Nevadans?

[VCfeathers]

Quote:

Saturdays are best for us, or Sundays after 3pm. And spring is good, too, especially before May 15th. With the 3 gardens, our weekends are going to be pretty packed, but it's a lot better than trying to work around school nights and clients.

The weekened will definitly be better, between those of us that have kids and the construction work on Geiger. I agree it should be before the 15th as a lot of us will be moving plants outdoors after that, and I'll have my hands full trying to get the farmers market up and running close to then. At least thats what I'd like.




SagebrushMama


Thats great, I'd like to get my son involved in the shooting club. I'm not sure how much intrest he has in showing livestock yet.

 

[SagebrushMama]

Missy, I'm so sorry about your birds. I hadn't scrolled back far enough through the postings to see what it is they have. Do you know? Cocciodoioses (Can't spell it) or Mareks even?

 

[SagebrushMama]

My son Chris really loves it, and the instructors Rich an Tam Knight are great people. You can reach Rich at his email address, [email protected]. There is a variety of different disciplines, my son does Archery, Shotgun and Muzzle Loader. There's also Air Pistol, Air Rifle and 22.

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Missy, I'm so sorry about your birds. I hadn't scrolled back far enough through the postings to see what it is they have. Do you know? Cocciodoioses (Can't spell it) or Mareks even?

It's a fast-spreading respiratory disease. After reading about infectious bronchitis, I think that's it. The book says it's highly contagious, with a 24-to-48-hour incubation period. The good news is that it's over with in 7 days, killing only the more susceptible ones, and the survivors are permanently immune to it. However, the survivors can also be carriers.

I don't know where it came from. I guess it's possible that a wild bird perched on top of their coop and pooped down. The only ones that got sick were the batch of big kids, 6-8wks, that had been going outside during the day for the past week. I lost one sweetheart that was already stressed from joining the flock.

More good news... the book also said that the virus is very easy to kill with sanitation, and can't survive more than a couple of days off of the bird. Because of the weather, none of them had been in the mini-coop for 5 days, and it got bleached anyway.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Well, I was optimistic about the sick chickens getting better, until I changed out their water this morning and saw a lot of meaty-looking stools. They weren't bloody, just looked... well, "meaty" is the closest description I could think of.

So Sahara and Russ stayed home from church to disinfect more of the house. I had to go teach a Sunday School class. About 10 minutes before I had to leave, I asked Russ, "Would you rather stay home and do this, or substitute teach my class?" He said he'd rather teach the class... as I was all ready to go. Next time, I'll ask sooner.

The bathroom brooder is the half-bath connected to Sahara's room. So Sahara took everything out of her room. She's a packrat, so that was a lot. She was told to throw away anything that she couldn't wash in the washing machine and didn't want to sanitize by hand. The area rug got thrown away, as did the soft-cushion rocking chair and a few toys. She was told that she could not visit the new chicks unless she was in clothing that had been washed since it had been in her room. And since she's not very diligent about doing laundry, she had to wash and dry an entire load. And she sanitized every toy and book with Clorox Cleanup. Each time she complained, we explained that it all had to be done tonight. At the end, she was so tired and just wanted to see her chicks and ducks, and we asked her if it was worth it to her to shower first to make sure the babies didn't get sick. She said yes, it was totally worth it.

Russ dug down 2 inches in the outside mini-coop, then sprayed everything down with Clorox Cleanup. Then he waited until it could all dry and air out, then took the little kids out to play so they didn't catch any dander during the cleaning. They loved it! Very happy chicks in this nice weather. Then, since Sahara worked so hard and it wasn't at all her fault that the chickens were sick, Joe had to do his share. He swept and mopped the entire house. The door to the babies was shut tight, and nobody involved in the cleaning was allowed to go outside until they were totally changed and showered. So I just cared for the hens and the babies after returning home from church. My nextdoor neighbor offered to let us borrow his ionizer to keep the air clean, too.

It's tiring and frustrating, but I think we have a handle on this. As long as we keep diligent about biosecurity. I still have to decide what to do with these chickens, though. They're surviving, and still have vigor and appetites, but will they be carriers to get the rest of my chickens sick? I can't keep the roosters anyway, but I also can't just give them away without disclosing that they had been sick. And the pullets? Do I dare put them with my other chickens when they're old enough? Or do I just cull them all and cut my losses, so nobody has to worry about it? I have 3 marans, a male and a female BLRW, a black split pullet, and 2 lavender pullets. They're all valuable chickens.

I can't imagine that such a mild respiratory infection would be a problem for biosecurity else where but I'm not a vet. Some things like Mareks are a huge deal and should be culled but people get colds all the time and we don't worry about that forever. What does the chicken health book say? Steve has put ours away and I can't find it.

 

[SagebrushMama]

That's so sad. We got our new order of chicks three weeks ago and out of 50, 18 died. Something happened during shipment. But the hatchery is going to send a new shipment to replace the ones we lost.

 

[VCfeathers]

This coming weekend works for us. I prefer Sunday afternoon but am open to anytime Saturday or Sunday. Should we bring a main dish or a dessert? I love to cook so either works for me.

I know the weather is supposed to hold through Saturday, not sure about Sunday yet. So if Saturday works for you and Missy I say lets go with Saturday. Since you were the first to ask I think you can have first choice as to what you'd like to bring. I figured I'd wait and see what everyone else wants to bring and then fill in whatever is missing.


Missy I'm so sorry about your chicks! I wish I could help somehow. You could always offer to sell them as a complete flock to someone with no chickens. I know you don't want to get rid of them, and aren't positive about what they have, but if its anything like horse diseases then you may not have any other good options. Sometimes those things can get into the ground and just wait to infect the next animal to come along.

 

[americanvalkyrie]

I can't imagine that such a mild respiratory infection would be a problem for biosecurity else where but I'm not a vet. Some things like Mareks are a huge deal and should be culled but people get colds all the time and we don't worry about that forever. What does the chicken health book say? Steve has put ours away and I can't find it.

We're probably making a bigger deal about biosecurity than we need to. But having this spread to the younger birds wouldn't be good. And if the hens get sick, their production will go down either from the disease or the medicine.

Everything I've read that matches the "cold" symptoms are highly contagious. Some are worse than others, and I'm paying more attention to the most common diseases. But all the descriptions say the birds could be carriers for the rest of their lives. "Could be" isn't very specific. I don't know... if I keep one of the lavender pullets, what are the chances that she would be a carrier, and could infect more when she joins other birds? I just don't know so we're trying to be as careful as possible.

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Missy I'm so sorry about your chicks! I wish I could help somehow. You could always offer to sell them as a complete flock to someone with no chickens. I know you don't want to get rid of them, and aren't positive about what they have, but if its anything like horse diseases then you may not have any other good options. Sometimes those things can get into the ground and just wait to infect the next animal to come along.

Right, that's what I'm thinking... selling them as a "complete family." But if I found an ad on CL and the owner disclosed the disease, I really don't think I'd take the chickens. Even free. I still have to contact Lacey and discuss this with her. She hasn't paid me for them yet, but she did want a few of these.

Right now they're contained in the bathroom brooder, which has enough room until they're a lot bigger. They can't be taken out to any place with other chickens.

 

[chicharomirinda]

Sorry about this sickness, Missy. what a huge amount of work you've had to do! I don't know that you would have to cull all the birds. It sounds like you can prevent spreading with all your sanitizing and then keep them separated until all signs of sickness are gone plus some extra time to be sure. Maybe you can find some answers with a little more online research.

I know the weather is supposed to hold through Saturday, not sure about Sunday yet. So if Saturday works for you and Missy I say lets go with Saturday. Since you were the first to ask I think you can have first choice as to what you'd like to bring. I figured I'd wait and see what everyone else wants to bring and then fill in whatever is missing.


Missy I'm so sorry about your chicks! I wish I could help somehow. You could always offer to sell them as a complete flock to someone with no chickens. I know you don't want to get rid of them, and aren't positive about what they have, but if its anything like horse diseases then you may not have any other good options. Sometimes those things can get into the ground and just wait to infect the next animal to come along.

Saturday works for us as well.