Questions about vaccines for beginner!

[suzannemoore]

Hello all,

From reading other posts I realized that I did not know to ask if the chicks I got were vaccinated upon hatching. When do you administer vaccines to chickens? Our ladies are strictly for eggs and not meat. Do you vaccinate chickens in the same manner in which you would your dogs or cats? I never thought about it but any guidance would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I don’t know where you got them but it is highly unlikely they were vaccinated for anything. You can always go back and ask so you know.

You can vaccinate for different things. You vaccinate in different ways at different ages, depending on what you are vaccinating against.

Many of us don’t vaccinate for anything and never have problems. Some people know they have specific diseases in their flock or neighborhood and vaccine against those. Some people just vaccinate because they can. We each have our own unique circumstances and risk tolerances. There is no one right answer to this that we all do.

Before I got my first chicks here I called my county extension agent, in the phone book under county government, and discussed what diseases are prevalent on my area and what the recommendations were. We discussed how I planned to manage my chickens. I don’t show them and don’t bring in other adult chickens, just hatch eggs or get them from an established hatchery. Mine have very limited exposure to other chickens. I found out that there had been one reported case of Marek’s in my county in the past two years, for example. I did not consider that an epidemic so did not get mine vaccinated for Marek’s. I wound up not vaccinating for anything.

You live in a different county in a different state. I don’t know what your unique conditions are. Just because the answer that worked out for me was to not get them vaccinated for anything does not mean that is the right answer for you.