Moving chicks outside and into isolation near 1 yr old hens/ coccidiosis danger?

[marwoo99]

I have five 3 week old chicks and will be moving them out to the coop soon. Our coop has a lower level that is surrounded by hardware cloth and has a concrete floor that we cover in 6" of straw (safe from predators). I have a couple of questions related to the move:

1. The lower level has no hard walls and no nesting boxes. We can rig up some roosting bars temporarily. Will the chicks be comfortable with not being "enclosed" night and day? The coop will be above them and they will have a shared hardware cloth wall with the run.

2. We are closing the lower level off to the hens. Will the shared "wall" be enough to acclimate them to the chicks?

3. Can I introduce our gentle hen (one on the bottom of the pecking order) to them first - will that help encourage the others?

Also - MAJOR CONCERN-
We had a hen die from coccidiosis (confirmed by a lab) 4 weeks ago. We cleaned the run/coop and gave the hens Corid treatment for 5 days as recommended. Even so, I'm VERY nervous about infecting the chicks. Any recommendations?

Note: I've been trying to raise the hens organically and didn't really want to give them the antibiotics but chose to do so. I'm not really into loading the chicks up on preventative meds.

 

[Ridgerunner]

1. The lower level has no hard walls and no nesting boxes. We can rig up some roosting bars temporarily. Will the chicks be comfortable with not being "enclosed" night and day? The coop will be above them and they will have a shared hardware cloth wall with the run.

Your weather will determine this more than anything else. Temperature and their age is one thing. In summer I’ve had a broody hen wean her chicks at 3 weeks, so if it is warm enough they should be OK from that aspect, but I don’t have a clue what your temperatures are. Of more concern is rain and wind. Once they are fully feathered out, say 5 to 6 weeks, this is not as much of a concern, but they do need a dry place. Rain can blow in from the side. It really helps to not have a strong wind hitting them either, so a wind/rain break may be a good idea. Say create a dry protected corner and leave the rest open.



2. We are closing the lower level off to the hens. Will the shared "wall" be enough to acclimate them to the chicks?

You could get a book on this question alone. As long as the hens and chicks can see each other, they will get used to each other, but you still have the pecking order to go through. There are two basic parts to integration, them just getting used to each other being in the same flock and establishing the pecking order. Housing them like that takes care of the first problem, but the chicks will have to grow enough to be able to make their way into the pecking order before that is finished. If you have a lot of room that is generally not a big deal, the chicks just avoid the older hens, but if space is tight it is a lot more dangerous.


3. Can I introduce our gentle hen (one on the bottom of the pecking order) to them first - will that help encourage the others?

Often the hen at the bottom of the pecking order is the worst brute when it comes to integrating chicks. Maybe she wants to maintain her superiority over the little chicks. Again room is critical. If it is tight you will most likely have issues no matter how you go about it. If you have room, I’d try them all at once and watch.


Also - MAJOR CONCERN-

We had a hen die from coccidiosis (confirmed by a lab) 4 weeks ago. We cleaned the run/coop and gave the hens Corid treatment for 5 days as recommended. Even so, I'm VERY nervous about infecting the chicks. Any recommendations?

Yes, you are right to be concerned. I don’t know how much you know about the life cycle of the Coccidiosis bug. Understanding that can help you through this.

There are several different strains of the Coccidiosis bug. A couple of them are much more dangerous than the others because of where in the chickens’ digestive system the bugs live. Sounds like you might have one of the more dangerous ones though that is not necessarily the case.

In the Coccidiosis life cycle, the chicken eats a Coccidiosis egg called oocyst. The oocyst hatches inside the chickens intestines and attaches itself to the walls. There it grows and lays eggs. These are expelled with the poop and develop a couple of days in damp or wet manure. Then the chicken eats these and the cycle continues. These things thrive in wet manure. A wet brooder, coop, or run can be really dangerous while if they are dry it is not nearly as risky.

Having a few of these Coccidiosis bugs is not a bad thing. The chickens will develop a sort of immunity after about three weeks of constant exposure to these bugs. The problem comes in when the number of bugs get out of hand. Since these bugs thrive in wet manure, keeping the areas dry is a great step. With most strains of Coccidiosis keeping things dry takes care of most of the problem until they develop immunity, but if the number of bugs get out of hand, you need to treat. Remember, some strains are more dangerous than others.

Treating your coop and run did not get rid of the Coccidiosis bug. It’s in the ground. Your chicks are going to be exposed. Your challenge is to keep the number of bugs from getting out of hand until they can develop that immunity. By the way, immunity to one strain does not give immunity to all strains.

So how do you proceed? They need that three week exposure in relatively dry conditions. Slightly damp isn’t bad because you want a few of the bugs to go through their life cycle so they can develop immunity, but wet is dangerous. I feed dirt from the run to my chicks in the brooder, starting from the second or third day in there, then feed them more dirt every 4 to 5 days to keep reintroducing those bugs. My brooder is too dry for the bugs to reproduce in there. By the time they hit the ground, they have developed the immunity they need. So introduce the bug to those chicks to start them on the road to immunity. That can be under that coop if you can keep it pretty dry. But watch them very closely and be prepared to treat them if necessary.

Clean water is also very important. Those bugs can thrive in dirty poopy water too. So totally dump the water every day and make sure the water if clean.

The medication in Corid is Amprolium. That’s the same medication in practically all the medicated feed you can buy in the feed store, but check the label to make sure it is the only medication in the medicated feed. There are a few exceptions. Amprolium is not an antibiotic, it blocks thiamine so the Coccidiosis bug has trouble reproducing. It will not wreck the probiotics in the chicks system but it is also not considered “organic”. In the dosage in Corid it is a treatment, in medicated feed the dosage is much less and is more of a preventative though especially in wet conditions they can still come down with Coccidiosis. I don’t feed medicated feed but it is an option for you.

So introduce them to that bug, keep them dry and with clean water, and watch to see if you need to treat them. Good luck!

 

[marwoo99]

Amazing information on the coccidiosus -thank you. Also glad to know that the Corid is not an antibiotic.

We are looking at night temperatures of about 58. They have been fine without the heatlamp at night indoors (sort of an unheated/uncooled garage-type room). Maybe I'll wait another week and just keep bringing them outside during the day/evening temps in the 80's-90's. They are so rambunctious in their brooder I feel like they need to bust out!