Trying to contain Marek's and protect 6 week and 2 week old chicks

[microchick]

So what is the peroxide/water ratio on that dip? I would be willing to try it.

Actually the saying is Strip naked, paint myself purple stand on a hill and sling a dead chicken over your head. Trying to be PG here, LOL!

 

[Kiki]

So what is the peroxide/water ratio on that dip? I would be willing to try it.

Actually the saying is Strip naked, paint myself purple stand on a hill and sling a dead chicken over your head. Trying to be PG here, LOL!

I'd like to know the ratio too.

 

[Kiki]

So what is the peroxide/water ratio on that dip? I would be willing to try it.

Actually the saying is Strip naked, paint myself purple stand on a hill and sling a dead chicken over your head. Trying to be PG here, LOL!

I've never heard this saying so I ask ole Mr. Google and look what the first thing that show up in the search is:

 

[ReallyACL]

So what is the peroxide/water ratio on that dip? I would be willing to try it.

Actually the saying is Strip naked, paint myself purple stand on a hill and sling a dead chicken over your head. Trying to be PG here, LOL!

LOL, great saying!

I used supermarket bought 3 percent solution, I believe it can be used neat (hatcheries use a 5 percent apparently, but saying they, they mist rather than a quick dunk and air dry), so I wasnt so sure, so I mixed 50/50 of the three percent solution with eye wash saline. I have also heard some people used a mouthwash, but I'm not so sure about that one, seems to contain a lot of different chemicals, but by the various reports (seems a lot of people have tried it) it also improves hatch rate and chick health.

I have a beautiful old easter egger hen in my small old flock, she's such a prollific layer and very large bird, when I got Mareks I was pretty upset in the beginning knowing she'll be a carrier no doubt (but she's never been broody). I had a roo at the time. I gathered all her eggs to hatch in one hatching (with a few from my other hens in that group). Those were the ones I dipped, I figured dander and even the smallest contaminants from the nest might be on the eggshell, float around the incubator and then infect a fresh hatched chick. I really want to keep her line going. I collected a heap of her eggs even past the time they should be viable. I got 17 of just hers alone into the incubator from her 17 I hatched 15 perfect chicks, one dead in shell, dont know why, and one that didnt seem to develop but i missed it duing candling). Sadly I've lost two to foxes in the past few weeks as they escaped their run (even with hot wire and hot net) bit I still have 13 from her, 8 six month old pullets and I kept one of the cockerels with them, they are all really really robust birds. The other cockerels are in the freezer (sad, but well, at least I know how they lived and died, my son inlaw gets a bit freaked out by the way I insist on bringing one bird out at a time, at night, in the dark, like i'm just changing them to a different run as I have in the past. Petting them, holding them how I always have and telling them how lovely they are while he get an aim from behind to hit them rather hard on the head. He says it's like killing pets, and I just tell him, well yes, we are killing pets, very much loved pets in fact. I dont like that part of bird keeping/breeding. The 50 percent rooster rate is always going to be there. However, at least I know they never felt a moment of neglect, hunger or fear, they are much loved even at the end and because I always handle them, they dont know I'm taking them to their end when that time comes, and they dont see the birds getting killed or dead that we have killed before them (I believe they understand what they are seeing when and if they see something, and when they are about to die they dont need to know). I always have a bit of a cry after processing my boy babies, and when they meet the table it makes me feel saying grace has more meaning).

 

[microchick]

Very well said @ReallyACL.

You are really much braver than I am. I have given extra roosters to our neighbor to butcher for meat but have never butchered any of my surplus boys myself. I can remember helping my mom pluck birds for the freezer way back when I was 7 or 8 years old and to this day I can remember the smell of those wet feathers and the smell of gutting out those birds. I got my first anatomy lesson with her showing me the different organs in the bird and gizzard contents. I really don't have any problem with eating any of my birds, just butchering them myself puts me off. And I'm a retired nurse so I am no stranger to blood and gore.

Right now I have 4 hens sitting on a total of 12 eggs. Undoubtedly half of them will be roosters.I'd much rather hatch eggs in my incubator where I can keep the chicks isolated for 6 weeks but broodies got to do what broodies got to do.

Sadly, I am to the point with this disease that I am at peace with the fact that I may loose one or two young birds and for that matter and my old girls will succumb at some point in time. If dipping eggs with give me better chicks, I'm willing to give it a try. My hatch rates are generally good with my bantam crosses. If I can get healthier chicks, I'm in.

 

[ReallyACL]

Very well said @ReallyACL.

You are really much braver than I am. I have given extra roosters to our neighbor to butcher for meat but have never butchered any of my surplus boys myself. I can remember helping my mom pluck birds for the freezer way back when I was 7 or 8 years old and to this day I can remember the smell of those wet feathers and the smell of gutting out those birds. I got my first anatomy lesson with her showing me the different organs in the bird and gizzard contents. I really don't have any problem with eating any of my birds, just butchering them myself puts me off. And I'm a retired nurse so I am no stranger to blood and gore.

Right now I have 4 hens sitting on a total of 12 eggs. Undoubtedly half of them will be roosters.I'd much rather hatch eggs in my incubator where I can keep the chicks isolated for 6 weeks but broodies got to do what broodies got to do.

Sadly, I am to the point with this disease that I am at peace with the fact that I may loose one or two young birds and for that matter and my old girls will succumb at some point in time. If dipping eggs with give me better chicks, I'm willing to give it a try. My hatch rates are generally good with my bantam crosses. If I can get healthier chicks, I'm in.

LOL I have a nursing background as well. I grew up on a farm, and my uncles and aunts farms, shooting bunnies and dad filling the cool room from animals that we sometimes bottle raised (that sucked when I was a child). The only thing I cant handle as an adult is fresh milk, I really dont like fresh cows milk. When ever were were at one aunt and uncles we had to go to the milking shed to fill a small bucket from the vat in the morning for the house. My aunt would put it over my wheaties, it was warm and horrible. One of my other aunts had a house cow a jersey, she used to gently boil the milk then put it in the fridge and she would stand it over night before skimming it. I liked her milk, I still dont like warm milk though.

I have 6 little roos I need to process currently, but I've put it off yet another day LOL, I'll gt around to it this week, the young roos reach a point they begin to get a bit to much for the young pullets and this lot are by far the meanest little boys I've had. I'd like to grow them a little more but it wont happen, with their behaviour I'll start losing the girls before long.

I had one hen in my old flock go broody this year, I was so close to caving in and letting her raise a clutch but I managed to control myself wit a bit of self talk around the old flock not having that much more time before they begin to drop off with age or age related illness. I might be able to break the cycle once they are gone. At least till the next time. But I think you are right, you'll no doubt grow out some resilliant chicks, perhaps even in time natural immunity, letting nature take it's course is not always a bad thing, it can be hard sometimes because many of us want to do whatever we can for our animals to ensure they are well and happy, but in the long run too much interventon begets the need for too much intervention, it creates a cycle.

Give the dip a go and see how you go with it, let me know how your results go, I'd be interested to see if it makes any notable change with hen hatched clutches for sure.

 

[ReallyACL]

I've never heard this saying so I ask ole Mr. Google and look what the first thing that show up in the search is:
View attachment 1416291

 

[microchick]

Yes, Big Brother is watching.

@ReallyACL, I'm not a big fan of warm milk either and never have been.

As far as intervention is concerned with Marek's disease I've come to the conclusion that past the point of doing whatever I can to keep my flock healthy is about all anyone can do. Once they start showing symptoms of the disease rearing it's ugly head, I do not hesitate to put them down any longer.

A) When that happens they are shedding virus like a long haired dog sheds hair in the spring.

B) No matter what I've done in the past to try to treat them, nothing has worked. When they stop eating that is pretty much it for them. I know there are people that at that point would tube feed their birds to keep them going but with Marek's, you are just whipping a dead horse. The bird either has an infection that will not respond to antibiotics or antifungals or they are riddled with tumors.

I've had caged chickens in our shop for days, dosing them with antibiotics, using an eye dropper to hydrate them and the end has been the same. Either they die or I have to put them down.

That is the big problem with Marek's disease. Everyday here on BYC I read threads everyday about people snatching their birds back from the brink due to horrible injuries or infections like fly strike but with Marek's there is no success story where a chicken has tumors, infections or whatever. The end is always the same at least where my birds are concerned. They die.

Yeah, pretty depressing isn't it? Like the doctor at the University of Missouri's Veterinary Labs told me when I talked to him about my flock. The best anyone can do is breed for resistance once Marek's is discovered. He suggested an age to shoot for is 3-4 years and breed birds that have reached that age....if they are still producing fertile eggs.

That was the problem with my flock. I have hens that have reached the magic age of 3 years but no roosters so far. My oldest roosters are two years old. I was amazed that they made it past their first birthday as that seems to be the age of die off for my flock. The roosters succumb to the disease when they reach the point of their first breeding season as adults. But the fact that I have 3 standard sized roosters that have made it to 2 is a light at the end of the tunnel for me. How long that light stays on is anyone's guess. I've thrown every stressful situation at them that I can think of but so far they are holding up.

 

[ReallyACL]

Yes, Big Brother is watching.

@ReallyACL, I'm not a big fan of warm milk either and never have been.

As far as intervention is concerned with Marek's disease I've come to the conclusion that past the point of doing whatever I can to keep my flock healthy is about all anyone can do. Once they start showing symptoms of the disease rearing it's ugly head, I do not hesitate to put them down any longer.

A) When that happens they are shedding virus like a long haired dog sheds hair in the spring.

B) No matter what I've done in the past to try to treat them, nothing has worked. When they stop eating that is pretty much it for them. I know there are people that at that point would tube feed their birds to keep them going but with Marek's, you are just whipping a dead horse. The bird either has an infection that will not respond to antibiotics or antifungals or they are riddled with tumors.

I've had caged chickens in our shop for days, dosing them with antibiotics, using an eye dropper to hydrate them and the end has been the same. Either they die or I have to put them down.

That is the big problem with Marek's disease. Everyday here on BYC I read threads everyday about people snatching their birds back from the brink due to horrible injuries or infections like fly strike but with Marek's there is no success story where a chicken has tumors, infections or whatever. The end is always the same at least where my birds are concerned. They die.

Yeah, pretty depressing isn't it? Like the doctor at the University of Missouri's Veterinary Labs told me when I talked to him about my flock. The best anyone can do is breed for resistance once Marek's is discovered. He suggested an age to shoot for is 3-4 years and breed birds that have reached that age....if they are still producing fertile eggs.

That was the problem with my flock. I have hens that have reached the magic age of 3 years but no roosters so far. My oldest roosters are two years old. I was amazed that they made it past their first birthday as that seems to be the age of die off for my flock. The roosters succumb to the disease when they reach the point of their first breeding season as adults. But the fact that I have 3 standard sized roosters that have made it to 2 is a light at the end of the tunnel for me. How long that light stays on is anyone's guess. I've thrown every stressful situation at them that I can think of but so far they are holding up.

I really like the idea of breeding the older hens that keep on keeping on, that makes a huge amount of sense. I always thought breeding pullets was discouraged simply due to egg size and that the egg shells are always hard, but adding in possible natural resistance to what young birds have not been tested to in the environment yet, leaving them an unknown is good incentive to wait.

My vet tells me birds are fragile, and I believe her, so she always says, IF you are going to treat a bird, treat it until you kill it or it recovers. It's no use breeding stronger pathogens, it does no one any favours. Mareks is one of those things that we all know there is no cure for, resistance and careful habits is the best any bird keeper can aim for. The odd resp illness as a symptom of the disease can be treated, but it's a band-aid as they always get another down the track (This I know with my old old hen). Perhaps the old easter eggers off spring will be as tough as she is, she's never have so much as a sneeze.

Fingers crossed on your roo's that at least one is a toughy, it sounds as though the hens are.