Speckledhen's Ten Commandments of Good Flock Management

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

Excited to read this. Meanwhile, I stopped by your YT and commented. Was very good to see you, lady.

 

[speckledhen]

Oh, hey! Glad to see you here as well. Stay cool (if that's even possible now, ugh). I see you're in GA so you're also a neighbor!

 

[ValarieF]

Chickens may be livestock or they may be pets, but they deserve and desire attention and care. If you are going to maintain a healthy backyard flock, there are certain rules that should be followed. For those of you who frequently PM me for advice, or for those of you who are new to chicken-keeping, here is the "Speckledhen Method" in a nutshell.

Speckledhen's Ten Commandments of Good Flock Management

1) Keep a clean, dry environment...change bedding as needed, watch out for leaky waterers/windows/roofs, etc.

2) Fresh air/ventilation is essential..poop and respiration add moisture in the air. Ventilation overhead, not at roost or floor level.

3) Provide fresh water, daily. Would you take a sip out of the waterer? If not, clean it.

4) Give fresh, nutritious food, formulated for the age/function of the birds

5) Provide a safe, predator-proofed, uncrowded coop and run...they depend on you for protection

6) Periodically, check over each bird in the flock for lice, mites, wounds, etc.

7) Practice good biosecurity..disinfect shoes before and after visting the feedstore and shows, quarantine new birds, etc Under no circumstances, sell, trade, or give away a bird that shows sign of infection or has contacted another bird who shows signs of infection, or comes from a flock that has shown signs of infection, now or in the past.

8) At the first sign of contagious respiratory illness, i.e., discharges from nose or eyes or bad smell, cull, cull, cull...birds don't get colds, per se; they contract diseases, many of which make them carriers for their lifetime. That means they are able to infect others even if they seem to recover themselves. See Rule #7.

9) Do not medicate unnecessarily, including wormers and antibiotics

10) DO YOUR RESEARCH! There are numerous books and articles profiling poultry management and poultry disease. Read, study and then formulate a plan of action, should the worst happen, before it happens.


Happy Chicken-Keeping!

Great information but I disagree with rule 8. I have seen many chickens get a respitory infection, recover, and go back to their flock and the flock was fine, you do not need to kill an animal just because its sick.

 

[speckledhen]

Great information but I disagree with rule 8. I have seen many chickens get a respitory infection, recover, and go back to their flock and the flock was fine, you do not need to kill an animal just because its sick.

Then you really do not understand chicken respiratory disease. Most all of them are like herpes or HIV. Infectious Coryza, Mycoplasmosis, ILT, all of those are in that category. They never leave the body and make the bird a permanent carrier, like a Typhoid Mary in your flock. They may not have symptoms, but they are still sick. Is it worth losing your entire flock for one bird? Not in my book. Some parts of chicken keeping are not for the faint of heart. It's a harsh reality of this hobby. Best you can do is good biosecurity, never buy started birds, etc.

 

[ValarieF]

Then you really do not understand chicken respiratory disease. Most all of them are like herpes or HIV. Infectious Coryza, Mycoplasmosis, ILT, all of those are in that category. They never leave the body and make the bird a permanent carrier, like a Typhoid Mary in your flock. They may not have symptoms, but they are still sick. Is it worth losing your entire flock for one bird? Not in my book. Some parts of chicken keeping are not for the faint of heart. It's a harsh reality of this species. Best you can do is good biosecurity, never buy started birds, etc.

Clearly you did not read my entire post where the bird recovered adn the whole flock was fine. Not all respitory illnesses are contagious just saying. Could be just a cold.

 

[speckledhen]

Clearly you did not read my entire post where the bird recovered adn the whole flock was fine. Not all respitory illnesses are contagious just saying. Could be just a cold.

Yes, I did read your entire post. The problem is that you DO NOT KNOW if the illness is contagious until you throw that bird back into the flock, do you? Did you have it tested? I would bet you didn't. There is NO SUCH THING as a chicken cold. Chickens do not get colds. That is a fact. There are sinus infections, there is situational pneumonia and sometimes, more rarely, fungal infections, sure, but those are more easily determined to be non-contagious by assessing the facts of the situation. If you do not know for a fact that it is one of those, then you are gambling with the health of your entire flock. Veterinarians, if they know anything about chickens by regularly treating or keeping them themselves, will tell you the same thing.

 

[ValarieF]

So when a bird is sick your just gonna kill it? Not me Im gonna look up the signs and symptoms and get a vets opinion on that. Because vets will know. Thats why they are vets and I have a chicken vet lined up. Because I care that much.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm not trying to be short with you and I'm sorry if it came across that way, but I've had this same conversation with hundreds of new chicken owners. I don't know how long you've had chickens or if you have actually studied chicken disease at all, but these are facts that every chicken keeper needs to understand, no matter how much he/she doesn't like it, no matter how real it is. Avian species are completely different than mammals like dogs and cats or even humans and cannot be treated the same way.
Let me tell you about veterinarians. Though they have a unit on avian species in school, unless they specialize in it, they rarely know much about chickens. They choose not to do that. I have had the ear of several excellent ones who know chickens, have treated chickens and a couple own chickens themselves, as well as two PhDs in Poultry Science I've consulted over the years about reproductive malfunctions. Even my dog/cat vet owns chickens, but I don't take my birds to the vet, never have. Many vets will charge you and experiment on your chicken, but won't admit they really don't know what they're doing.
I have never had a bird with contagious illness in the over 17 years we've kept chickens. If I determined that one did somehow contract a contagious illness, YES, I would cull that chicken! It's not worth endangering my entire flock.

I have birds that have lived to over 14 years old and most live to at least 10, and they deserve that much care. That is how I care for my birds. You can ask anyone who has known me for the past 17 years on BYC, even before this one was revamped by Rob Ludlow and they'll tell you what care I give my birds. Signs and symptoms won't get you very far because many respiratory illnesses have very similar ones. A few years back, I had a small group get a fungal infection, determined it was such, treated with Oxine AH in a vaporizer once or twice a day for several days and they were all fine, however, one 5 year old hen developed bubbles in her eyes, alarmed me, so I consulted the former state vet. He said it was a bacterial infection left over from the fungal infection and told me how to treat it, that she was not contagious. HOWEVER, if she had been, I would have euthanized that very valued hen. Yes, I would have. She did go on to live to 10 years old, but we were ready to do what was necessary to protect the rest of the flock. Add that to the fact that I sell hatching eggs and occasionally, chicks, and I could not ethically do that any longer if there was any contagious carrier disease in my flocks. I realize many do and don't care that they are causing heartache to someone else, but I won't do that so I have a strict policy about disease. So far, I have not had to cull one for any contagious respiratory disease because there has never been one here. That is by design.

 

[getaclue]

I have to agree with speckledhen on this. If you know for sure a respiratory illness is not contagious, and how to treat it, that's one thing. If you don't, or are uncertain, then don't risk an entire flock over 1 chicken. Some of the worst of the worst serious, contagious illnesses for chickens, begin with respiratory distress.

Sadly, there are several serious illnesses that the best solution is to cull. Fortunately, they're not an often time occurrence, but as a responsible flock keeper, one must be prepared to cull if, and when needed. Unfortunately, even vets are not miracle workers. If one of your birds, or your flock does get exposed to one of the serious contagious illnesses, there is little they can do. Coryza comes to mind.

When we were looking at places to buy, we went to look at a place. The woman kept chickens, and some of them were free ranging in her yard. I mentioned I too had chickens. Later on, after she showed us a good bit of the place, and outbuildings, she mentioned that we could not go into the coop, because she had some chickens quarantined, and the vet would be out the next day to treat them again. ??????????? Coryza had wiped out about 1/4 of her flock before she could get the vet to see her chickens. The vet had treated them, but not all of them had responded to treatment. The ones that did live, were still infected, and contagious. Every couple months, when one or more would die, OR when one or more would start gasping for breath, OR when they would get an odor, she would have to call the vet to come treat them again. There is no cure for Coryza. She felt it cruel to confine them, so she let them roam the yard. It spread to her neighbor's flock. The ones that did not die from the Coryza, the neighbor culled. It takes awhile after the last one is gone, and with decontamination, for it to be safe to put new chickens on the property.

Needless to say, when we came home, we disrobed in the garage, and I put our clothes straight into the laundry. I then decontaminated the entire vehicle including the tires, and our shoes while hubby showered and washed his hair, then I too went to shower and shampoo my hair. No way was I going to risk exposing my chickens.

There are even a very few illnesses, that the county/state will come cull all of your flock, if your birds are exposed, or catch one of them. Newcastle disease comes to mind. It was devastating in California for a long time, with mandatory euthanasia for most chickens in the state, in their efforts to get rid of it there, and prevent the spread to other states. It all started with 2 roosters.

Please, don't misunderstand, thinking that all illnesses need to end in the culling of your chicken, or flock. That is NOT what's being said. Chickens will sometimes sneeze due to dust. It's not an illness, nor is it a reason to cull. There are respiratory issues that can be treated, won't make the chicken a carrier, and won't affect the rest of the flock, BUT it's best to be certain.

 

[speckledhen]

@getaclue, thank you for adding to the discussion. You know me well, have for years and no one has ever said just kill willy-nilly if a chicken sneezes, certainly not me. By the same token, if a chicken owner can't bring himself/herself to euthanize a suffering bird, that owner is being irresponsible. No one ever said it was easy and breeders with zero tolerance to disease approach are sometimes called bloodthirsty. That is a ridiculous accusation that has been leveled by folks who are just too sensitive to do what needs doing. Even new caulk and plywood in a coop will start them all sneezing. You have to have the logical approach to assess the "why" of it and go from there. If you have never brought in birds from anywhere and you put them in a brand new building and they all start sneezing their heads off, toxic off-gassing of materials could be what's happening, especially if there is inadequate ventilation (a very common problem with coops I see) Logical deduction here goes a long way to discovering if you have a real problem or not.
As getaclue said, veterinarians are not miracle workers. Not all are created equal, though I've known and know now some excellent ones who are chicken owners and are clued into what is a permanent problem and what is not. Some vets may sell you medication, but that doesn't mean they believe it will cure your chicken. Owners tell them what they want and they comply with that. Most of these medications are not cures, just treatments for symptoms and many are bought over the counter like VetRx. Even antibiotics won't cure an incurable disease.