No Quarantine Integration (Yes, I know I'm being bad)

[Kacey Elle]

Background: I have a home flock (currently down to two) and am the caretaker for my high school's flock of 20 chickens. In April, I will buy two or three of the chickens from my school to bring to my house. I live in a suburban area and my entire backyard is about 1,200 sq. ft. The chicken coop/run and "range" is about 25% of my total backyard. The coop/run is 150 sq. ft. I can legally have up to six chickens.

While I know and understand the importance of quarantining new chickens, I simply do not have the space to do so. The chickens currently living at my home also used to be "school chickens." How bad will it be to take chickens from my school and immediately integrate them with my home flock? Since I interact with both flocks on a daily (or almost-daily, in the case of the school birds) basis, I will definitely avoid bringing home chickens with any visible symptoms. Will it help the incoming chickens at all if I bring some soil from home to start seeding it at the school pasture? Would that make things worse or make no difference?

This is a case when I know I'm not doing the best thing so please don't yell at me for that! It is simply not feasible and I'm hoping that my unusual situation means I shouldn't have to worry too much about bringing someone sick home.

 

[azygous]

You seem to have a pretty good handle on why quarantine is a good practice. You also seem to understand it really is redundant in your case since you've been observing these school chickens all along. If any were sick, you would likely be aware of it by the time you take your selections home to join your flock.

What you may not be aware of are the limitations of quarantine to weed out chickens that could be carrying a dormant avian virus. Many chickens carrying an avian virus can display no symptoms for months or even years until one day stress factors can trigger symptoms. Meanwhile, the virus has been introduced into your flock and you would have no way of knowing.

These viruses aren't spread by just chicken to chicken contact. If, for example, the school chickens carry such a virus, then you would likely bring it home on your shoes and clothing, and if your home flock weren't infected before, they would be eventually.

Are you following all this? Basically, quarantine is to observe new chickens for a reasonable period to see if a respiratory virus or a parasite caused illness is incubating and a chicken will become sick before you put them with your flock. Quarantine is useless where a dormant avian virus is concerned.

Bottom line is in your case, you have concluded correctly that quarantine is unnecessary.

 

[Kacey Elle]

@azygous Thank you for that information and confirmation that quarantine wouldn't be as necessary for me as it is for some folks. I do practice a very mild form of biosecurity in that I have a pair of dedicated shoes that I wear into my chicken area at home and I *sometimes* change clothes if I was with my school flock before I go visit my home flock. But I don't shower in between (although I do wash my hands)! Do those things affect any possible viral transfer? While I know that we cannot, of course, prevent everything since many illnesses are transferred from wild birds and the like (and the possibility of illness is a secondary affect of simply being alive!), I do want to do the best I can with my unique situation.

 

[azygous]

Yes, your biosecurity practices are to be commended, as is you awareness of transferring contagious diseases on clothing. These viruses are less likely to be transferred on your skin, but hand washing is always the number one best precaution!

 

[Ebony Rose]

I was thinking that you might wish to intentionally bring some of the school dirt home with you a month or two prior to you bringing home the new chickens. This would enable you to expose them to whatever strain(s) of coccidia the new girls are going to be introducing to your existing flock when they arrive. This should work sort of like a vaccine (although you can't really vaccinate for coccidiosis) to enable your existing flock to build resistance to the strains of coccidia that the school chickens have ingested and will certainly shed once you get them home.

 

[aart]

Will it help the incoming chickens at all if I bring some soil from home to start seeding it at the school pasture? Would that make things worse or make no difference?

I would not do that...you may 'infect' the rest of the school flock before they go to their homes. I'm assuming all the school birds will be sold off or rehomed. Your flock could be carrying something and not showing symptoms.

You're aware of the issues and risks, and that's a good thing!
Only time will tell if you see any consequences.

Do you have integration plans?

 

[Ridgerunner]

If you can't do a good quarantine then you can't. You seem to have a good understanding of what is involved. It's hard to do better than the best you can.

I would not do anything to purposely try to infect either group. Chicken diseases and parasites spread easily enough without us helping them. And you are not the only one involved in this. If you happen to bring something home, deal with it then. There is no use potentially making things worse for no benefit. And I don't see any benefit to you or anybody else trying that.

 

[Ebony Rose]

If you can't do a good quarantine then you can't. You seem to have a good understanding of what is involved. It's hard to do better than the best you can.

I would not do anything to purposely try to infect either group. Chicken diseases and parasites spread easily enough without us helping them. And you are not the only one involved in this. If you happen to bring something home, deal with it then. There is no use potentially making things worse for no benefit. And I don't see any benefit to you or anybody else trying that.

The benefit that I see in purposely introducing his existing flock to the coccidia that these newcomers ARE GOING TO BRING home with them, is that if it's a strain that his existing flock hasn't encountered before, he'll have a couple of months to treat them with Corid before the newcomers arrive. This way, if the newcomers get sick upon coming home... he's not going to have the two separate flocks (as that's what they'll be until fully integrated) sick at the same time. My thinking is that it will be less overwhelming to deal with possible illness introduced. OP mentioned that his original flock lived at the school back in the day, so there shouldn't be TOO MUCH of an issue, but it's still possible.

I would not do that...you may 'infect' the rest of the school flock before they go to their homes. I'm assuming all the school birds will be sold off or rehomed. Your flock could be carrying something and not showing symptoms.

You're aware of the issues and risks, and that's a good thing!
Only time will tell if you see any consequences.

Do you have integration plans?

I agree with you Aart, I was thinking that the introduction of the dirt should only go from the school to his home, not the other way around.

In summary, He wouldn't be fighting (possibly) two different strains of coccidia overload at the same time, as it can present in different ways and become a confusing mess of symptoms.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

When do the new birds come home? Did you already tell us and I missed it?

 

[Mrs. K]

If you are in the school flock and in your own flock for a period of time as stated, ten to one, quarantine is broken or non-existent. Your movement back and forth between the flocks would be pretty difficult to do over a long period of time without a goof up or two. To truly quarantine is dang hard to do.

The thing is really you could consider the school birds in quarantine from your birds now. You get to see them, care for them, and they are separate from your flock. That is quarantine, there is no magic in having them on your place, it is keeping them separate from your flock.

You are basically risking 2 birds, not a huge financial loss. Some people do get very attached and would suffer a decline if they lost their original birds, but you do not seem there.

There is a small chance that the school birds have something yours don't, or vice versa, but I would think it is a pretty small chance. It depends on where and how the school gets birds. If they are buying birds at an auction or swap, I would be a bit more leary about this. But as it is a school, I am assuming (?) that the birds were either hatched there or raised there from chicks. (what a neat school!) which would reduce the possibilities even more.

The only "no go" I would say is, if ANY of the school birds are sick... I would not take any of the birds.

Mrs K