- May 14, 2008
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- 0
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Hi I have been enjoying Backyard Chickens from Ontario Canada for a few weeks now. What a great website and as usual always the best and most informative sites come from our neighbours to the south.
I have bred endangered Dales Ponies for 20 years and always kept a few chickens for eggs and enjoyment. Most of them gifted to me from an Ag Canada Vet friend who showed, we would get his cull pullets that were not good enough to be winners.
We have also bred and shown dogs and done rescue work with exotic animals and birds... so we have a little bit of experience. We also have a daughter who wanting to be a vet has been cooping at the vets for a few years and we have several vet friends and other breeder friends with a wealth of experience to help us.
FORTUNATELY I didn't read that poor chicken owners account of McMurrays before I had ordered my first chicks from them for if I had I might have not bought them and that would have been a HUGE error. We (my best friend and I and our husbands and my sister) did a combined order of 200 chicks.... and to say that we have been delighted with them would be understatement... in fact we have just ordered about another sixty to come with a few replacement birds that we got SIMPLY because the long journey for our little ones resulted in quite normal VERY FEW considering the journey losses in the first 48 hours. NOT cocci... I might add... just droopy tired delicate chicks that couldn't rally.... so since they were HAPPY to replace those chicks and there were a few more types we wanted to raise we have got more.
Now as for coccidiousis....
Here is what I know.... any animal can have it... any can contract it.... it can be infected into the ground from WILD birds as easily if not more so then domestic. Basically as miserable and devastating an ailment as it is... it is almost as common as the flu and can have different strains like the flu..... it hits the young worst of all... and sometimes like this poor victim of circumstance NOT McMurray's tho it MIGHT have sourced from there, it can be devastating and ruin what should have been a great event, the raising of new babies.... There are some tips for people who may find that they have it.... ISOLATION of all new birds (something we do as a habit, from our days doing pet and exotic bird rescue).... frequent cleaning and disinfecting of all things relating to the birds and constant disinfecting of hands when you work with different birds.... BURNING all waste bedding... which is what we are doing with our brooder waste right now... we clean the brooders EVERY DAY (we are using to great effect little paddling pools with hardware cloth fastened around them to raise the sides)..... we have paper underneath the shavings to make roll up and remove quick and easy... and then put them in plastic buckets and take them out to a burn barrel every day. We won't be able to protect them once they are out in the coop from wild bird droppings but we have had them vaccinated for Mereks by McMurray's and we will keep the runs as clean as we possibly can and hope for the best.
I am so so so very sad for the losses that poor person had... but please do not throw the baby out with the bath water. McMurrays is an awesome supplier... they may from time to time fall prey to this issues but without a doubt they CARE about their clients and their reputation and there are NOT that many good suppliers out there much less ones that back up their products with such quibble free guarantees.
Thanks BackYard Chickens for all the great info.... we are using one of your contributors coop designs for inspiration for our own... so thanks to them too.... we are modifying it with things like a slatted floor such as they use in England to see how that adapts to North American conditions.... we will keep you posted on whether that works... because it could be awesome in terms of dragging the coop along and scraping up the poop for ferilizer. I hope that things are better now for that McMurray chick disaster contributor. Thanks. Hope I was able to offer some good advice.
Canadaledalesponystud
I have bred endangered Dales Ponies for 20 years and always kept a few chickens for eggs and enjoyment. Most of them gifted to me from an Ag Canada Vet friend who showed, we would get his cull pullets that were not good enough to be winners.
We have also bred and shown dogs and done rescue work with exotic animals and birds... so we have a little bit of experience. We also have a daughter who wanting to be a vet has been cooping at the vets for a few years and we have several vet friends and other breeder friends with a wealth of experience to help us.
FORTUNATELY I didn't read that poor chicken owners account of McMurrays before I had ordered my first chicks from them for if I had I might have not bought them and that would have been a HUGE error. We (my best friend and I and our husbands and my sister) did a combined order of 200 chicks.... and to say that we have been delighted with them would be understatement... in fact we have just ordered about another sixty to come with a few replacement birds that we got SIMPLY because the long journey for our little ones resulted in quite normal VERY FEW considering the journey losses in the first 48 hours. NOT cocci... I might add... just droopy tired delicate chicks that couldn't rally.... so since they were HAPPY to replace those chicks and there were a few more types we wanted to raise we have got more.
Now as for coccidiousis....
Here is what I know.... any animal can have it... any can contract it.... it can be infected into the ground from WILD birds as easily if not more so then domestic. Basically as miserable and devastating an ailment as it is... it is almost as common as the flu and can have different strains like the flu..... it hits the young worst of all... and sometimes like this poor victim of circumstance NOT McMurray's tho it MIGHT have sourced from there, it can be devastating and ruin what should have been a great event, the raising of new babies.... There are some tips for people who may find that they have it.... ISOLATION of all new birds (something we do as a habit, from our days doing pet and exotic bird rescue).... frequent cleaning and disinfecting of all things relating to the birds and constant disinfecting of hands when you work with different birds.... BURNING all waste bedding... which is what we are doing with our brooder waste right now... we clean the brooders EVERY DAY (we are using to great effect little paddling pools with hardware cloth fastened around them to raise the sides)..... we have paper underneath the shavings to make roll up and remove quick and easy... and then put them in plastic buckets and take them out to a burn barrel every day. We won't be able to protect them once they are out in the coop from wild bird droppings but we have had them vaccinated for Mereks by McMurray's and we will keep the runs as clean as we possibly can and hope for the best.
I am so so so very sad for the losses that poor person had... but please do not throw the baby out with the bath water. McMurrays is an awesome supplier... they may from time to time fall prey to this issues but without a doubt they CARE about their clients and their reputation and there are NOT that many good suppliers out there much less ones that back up their products with such quibble free guarantees.
Thanks BackYard Chickens for all the great info.... we are using one of your contributors coop designs for inspiration for our own... so thanks to them too.... we are modifying it with things like a slatted floor such as they use in England to see how that adapts to North American conditions.... we will keep you posted on whether that works... because it could be awesome in terms of dragging the coop along and scraping up the poop for ferilizer. I hope that things are better now for that McMurray chick disaster contributor. Thanks. Hope I was able to offer some good advice.
Canadaledalesponystud
