Need Advice ... Getting New Chickens!

[BrittChick15]

Good luck with your new birds! Wishing you all the best. Can you post some pictures when you get them? They sound really interesting!

Yes I absolutely will!!! 2 Splash Laced Red Wyandottes and 1 Silver Laced Wyandotte

 

[BrittChick15]

I NEVER bring in outside birds! Chicks from good hatcheries, yes. Birds from anyone else, NO WAY!
Actual quarantine is easily four weeks, totally separate and away from your birds, with zero cross contamination. Then either add one of your birds as a sacrificial lamb, to see what happens, and/ or have testing done to see if there's MG, MS, or Marek's disease present.
Short of that, you just take your chances.
Things will probably turn out fine, but how will you feel if disaster strikes?
It's about having good luck, and where your comfort zone is.
How about cute chicks in spring instead?
Mary

If I thought these new birds looked ill or unkept I wouldn’t be getting them. The lady that raised them lives not too far from me on a cute little farm. She sent me pictures and they look like decent birds. I will quarantine for 2 weeks and assess if I feel they need more quarantine time or not. They are not from auction or from unsanitary situations. I got chicks last spring and will probably end up getting more chicks this spring but these are already started pullets. They should be laying within the next two months rather than chicks would only start in August.

 

[cmom]

I went to a poultry show this past weekend. I picked up from some breeders I know, a White leghorn male and 3 White Leghorn pullets. They will be in quarantine for a good month. Looking forward to nice chicks from them.

 

[cmom]

All birds must be tested prior to cooping in at the shows, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe but better to be safe than sorry later.

 

[cmom]

Truly quarantining is nearly impossible in a small set up. And if you don't do quarantine properly, you are just pretending to do it. It is a real risk when you add birds. If you would go into a decline if something happened to your original birds, do not add strange birds.

However, healthy generally looks healthy. If the person you are getting them from, keeps a flock in good conditions, and her flock looks healthy, I think it is a reasonable risk, others do not.

Do NOT EVER take something you feel sorry for. That is asking for a train wreck. I also would not buy birds in an auction or swap. Those birds have been exposed to all sorts of other poultry and highly stressed.

But from an established flock, not too far from you, with birds raised pretty much like yours, really in a way, those birds have been in quarantine away from your flock.

And my husband of 40 years, barely tolerates a week of baby chicks in the garage.


Mrs K

I agree. I do quarantine any birds I get from others. I've been with my husband nearly 50 years. It took him some time after we got our birds but he's ok with them now. Years ago he was a bit pissy about it but now is ok with all of the birds. I think he was a bit afraid of them initially because as a boy he had a friend who had chickens and they had an aggressive rooster. He helped build the coops as the years have gone by. He loves the pullet eggs. Every year I hatch out a few hundred chicks. Of course around half of the chicks will be males. I do grow them all out and pick out the best and sell the rest. I keep most of the pullets because I do sell the eggs and they go into general population coops and pens. I pick out my future breeders because I want all of my birds to be potential show quality. The state does test my birds once a year. Good luck and have fun with your new birds.

 

[aart]

All birds must be tested prior to cooping in at the shows, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe but better to be safe than sorry later.

What are they tested for?
I doubt the more insidious things like MG, Corzya, Mareks, etc....are not tested for.

 

[cmom]

What are they tested for?
I doubt the more insidious things like MG, Corzya, Mareks, etc....are not tested for.

http://poultryimprovement.org/defau...b830aa998-A01B9267-E83E-7D01-4510D0D210717CD8

 

[Ridgerunner]

What are they tested for?
I doubt the more insidious things like MG, Corzya, Mareks, etc....are not tested for.

http://poultryimprovement.org/defau...b830aa998-A01B9267-E83E-7D01-4510D0D210717CD8

Aart, according to this site this is what Florida NPIP tests for. cmom is in Florida.

Pullorum-Typhoid, Avian Influenza, and Exotic Newcastle Disease.

https://www.fdacs.gov/content/download/77351/file/P-00041.pdf
Pennsylvania, where the OP is located, is a bit harder to get the requirements online, at least for me. This implies that Pennsylvania only tests for Avian Influenza and Pullorum.

https://www.agriculture.pa.gov/Busi...ED POULTRY CERTIFICATE revised 1-17-2012.pdf
Aart, you can get your own link for Michigan where you are, but it seems they only require testing for Pullorum to be Npip.

 

[cmom]

Here if you take the birds out of state they must be tested for avian influenza too, which I think is good. I have all of the test done that I can get.

 

[jolenesdad]

But what are poultry show birds tested for? That’s different than NPIP right? In TX that’s just PT tested. But then, there’s a lot of exemptions where you font even have to be tested to be in a poultry show because of the shortage.