. I am hoping doing this can build their immunity that can then be passed on to any future offspring.
We still have 2 lavenders (male and female) a black Orp/dom mix and a black pullet with red and black hackles from Faraday40 from December along with three mixes that all turned it to be boys. We're pretty overrun right now. Because of the crazy weather DH2B'S family hasn't finished in the fields yet. That should be happening this weekend. We will then be cracking down on spare cockerals and roosters.
Since we will not be loaning out any roosters for breeding we are going to have to make some hard decisions. Right when I found the single barred orp boy that I love so much a home in a pet flock.
Also
@Junibutt is there anyway that any of the girls I've got from you are also split to mottled? I could almost swear that two of the chicks from the kindergarten class are black mottled Orps. They're stunning and so sweet. Still they're only two weeks so we won't know for a while. But the down looks correct from pics I've seen.
Nervous but curious to see everyone's responses.
More later guys. Following are pics of the kindergarten chicks that confound me with their colors.
