Need advice concerning small backyard flock

[lpetrucci]

Hello,

A couple of months ago our flock was exposed to some type of respiratory illness from meat chickens we were hoping to raise. We have 6 grown laying hens and 2 young ones a few months old. We culled the meat birds, but their sickness still spread despite the efforts we made to keep everyone separated.

I have naturally nursed the hens back to health somewhat, even the little ones seem to be doing well. They still aren't laying as well as they were, but all signs of a "cold" are gone. They appear chipper and healthy otherwise.

My question is what to do with these birds...to keep or to cull. We would like to add some more to our flock, particularly some bantams as my kids are very interested in them. Would I be perpetuating the illness by keeping our hens? Would any newcomer get sick even if the current hens show no signs of illness?

Thank you very much, this sight has been so very helpful.

 

[chkn]

Some people might say 'freeze them' and then disinfect everything. I personally figure I'll never get rid of all the chicken bacteria and viruses present. It's a pain for me to rear them until egg rearing age so I'd just take care of the ones I've got and then add a few new ones every once in awhile as needed. Sure it's possible the chickens are carriers of something. You can always disinfect the run and coop anyway. It never hurts. I guess if you were to breed them for resale you might want to take a different tact. But there are never any guarantees. Most of the important things they vaccinate anyway.

 

[Pyxis]

Sounds like you have a respiratory disease there, probably CRD or something like that. The birds you have are carriers for life, so no amount of disinfecting the coop, run, and general area would get rid of the disease while you have the birds. They're probably going to have flare ups of it again, especially if they get stressed or are otherwise immune system compromised. They'll pass it to any other bird you add, and, sadly, if it is CRD or another respiratory disease cause by the mycoplasma bacteria, it would even pass to all chicks through their eggs. If you wanted, you could add new birds, but you'd have to treat them for the illness too and likely some wouldn't make it. You'd never be able to sell birds or chicks or hatching eggs from your flock or you'd pass the illness to others. But, the disease is treatable. Most people treat it with tetracycline in the water or with Tylan injectable.

So, as long as you're just keeping the birds as pets and for eggs for yourself, and you don't mind having to treat them every once in a while, by all means keep them. Just PLEASE practice good biosecurity (e.g. a pair of shoes that you only wear out to care for the chickens and nowhere else, never selling or giving your birds to others, etc) so you don't track the disease around and spread it to others. Otherwise, I'd say keep them, especially if you're attached and the things listed above don't bother you. If they do, unfortunately you're better off culling and starting over. I had a scare like this awhile ago. Luckily it turned out to be nothing, which I found out after I did some research (my bird vet, inexperienced with chickens, make a split second diagnosis of a chick from a hatchery that had never been outside which was based on nothing but his injured eye) and I was so upset, so I know how you feel. I feel very lucky that this was not the case for me, but sadly it sounds like it might be for you.