Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

Yes, haven't forgotten, supposed to be a strawberry cake!
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Woooaaahh, I don't think anyone told me that, or I may have gone and picked you up myself!
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I hate trying to make vaccine decisions. I can never help but feel that it is a game of, "pick your poison."
 
Oh, yes, also, I wanted to ask you all a bit about, worming, mites, and etc.

I know there are some folk who treat annually as a preventative / control measure. I haven't decided on that yet because I want to wait and see if the mites come back. My older girls never had any, and I think they came in on my newer birds. At least, I didn't have any issues before then. As free ranging birds, I expect they will always have a certain parasite load, as I understand things, pretty much all wild animals do. It's a matter of balance, yes?

However, as I am collecting only one egg most days right now, lol, I was thinking that if you treat annually, this would be a great time to do it.

But is once a year enough to keep them pretty good for the year? Does treating with Ivermectin provide some form of protection for an extended time, or does it just kill what is on them now and for the next 10 days, or so?

And, do mites generally die off in winter anyway? For instance, I do not normally treat my cats for fleas / ticks in the winter, because it is not normally an issue in the winter. (Although this winter and last, this was not always the case. This weather scares me.)
 
Yup, it is kind of like the flu shot, you could never get one and never get the flu Or you could get the shot every year and still get the flu, Hopefully it will not be as bad as if you didn't have the shot The bad thing is once a chicken gets Marek symptoms there is no getting better.


you could get a fecal test done to see if you need to treat, I did treat for worms because I was getting so few eggs.
If you keep a good dust bath with DE and wood ash in it you shouldn't have a mite problem except for leg mites. they seem to be a different problem

does any one put DE in the food as a preventative?

looking at all the baby chicks just adds to the addiction I wish I had an incubator, maybe I need to get one like Nova's, she looks like such a good momma, and goes broody a lot??
 
hope none of you guys were on i-75 today... nasty pile up....20 some cars.. due to white out I guess...........................people need to slow the heck down when the weather is crazy like it's been the last couple days. a little common sense may have kept 3 kids alive!

where is this at, that is aweful.. I hate traveling when the weather is bad..
US23 is closed in both directions due to multi car accident,
 
Vaccinations are intended to prevent disease, not infection. They work by stimulating the immune system to fight infections off before they cause serious illness. Although the vaccinated individual will be unlikely to get ill from a future infection, they can still become infected and pass the infection on to others - although are less likely to than unvaccinated individuals, who will also shed much more infectious organisms than vaccinated ones.

There are several reasons that unvaccinated birds kept with vaccinated ones may become ill. With chickens, it is most likely that they are exposed to the infection from other birds, such as wild birds that are in the same areas as the chickens, or to other new birds to the flock. Vaccinated individuals are much less likely than unvaccinated ones to become chronically infected and shed over long periods of time.

Vaccination will not be able to eliminate diseases such as Marek's as long as there are other sources of infection such as wild birds that can't be controlled in a home chicken operation.

Influenza is a little different, it is a virus that mutates frequently, and vaccination fails because vaccinations targeting certain strains will not protect you against others. The vaccine companies have to choose which strains to manufacture months before the flu season, so it happens fairly freqently that the strains selected are not protective against the main strain seen that season. This year's flu vaccine is about 60% effective, which is actually pretty good.

Jeffer's has vaccine in stock, the vaccine had been on back order for a long time.
 
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Has anyone euthanized chickens, and remember the cost? Because of a hawk attack I had to reduce my run to 1/4 of what it use to be, and just dont have room for all of the chickens..and I cant find homes for 2 silkie roosters and i need them gone, but dont have the heart to cull them myself. I feel bad as my flock is so tame from being pets but the 3-1 rooster ratio just isn't working and I need the room asap.
 
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Has anyone euthanized chickens, and remember the cost? Because of a hawk attack I had to reduce my run to 1/4 of what it use to be, and just dont have room for all of the chickens..and I cant find homes for 2 silkie roosters and i need them gone, but dont have the heart to cull them myself. I feel bad as my flock is so tame from being pets but the 3-1 rooster ratio just isn't working and I need the room asap.
Isn't that one of the things friends are for? Maybe you could call/ask at the local feed store if someone will kill them for you, or take them off your hands. Many people are not averse to the deed.
 
Has anyone euthanized chickens, and remember the cost? Because of a hawk attack I had to reduce my run to 1/4 of what it use to be, and just dont have room for all of the chickens..and I cant find homes for 2 silkie roosters and i need them gone, but dont have the heart to cull them myself. I feel bad as my flock is so tame from being pets but the 3-1 rooster ratio just isn't working and I need the room asap.
post them on craigslist, where are you at.. if you were close i would take them..or help you out
 
looking at all the baby chicks just adds to the addiction I wish I had an incubator, maybe I need to get one like Nova's, she looks like such a good momma, and goes broody a lot??
Broody alot??? That dang bird will lay eggs for 3 weeks tops then be broody again. She'll brood the eggs, keep being a mama until the chicks are about 5 weeks, start laying, then at 8 weeks, she's all crabby again. LOL. AND her sister is the exact same way!
 

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