Kozy Orchard Cuties(Pics and Stories of My Progress With The New Flock!)

[Dowie]

Oh my goodness, that is terrible. You poor thing. You must be devastated. I hope you find out what it is soon.

 

[Gardeningmama]

Oh, Sumatra, I'm soo.. sorry! And NO they are not disposable, they are pets (to most of us). I had this happen to me in the Spring, but yours is much more extreme than mine. I don't know where mine came from, as I bought from various farms (didn't know better then). One day a cold appeared in my Lavender Orp flock, that has never gone away since. It comes and goes, but I know it's always there. The Orps now have their own coop and run, and my two other flocks seem unaffected by it, but I decided to try and manage it, not "dispose" of them all.

I pray the results are something treatable....

 

[theoldchick]

Disease transmission is one of the problems with animal swaps and what-not. Set up a quarantine area for future use. I hope your birds get over whatever came into the flock. So sad.

 

[Sumatra503]

All of the birds that went to the swap have been in a strict quarantine for the past 14 days. I have a pair of shoes I only wear in there as well as a jacket I put on when I'm in there in case of splashing, etc. from the cages.

When I bring new birds home they are immediately started on a round of Sulmet and Tetracycline just to be safe and are treated with ivermectin so that they match the rest of my flock in that regard.

It is belived to be ILT, a usually treatable respiratory illness. But since the birds were stressed and in a new situation, it brought on the illness even faster than normal even with treatment. It is a virus, so antibiotics only help prevent secondary infections.

This flock is a new one, I had to sell my Dominiques and switch to bantams due to a noise complaint. The only birds that died were the ones in the quarantine shed.

QUARANTINE: The word that everybody hears, but nobody ever listens to. Quarantine is the thing that saved my flock!

 

[Sumatra503]

Well, been a hard few months since the Mystery Illness wiped out all of my birds aside from two. I had not one single bird survive the spread of this disease and I was completely and totally gutted by this loss. I had only had all of these birds for 3 weeks and had been starting a new flock. I went up to a show, spent $150 on birds that I liked and then went to the Fall Swap and spent another $50, but it wasn't money in the slightest that made me so upset. It was the loss of life and the fact that my bright new start turned out to be a total loss.

7 days after I came home from the swap I noticed one of my birds was acting strange in the quarantine shed. Later more and more birds started dying and within 10 days I had lost all but two.

My local poultry community was more than supportive of my losses and the losses of everyone else who had purchased birds that died, though the others had lost theirs to ILT and mine was later confirmed as rather nasty and aggressive bacterial infection. They offered many condolences and a few offered me free hatching eggs and breeding pairs to help me to recoup my losses and start a new flock, but I just wasn't ready to have chickens again.

Others offered me nothing but cruel remarks about culling my birds, being irresponsible for letting my birds die on me, and I was banned from one of the other Poultry swaps because I had "diseased birds" and would be a danger to every other person at the swap, even though the survivors are no longer contagious. I let these comments and remarks roll off of my shoulders and stayed out of the poultry community for the entire winter, essentially.

Come spring time I came across an ad on a facebook chicken group posted by my good friend Laura at Castle Delight Seramas and decided I'd send her PM and see what birds she had available. She sent me pictures of the birds she had available and I picked out the ones I liked. When it came to the negotiation portion where we had to decide how much I'd be paying for them, she said she would just give them to me! I was excited beyond measure and almost didn't feel right taking the birds for free, but she assured me that I would be putting her mind at ease by giving them all a good home.

I met her at the Spring Swap(the one I was banned from) and we hung out together all day while I spoiled her extra roos she had brought with her to rehome. In the middle of the swap young 4-H mom came over Laura's table with a little rooster in her hands, "you sold me this as part of a trio, but it ended up being a roo. I am totally happy to keep him, but I was wondering if you'd take him back." Laura agreed without hesitation to take the little roo back, but after a minute she turns to me and says, "Do you want him?". The little roo was an 8 week old Serama, which spells "adorable", so of course I took him!

By the end of the swap I had acquired 3 extra cockerals, all of which are seramas and totally adorable with tiny squeaky crows, a smooth serama trio, a Frizzled/Smooth serama pair, 2 Booted serama cockerals, and 2 booted serama pullets from Laura and I now have a very nice flock.

It has been 3 weeks since I picked up my new seramas from the Swap and I have since fallen in love with my birds and it is a joy to have chickens in my life once more. I have one batch of Serama eggs and Frizzled Cochin/Smooth Sizzle(from the two that survived the disease) that are due to hatch one Tuesday and a batch of eggs set under a broody turkey due to hatch in about 2.5 weeks that are from the same birds.

My eventual goal is to start a breeding project for a Frizzled/Booted serama, but that will come later when the birds are old enough to breed.

 

[Sumatra503]

My serama babies in the apple tree!


Leonardo being carted around in a basket.


Ferdinand letting me know he's not amused with having his picture taken.

 

[Sumatra503]

8 new babies!!! Henrietta Turkey went broody and since I don't have a tom I put 10 bantam eggs underneath her from Amanda and Fuzz Butt. She sat on them for the full 21 days and hatched out 8 tiny fuzzies. Since I don't have a pen that is safe for a Turkey hen and bantam chicks to be raised in, I am brooding them indoors under a light.

All 8 of them have 5 toes like their momma and are looking to be either black or birchen. Some have more feathers on their feet than others and some have way more white while others have a slightly brown tinge to them. I am completely fascinated with genetics and since I don't know any of the history of my two birds it will be interesting to see what I get from this pairing. I am hoping for lots of frizzled babies, but I'll be happy with anything since this is my first hatch with my new birds.


Fuzz Butt Amanda