North Carolina

Ladybug is awesome... I see you are breaking her in right... how do the birds like her??

I think the duck wants to adopt her
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She was born in a stall with Turkey and they also have chickens and goats. We just brought her home and put her out in the barn. We did put her in a crate at dark.... I would hate for the stupid Fox, Raccoon or Coyote to eat her, but when she is big enough...................
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Update: I have three Silkies (one light and two dark), a dark mutt, what looks like a pure buff orp, and another one that I haven't been able to identify yet. This makes six babies hatched and two more eggs under momma Toast. I want to hold them and cuddle their cute fuzzyness but I know that momma knows best and she will let them out to play when she thinks they are ready.
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Update: I have three Silkies (one light and two dark), a dark mutt, what looks like a pure buff orp, and another one that I haven't been able to identify yet. This makes six babies hatched and two more eggs under momma Toast. I want to hold them and cuddle their cute fuzzyness but I know that momma knows best and she will let them out to play when she thinks they are ready.
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we will be expecting pictures !!!
 
Good Morning Everyone.

I have some not so good news to share this morning. I've been trying to sort out how to do this, but the best way is straightforward, I think.

There are lots of people having troubles with sick birds recently. That includes me, in the last two weeks. Sneezy with runny, swollen eyes. So, I took some birds up to Rollins diagnostic lab on Tuesday. Yesterday, my farm got quarentined. What my birds have is mycoplasmosis, which is reportable to the state.

The inspector that came out yesterday said they don't try to backtrack source on this one, because he estimates 50% of the birds in the state are carriers. It can be transmitted on your shoes, equipment, tires, by wild birds...just about anyway. We could have gotten it through a wild bird, through an auction or a swap...without even bringing a bird home!...or through buying hatching eggs, as this one is egg transmissible. It affects chickens, turkeys, gamebirds, pigeons...all poultry. Incubation period is 10 days to 2 weeks under normal circumstances.

So, if you have any birds that are sick, isolate them immediately. Use full biosecurity on them, feeding and watering them last, using boot covers, changing clothes and showering after doing them. If they die or you kill them, bury the carcasses. If you bring new birds in, do a full quarentine on them for 30 days, and do it properly, with biosecurity. And if they are adults, they could still be carriers! But the state doesn't try to track carriers, just outbreaks.

However, all is not evil. This is not transmissible to humans. The eggs are still edible. The meat of asymptomatic birds is edible.

So, what happens to me now? I have three options:
1. Do nothing, and stay on permanent quarentine. That's discouraged by the state, as they have to do monthly checks on quarentined farms. And it's also ridiculous to even try to live like that.
2. Slaughter and dispose of every bird on the place. Then he said everything sits for two weeks. Then everything gets bleached down. Then it sits for another month before being cleared for restocking. So it's not one that takes three months or six months to clear.
3. Try to test out of it. We can slaughter all sick birds, treat the rest, and have them tested. Slaughter all that are positive, treat everyone again, test again, repeat ad nauseum until we have several months clean. The inspector said because of the way birds become carriers, only about 2% of the people who attempt this manage to succeed.

So, it'll be a few months before I'm seen anywhere chickens can be found.

Sorry to be the bringer of bad news, but I figured everyone should know to be on the watch.

Meg
 
Meg...
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......we all know you take very good care of
your animalsand since this can be transmitted so easily,
even by nature, you should not feel bad about it.
We all support you and hope to you are back on track soon.
Anything I can do to help just hollar and I'm there......with booties
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Meg...
hugs.gif
......we all know you take very good care of
your animalsand since this can be transmitted so easily,
even by nature, you should not feel bad about it.
We all support you and hope to you are back on track soon.
Anything I can do to help just hollar and I'm there......with booties
wink.png

x2


This could be ANY of us, we all frequent the same chicken places. With all the people worried about sick birds the above advice is VERY important. Isolate....and in my opinion cull.
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