New chicks in a flock

[lcobber]

Hello-

I have three hens at home. 9 weeks old that I've raised from chicks. I'm currently driving home with two nine week old hens from a local farm. The farm was clean but had many chickens. It'd be very inconvenient to quarantine them for thirty days. Thoughts on introducing today??

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

All depends on how you feel about gambling and risks. Quarantine can show sick birds, but than what. You can also go through quarantine and the new chicks could be caring something the others haven't been exposed to and it still can cause problems.

Bringing in birds from multiple sources is always a gamble in my opinion no matter if you quarantine or not. Do what you are comfortable with and what risks you are willing to take.

 

[bobbi-j]

Unless you have the facilities to do a proper medical quarantine, I'm not sure how much good it does. There are those here who swear by it, there are those who bring home new chickens and never have a problem. As OHLD says, it's up to you how much you're willing to gamble.

 

[lazy gardener]

Your risk. Your choice. I personally keep a closed flock. The only new blood that comes into my flock is by hatchery chicks, or shipped eggs. That being said, the back yard flock keeper is rarely able to do any kind of quarantine that would be effective. I believe an effective quarantine includes: 400' separation, no free ranging between old and new. All impliments, feed containers and tools sterilized for new birds, and then not swapped back and forth, complete change of clothing and shoes when moving from one flock to an other. Sterilization of shoes.

There is also the realization that it's impossible and not adviseable to keep your flock in a sterile bubble. Any bird passing over head, any mouse, rat, or squirrel passing through can be a vector for disease. If you visit the feed store, and come home without sterilizing your shoes, you are sharing your shoe crud with the crud of all of the other flock owners who visit that store. Got friends with chickens? Do they visit your yard? Do your chickens then go out into your yard?

Choose your risk tolerance, and make your decisions based on that.

 

[Hillaire]

Your risk. Your choice. I personally keep a closed flock. The only new blood that comes into my flock is by hatchery chicks, or shipped eggs. That being said, the back yard flock keeper is rarely able to do any kind of quarantine that would be effective. I believe an effective quarantine includes: 400' separation, no free ranging between old and new. All impliments, feed containers and tools sterilized for new birds, and then not swapped back and forth, complete change of clothing and shoes when moving from one flock to an other. Sterilization of shoes.

There is also the realization that it's impossible and not adviseable to keep your flock in a sterile bubble. Any bird passing over head, any mouse, rat, or squirrel passing through can be a vector for disease. If you visit the feed store, and come home without sterilizing your shoes, you are sharing your shoe crud with the crud of all of the other flock owners who visit that store. Got friends with chickens? Do they visit your yard? Do your chickens then go out into your yard?

Choose your risk tolerance, and make your decisions based on that.

x2 exactly what I was thinking