Rebuilding my Farm

[Farmerboy16]

I am sorry if you have mentioned this,

Do you vacinate your chickens against Mareks/Coryza? Can a bird be born with either?

Those cows... err cattle look great. . . For what I know of Cattle(nothing)

No, I do not vaccinate. Birds are not born with Mareks/Coryza. Coryza can survive without the host only for a few days, with mareks, I do not know for I have never had Mareks before.

 

[coffeekittie]

No, I do not vaccinate. Birds are not born with Mareks/Coryza. Coryza can survive without the host only for a few days, with mareks, I do not know for I have never had Mareks before.

I don't vaccinate either. I want to raise chickens with a healthy immune system that can handle setbacks - I did a lot of research before deciding not to. You really have to be careful bringing in new birds, though. I'm not advocating that others don't vaccinate, it's a personal choice.

I might be wanting to buy some chicks from you Darin, but not until I have space. Things are tight around here right now! But good to know you have the Icelandics!

 

[Elyssia001]

I admire your commitment to following your dream. Not everyone has to guts to stick to what they want and see it through no matter how challenging the obstecles are ahead.

My husband and I are looking for property over on the east side of the state (we're location limited by his job). Nothing as large as you are (5-10 acres) but enough that we can have a mini farm to supply ourselves and our family with wholesome food. I hope you will have better luck in your search than what we've had!

Do you do a lot of searching online, or do you rely on classifieds or word-of-mouth while you look?

 

[Farmerboy16]

Elyssia- Thanks, we were doing a lot of searching online, and word-of-mouth , but now...... I have very positive news!!! Remember That 20 acre land next to us? Its is for sale again as the buyers backed out as the perk test failed. Woot!! Great timing for me as I was getting worried what to feed to cows as I do not have good pasture yet. I had set-up temp fence for Bella in our backyard so she could have grass. So I set-up 3 acres of temp fencing on that land on the same day I found out, and moved them in right away. They are filling out on grass, so they are happy and so am I. I will wait until August before making an offer on it. Also put the fencing back up on that land for the Emus.

Got two jersey bull calves yesterday. They will be steers to replace Pancake and November. Their names are Butter, And Toast.

 

[Elyssia001]

Jersey faces are so precious!

 

[20736]

Wow, bad story.
But I will tell you one thing young man, you are a survivor. You will be fine. You learned a lot of hard lessons, but YOU LEARNED THEM! Many never will. I wish you the best of everything with life in general and birds in particular.
God Bless You'all Real Good.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

i am so sorry for your loss, wish i had read this a month ago because i have done the exact same thing to my chickens. i have a smaller flock of about 30 show bantems in one coop that stay in their house and run and guinea coop across the yard BUT i have traveled from one to another to feed so its just a matter of time. im glad im not the only one going through this, somehow it comforts me alltho i wouldnt wish it on anyone. novaAman directed me to ur post. i havent started the antibiotics yet but they are supposed to be here monday and i wonder if im doing the right thing by treating

 

[Elaine Elder]

Hilbilly Hen, I do agree with you about Daron's character and intentions. I just read a post a ways back that worried me.

HH and Daron - we all live fairly close.  And my chickens got E.Coli in the lungs.  I am wondering if we have wild birds carrying disease.

Did you both know that there is a vaccine for MG?  I think when I get chicks next, I will go ahead and vaccinate them at 6-8 weeks.  The vaccine is called   Mycovac - L

And at Michigan State University, Dr. Fulton recommended that all our chicks are vaccinated for Mareks disease at hatching.

where do you get the Mycovac-L?
I am in Georgia, the Capital of broiler chickens in the U.S.
I purchased a Flock from someone "going out of business" I quickly found out why
I lost- half my flock from either dropping dead or culling the sick ones.
I did not Know about MG at the time. In November I was down to what appeared to be healthy chickens. My NPIP inspection was due. I had One Sick Rooster, I put him in quarantine and waited to cull him until after NPIP. When the tech arrived I asked her to hold back 1 test (whatever it is they take a sample from 5 birds of Blood) for that Rooster. I caught all chickens and they were tested. I asked her what could have caused all the deaths. She had no idea. The rooster in question, she told me had a cold and almost all of the farms she had tested in the last Summer had had birds with colds.

I just got my NPIP Certification for this year. I know this tech tested for MG & MS. I have a certificate for Pullorum & Typhoid clean. I also know she tested for AI. I have no certificate that they are A.I. clean or MG or MS Clean. But I am NPIP Certified.???
National Poultry Improvement Plan- My Rear End.
The flock I purchased was NPIP certified!!!
On my Part- I had no Idea I had MG, but I put eggs for hatching through the dipping process any way to kill any pathogen that might be on the shell. I understood the process would also Kill anything that might be inside the egg. My hatch rate from before the sudden deaths and respiratory illness was about 85%. This Year, my hatch rate was 10-25%. Then my friend about 30 minutes away found out her flock had MG. She culled 250 birds, Turkeys and chickens, her geese were clean. She was of Course heartbroken. I went crazy. I started reading everything on the internet about MG. I called and E-mailed the Georgia Poultry Lab. I left messages for 2 weeks. 3 weeks after testing I got a response by E-mail. 5 birds tested positive MG and MS. Now here is my gripe: She tested All 5 birds from one coop before I knew what she was doing. So are my "never got sick" birds in tractors in the pasture a quarter mile away from the main barn Okay? Should She not have tested 1 bird in each group? I have Outside coops with 2X4 inch wire wild birds can get into. I have Coops inside the barn of 1 inch x 1/2inch wire. I have moveable Coops in the pasture with l inch X 1/2 inch Wire, But Cardinals get under the front that is about 2 inches off the ground. I think it should be protocol to test a proper sampling of all the different areas. for me that should have been at least 3 areas. I was upset and asked her to also sample the other 2 areas. She had only brought the 5 vials and 5 swabs.
After I got the MG/MS positive results I called the people I had sold chick to, They all say their chicks are fine. They all opted to keep them. So I only hope My egg dipping has worked. The remaining chicks in the room downstairs that have not been exposed to the outside World yet, will stay put until I vaccinate them.

I have Ameraucana, Isbars, Sumatra, Speckled Sussex, Russian Orlof, Crevecoeur, Appenzeller, Barred Rock, Dominique, Crele Dominique, Crele Wyandotte, Crele Legbars, Crele Phoenix,(when I learned how to make Crele I went a little crazy with it) Every color of Marans you can image, Super Dark Brown eggs. Buff, Lavender, Blue, Chocolate, Black, Silver Laced U.K. Orpington hens But only BIue & Black Roosters So the hens are with the Black Now the Blue Later. And then there are my Silkies. 15 years in the breeding - I have Cuckoo! I have Mottled and Paint and Lavender and Chocolate and Birchen and every combination of splash of all those colors. I cannot give that up. 15 years of my life. So I want to vaccinate with the one that does not give a positive test for MG after I vaccinate. I want the one that I can vaccinate My Breeders, and stop vertical spread of MG. I have used Tylan minimally, I culled sick birds. A paper feed bag over the tailpipe of the Truck.

No Silkie Ever got sick - are they immune?

I am going to build a coop on the other side of the property. Netting to keep birds out to raise up my chicks. i can have them tested at 24 weeks. I plan to vaccinate all 200 chickens Plus the chicks. A couple of Loose Roos will be culled by shooting if I can't catch them.

So, That's where I am. Looking for the right Vaccine...
No sick birds. But after the Tech handled them, 5 dropped dead with no symptoms.
Next time a Lab tech shows up I will have a Tyvec Suit and a shower cap and better gloves and possibly a mask. What if the techs are spreading diseases?
What is the drop dead disease?

out of 150 chicks only 8 died. Failure to thrive. after 72 hours they just died. I assume in these cases, when the egg yolk is gone, there is something wrong with digestive system and they just die. But they do not try to eat or drink. 6 of them were self blue d' Uccle crossed with Black Ameraucana. all the blue survived, the black died. 2 were Olive Egger.

attached are some of my different color silkies.
chocolate mottled and blue mottled silkie chicks
cuckoo silkie chick (first generation - it will take 5-8 more generations to lock in type and color)
Buff splash silkie chick with white perfect type silkie hen

 

[Granny Hatchet]

my flock was never tested. I tried to get them tested and was told that crd was so prevalent everyone would test positive. the wild birds were carriers. MG or not they had the symptoms . I culled my flock after trying different treatments including tylan. 2 months later and a beautiful new flock and i was back at square one. then the medication denaguard was brought to my attention. once a month preventative for 3-4 months then i needed surgery. 7 months out and no medication has been given or needed. Maybe just pure luck but i dont think so.

 

[Elaine Elder]

Because I am a rare breed enthusiast and I specialize in my own nonexistent colors of silkies And crossing Amerancanas with everything and my crele creations, I have to test negative for All diseases. But for the Same reasons I can not start over. My chickens do not exist anywhere to just restock. I am researching all my options. I have a hundred to raise up to see if the egg wash and cold dip worked. I'm going to try to find the vaccine that is a drop in the eye because it does not test positive and protects the already infected birds from passing to eggs. So I can keep my breeding stock as is.
15 years is a lot of time to start over. I just can't find a supplier for the vaccine.
Thanks
E