The Old Folks Home

[Alaskan]

What can I say...


Easily entertained.

 

[microchick]

Feel better, Wickedchicken6. Spring is no time to get sick.

Yes, I was very glad somebody on one of the hatching threads told me about Fayoumis. It just shows how much folks care about one another on BYC.

I've found that Cackle Hatchery down in southern MO has been breeding them since the 1990s and the price is reasonable enough. If I buy a dozen they are something like 3.05 apiece. At the moment, I 'm thinking about getting 12. By that time, my surviving Buff O's will be 3 and still laying although at a lower number of eggs. The surviving Welsummers will be 3 also so there should be at least a moderate resistance showing by that time. Sadly, my standard roosters are all just a year old now so they have to make it another two years before I will start entertaining the thought of them having resistance. Since this has hit my males particularly hard I'm not holding my breath.

The same for my bantams. The oldest are just 8 months old but healthy so far. One little pullet lays some less than perfectly round eggs at times but that could be a glitch in her reproductive system as she has no obvious symptoms right now.

So crossing Fayoumis with standard and bantam survivors is highly tempting given the disease resistance on the Fayoumi's part.

I sure hope you consider trying again with them.

Take care of yourself.

 

[Beer can]

Naked necks are supposed to be resistant/immune to many chicken diseases also I believe. At least it says so on Wikipedia

 

[Wickedchicken6]

That's ok. I'm incredibly easily entertained as well. Give me...a napkin. That'll keep me busy for hours. Or most likely I'll just fall asleep. A win-win either way!

Thanks micro. I know, I already feel behind, don't need this. I did take advil and got a bunch of stuff done in the coop. But I got rained out. Waiting for it to stop because I have to get the guinea eggs under the broody hens before they get too old.

I had read about Fayoumis being resistant in general on a breeders site, but I was not familiar about them being resistant to Mareks. I went looking but I guess they don't raise them anymore, so I can't even read the piece on them.

I haven't decided on whether I will try with Fayoumis at the moment. I'm thinking later down the road at the moment. It's really nice to know there are some so close...lol. I'm interested to see how the chicks I just hatched do when I expose them to the flock. The Fayoumis died before being exposed to our birds. I had some chicks that succumbed to Coccidiosis, which was new to me at the time...but I'm much better versed on now. But I had some issues I believe is feed related as well because I had more trouble than just coccidisis...but more like deficiences. But I've been watching. It has crossed my mind that my flock "could" have caused deaths to those chicks if I have something. But, I hatched a couple eggs from that farm and moved them into the flock with no issues. I also brought in Shuster after he'd been under extensive quarantine last fall and was exposed to our birds litter etc...prior to exposing him to the flock and he had no issues. I just did a necropsy on a hen and found nothing that indicated she had anything. I know diseases don't always show up though.

I'm getting Ameraucauna eggs from a breeder next week. Maybe SLW and possibly turkeys as well later this year from them depending on how well the everything goes. Right now I'm concentrating on using the toughest chicks that survive my hatching methods and the toughest chicks that have handled some rough starts. I've made my selections of the very best roosters which should reduce my roosters about half to 30. I'll still have enough unrelated genetics to last for years...lol.

I'm also hesitant to try eggs from a new place. I'm already beyond nervous hatching from two new separate places this year.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I have seen some ads for Turkens up here. That's interesting as well.
They're everywhere...lol.

Different topic but Lakenvelder eggs sold incredibly well at the sale. I've never even seen any birds around here before.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

And I have notifications set up for Kijiji for hatching eggs.

SO many beautiful hatching eggs and chicks. I don't know why I do that to myself.

 

[microchick]

Man I just came in from mowing. Can pollen kill you? I've had allergies since I was 30 and I just had an attack while I was mowing that made me want to buy stock in whatever company makes Benedryl. My eyes were streaming and burning, my nose was streaming and burning and it felt like somebody hit me between the eyes with a hammer. I was determined to get the mowing done as they are calling for rain again tomorrow and the grass around the coop was looking a bit shaggy. What was funny is that the symptoms went completely away within 15 minutes of coming inside. I've got a feeling it's going to be a long summer if this keeps up. Unfortunately I'm highly allergic to tree pollen as well as tree nuts and the hickory trees are in full bloom.

So far I have Fayoumi and NN's as being disease resistant. Anybody know of any more? I'm checking them all out. I thought I read somewhere that legbars have a natural resistance to Mareks or was it leghorns. If I had half a working brain I'd take it out and play with it.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Naked necks are supposed to be resistant/immune to many chicken diseases also I believe. At least it says so on Wikipedia

I can tell you that turkens die at the same rate as most of the other birds on my property. I have some very old birds, one is a naked neck. I have some that died early, including naked necks. I do not see them as resistant/immune, in my opinion, although thankfully I haven't had an outbreak to test it. I've probably had hundreds of birds and a wide variety of species, both hatchery and non hatchery, at this point and despite looking amazing, turkens are nothing special.

Mareks is a herpes virus (no, you can't catch it from the birds or vice versa) and as a virus it's pretty unlikely that an entire breed of bird will be more or less susceptible to it. Herpes viruses (in humans) are pretty easily spread and will flare up under stress and sickness. While I'm not a vet, nor do I play one on TV, I'd assume it acts pretty similar in birds as it does in humans. I'd assume you could breed stronger (ie less sick) lines in general, but it wouldn't be an entire species. IE the Smith line of turkens might be bred to be healthy and strong, but the Abbott line of turkens might have been bred for curly butt feathers and not health.

Just my opinion.

 

[Beer can]

Fayoumi, Kraienköppe, and Naked Neck are touted as having disease resistance. And your exactly right SCG, according to this book I was looking at, and makes perfect sense anyway, disease resistance is a breed trait that can be gained or lost in breeding of any breeds of chicken and vary from strain to strain. More than likely any Fayoumi, Kraienköppe, Naked Neck purchased from a typical hatchery would probably have minimal resistance to anything including parasites.
I know SandHill Preservation Center says they breed for disease resistance and their birds are free ranged outdoors but any other hatchery I much doubt is. Breeders may or may not breed for resistant birds more likely they breed just for type. And most of us backyard chicken keepers may say we breed for resistance but I don't know if we really do, or know if we know what we're doing.
I found this book pretty informative on the subject.
Of course my dumb phone makes links a page long, and probably shows up as my search for NN resistance. Couldn't figure out how to fix it, I'm not much smarter than my phone

https://books.google.com/books?id=2...ved=0ahUKEwjx95bPotLTAhXDz1QKHYvzB_4Q6AEIdjAR

 

[microchick]

It makes sense to me also Superchemicalgirl and Beer can. Breeding for resistance from what the doctor implied is at best a crap shoot. Maybe hatchery birds have less resistance bred into them but with the vaccine that gives them the edge? Idunno. If as a breed, Fayoumi's are as one article I read about them "Remarkably" resistant to Marek's it may just be a genetic trait in them. They are described as being one step away from feral, an independent breed of chickens that marches to the beat of it's own drummer, more or less. Traits that are probably genetic in their occurrence. I know I read of several studies that are underway where they are cross breeding Fayoumis with other standard breed chickens to see if they can pass on the resistance to Marek's and other diseases. It would make sense that these birds, give their habitat and personalities would if they are closely resembling jungle fowl, would have resistance bred into them as a part of natural selection and survival. A species is not going to survive in the wild if it is susceptible to every disease bug out there.

Superchemicalgirl, as a pharmacist, why don't you think the standard anti viral medicines used to combat common Herpes viruses that plague humans don't work with Marek's? Have you ever seen anything that mentioned using drugs like acyclovir, and in the case of ocular herpes infections, viroptic or gancyclovir to knock the virus back or out before it can progress to the point that it becomes basically malignant in a chicken? Is there that much difference between the avian form of herpes and the human form that the human anti-virals will not be effective on the avian form or has there been any testing done?

Thanks for the link, Beer can. I just opened it and know what I'll be reading tonight!