Quarantine QUESTIONS!! PLEASE HELP

[silkiechickens8]

So of course I was browsing through craigslist to look at some fertile eggs (just out of curiosity) and I happen opon a 'Free Chicken' ad and thought "Oh God, I need to get this chicken because God knows what would've happened to her" so I'm picking her up this weekend and I'm terrified of bringing in a disease. I will quarantine for 6+ weeks, but I've had a bad experience with being in adults. Once, (I was VERY new to chickens and I brought 4 1 year old hens home. I only quarantined them for a night or two (I still am mad at myself for that) and they seemed fine so I put them into the coop. Sadly, one of my current hens passed away a few days later, but to this day, the newer hens have never showed any signs of sickness (this was years ago). I'm terrified that after the 6+ weeks of quarantine are up and she's not showing any sickness and I start introducing her to the flock that some will get sick and or die. Please help. I'm thinking of doing (After the quarantine is up) of taking some of her bedding and putting more and more into the coop every week. I really don't want to lose any because of this, help is very much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[QueenMisha]

Honestly, don't be too worried about it. Quarantine is an important safety precaution and one which should be taken seriously, but 90% of the time the bird is clean of disease. Quarantine should be thought of the way that carrying pepper spray might be - it probably isn't strictly necessary, but there's no downside to it and better safe than sorry. It sounds like what you experienced previously was coincidence and nothing more - any disease which kills within just a few days of infection with zero symptoms is going to kill a lot more than one bird, and thankfully these kinds of diseases are quite rare in this day and age.

Just be sure to change your clothes and shoes between caring for the birds, and ideally add a "canary" chicken you don't care about much to the bird's quarantine pen. Canaries are very important in quarantine. A young canary, say, 8-16 weeks of age, would be great, as this is the window when most birds will become symptomatic if infected with a disease.

 

[silkiechickens8]

Thanks! I just don't know if I could put one of my birds in with her because they're all very special. Is there another option? If, after the quarantine, I put some of the new chicken's bedding in the coop and slowly adding more. Would that work? I want to be fair to my existing hens so I want to lower the risk at low as possible. Thanks!