Quick question about quarantine

[Amazonlover]

Hi All,

My cousin had to rehome her favorite chicken that was being bullied by her flock. I took her in and set up living quarters in my shed, around 30 feet downwind of my flock of five hens. They cannot see each other and I have been maintaining strict quarantine measures since she came to me 9 days ago (wearing different sets of clothing for visiting her versus my existing flock, washing hands, etc). I’ve researched quarantining and am not seeing my fundamental question answered anywhere. My question is this: how does it work? Is the theory that after 30 days whatever the quarantine chicken was possibly carrying will have left her system? I feel like if I was medicating her (maybe putting apple cider vinegar in her water) that might be true, but just isolating her doesn’t suggest to me how anything she might be carrying will be eradicated. Any help anyone could offer would be much appreciated (I don’t want to put one of existing five in there with her as a canary since I only have 5 and am ridiculously attached to each of them).

 

[WingItRanch]

I think the idea is to observe her for any signs of contagious illness or mites/fleas. If you are aware of the health of your cousin's flock and you trust they were honest with you about the condition of the chicken, I'd think quarantine would be just to verify you're not bringing any pests into your coop.

What are your plans for integration? Bringing one chicken into an established group of 4 might be tricky too. I'm just curious because I made a huge mistake of just placing 4 new pullets in with my other pullets of the same age (after quarantine) thinking it would fine. Thankfully, there were 4 of them so they stuck together and they had hiding places to get away. I added waterers and feeders and that helped but I definitely will try the "look but don't touch" method next time.

 

[Mrs. K]

Often times the stress of moving will bring out something, that is the theory. It gives you time to thoroughly examine the chicken. But you are right, there could be an underlying condition.

Personally, I go with the idea that healthy looks healthy. If a bird is bright eyed, eating, and active they are healthy.

But I don’t ever take anything I feel sorry for. Did your cousin have a major disease outbreak? Is her flock healthy and in a good set up? If so, I would add a single bird too her, not because I would expect her to die but because adding one bird to another is easier than adding one bird to five, especially one that has already been the victim.

There is a slight chance, but you have drastically reduced it by following proper quarantine. But there is a chance that any of your birds can die. They really don’t make forever friends. One must be reasonable about expectations.

 

[Amazonlover]

Hi @WingItRanch, thanks for the reply. My plan is to set up a dog pen in the chicken run where she’ll have own water supply and food so they can look, but not touch. I’ll also set up separate sleeping arrangements in the coop for her where she’ll be on her own roost, behind chicken wire, so they can’t get to her. I realize integrating a single pullet into a group of five is going to be challenging, hoping they don’t bully her. She’s very sweet.

 

[Amazonlover]

Often times the stress of moving will bring out something, that is the theory. It gives you time to thoroughly examine the chicken. But you are right, there could be an underlying condition.

Personally, I go with the idea that healthy looks healthy. If a bird is bright eyed, eating, and active they are healthy.

But I don’t ever take anything I feel sorry for. Did your cousin have a major disease outbreak? Is her flock healthy and in a good set up? If so, I would add a single bird too her, not because I would expect her to die but because adding one bird to another is easier than adding one bird to five, especially one that has already been the victim.

There is a slight chance, but you have drastically reduced it by following proper quarantine. But there is a chance that any of your birds can die. They really don’t make forever friends. One must be reasonable about expectations.

Thanks Mrs. k, no disease in my cousin’s flock. I think the two roosters just favored this little girl and so the hens ganged up her. I have no rooster in my flock, so thankfully she’ll be able to grow back the feathers on her back and head. I realize she likely won’t have a bestie, I’m just hoping for civility.

 

[aart]

I realize she likely won’t have a bestie, I’m just hoping for civility.

Have you integrated new birds before?
Ever integrated a single bird?
Can be tricky, this article might help:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/introducing-a-single-hen-to-an-existing-flock.71997/

 

[Amazonlover]

Have you integrated new birds before?
Ever integrated a single bird?
Can be tricky, this article might help:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/introducing-a-single-hen-to-an-existing-flock.71997/

Wow, great article-thanks @aart!

 

[WingItRanch]

Hi @WingItRanch, thanks for the reply. My plan is to set up a dog pen in the chicken run where she’ll have own water supply and food so they can look, but not touch. I’ll also set up separate sleeping arrangements in the coop for her where she’ll be on her own roost, behind chicken wire, so they can’t get to her. I realize integrating a single pullet into a group of five is going to be challenging, hoping they don’t bully her. She’s very sweet.

Sounds like you've got a good plan! Hopefully it will work out for your new girl.

 

[Ridgerunner]

how does it work? Is the theory that after 30 days whatever the quarantine chicken was possibly carrying will have left her system?

No. The idea is that if she is carrying a disease or parasite and you keep her isolated that disease or parasite will show up before you introduce it to your flock. It's not about curing one, it's about finding out if it is a carrier.

The flaw in this is that some flocks develop flock immunities. Although they can be a carrier they never show any symptoms themselves. One example or this is Coccidiosis. It's caused by a parasite and can be deadly, but if the chicken is exposed to it for 2 to 3 weeks without dying they develop an immunity to it. They can pass it on to chickens that do not have an immunity to that specific strain without becoming sick themselves. It could be that your flock has that flock immunity and poses a risk to a newcomer.

If a flock has been isolated from other chickens for a few months they have basically been in quarantine, just not at your place. You'd have to trust the owners to know what to look for and to tell you if they know something.

If the chicken has been in contact with strange chickens then they may be carrying something new. Say they came from a chicken show, auction, or such where they have been exposed. That disease or parasite may have an incubation time before it shows itself. That's why quarantine is often held for 30 days, give it time to show.

 

[Mrs. K]

There won't be civility. Chickens have a flock mentality, and they will defend their space, even the nicest of chickens. Each chicken knows their place in the flock, and are desperate to keep it.

A common piece of advice is see, no touch, which is great advice, but can be a bit difficult to set up depending on your coop and run. Here are some ideas that can help.

The first thing you have to remember, is the new chicken will know that she does not belong there. This will scare her, that will make the other chickens who also know she is a stranger attack her. It can be relentless.

So you could flip the places, as in put your new hen in the coop/run, and the original girls where you have the new one now. This will let the new bird explore the new area, find the feed bowl, the escapes, and the coop without being chased for her life. However, as that is so far apart from your main coop, you won't get the see but no touch.

I have had good luck with, locking your original girls out of the coop and run, in your back yard. Locking the new bird in the run/coop. She can explore, they can see her in there. Feed along the fence. When it gets dark, but the new bird back in her coop, let the others back in the main coop. Repeat this for two days.

Then pick a middle of flock bird. If you don't know who is middle, walk away, drop down some treat, see who gets their first, middle and last. Take that bird and lock her in with the new bird in the coop/run, the others outside. Now there will be a dust up, but it should be mostly bluster and settle quickly. One on one is pretty even. Keep them together, all day. Then at dark, return the new one + one back to the quarantine coop. Do this two days.

Then the third day, let every one out in the back yard. Feed inside the run, watch how this goes down. If it in not a wreck, and it should not be, two to three, settles down, wait and see what they do at dark. More than likely, they will all coop up together, and you are golden.

A lot of dinking around, I know, but it works without a lot of trauma. Once in a great while, you will get a really mean hen that just won't let this go - at that time put her in the quarantine for a couple of day, letting the rest of the flock to solidify. Then add her back in, usually that works.

Mrs K