North Carolina

Operation Quarantine was an EPIC fail!!!

Now it is wine o' clock at my house, I've earned it!

I did finish the new pen. And while I'm sure it's not as nice as some of yours (and not as nice as my main one they never use!) I am pretty impressed with my city girl self for building it while my husband is on a 24 hour shift. Even broke out the power tools!
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I was able to pick up some treated wooden pallets and secured them in the ground with poles to make a 10'x10' pen with a gate. I have bird netting on the top to keep them that's about 8 feet high. I recycled the long branch I had to cut off my dogwood tree to make room for the top and attached it to the fence with large curtain brackets to make a roost. And I built them a little covered nesting box with 3 openings to go in, but left the inside open (no box dividers) so if it rains or whatever they can all fit inside easily.
I think the Golden Comets are quite pleased with their new home in there and as soon as I finished they both went and laid me an egg!

Now the bad news...
The pair of australorp chicks can go right through the pallets since they're so small and I don't have enough chicken wire to cover them all.
All day all the other chickens were together and when the sun finally came out (and yes I was out there building in the downpour this morning), I caught them all laying on top of each other in the sun, wings spread over each other. So I've pretty much concluded if someone's sick they all are sick.
Also, when I did finish the new pen the one mystery chicken and one production red couldn't be caught, I had to wait for my neighbor to get home from work and help me.
The mystery chicken also has mustard yellow diarrhea I've now discovered so I think I've forced the other healthy new chickens to be cooped up with it.
Everybody got a dose of Zimecterin Gold, fingers crossed for me there's nothing more serious!!!
Guess you have to live and learn!

Another question on deworming: I have 2 "free range" lion head bunnies and a cat and even though they have their own water and food dishes, they opt to eat out of the chickens. Do I need to deworm them???

Finally, my original chickens were all treated with Marek's vaccine at birth. If these new chickens brought in Marek's than my original ones would be immune to that particular disease, right? My only roo is a little silkie who went broody and is the cutest thing ever followed by my original 2 barred rocks that are literally like puppy dogs. I would hate to lose any chicken, but I would feel like I lost a family member if anything happened to those 3.

Any idea what to do with this supposed barred rock, or should I just get rid of the thing?
It's already at the bottom of the pecking order below some of my chicks!!!

Hope everyone had a great day!
 
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Operation Quarantine was an EPIC fail!!!

Finally, my original chickens were all treated with Marek's vaccine at birth. If these new chickens brought in Marek's than my original ones would be immune to that particular disease, right?
Nope, them being vaccinated doesn't mean they are safe. They are just less likely to get it or show that they have it. But if you ever think you have it and take a vaccinated bird to be tested, whether the bird has it or not the test will come back positive for it.
 
Nope, them being vaccinated doesn't mean they are safe. They are just less likely to get it or show that they have it. But if you ever think you have it and take a vaccinated bird to be tested, whether the bird has it or not the test will come back positive for it.
Very good to know thank you!!!

The barred whatever is actually brown once it was in daylight.
So now I'm even more confused.
Super tiny, super red single comb and little wattles.
I've never seen a barred rock that wasn't black and white so now I'm thinking its some kind of barnyard mix.
I don't know, just praying she isn't too sick and is actually a she!!!!

Anyone know anything about the cat and bunnies that share a waterer/feeder with all the chickens (believe me I have tried everything to keep them separate, but they do what they want to do!)
I've never wormed a cat (honestly I've only ever heard of it being done in dogs until the other day).
 
I only deworm when I see a need for it. If they seem underweight or if I see adult ascarids in their poo. If I suspect that they have worms, I run a fecal exam. Chickens are meant to carry a certain parasite load. My chickens free range, though, so I'm sure they self-medicate. I used to deworm my horses every 3 months, but now I only deworm them if they have a positive fecal exam. Overuse of anthelmintics and insecticides can create resistant strains of these parasites just like the overuse of antibiotics can create super-bacteria. I have a friend who puts DE in her food and coop, I think it makes things really dusty. She takes care of my horses and she feeds her own horses DE, but not mine and neither of our horses has had a positive fecal in about a year, so I'm not sure that DE is really necessary. Besides, I have a feeling that DE could be harmful to beneficial insects and worms as well as the harmful ones.

I would just feed them, make sure they have fairly clean living spaces and fresh water. The best advice I can give you is to know your birds, know their behavior and if there is something off, ask someone about it. Keep a first aid/medicine kit with terramycin, sulmet or corrid, wound powder and triple antibiotic ointment, vetwrap, and betadine or chlorhexidine. Don't overthink chickens. But, when its nasty out like it has been for weeks on end, I would go with medicated starter and definitely, preemptively purchase a bottle of sulmet or corrid to keep on hand, just in case.

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