- Aug 8, 2011
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Quote:
on agression between birds - it's not just specific species. I've got two tom turkeys and they get along ok, probably because one is well established and the other grew up with him and hasn't considered challenging. other folks I know can't keep two toms in the same area without a fight. and some have the odd squable but no regular problems. I've had no inter-species fighting, or breeding attempts, but some folks do. so it's not guineas specifically - mine are great, no aggression towards other birds. it's your individual circumstances and your individual birds, I think. results are widely variable. it may have to do with other things as well - size of the space they're kept in, number of birds in that space, how they're fed (spread out or in one tight area), time of year, age of the birds, and probably other things too.
on blackhead, yes, you could be exposed to it even without introducing sick chickens. it can come in on people's shoes if they've walked in a contaminated area... but my understanding is that generally it's transmitted by sick birds. we do have it in our area - I know a fellow who works at a turkey farm about 5 miles from us, they lost a lot of birds to it last year he says... but on my property we've had no problems at all. needless to say, I don't let him walk in his work boots through my poultry area.
prevention is mostly good husbandry and bio-security practices - quarantine new birds, only buy from people you know have had no issues with it, don't let folks walk through your poultry area or handle your birds, keep your birds in good health and make sure they get proper nutrition, isolate any sick birds immediately, disinfect areas where sick birds have been... you know the general best practices for raising animals. the problem is that chickens can have it and recover, and can transmit it to turkeys. turkeys, for the most part, don't seem to recover, it's more fatal for them. so the issue is mostly that you can have apparently healthy chickens that have had it or are very midly sick, and you won't know, and they can give it to your turkeys who will die. so it's kind of sneaky... I think that's why folks are so jumpy on the subject. most folks on here don't seem to actually have had issues - they just know the alarming tales of what can happen, so they warn with enthusiasm. a few folks on here have actually *had* birds with blackhead, but it seems most haven't.
to find out if you have it in your area, try your local county extension office and ask for their poultry person, or contact a local poultry/agricultural veterinarian and ask if they've seen it in their practices.
on agression between birds - it's not just specific species. I've got two tom turkeys and they get along ok, probably because one is well established and the other grew up with him and hasn't considered challenging. other folks I know can't keep two toms in the same area without a fight. and some have the odd squable but no regular problems. I've had no inter-species fighting, or breeding attempts, but some folks do. so it's not guineas specifically - mine are great, no aggression towards other birds. it's your individual circumstances and your individual birds, I think. results are widely variable. it may have to do with other things as well - size of the space they're kept in, number of birds in that space, how they're fed (spread out or in one tight area), time of year, age of the birds, and probably other things too.
on blackhead, yes, you could be exposed to it even without introducing sick chickens. it can come in on people's shoes if they've walked in a contaminated area... but my understanding is that generally it's transmitted by sick birds. we do have it in our area - I know a fellow who works at a turkey farm about 5 miles from us, they lost a lot of birds to it last year he says... but on my property we've had no problems at all. needless to say, I don't let him walk in his work boots through my poultry area.
prevention is mostly good husbandry and bio-security practices - quarantine new birds, only buy from people you know have had no issues with it, don't let folks walk through your poultry area or handle your birds, keep your birds in good health and make sure they get proper nutrition, isolate any sick birds immediately, disinfect areas where sick birds have been... you know the general best practices for raising animals. the problem is that chickens can have it and recover, and can transmit it to turkeys. turkeys, for the most part, don't seem to recover, it's more fatal for them. so the issue is mostly that you can have apparently healthy chickens that have had it or are very midly sick, and you won't know, and they can give it to your turkeys who will die. so it's kind of sneaky... I think that's why folks are so jumpy on the subject. most folks on here don't seem to actually have had issues - they just know the alarming tales of what can happen, so they warn with enthusiasm. a few folks on here have actually *had* birds with blackhead, but it seems most haven't.
to find out if you have it in your area, try your local county extension office and ask for their poultry person, or contact a local poultry/agricultural veterinarian and ask if they've seen it in their practices.
