Oregon

[Suzierd]

OK is it too soon yo give my chicks dust bath stuff there about a month right now three are fully feathered last one she's real close and one of my blue reds she acting fluffed up more then usual help please

If you see them starting to sit around puffed up like they're not feeling well may even see some blood in the stool they have Coccidia get them on some Corid right away or you'll start loosing them.
Corid 9.6 oral solution buy at feed store in cattle area. Give 9.5 cc per gallon, change daily.
Good luck.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Quote: Not all of them....remember, they are still just feed store employees, not experts by any means, and it can be very hit or miss if you find someone that knows their stuff or not, and they are still at the mercy of the hatcheries to send them the right birds....I've gotten light brown Leghorns out of the Welsummer bin at Wilco, as well as having the wrong sex of ducklings, because the employee didn't know which legband color was male and which was female, though she very much led me to believe that she did....

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Quote: I think you misunderstood me. I was not saying nor did I intend that the people at Wilco are wannabe's or that they don't know cackle spackle.
My point is that these are HATCHERY BIRDS. Therefore they are wannabe's because there is no denying that hatchery birds are little more than a close resemblance of whatever breed. The only way to get "true to the breed" birds is from a TRUE BREEDER. Just like what they all sell as Ameracauna, come on who are they trying to fool they are just EE's.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Quote: And I lost a couple of birds to cocci a couple years ago without ever seeing blood in their poop, so I agree, treat them for it before you start losing them. Fluffed = Corrid at my house.

 

[Nelson-90]

I think you misunderstood me. I was not saying nor did I intend that the people at Wilco are wannabe's or that they don't know cackle spackle.
My point is that these are HATCHERY BIRDS. Therefore they are wannabe's because there is no denying that hatchery birds are little more than a close resemblance of whatever breed. The only way to get "true to the breed" birds is from a TRUE BREEDER. Just like what they all sell as Ameracauna, come on who are they trying to fool they are just EE's.

oohhh ok my bad on that but yeah you rigth about hatchery birds now heres a thing i still dont see the difference between an ameracauna and an EE i know how the araucana looks with the funny feather on ther face and that they are rumpless

 

[DeannaOR]

Is Wazine not as effective?

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Is Wazine not as effective?

It's a dewormer, won't work for Cocci. It's also not a broad-spectrum dewormer. It's good for deworming a flock that's never been dewormed before, then you follow it up 10-14 days later with a broad spectrum like Eprinex or Ivermectin. I like Eprinex because there's no egg withdrawl...

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Quote: This is a great explanation of the differences, in easy to understand terms... http://www.apa-abayouthpoultryclub.org/Edu_Material/Easter Eggers vs.pdf If you still have questions about it, I'd be happy to help, until recently, I was the Western District Director of the Ameraucana Breeders Club, so I'm used to answering this particular question.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Quote: The other thing I want to just throw out there while we're talking about Cocci and treatment, etc....Corrid, Sulmet, and any other coccidiosis treatment that is readily available to us via feedstores, etc, are coccidiostatic, not coddidiocidal, which means, that they don't kill off the entire cocci load. They only make it impossible for the little buggers to reproduce, by removing the vitamin they need (yeah, don't ask me right now which one that is, I'm sleep deprived). SO, they lighten the load enough that the animal can deal with it. True coccidiocidal meds are extremely cost prohibitive, and only available through a veterinarian. SO, you will not get RID of it, only make it possible for the animal to recover from the symptoms. All chickens that live in a wet environment like ours have some cocci load.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Not all of them....remember, they are still just feed store employees, not experts by any means, and it can be very hit or miss if you find someone that knows their stuff or not, and they are still at the mercy of the hatcheries to send them the right birds....I've gotten light brown Leghorns out of the Welsummer bin at Wilco, as well as having the wrong sex of ducklings, because the employee didn't know which legband color was male and which was female, though she very much led me to believe that she did....

Back in April, when we were buying our first batches of chicks, we got pretty frustrated with the help at our feed store. I'm sure we seemed pretty strange the way we were behaving ... chicken obsessed and clueless and needing to know EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW!

But also the feed store was training a new person to handle chick orders, so things were a little frustrating in both directions. At first there was just one guy at the store who didn't look like he was going to burst into tears when we asked a question, and he was neither the old chick expert nor the new chick expert. He took me seriously when I said we need help finding "everything we'll need" for the chicks we were buying, and walked us through the store and filled our shopping cart, telling us why he preferred certain choices over others, and made sure we ordered the right feed at check out. He even helped us put together our first special order of chicks, which was a lot of fun. Total life saver!

But pretty soon we were on a first-name basis with everyone and we exchange a lot of great information in both directions, and there is usually someone around who can answer a specific question. Many of the people at the feed store we go to have personal livestock experience, and they also aren't ashamed to ask a co-worker who might have a more reliable answer. They were all so excited when our chickens started to lay.

The other night, the feed store hosted a two hour class on raising chickens. They set up an area in the warehouse for the meeting ... it looked like there were about 50 people there, many of them new to chickens. A representative from Purina was there ... he did a slide-show presentation, most of the information is also on their website ... and someone else answering questions about diseases and coop supplies. They also had refreshments for us humans, and gave us free t-shirts. After the meeting, they kept the store open for us, and all chicken supplies were 25% off. It was fun talking to everyone. The people from the store said it was a lot of new faces, so I think this chicken thing is really catching on.

I feel pretty lucky to have a feed store which is big enough to have a good supply of the things we need, and small enough to feel "local." They have been a great resource for us. But more than that, they actually seem to like and care about chickens on a personal level. But clearly it also helps to make the effort to form a relationship with the store.

As far as "hatchery" vs. chicks/eggs from a smaller breeder ... honestly, we're too new to this to know the difference ... Nelson is a lot better at retaining breed information and "standards of perfection" and all that

... I mostly care about the mechanics of coop management, and proper care & feeding, and how cute the chicks are and how pretty the eggs are

. I can TOTALLY understand why "hatchery" birds might be bred more for surviving transport than for being great representatives of their breed. Also, our feed store hasn't been able to get some specific breeds that we are interested in. But for now I'm fairly confident these hatchery chicks are going to survive brooding and not bring scary diseases into our flock. That said, I'm thinking we're going to have to expand our horizons a bit, and start getting eggs or chicks from specialty breeders and such. Especially as I know Nelson would LOVE to start breeding birds ... he's working on a special rooster/breeding coop right now, even though I doubt any of our flock is up to standard. He is encouraging me to "pick a breed" to get interested in ... besides the super pretty eggs available from some breeds, I also care about conservation, so will probably pick heritage breeds for my "thing."

Anyway ... I'm all for our local feed store! Love them to bits down there!