- Thread starter
- #31
The two currently slated for rehoming/culling have both gotten coccidiosis at least twice in 12 weeks, and this last was I think a bout of worms because ivermectin resolved the issue. It's not a matter of production, but removing proven weaknesses in the first generation. These are hatchery birds, and will be the foundation. If I found one that was badly susceptible to external parasites I would do the same.This is the traditional advice, but I don't do it. Sometimes a bird that's been sick and recovers lays fewer eggs, but my goal is not to maximise production, it is to maximise flock robustness and resilience. A bird that has recovered from something has antibodies, and they may be passed on in her eggs. The mother of all my Swedish Flowers laid mostly soft-shelled eggs in her first year and I very nearly culled her. She is 7 now and still laying, about one egg a week these days. None of her recent offspring have had health issues.
My Welsumer, now 6, was allowed to brood when she was not laying well. My thinking at the time was, since she's not laying much and has gone broody, I might as well let her raise a clutch. I should instead have followed through to ask, could whatever was preventing her laying well be passed on to any chicks she would keep very close to her for months? She incubated a fabulous clutch of 9. The first died within a fortnight, and they were all dead before 2 years old. Lesson learned on that one: don't let sick hens brood. She has since got over whatever it was, and brooded successfully last year (photo of her and 3 chicks in one of my earlier posts in this thread); the youngsters appear sturdy, and one of the pullets has recently gone broody.
All others are doing fine, no obvious problems, no repeated illnesses. I need to remove weaknesses in the first generation if possible, before they get mixed in and are impossible to eradicate.