Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[NovaAman]

Or, you could hope for a broody hen, get some eggs, and hatch them by the hen, and just use non-medicated flock raiser. The only chicks I used the medicated on were the incubator hatched babies I got in January. The ones I let my broodies hatch, I didn't. There is something to be said about broodies.

 

[BackyardFarmMom]

I see we have some new friends!

I found a new (old) source of chicken feed.
It is Chap's in Livonia at 5 Mile Rd and Middlebelt. They have been there for years even though I forget they are there.
I was going to go to TSC but thought I'd check to see if they have stuff for chickens

They have crumble, pellet, scratch, corn and other stuff like oats and what not. Right here in the city! There must be a market for it, right? Plus it saved me a 60 mile round-trip drive.

I just saw this place last week! I will have to go there and check it out!

Please, don't show these pics to my chickens... they will NEVER start laying!

 

[ChicwannaB]

I hope you can make it, I think I'm going to bring a few hens because I've got 19 assuming the coons don't take out any more and as they're just coming into laying I hate the idea of just whacking them for the freezer. I can't possibly keep 19 hens over the winter. There would be 1 or 2 of Domnique, Golden Buff (Isa Brown), and maybe a Buckeye and a Blue Andalusian. Perhaps a BA roo as well. They're kinda small for the freezer.

Quote: Right now Im plan on attending CS Up-North. I have a Chante hen setting on 4 little eggs (not hers), they'll be mutts, but I will not need them and can bring them for sale CHEEP. Due to hatch Sept 9. The daddy is likely to be Dominique. I also will be bringing Dominique pullets at around 24 weeks if I don't sell them here first. Had several calls on them but the people don't show up. Let me know if you want me to bring them. I can also save up and bring some Dominique hatching eggs if anybody is interested.

 

[greenmimama]

I see we have some new friends!
I just saw this place last week! I will have to go there and check it out!

Please, don't show these pics to my chickens... they will NEVER start laying!

Ha ha, no joke, that looks painful, but beautiful.

And thanks for the welcome.

 

[RaZ]

Michigan State University Veterinarians recommend the Mareks vaccine for all chicks. It is the only vaccine that they currently recommend. They do that because as recently as the 1960's farmers lost as much as 60% of their chickens to Mareks disease. The only way that high rate of loss ended was when the hatcheries started to vaccinate for Mareks. Townline still does vaccinate the chicks you get at the feed store.

M.S.U. also recommend using medicated chick starter and then gradually adding in non medicated feed and weaning them off the medicated feed slowly between 6-10 weeks so the chicks can adjust to the parasites in the soil that they may encounter gradually.

You don't have to follow their guidelines but it is nice to know what the M.S.U. Veterinarians are recommending.

With all due respect (and I don't mean to offend) but 1960 was half a century ago.
Not trying to diminish the disease in question but I can't find any more recent scientific research that targets Marek's Disease. It is mentioned by Virginia Tech and Mississippi State as a past illness and not so common these days. Not to say that it isn't still present, merely implying that it isn't as prevalent as it was 50 years ago.

I'm trying to find more data in recent studies but am not having much luck on public access sites. Since I graduated, I don't have the access to University data bases like I used to have. I'm still looking though.

FWIW, I never vaccinated my chicks or gave them medicated feed. They are all hale and hearty and very productive. They have never had mites, scale or any other parasites even though the wild birds are ever-present and the mallards nested in the run. Maybe I've been lucky.

 

[ChicwannaB]

These are my Dominique pullets....



They'll be at 24 weeks by time of Chicken Stock, if anyone is interested and IF I haven't sold em by then.
The top one I call Dolly, the bottom one is Dawn.

 

[chicken grandma]

Hi RaZ - no offense taken. I know we aren't seeing much Mareks disease but it is because of the vaccination program that was put into place as a response to significant losses in Michigan flocks.
I am reading off the M.S.U. notes from the 'poultry workshop' and it says that they still recommend that one vaccine.

Having said that, I did not vaccinate my children for all the things they wanted me to because the incidence is so rare for diptheria or whooping cough now. But of course the vaccines are the reason why the disease are rare.

Those were the two things that M.S.U. recommended we do for chick health - 1. Mareks Vaccine and 2. Medicated chick starter as the only feed which is not antibiotic but rather amprolium which stops cocci from growing in the chicks gut until the chick can gradually be exposed and develop an immunity. Key - gradual weaning off the medicated feed during weeks 6-10 weeks of age.

But I totally understand what you are saying - your chickens have had great health and my kids have never had whooping cough!

So it is a calculated risk.

 

[RaZ]

Hi CG,
Before I posted, I went through the paperwork from MSU that you had sent me. I did not find any recent citations so I started surfing. (I'm bummed that I no longer have access to the university data bases that I had as a student)

I suppose I was tainted by my professors who wouldn't allow us to use any research older than 5 years. Ten years was ok as long as we had a recent article that referenced that particular paper. Kind of education snobbery in some ways, but research does evolve and gets better. I just hope that modern research doesn't totally discount the research of years past. While we evolve our research of modern diseases, those old diseases are also evolving.

I wanted to get a tetnus shot recently but they have combined it with two (2) other things that I didn't want. So I understand not getting extra vaccinations that you don't want or need.

Anyway, I'm glad that we can discuss this rationally.

 

[NovaAman]

Rationality has no place in civilized conversation... Its to dang boring then.... Lol.

 

[RaZ]

Rationality has no place in civilized conversation... Its to dang boring then.... Lol.

Oh great! You are one of the people testifying against me. Aren't you?