Peeps in Europe!

[Maiahr]

Well, my attempt to combine business with hobby was successful. I just finished my business trip to the Netherlands. While in the NL I bought hatching eggs from Brabanter breed. @BDutch THANK YOU for connecting me with the seller!! I will definitely recommend him! I put all the eggs, each wrapped individually, in my hand luggage. I just passed through the airport security and there were no problems. The eggs are now on the plane to Bulgaria and these will be the first Brabanter chicks in the country.

 

[Papaye]

Hi.

It just occurred to me that if any of these eggs do actually hatch, they'll need to be vaccinated, at least for Mareks at 1 day old. All the recommendations I'm seeing is for the US. What is recommended for here? I don't even know if the older chickens I have, have been vaxed, tbh. The breeders never mentioned it, and I didn't think to ask. And how do you handle vaccinations, if you do them?

...After making some research in the past, I ended up learning that Marek vaccine has a pretty bad reputation : not only is it aknowledged to not even prevent your chickens from getting Marek... BUT it is also renowed to make the virus much more dangerous ("X 1000") for unvaccinated chickens that are contaminated by vaccinated chickens that are infected with Marek...!

My honest understanding is that Marek would not even be (such) an issue anymore if people stopped vaccinating their birds...

You do what you want, of course... I am not even telling you I am right!
Nor am I trying to start a debate here...

In Germany it is mandatory to vaccinate for Newcastle. I don't know if France has mandatory vaccinations.

In France, chickens or ducks are NOT required by law to be vaccinated...

...apart, now, for Avian Influenza (ducks) : indeed, since October 2023, farms of 250 ducks or more have to vaccinate their ducks against Avian Influenza virus - though there is an exception for breeding duck farms whose production is destined for export, because it is apparently illegal to export birds vaccinated against Avian Influenza (reason apparently being : the Avian Influenza vaccine is said to be known to propagate Avian Influenza virus).

Our Avian Influenza "vaccine" being a self-amplifying messenger RNA "vaccine", it is now necessary to be extremely careful to NOT buy ducks OR fertilized eggs from farms that vaccinate their birds with it if we want to be certain to NOT contaminate our flock with RNA...

(I will let you make your own research to see if this vaccine even works or not... huh...)

 

[BDutch]

The eggs are now on the plane to Bulgaria and these will be the first Brabanter chicks in the country.

How many eggs did you buy Maiahr?
All set?

Let us know how it goes on from here.

 

[MaryJanet]

Just chipping in from Australia to share my recent Marek's experience and the information that government policy on Newcastle disease is that flocks with more than 1000 chickens must be vaccinated. There are more precise ND vaccination details in this national policy document.

About Marek's, I recently brought 3 pullets home and placed them into quarantine as a group of 3. They came from a prize-winning breeder whose pens were very poopy, and they were extremely hungry and thirsty. All three threw themselves at the feed and would fight over the water, so I had to put an extra waterer in their coop. Lesson learned: prize-winning breeders do not always maintain good chicken husbandry.

Anyway, a couple of days into quarantine, I noticed the Marans had a strange pupil and a strange gait. I took all three to an experienced chicken vet who took one look and said, "Yes, that's Marek's". The Australorp and Brahma did not have any symptoms at this stage.

The Marans worsened and was euthanised. The Australorp began to show symptoms, worsened and was euthanised.

At the same time, in my established flock, there was a young hen who only recently started laying. I took her for a Marek's test because if my existing flock had it before the infected pullets arrived, they would have passed it to her because she'd been living with them for months. Her test was negative, so I assumed the entire existing flock was not infected with Marek's.

Great! This suggested my quarantine procedures were effective and I began to suspect the Marans and Australorp may have had one of the less virulent Marek's pathotypes.

I then took the Brahma pullet for a Marek's test and she was negative! Not infected in spite of living in the same quarantine coop as the Marans and Australorp. To my mind, this confirmed they had one of the less virulent pathotypes and hinted that the Brahma was genetically resistant.

So, I broke quarantine last night.

I plan to bring in only vaccinated chicks in future (next flock expansion will be 4 chicks in Nov 2026-Jan 2027). I know they have to remain isolated for a few weeks, that would happen anyway because they'd be in a brooder inside. The vaccine used in Australia does not cause shedding in birds that aren't exposed to the virus, but I need to confirm this vaccine is the one used by the breeder, whoever that turns out to be.

 

[PouleChick]

Eek to all your experiences of various diseases. I'd really like your help.

I've also been hit for the first time in nearly 10 years of keeping chickens on and off by some sort of illness and one of my girls died (Mabel, a maybe 16 month old sussex). She was bought a year ago as a ready to lay hen and had been vaccinated, although to be honest I'm not sure what for.

Anyway more recently she was coughing / breathing rattly and lethargic (had also not laid for a while in hindsight). I thought her breathing had got better but she was still lethargic and got weaker and weaker and at the point I decided she wasn't going to make it I found her passed away. 2 of our other older hens have also stopped laying, one of them had a rattle as well around the same time as Mabel. She was lethargic for a week or so but she seems so be better now and is acting normally where as the other one who I don't think has had rattly breath / runny nose seems weak now as well. Any ideas what it could be. Pretty sure there are no chicken vets around here and I can't really afford it anyway at the moment.

I had 2 of my chickens killed by next doors dog and they paid for me to get 3 new ones. They arrived around the same time that the others got sick (but literally the day or 2 before so I'm a bit unsure if they could have got sick that quickly if something had been brought in. Now I realise that I should have isolated them (the first time I've bought hens into a flock and having a hectic time so just didn't think about it, stupidly!).

I look forward to your replies. I hope everyone is coping with the heat, just awful here, the primary school has said not to send the kids if possible tomorrow as it will be so hot. My afternoon classes at the highschool have been cancelled and some moved until the morning. We've had kids at school in France for 20 years on and off and never had this happen!

 

[abpatchy]

I really am sorry for your losses. Yes, it is smart to isolate before bringing them into a current flock. Did any of then new chickens get sick? Sorry, it is so hot today I can't seem to think LOL

It could be Infectious Bronchitis or IB for short. They stopf laying and have cold symtoms. But honestly it is just a guess. The best thing to do would be have a dead chicken tested for the cause of death.

 

[chickengr]

Eek to all your experiences of various diseases. I'd really like your help.

I've also been hit for the first time in nearly 10 years of keeping chickens on and off by some sort of illness and one of my girls died (Mabel, a maybe 16 month old sussex). She was bought a year ago as a ready to lay hen and had been vaccinated, although to be honest I'm not sure what for.

Anyway more recently she was coughing / breathing rattly and lethargic (had also not laid for a while in hindsight). I thought her breathing had got better but she was still lethargic and got weaker and weaker and at the point I decided she wasn't going to make it I found her passed away. 2 of our other older hens have also stopped laying, one of them had a rattle as well around the same time as Mabel. She was lethargic for a week or so but she seems so be better now and is acting normally where as the other one who I don't think has had rattly breath / runny nose seems weak now as well. Any ideas what it could be. Pretty sure there are no chicken vets around here and I can't really afford it anyway at the moment.

I had 2 of my chickens killed by next doors dog and they paid for me to get 3 new ones. They arrived around the same time that the others got sick (but literally the day or 2 before so I'm a bit unsure if they could have got sick that quickly if something had been brought in. Now I realise that I should have isolated them (the first time I've bought hens into a flock and having a hectic time so just didn't think about it, stupidly!).

I look forward to your replies. I hope everyone is coping with the heat, just awful here, the primary school has said not to send the kids if possible tomorrow as it will be so hot. My afternoon classes at the highschool have been cancelled and some moved until the morning. We've had kids at school in France for 20 years on and off and never had this happen!

sorry for your loss and dealing with disease. could be IB or MG. can you get antibiotics for them? a human vibramycin 100g can work well if you cannot get tylan or oxytetracycline. here we have NEO OXYVET that helps a lot. if you can get it put 1 tsp in 2 l of their water and to the sickest chickens give 1/4 of vibramycin as well. it will treat secondary infections not IB as it is a virus. but this helped my chickens a lot in the past.

if no antibiotics available stuff them with 5-6 small cloves of garlic (less if they are bigger and chop them first). this helped my chickens many times. you can put some hot pepper in their feed or water. don't worry about garlic if given for 1-3 days. long term use would not be good.

good luck.

 

[BDutch]

Eek to all your experiences of various diseases. I'd really like your help.

I've also been hit for the first time in nearly 10 years of keeping chickens on and off by some sort of illness and one of my girls died (Mabel, a maybe 16 month old sussex).

Sorry for your losses. I cant give any advice about the sickness. Never had something like what you describe in my flock. Hope the others help(ed) enough.

Soon after I started with chickens I heard from others who got a disease in their current flock after buying new pullets. Quarantining for several weeks is very difficult and you need a second coop and run to do this properly. This is why I prefer to buy hatchery eggs if I want to expand my current flock. (My problem always is dealing with the roosters).

I heard about the heatwave in Spain, Italy, Portugal and France. Today the heat arrives in the part of the Netherlands where I live too with an expected 33°C for 2 days. Which is a lot better than the 46°C they had somewhere in Spain. Unfortunately we are going to have more of this extremes in the future bc it seems impossible to convince /pursue the directors and shareholders of oil companies and energy consuming factories/businesses to make the necessary change. (Eg. Exxon mobile is even pursuing people who try to make a statement for a change).
Governments are listening too much to the ultra rich and are afraid of an economic disaster. Not realising enough that every year we go on with high consumption of fossils makes it worse for the future. The news(papers) are of little help and lots of media ignore it or spread misinformation and get paid from the from angle.

Most consumers who are worried have the feeling their contribution is so tiny it doesn’t matter what they do. One of the peoples action now is to buy air conditioning without solar panels to make it even worse.
Many people talk about the heat but not what caused it. They are very worried about foreigners coming to live in their town but don’t seem to care about the unpredictable climate disasters who are coming our way. Its making me very sad that the people in this world act like frogs in a pot of water with rising temperatures (famous experiment, by a German physiologist).

 

[chickengr]

Sorry for your losses. I cant give any advice about the sickness. Never had something like what you describe in my flock. Hope the others help(ed) enough.

Soon after I started with chickens I heard from others who got a disease in their current flock after buying new pullets. Quarantining for several weeks is very difficult and you need a second coop and run to do this properly. This is why I prefer to buy hatchery eggs if I want to expand my current flock. (My problem always is dealing with the roosters).

I heard about the heatwave in Spain, Italy, Portugal and France. Today the heat arrives in the part of the Netherlands where I live too with an expected 33°C for 2 days. Which is a lot better than the 46°C they had somewhere in Spain. Unfortunately we are going to have more of this extremes in the future bc it seems impossible to convince /pursue the directors and shareholders of oil companies and energy consuming factories/businesses to make the necessary change. (Eg. Exxon mobile is even pursuing people who try to make a statement for a change).
Governments are listening too much to the ultra rich and are afraid of an economic disaster. Not realising enough that every year we go on with high consumption of fossils makes it worse for the future. The news(papers) are of little help and lots of media ignore it or spread misinformation and get paid from the from angle.

Most consumers who are worried have the feeling their contribution is so tiny it doesn’t matter what they do. One of the peoples action now is to buy air conditioning without solar panels to make it even worse.
Many people talk about the heat but not what caused it. They are very worried about foreigners coming to live in their town but don’t seem to care about the unpredictable climate disasters who are coming our way. Its making me very sad that the people in this world act like frogs in a pot of water with rising temperatures (famous experiment, by a German physiologist).

you forgot to mention they are closing farms bc they blame food production for climate change. as for illegal immigrants if God forbid we get killed in a terrorist attack climate change won't matter at all.

 

[Chicalina]

Sorry for your losses. I cant give any advice about the sickness. Never had something like what you describe in my flock. Hope the others help(ed) enough.

Soon after I started with chickens I heard from others who got a disease in their current flock after buying new pullets. Quarantining for several weeks is very difficult and you need a second coop and run to do this properly. This is why I prefer to buy hatchery eggs if I want to expand my current flock. (My problem always is dealing with the roosters).

I heard about the heatwave in Spain, Italy, Portugal and France. Today the heat arrives in the part of the Netherlands where I live too with an expected 33°C for 2 days. Which is a lot better than the 46°C they had somewhere in Spain. Unfortunately we are going to have more of this extremes in the future bc it seems impossible to convince /pursue the directors and shareholders of oil companies and energy consuming factories/businesses to make the necessary change. (Eg. Exxon mobile is even pursuing people who try to make a statement for a change).
Governments are listening too much to the ultra rich and are afraid of an economic disaster. Not realising enough that every year we go on with high consumption of fossils makes it worse for the future. The news(papers) are of little help and lots of media ignore it or spread misinformation and get paid from the from angle.

Most consumers who are worried have the feeling their contribution is so tiny it doesn’t matter what they do. One of the peoples action now is to buy air conditioning without solar panels to make it even worse.
Many people talk about the heat but not what caused it. They are very worried about foreigners coming to live in their town but don’t seem to care about the unpredictable climate disasters who are coming our way. Its making me very sad that the people in this world act like frogs in a pot of water with rising temperatures (famous experiment, by a German physiologist).

I'm with you on the climate change apathy. It's very concerning.