INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[racinchickins]

Hi Everyone, I think I know the answer to this question, but I'm going to ask anyway. If I bring home chickens from Old Salt on Friday and bring home a chicken or two again on Sunday, can I quarantine them together or at least in the same garage but separate from the rest or do they literally all need to be separate from each other for the two weeks?

Thanks!

It depends on your goals. In an ideal world. You don't mix any chickens from different flocks until everyone is quarantined. But space and housing limitations can cause you to take a risk based approach. You highest priority goal is probably to protect your current flock, so mixing new birds together may not be ideal, but necessary. Just make sure you keep them separate until you have passed the entire quarantine period for the newest bird you have.

summary:
Ideal: completely separate - not even in same room, garage, etc.
Better: In same room, separate cages separated by as much distance as possible
Good: In Same room, separate cages, side by side
If you must: All in same cage
Bad: Throw 'em out the car door and into the flock.

 

[vickichicki]

As much as you want to hear this, they should be seprateted from each flock. Just in case. It would suck to have issues with your new guys and it affects all the birds regardless of where you got them from.
Minor inconvience but can save issues later on.

 

[vickichicki]

Racin - thanks for the correction/ update on the jurassic bird. Filling away for future reference when I scout through the breed/gender forums.

 

[pbirdhaven]

They need to be quarantined separately. Outdoors they can be quarantined in separate coops, but not indoors in the same room. I have old rabbit hutches that I keep new birds in until they can be integrated.
Each place that you get chickens from has a different conglomeration of bacteria, etc., and they are different from yours. You want to protect both your own flock and the new birds until all acclimate to the changed environment.

 

[CRSelvey]

O

They need to be quarantined separately.  Outdoors they can be quarantined in separate coops, but not indoors in the same room.  I have old rabbit hutches that I keep new birds in until they can be integrated.
Each place that you get chickens from has a different conglomeration of bacteria, etc., and they are different from yours.  You want to protect both your own flock and the new birds until all acclimate to the changed environment.

 

Got it! I can manage it but it will take a little more setup. Good thing I have a couple of days till the second bird(s) get here.

 

[vickichicki]

Yes, she is isolated. I follow a strict quarantine regimen before I allow any grown birds into my flock. She seems vibrant and healthy now, but you can never be too sure. (No offense to bradselig, of course. I would quarantine no matter what the circumstances as it's to protect both the established flock and the new bird from contamination. ) She seems fine as far as being alone, though I'm thinking of putting a mirror or a stuffed animal in there with her to keep her company. She gets checked on frequently because she's such a sweetie and we're all fascinated by the Silkie feathering, which none of us have had the chance to see in person before. So she's not alone for very long, at least.

She is porcelain, or at the very least she looks like a porcelain Silkie. All that really matters to me is that she sure is pretty.
Splash with splash will produce splash, yes. As far as splash with something else, it all depends. Splash with black will produce all blue offspring, and splash with blue will produce half splash offspring and half blue offspring. I believe splash with lavender will produce all blue offspring split to lavender, but I'm not totally sure there. For the most part, everything else mixed with splash is likely to produce blue or splash versions of it (such as wheaten x splash producing blue wheaten, silver duckwing x splash producing blue silver, etc.).

Depending on what you want to accomplish, you may want to just get a Cochin. If you want to sell chicks or hatching eggs, keep it pure, but if you're just looking for a way of keeping your own flock going for some generations, then mixing breeds doesn't much matter. My assumption would be that you would produce feather-legged birds, most with fifth toes and beards, in a cross between a Cochin and a Faverolles.

I believe fifth toe is dominant, so mixing something with a fifth toe breed usually produces offspring with the fifth toe, or at least 9 toes total between their feet.

That's about all I can say without specifics. Hope it helps.

Oh Pip, not only do you share your stunning flock with us we are blessed to have your knowledge too.

Thanks for explaining the colour thing. I had looked around and trying to find better details explained for a laymen has been tough. If I wanted full biology breakdown of it, no problems. Not smart enough for that
I appreciate the input for the mix breeds too. I was liking the idea of maybe bearded Cochins but I think the colouring might be limited and as you mentioned the selling might be tougher for mixed. Maybe next year I can try it out and see how it works for my own personal enjoyment.

Given your details I think I am on the look out for a nice blue splash to mix with my ladies. Which them leads me too wondering how the lemon and blue splash would work, either way, I think they will be cute.
Another quick question.. Barred a dominate gene? Regardless of who I breed with Momma, will they be barred?
Thanking you PIP

 

[julie0477]

i have some news.... sophie my silkie, has been squatting for me so i thought it was a girl... HE CROWED!

How old is he/she? I have two silkies that I think are girls... I think...

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Oh Pip, not only do you share your stunning flock with us we are blessed to have your knowledge too.

Thanks for explaining the colour thing. I had looked around and trying to find better details explained for a laymen has been tough. If I wanted full biology breakdown of it, no problems. Not smart enough for that
I appreciate the input for the mix breeds too. I was liking the idea of maybe bearded Cochins but I think the colouring might be limited and as you mentioned the selling might be tougher for mixed. Maybe next year I can try it out and see how it works for my own personal enjoyment.

Given your details I think I am on the look out for a nice blue splash to mix with my ladies. Which them leads me too wondering how the lemon and blue splash would work, either way, I think they will be cute.
Another quick question.. Barred a dominate gene? Regardless of who I breed with Momma, will they be barred?
Thanking you PIP

Aw, shucks! Glad to be helpful!

I believe lemon is recessive, so lemon x splash would give you all blues split to lemon. I'm thinking barring is dominant, too, but I'm not 100% sure if it's called dominant because of how it works. Barring is unique in that hens can only carry one copy, while roosters can carry either one or two. This is why Barred Plymouth Rock roosters typically look lighter than the hens, because they carry two copies of the barring gene while the hen carries just one. My understanding is that if you have a barred rooster over hens that are not barred, all of his offspring will carry the barring gene (male offspring will be darker barred than their father because they only have one copy of the barring gene). You can still do some nifty things depending on the cross, such as blue barred or lemon cuckoo, but barring will be inevitable. About half of the offspring from a non-barred rooster over a barred hen should be barred, with the other half not inheriting the barred gene from mother.






And on the topic of my flock, I decided on a name for my birthday Silkie. She will be known as Margaret, named after Margaret Dumont. I even asked her if that was okay, and she looked directly at me and replied, "Peep peep peep peep?" I take that as a yes.

I had heard that Silkies were kind of ditzy, but I wasn't sure how true that was until Margaret proved it to me this morning. I went out to check on her and found her sitting rather glumly in her food dish, looking around boredly. Because I didn't want her leaving droppings in her feed, I moved her out of her dish. Once moved, she saw the feed again and went about eating it happily, as if nothing had happened. I don't know what went on there, but I suspect she was eating and went to scratch at the feed, but then once she was in the dish, she didn't know where her food had gone.

 

[Quinstar]

Sometimes the FDA is just dumb....

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20...t-want-chickens-to-explore-the-great-outdoors

 

[racinchickins]

Oh Pip, not only do you share your stunning flock with us we are blessed to have your knowledge too.

Thanks for explaining the colour thing. I had looked around and trying to find better details explained for a laymen has been tough. If I wanted full biology breakdown of it, no problems. Not smart enough for that

I appreciate the input for the mix breeds too. I was liking the idea of maybe bearded Cochins but I think the colouring might be limited and as you mentioned the selling might be tougher for mixed. Maybe next year I can try it out and see how it works for my own personal enjoyment.

Given your details I think I am on the look out for a nice blue splash to mix with my ladies. Which them leads me too wondering how the lemon and blue splash would work, either way, I think they will be cute.
Another quick question.. Barred a dominate gene? Regardless of who I breed with Momma, will they be barred?
Thanking you PIP

Quick answer on the Barred gene. It is a sex linked Dominant. So your answer is...it's complicated. lol.

But boil it down and you get:
Daddy is Barred = All chicks barred to some degree

Daddy not Barred = Boys Barred, Girls not barred. This is how they create sex-links. If the boys have dark feathers, you can see a white spot on their heads.

Other genes also affect barring to some degree, but that will give you the basics.