Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[Jryan18]

Anyone near the York are interested in some Magpie ducks, we thought we were missing a hen a while back but we found her under a wood pile sitting on a nest. No idea how many eggs but should find out early next week

 

[SilkieSensation]

Maybe I just got lucky or my birds are just that much more awesomer than most  but I see all the threads about people integrating there babies with each other and older birds and I wonder how my birds survived.  I bought 4 @ 1 week old & 3 @ 2weeks old. When I bought them they were all thrown into the same box for the ride home (the place I bought them from had all different breeds in separate brooders so they knew what was what), then when we got home they were all put into the same brooder. Never had any problems of them trying to kill each other or really even picking or pecking or general chicken abuse. The 4 younger ones did get stepped on a couple times by the bigger ones but that's about all that happened.

Tossing young birds in together is 1 thing. It's tossing older birds together or young in with old that causes problems.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Looks like my new poults are joining the older ones in the big garage brooder sooner than I thought. Dummy me forgot to write down what day I set set the eggs in the bator and of course I forgot when I set them. I want expecting them until sometime this weekend or close to it. Welp, they're hatching now lol.

ETA: The babies are doing good out in the big brooder with the older poults. Only one is giving them a hard time....the obvious Tom. I have a small crate in the brooder that the babies can fit into with their own water and food. The big ones can't follow. They've got it figured out already that it's their safe place

 

[LadyBehir]

I wish I knew if these were boys or girls. Cute little things.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

The easiest way to tell is to count the empty shells. Unless it's a male Rhodebar, then it stands out very clearly.

Looks like we have 3 now, and I saw a Welsummer egg pipping. So we're two of each, I think, so far.

Now I have to wait till tomorrow morning....

 

[Debby27]

I'm a little late in getting here, but SE PA/Alburtis Berks County.

 

[Chaos18]

Welcome to the crazy house. What do you have/want/need? There are lots of enablinghelpful people in white coats here.

 

[Debby27]

LOL

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

I'm a little late in getting here, but SE PA/Alburtis Berks County. 

Welcome! I know right where Alburtis is. Used to have a friend that lived there. What do you have?

 

[chippysmom327]

My necropsy report came back today, it said "Mareks suspected"

, with coccidiosis.

I have no idea how om the coccidiosis, because nobody (including the one I sent) has never showed one symptom. Poop was normal, no puffiness or lethargy. Whatever. I might not even treat everyone because there's no blood in the stool and the chick died a few weeks ago.

What also kinda made me a little skeptical was the lady said "the corpse was pretty decomposed when I got it (shipping issue), you know, maggots" and there's no way there were maggots on that bird. Sorry to be graphic, but we broke it's neck, put it straight into a ziploc (didn't even set it down anywhere), doubled bagged and then double bagged it in walmart bags, and it went straight in the fridge. So that made me a little mad. Like, how do I know this lady did a thorough enough examination on the bird? She only said one thing that led her to believe it was Mareks. I asked what other things could cause the thing that made her think Mareks and she beat around the bush. I also asked why those 3 (out of 5) chicks got it and why all the other chicks I've hatched this year didn't get it, and she didn't know. Like oh, okay.

She also said that 5 weeks for mareks is the absolute earliest she's ever seen on a bird, that's almost unheard of except for lab experiments where they force the birds to get it.

Another thing she said was almost 100% of chickens carry/have it, so don't worry about selling adult birds at swaps. I can hatch chicks and sell them, but it would be kind to tell them that I've *possibly* had Mareks in my flock. I'm not hatching anymore chicks, I don't want to infect other people's flocks because I don't believe everyone has Mareks.

So basically, I'm just gonna have a closed chicken flock for now on and I'll just get into call ducks instead.

What really really sucks is the fact that Allie and Bino (my albinos) are prime age to get Mareks. I'm praying they don't get it...

Well, I'm glad/kinda not glad I sent the bird for a necropsy. I almost didn't, since no one else came down with it.

I keep editing because I keep remembering things, but my little sister's frizzle serama has been hiding eggs for over a week (her and my oegb both have, but different places) and she didn't come back to the coop tonight. I'm hoping/kinda not hoping she went broody. I want her to because I want her to come back and my sister to not be upset but I don't want her to be broody because if she comes back with chicks they'll be at risk for developing mareks when they're older and we'll have to keep them all. That and the fact that the only two chicks that lived from my broody are both cockerels. That means we have 3 hens and 3 boys. Not good. I have no idea what I'm gonna do.