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

[casportpony]

Quote: No wild turkeys have been here that I know of... nearest I have seen them is about a mile to the east.

I vaguely remember that thread.

-Kathy

 

[Haunted55]

okay, I know that is a subject that is fought over often, the disease is awful, and will Turkey's be nicer if they are mixed with chickens?

Define nicer....Turkeys are Turkeys. If they are shown that they are a flock animal when they are young, they do alright. I do not put up with any crap from my Turkeys. I don't care how big they get or how puffed up the Toms think they are. Simply grab them by the back of their neck and hold them down until they calm down. You can also throw a blanket or towel over their head when they get to be too much. Instant quiet. They are dumb, let's face it. This usually takes a lot longer than it does with ducks, geese or even rotten roos, but it will still work. Turkeys are social creatures, very. Make it a habit to pat the Toms and the hens. They tend to be less aggressive when you do.

 

[mightymax]

Oh boy, I guess I have been away a little too long. I had pages to read just to get to the surface of some of this stuff while I'm still drowning under a good portion of the other. So what's been going on here lately? I've had to back read so many posts on so many threads that they're all starting to blend together and they're making my brain work harder than usual (which it does not enjoy, not one bit!).

I do believe that Haunted is on to something there by letting his chickens and turkeys all run together. He's doing a sort of 'cross pollination, if you will, and is apparently finding that, in his flock at least, the two strains of Marek's virus that he does have (chickens with one and turkeys the other) they seem to be canceling each other out and no one is calling in sick (or dead) to egg factory anymore !!!

Well I for one not only believe what Haunted has said about mixing turkeys and chickens together...I've practiced it and then put it into play. Let me say that those were the most carefree and glorious 8 months of some of my chickens entire lives! No sickness, no paralysis, no wasting, no deaths...in the entire time that those turkeys were living with my chickens not a one of them ever got anything more than a bad feather regrowth after a molt! But now? Now that the turkeys are gone, I've had 2 confirmed deaths and a several 'wasters' that are declining rapidly. And as for blackhead disease...no turkey of mine ever got it...and for that I am very thankful.

Now I'm not saying that you all need to run out and buy you some turkey poults to raise. Heavens NO !!! Turkeys can be cantankerous and stubborn to say the least, may be considered marginally intelligent and social at best and should be regarded with a suspicious eye if ever one of you chicks goes missing for more than a day ...lol !!!

Just like Haunted, I'm not saying it'll work for everyone. I just know that my babies did better with the turks around. Not really sure why that is yet. I do have a couple of hypotheses that I've thrown into the 'crock pot' I call my brain and am letting them stew there for awhile. I'll let you know when I think they're done !!!

Goodnight for now!

-kim-

 

[Haunted55]

Kim, I think it has to do with the constant exposure to the Turkey Marek's. As we all know, this is the most used vaccine out there for home and hatchery alike. Now some of the hatcheries have 3 or more they are giving, but we as home raisers of poultry cannot get the others. Just the plain old Turkey Marek's vaccine, which is live virus by the way. So go one more step...constant exposure, albeit small doses of the virus [remember, turkeys are shedding it as well] seems to be the answer here. I know of others who are spreading Turkey bedding, used of course, as well as feathers etc. around their chickens. I bet it would work, but not sure just how well. To me, the fresher the sheds of the Turkey Marek's, the better the protection for my birds.

I've been told, that until the Turkey poults have hit the ground or their parent stock has tested positive, it would be a while before coverage can begin. That would explain, at least to me, why the Marek's here didn't start 'going away' sooner. [It doesn't go away, ever, just a choice phrase.] As my Lurkeys got older and spent more time ranging, the coverage they gave my chickens got better and better. Like I said, no magic bullet.

One more thing...let's be real Kim! Lurks can be real idiots. Lovable ones for the most part, but when the dumb males get to strutting and fighting...well, enough said. I have had to, more than once, get into the middle of that and stop them tearing each other apart. Oh the joy of being hit with their wings, lol. Still not as bad as the spurs from a roo. Yeah had those too. Still, I like the foolish things. If anyone who isn't familiar with them does decide to try them just be aware, if you are out and they are as well? Right in your back pocket. They will follow you like puppies. If you have females, they will try to groom you as well and forget trying to enjoy a glass of wine in the evening before putting them up. If you're having it, they want some as well and are not shy in helping themselves.

 

[mightymax]

Oh Haunted, I see you've taken the lid off my crock pot and had yourself a little taste of my stew...lol !!! If there's one thing I can remember my grandpa saying to me, it's that "every now and then you should eat yourself a little dirt". That old man, born into the Depression, in the dust bowl of Oklahoma, taught me more about the realities of life than any University I've ever attended. But I digress...
Anyway, my point is that he had discovered, long before the advent of antibacterial soap, that it's quite prudent and in fact, essentially essential (huh?) to keep your friends close and your enemies closer (MD virus = enemy). He was of the mind set that if you completely eliminated your exposure to all potentially harmful substances, you were in essence eliminating your body's ability to fight off any future attacks by toxic elements. To my grandpa, dirt was a kind of Medieval vaccine whose potency increased with each little dose you took. It wasn't until years later that Hollywood (and eventually Science) caught up with his theory by producing that wonderfully infamous movie 'The Boy in the Bubble' that helped to generate a great deal of buzz around the issue of pre-loading your body with miniscule amounts of noxious substances in order to be able to fully conquer them at a later date.
So in closing, I shall defer to the wisdom of my grandpa once again and proclaim unto the world...Thou shall eat your dirt...!!!

Until then my BYC friends,
Take care!

-kim-

-

 

[mightymax]

...and yes, turkeys are notoriously lacking in the intellectual department. But what they're missing there they more than make up for by being endlessly entertaining !!!
IMO.
-kim-

 

[casportpony]

FWIW, my highest concentration of Marek's and Marek's related deaths seems to be with the chickens that spend the most time with the turkeys. Don't take that the wrong way, I'm not saying that somehow I'm seeing more deaths because they're with the turkeys, just that the turkeys presence has had zero effect on Marek's here.

-Kathy

 

[seminolewind]

I do believe that putting chicks with Turkeys that carry Marek's does work-theoretically. Problem is trying to get the chicks exposed to turkeys prior to them being exposed to Marek's carrying chickens. Or turkeys carrying chicken Marek's dander.

The goal is always the same. Getting chicks to build resistance safely prior to being exposed to the Marek's that is deadly to them . How does one expose chicks to turkeys that aren't covered in exposed-chicken dander?

 

[mightymax]

Ahhh...Now isn't that the $64,000.00 question !!!

I think once we find a way to eliminate chicken dander from traveling anywhere, we'll be well on our way to finding a cure (or at least a way to contain the darn disease).
The only thing I can think of off the top of my head ,short of breeding them in a completely sterile laboratory environment (and if you believe my grandpa, we all know
how that will turn out...lol !!!) is to know of someone who breeds turkeys, doesn't have any contact with chickens and has line bred several generations of poults that
have never been introduced to dirt, etc. Is that even possible?

IDK, but I doubt it! And even if they did exist, they more than likely wouldn't even know about our
plight with Marek's d/t the fact that I don't think that those particular turkey breeders sit around reading about what's going down on BackYard Chickens in their
spare time !!!

No, I'm sure they're more concerned with keeping the ice from melting in that little hole they call 'home'.

Until later!

-kim-

 

[jgoldy2]

I think that if I raise market Turkeys, they will go with the meat chicks, now there is actually a possibility of raising market turkeys