Speckledhen's Ten Commandments of Good Flock Management

[unrulypinup]

Thank you Speckledhen! It's so nice for newbies and experienced keepers alike to have the sort of resource you provided and now we have a better idea what to do with our chicks.

 

[speckledhen]

Welcome to BYC!

 

[Quack and Cheep]

Hello there

Thanks for the advice, it is really useful since I am new to chicken keeping and this kind of forum.

I noted that if chicks smell bad they should be culled, I am now worried since I took in some turkey poults from someones smallholding last night and they stink to high heaven.

The owner of the smallholding said the turkey hens are mating with the stag again and the chicks are dying and the remaining eggs that were in the brooder box have all vanished overnight. There is no trace of the shells even.

I have hatched two little poults of my own and they went into the brood box with the stinky ones, now I am worried because you say smelly birds need culling.

Please help, I have lots of tiny bantoms sharing the same heat source as these little birds (not together with turkeys though since I read turkeys get disease from chickens) and I don't want to get anything wrong especially as these little creatures are relying on me to get it right first time.

The situation with the turkeys is this.

The big ones are on a smallholding, one stag treading with 4 hens, three of which were sitting on about 70 eggs.

Some hatched and seemed fine, then they started to get squashed as they were hatching.

I suggested that the rest be removed and that is how I have ended up with them.

Last night when they arrived, there were 7 of them, one drowned in the smallest portion of water almost immediately which was terrible, so I filled up their water with clay balls and dared them to try to drown again, then another one kept rolling onto its back and then died, despite my diligent watching over it.

I have five birds left but they smell really bad, please will you advise me what I should do with them, what disease, if any they might have and if they may be diseased, what the prognosis would be.

And what on earth should I say to the smallholder......................?

PLEASE HELP.........

 

[speckledhen]

First of all, I didn't say "smelly birds need culling". That is too broad of a statement. Sometimes, a bad smell around the head like death could be a symptom of infectious Coryza, but a bird could smell bad for several reasons.

I sorry, since I don't know much of anything about turkeys, I don't feel qualified to instruct you. I suggest you post your question in the Emergencies section of the forum for more immediate answers to your questions from folks you are familiar with turkeys and the diseases they encounter. Sounds like they were kept in deplorable conditions.

 

[Oregon Blues]

Turkey poults should not smell bad. New hatchlings should not have any detectible odor at all.

But they get smells on them from the environment. Did a rotten eggs explode in the nest and get goo on them? Were they in a stinky poopy pen? if something that smells bad gets onto their feathers, then you will smell whatever that is, stuck to their feathers.

Are you certain that you are smelling the actual turkeys and not poopy or wet bedding?

 

[Aghan]

Read the ten commandments and they are exiting

 

[willowbranchfarm]

Great job. And the water thing was funny. LoL

 

[Sunnysimplelife]

As always such good advice. Especially the one about resp. infections and culling. I am finding it hard to inspect a couple of my gals. They give me the worst time. Any advice on special positions or if I should cover their head or something to calm them while I check them out.

 

[speckledhen]

Yeah, some of them are not happy to be handled. I know that if you lay them on their sides and lay a towel across their heads, sometimes, they'll calm down for you to examine them. We know that from doing crop surgery on a couple of birds, one just a little while ago, in fact. He practically went to sleep.

 

[scwheeler24]

Would you recommend culling the one that is symptomatic or the whole flock? and by culling you mean dispatching? Rule on the resp