Introducing to the flock

[Sricher91]

Sooo I have 8 pullets who are 16 weeks old. I just purchased 2, 5 week old babies from a small local breeder. I went to her house and all her chickens looked healthy and the two I purchased were still being kept inside in a brooder.

Do I have to keep them seperate from my girls? I want to put them in a little crate outside and start introducing them to my girls.

 

[Sricher91]

*im talking about keeping them seperate because of passing illnesses.

 

[aart]

Depends on your tolerance for risk,
and if you can actually facilitate an effective biological quarantine scenario.
The first link will explain what needs to be done.
Consider biological/medical quarantine:
BYC Medical Quarantine Article
BYC 'quarantine' search

 

[Ridgerunner]

It is an individual decision. Any time you add chickens to your flock there is a risk, even getting day-olds from a hatchery or hatching NPIP eggs yourself as low as that risk is. Getting them from a source like you describe is a higher risk, but nothing nearly as high as getting them from a chicken swap, chicken show, or chicken auction where they have been exposed to other chickens just before you bring them home.

It is not unusual for a flock to develop flock immunities to certain parasites or diseases. Coccidiosis is a great example and pretty common but there are others. The chickens from these flocks can transmit the disease or parasite to other chickens but no matter how long you quarantine them are unlikely to exhibit any symptoms themselves. It is when they have recently been exposed to fresh diseases that quarantine does the most good.

If that local breeder has operated a closed flock (not exposed to strange chickens) for a few months, if they would recognize a disease or problem if they saw it, and if they are honest enough to tell you then that flock has in essence been in quarantine. If those chicks have been kept isolated from the flock there is even less risk, though the breeder may have carried something back and forth. If the breeder has taken chickens to a show and brought them back lately it is not a closed flock. Lots of "if's".

It is also possible that your current flock has a flock immunity that they will pas on to the new chickens. Just because the new chicks have problems does not mean they brought it with them.

It's certainly not risk free, a quarantine may do you good if you can properly isolate them. If you can't isolate them it doesn't do you much good. How much it would tear you up to introduce something to your current flock should enter into your decision making. Like I said, a personal decision. Good luck!

 

[Mrs. K]

Most back yard set ups cannot really do a true quarantine. Most generally, healthy looks healthy, but it is a risk.

If you would be devastated to loose the flock, don’t ever add anything. Some people do it that way. Others risk it. A huge flock, or a very expensive rare breed of flock, I would not risk it. For my own flock of ragtag birds, less than a dozen, I have added birds at different times with no issue, but it is a risk. Do NOT ever add birds you feel sorry for.

Disease can go both ways, so give you set up a good grooming out with fresh bedding, clean water-era, and feed bowls before you introduce the young ones.