Stop the spread of disease. ?...

[ChickenMan842]

I have 6 chickens in my outdoor coop and 4 of them are sick.. the other 2 have not shown any signs of the sickness at all. I was told that the 2 could be carriers. .? I have 19 others about to join the flock. My question is should I keep them separated so the newbies don't get sick or go ahead and introduce them to the sickness and start them on the antibiotic?

 

[Eggcessive]

If it is a respiratory disease, it will just keep spreading through your whole flock. Antibiotics don't cure chronic respiratory diseases--they may treat symptoms, but many diseases come back each time a chicken is stressed, and all of the flock will become carriers. I would suggest either getting the sick ones tested , or sacrifice one sick chicken to be necropsied by your state vet to find out the disease. That way, you will find out if you need to cull the six chickens, and not spread the disease to your healthy flock.

 

[Akrnaf2]

Before introducing the new chickens you have to quarantine them for at least 40 days! I would never combine the two flocks in the situation that you described! I think that the new comers are in a big risk!