Not an Emergency...Marek's in the Flock

[schnebbles]

lol! Mine have been in the coop shut in with the heat lamp. it was bitter cold yesterday and today the high was 7 maybe. they are doing ok.

so what do you guys think about hatching eggs? I know you guys have. I finally have a d'uccle laying and I'd love to hatch just 1-2. my main issue is what if I get a boy? i already have 2 and only 2 girls right now.

 

[NJchixs]

lol!  Mine have been in the coop shut in with the heat lamp.  it was bitter cold yesterday and today the high was 7 maybe.  they are doing ok.  

so what do you guys think about hatching eggs?  I know you guys have.  I finally have a d'uccle laying and I'd love to hatch just 1-2.  my main issue is what if I get a boy?  i already have 2 and only 2 girls right now.

Mine too were locked in their coop today. Also 7 degrees and the wind is brutal. I have a heat lamp on also. Gave them some spinach & apples at lunchtime to keep them busy.

The hatching dilemma :/ Well I am hoping to hatch, then vaccinate, some of my darkest Marans eggs. Maybe just six. I will keep one boy since I lost my second Roo in December. If there are more than that I will have to cull them as much as it breaks my heart. I'm not set on hatching yet, so I will continue to think about it. Oh I am so going to miss the sound of a newly hatched baby chick waking me in the night. The excitement of watching the eggs all day on hatch day, me and my boys loved it. So sad.

 

[schnebbles]

I couldn't even think of culling. Darn it. Mareks has certainly ruined a lot of experiences I might have had.

 

[gander007]

 

[NJchixs]

I couldn't even think of culling.  Darn it.  Mareks has certainly ruined a lot of experiences I might have had.  

Yes it has. My boys are growing and I finally have some time for me. I had just taken delivery of my second coop & run when I got the diagnosis. My plans were to sell FBCM chicks and fertile eggs.

 

[Nambroth]

I couldn't even think of culling. Darn it. Mareks has certainly ruined a lot of experiences I might have had.

Same here. I could probably cull jerk roosters, but my roo is a sweet, gentle, loving cochin and all of his predecessors have been too. I know that the male offspring he'd put out would very likely be sweeties, too. I have to be realistic with myself and I can't afford to make more coops/pens for roos, and wouldn't be able to cull a sweet animal like that. I'd never look down on someone that would, I just know myself, and I couldn't. I'm speaking as the meat provider of our house, as I hunt and do butcher meat when we have it. Yet, I can't bring a domestic critter into this world without having a place for it to go, responsibly.

 

[schnebbles]

NJchix - what kind are FBCM? i'm learning a lot of the abbreviations slowly but surely

I could never kill a living thing, no matter what. Fleas and mosquitoes that bite me are about it for me. Not bees though, lol!

I was explaining mareks more to my mom a while ago and about how it spreads and you could have it and never know it unless you had a bird show symptoms, then you could carry it around to other birds, and on and on. I got mind-boggled!

 

[NJchixs]

NJchix - what kind are FBCM?  i'm learning a lot of the abbreviations slowly but surely 

I could never kill a living thing, no matter what.  Fleas and mosquitoes that bite me are about it for me.  Not bees though, lol!

I was explaining mareks more to my mom a while ago and about how it spreads and you could have it and never know it unless you had a bird show symptoms, then you could carry it around to other birds, and on and on.  I got mind-boggled!  

FBCM- French Black Copper Marans. I had about 30 and down to four. So sad. My one girl lays a nice egg and it's hers I'd like to hatch. You can see it in this pic.

 

[schnebbles]

wow, you've lost a lot. I probably read that and forgot, it's hard to remember because I read too much. I was on the d'uccle thread and someone lost about 45 of 50 d'uccles. I have 2 and lost 1, 1 silkie and 2 bantam cochins.

 

[NJchixs]

Yes. At the peak it was two a day. I'd walk out at night and find some flopped over some dead. All my losses were the marans, not the mixed I hatched or my existing flock. Then after the diagnosis, and nursing so many still in isolation, I decided to cull all that showed active symptoms that I thought were just too far gone. They were half the size of the healthier ones (also the ones which didn't test positive). I tested five by blood and if I remember two were positive. It was very hard, I cried & prayed. Ask god to forgive me.