Great idea to spread out the DNA with other local farmers so that if you lose birds to predators you don't lose the whole breeding program you are working on. Wish you lived closer to me; I love your buff PRs. Anyway, I'll stick with my silver pencilled ones for now and see if I can keep this line improving.
Here are a few pics that I took today:
Six 2013 pullets hiding in the old spruce hedge:
One pullet ventures into the compost pile:
2012 hen with five silver pencilled chicks:
Three more spprs being taught to dig around fence posts by a surrogate easter egger:
Pen of 2013 cockerels:
This cockerel will be kept for breeding; the others will be eaten:
The 2011 cock with his ladies:
2011 cock and 2012 hen:
Two favourites wearing saddles; I plan to pen up the rooster so that I'll be able to remove the saddles. They have been wearing the saddles for a couple of months now and I would like to see if their feathers have grown back underneath:
Here are pix from this morning of the 4 cockerels that have made the first 4 rounds of "cuts"....will keep the best 2 out of these. They are 7 months old and range from exactly 8lbs to 9lbs 2 oz
Thanks for the info. I think I'm going to go ahead and get one. If I have to quarantine the bird for a month, and my other one turns out to be a roo I need to get on it so my hen won't be alone. If I know the person it is coming from, and his flock is healthy, do I still need to wait a month, or is a week or two long enough? I'm not sure what to do with the new one while it is in quarantine since I truly have backyard chickens. I don't have a lot of extra room to put it.
I'm going to go against the grain of conventional BYC wisdom here. Please understand that the conventional wisdom is good for most people to follow.
If you really, really know this other flock and you can look them over, for a half hour or whatever, and get a true sense of their general well being, I'd have no concerns. Show people expose their birds to all kinds of stuff, back and forth, on many consecutive weekends. The thinking is that disease is everywhere. Just is. Some of us have little time for sickly birds and they are disappeared from the flock. The tough survive and general immunity and strength survive.
As I say, it is a differing point of view. If I saw evidence of sickliness in that flock? I'd be concerned, but it sounds as if you are confident of the situation.
I'm going to go against the grain of conventional BYC wisdom here. Please understand that the conventional wisdom is good for most people to follow.
If you really, really know this other flock and you can look them over, for a half hour or whatever, and get a true sense of their general well being, I'd have no concerns. Show people expose their birds to all kinds of stuff, back and forth, on many consecutive weekends. The thinking is that disease is everywhere. Just is. Some of us have little time for sickly birds and they are disappeared from the flock. The tough survive and general immunity and strength survive.
As I say, it is a differing point of view. If I saw evidence of sickliness in that flock? I'd be concerned, but it sounds as if you are confident of the situation.
Definitely agree with this. And had a nice chuckle at BYC and wisdom being in same sentence. If the birds look and feel healthy, odds are nothing bad is gonna happen.
Then, again, you're also not endangering 50 birds or 100 birds, only a couple. I am 100% for quarantine, but then, I sell eggs, chicks and have an occasional breeding program in progress and cannot risk my birds, or anyone of my customers' flocks. If I had only a hen and was adding one companion, then I would adjust my quarantine time accordingly, but also, I'd buy wisely, not just at any old flea market or swap, etc. If you read through all the sad "woulda, shoulda, coulda" stories here of people who didn't have any restraint and just threw newly purchased birds into their flocks and suffered the consequences, it will color the way you manage adding to yours, absolutely. I personally don't buy any started birds from anyone and hatch everything here, but I am not limited on what I can have, number wise, or if I can keep roosters, etc.
Then, again, you're also not endangering 50 birds or 100 birds, only a couple. I am 100% for quarantine, but then, I sell eggs, chicks and have an occasional breeding program in progress and cannot risk my birds, or anyone of my customers' flocks. If I had only a hen and was adding one companion, then I would adjust my quarantine time accordingly, but also, I'd buy wisely, not just at any old flea market or swap, etc. If you read through all the sad "woulda, shoulda, coulda" stories here of people who didn't have any restraint and just threw newly purchased birds into their flocks and suffered the consequences, it will color the way you manage adding to yours, absolutely. I personally don't buy any started birds from anyone and hatch everything here, but I am not limited on what I can have, number wise, or if I can keep roosters, etc.
Me personally? Yeah I normally have around 100+. Everything is divided by breed so I guess I wouldn't be endangering them all necessarily, although the pens are close together and I'm certainly not going to change clothes and shower in between caring for each pen. I just view it as, if they get sick and die from something, I didn't want those weak genetics in any of my flock bloodlines anyway. I stopped quarantining about 15 years ago, the same time I stopped medicating and vaccinating too. Also as Fred said when we show, there's always a small risk of bringing something back, however I will say I have never had that happen to me or any of my friends in the fancy. (I did however have a friend lose some ducks to some bad feed that was provided at show and I lost an old hen to a heart attack at a show, while I was standing there of all things, but I consider those freak accidents). Occasionally if I'm not picky where the new stock comes from the first year or two I will have some losses in a new breed to random stuff, but the third year on I generally don't have even a hint of a sick bird.
Wish I had something other then hatchery stock but I am grateful for what I have.
Anyone have partridge rocks? I love them! Maybe I could get some of them someday.
Thank you all for your input! It looks like I will be going tomorrow to pick her out and I can see what his whole flock looks like. The coworker I am getting her form is new to my facility, and we do the same job so we don't work together much, but he seams like a nice, honest person. I don't think he would purposefully give me a sick bird. He just has a lot of animals on his farm and is trying to down size before winter. I'll post picks of her when I get her home. You all are so much help! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Me personally? Yeah I normally have around 100+. Everything is divided by breed so I guess I wouldn't be endangering them all necessarily, although the pens are close together and I'm certainly not going to change clothes and shower in between caring for each pen. I just view it as, if they get sick and die from something, I didn't want those weak genetics in any of my flock bloodlines anyway. I stopped quarantining about 15 years ago, the same time I stopped medicating and vaccinating too. Also as Fred said when we show, there's always a small risk of bringing something back, however I will say I have never had that happen to me or any of my friends in the fancy. (I did however have a friend lose some ducks to some bad feed that was provided at show and I lost an old hen to a heart attack at a show, while I was standing there of all things, but I consider those freak accidents). Occasionally if I'm not picky where the new stock comes from the first year or two I will have some losses in a new breed to random stuff, but the third year on I generally don't have even a hint of a sick bird.
Oh, gosh, I don't do the change and shower thing, good grief, one must have some common sense about it. I don't vaccinate and I do not show, either. Never had anything contagious here, not once, though it certainly could happen-I mean, we can't see germs, right? I still won't buy started birds, but if I did, I would definitely quarantine for 30-45 days, as I did with the only bird I ever bought many years ago.
The quarantine period, at the very least, taught me lots about the bird himself as well as about a few other things-he came to me with favus, lice and severe malnutrtion, all of which were fixed before he ever met the hens. So, I learned about favus and how to treat it, what a bad lice infestation looks like and how to fix that as well as what eating a diet of solely corn can do to the color of a Barred Rock rooster (Bad FFA kid!) -it's astounding, trust me, what a turnaround in nutrition can do to fix that, too. During the 5 week quarantine, the rooster was acclimated to his new surroundings and his new people and met decent food for the first time in his 10 months of life and gave lots back to us. So, quarantine is not something I would ever skip, from my personal experience and the experiences of others on BYC who lost their flocks from bringing in one contagious bird. Just my own management philosophy.
But, if I had two hens and wanted to add one or two more, I can see skipping a long quarantine period. Me, I couldn't do it, but that is just me.
Of course, all of this relates to all breeds and flock management in general, not just Plymouth Rocks, so we're a bit off the subject, I guess. Apologies.
Mr. MKK, she is a perfectly lovely BR hen, hatchery or not.
Oh, gosh, I don't do the change and shower thing, good grief, one must have some common sense about it. I don't vaccinate and I do not show, either. Never had anything contagious here, not once, though it certainly could happen-I mean, we can't see germs, right? I still won't buy started birds, but if I did, I would definitely quarantine for 30-45 days, as I did with the only bird I ever bought many years ago.
The quarantine period, at the very least, taught me lots about the bird himself as well as about a few other things-he came to me with favus, lice and severe malnutrtion, all of which were fixed before he ever met the hens. So, I learned about favus and how to treat it, what a bad lice infestation looks like and how to fix that as well as what eating a diet of solely corn can do to the color of a Barred Rock rooster (Bad FFA kid!) -it's astounding, trust me, what a turnaround in nutrition can do to fix that, too. During the 5 week quarantine, the rooster was acclimated to his new surroundings and his new people and met decent food for the first time in his 10 months of life and gave lots back to us. So, quarantine is not something I would ever skip, from my personal experience and the experiences of others on BYC who lost their flocks from bringing in one contagious bird. Just my own management philosophy.
But, if I had two hens and wanted to add one or two more, I can see skipping a long quarantine period. Me, I couldn't do it, but that is just me.
Of course, all of this relates to all breeds and flock management in general, not just Plymouth Rocks, so we're a bit off the subject, I guess. Apologies.
Mr. MKK, she is a perfectly lovely BR hen, hatchery or not.
I originally posted in this thread because I think I will be getting a Barred Rock from my coworker. He said out of his they were the friendliest and I want a friendly bird since my two were hand raised and are very sweet. Then I asked the quarantine question. One last question relating to that, I'm so sorry. But if this new bird has something, how hard is it to disinfect then? I'm getting a new coop today (never been used) and I'm thinking of putting the new hen in that at night, and figuring something out for the day when she can't be shut up. If she had something I don't want the new coop to be unuseable though. It is made out of plywood. Any ideas on how to disinfect if the hen is sick?
