Urgent Reminder-PLEASE Quarantine Newly Acquired Birds!

[fargosmom]

This thread is amazing, and I have tried so hard to take the message to heart. That said, I did the stupid thing and fell in love with (and bought) a pullet at a show two weeks ago, from someone I don't really know. I did hear one positive review of her from another BYC member, but that's all. So I DID put the bird in quarantine, in a dog crate in my storage room, and I dusted her with poultry dust just to be safe. Took her to the vet for a check a week later and (based on a visual exam) she was pronounced "fine" with no discernible parasites. She's still in quarantine (it's been two weeks) and I plan on keeping her there another two. That said, I understand the logic behind putting one of my resident birds in with her, but the crate is really too small for 2 birds (I think). I do have a hen that I've pulled from the group because she was being too aggressive, so she's in another pet carrier for the next week as a time-out. Would putting the two cages side-by-side be close enough to accomplish anything? I don't really want to risk the older hen since she's my best layer, but since she's out of the coop anyway . . . ? I also don't want to put her directly in with the new bird since we haven't really resolved her aggression issue yet.
Meanwhile new bird seems healthy - clean, alert and good appetite. I haven't let her out at all yet, so I can imagine she's pretty bored, but I'd much rather be safe than sorry.
Cheers -
Cynthia

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
Hi, sorry I missed your post. What did you decide to do and how did it all go? Hope it was a good result.

 

[fargosmom]

Well, here's how it went.
I kept the two cages side by side for another week. At that point the new girl had been here for three weeks, and I felt pretty sure she was fine. I started letting her spend a little time ranging with the other pullets from my coop, but at the end I would put her back in her q-cage. After a week of that I put her in the coop with a divider so she wasn't in the main population, and then took the divider down about a week later when she seemed to mostly be holding her own. Overall she was quarantined for three weeks, since I did let her mingle with the flock after that . . .

So overall I rushed the quarantine a little bit but 3+ weeks seemed to work - everyone is fine so far and they've been together almost a month now. It would have been easier if my backyard was a little bigger, where I could set up a proper second facility, but the dog crate worked ok. I mostly felt bad that she was so confined for the month, although I know that factory birds live their whole lives that way (but that doesn't make it right).

I still don't really have any way to know if the two cages side by side did any good . . . they weren't really sharing space, so as a quarantine issue I don't think it did much. But it kept them from being lonely - I know the new bird switched to spending most of her time at that side of the cage when I introduced the other bird, so she appreciated having someone to talk to.

In the meantime I put the mean hen out in my home-made tractor, so she can see the coop but not mix with the other birds. I'm waiting till everyone has their full growth before I put meanie back in, so they can stand up to her.

Now that I've been through this once, I know for sure that I will plan ahead better the next time I add to the flock, so that I can impose a more strict 4 week period. The worry wasn't worth it. And I would especially make sure that I introduce 2 or more new birds at once, so the new bird doesn't have to go it alone. Thanks to all who've kept this and other threads going, to let us learn from past mistakes - I'm glad the new bird made it into the flock, but I'm also glad that, had she actually been sick, she had no opportunity to pass anything along to the rest of my birds.

Cheers!

 

[farmerwomanwannabe]

This is a very important thread. I'm a total newbie to chickens and Im just starting with six chicks from My Pet Chicken. I'm brooding them inside the house and plan to move them out to the coop once they are ready and it is finished. I had originally thought about adding some laying hens to my flock so I dont have to wait on the chicks for eggs and starting them right in the coop, that way by the time the chicks were ready to join them the quarantine period would be over...but now, I just dont think Ill risk it. If there is an issue, my whole coop will be contaminated and we just dont have the finances right now to build a seperate quarantine coop. I guess Ill grow these babies out a bit and wait to add on.

Im usually so thoughtful about this kind of stuff, and luckily I dont even know anyone else with a flock that I have to worry about, but I never even considered picking up something from the feed store!

 

[erinangele]

This thread has been SO helpful!

I am a new chicken owner, i have 4 chicks who arrived from MPC 6 days ago. I already caught the "chicken bug" and want to add 2 more to my brooder, mainly in case one of my 4 turns out to be a Roo. I would be getting them from the local Feed store, who gets them from Ideal. Is this OK? The chicks they have right now arrived on Friday (4 days ago), and they have a new batch coming this Friday. Does it matter if they have been at the Feed store a few days, or should i wait until Friday?

The Feed store told me it would be OK since they are all babies, but i want to be sure. I would be devastated if something happened to my chicks.

 

[taprock]

Quote:
Thanks for all the good info - I'm back for a reread as I have some youngsters from questionable surroundings in quarantine now.
Is putting on a jacket when you care for the quarantined birds enough or do I have to change each time? They were not handled and are pretty wild right now so I need to work with them but don't want to spread anything to my flock.
Is the main thing to look for respiratory /coughing/sneezing and parasites?
I also assume used bedding needs to be burned or taken far from the coop to be dumped, not just the compost heap like the rest.

My son is also in 4-H and fair time is coming up. I don't have the room to quarantine all the birds he wants to put in when they come back. Is that quarantine supposed to also be 30 days? How dangerous is the fair for my birds?

Thanks

 

[ca]

Quote:
What if you quarantine them and add a couple of your own healthy cockerels that you would not keep anyway? If after a month everybody is still healthy, chances are pretty good (still no guarantee) that no disease is present.

 

[fifenashia]

I just wanted to thank everyone for such great advice!

I received an adult hen from a neighbor who lost her whole flock save one. I was concerned about the COD of her other birds so I have quarantined little HOBO (approximately 1yr old white rock hen) for the past week in a dog crate in the back yard. I put up garden netting around to create a perimeter preventing my existing ladies from getting too close.

I was concerned about poor HOBO staying in a dog crate 24/7 for a month so I have been instructing the boys to let her out of the crate but still in her perimeter fence for the past few days after school. This means that my girls can get closer to HOBO than I would like. It's not a perfect system, but it will have to do for now and quite frankly it's pretty decent for a last minute throw down.

I had been debating letting Hobo join her new flock sisters tonight since the past week has gone so well, she is bright eyed and energetic with normal looking poo. HOWEVER! Since I have read this thread, I have come to the realization that 30 days is better than 7 and my girls are worth the wait. I know HOBO can manage, she has done awesome for the past week, so 3 more should not be a problem.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for allowing us newbies to learn from you all! This is my second year with hens but I am still a neophyte in so many ways! And knowing whenever I have a question I can come here, gives me peace of mind!

YOU ALL ROCK!

 

[speckledhen]

Best of luck with your hen. Yes, she will survive the 30 days. My rooster survived 5 weeks of quarantine, but we had a wrap porch that was high above the rest of the property and he got to sunbathe in a second dog crate up there toward the end of the quarantine period. The hens couldn't get through the gate to come up onto the deck at that time.

Ranchhand, bless her heart, would periodically bump this thread when there was a rash of sickness on the forum from new birds being put into flocks without quarantine. She recently passed away and the first thing I thought of was her dedication to keeping this thread alive. Sally will be missed.

 

[Cetawin]

Your HOBO will be fine, I have quaratined several for 6 - 8 weeks in a XL dog crate (at different times) and they did just fine.

Sally will be missed but I will bump this thread on the ocassion I see it needs to re-surface.