Are we crazy not to have the hatchery vaccinate the new baby girls when they send them? We are trying to adopt a more permaculture and bio intensive oriented lifestyle here on our land, but I don't want a bunch of sick or worse chicks on our hands... I prefer not to vaccinate them, but we will if it is highly recommended... Please advise. Thx!
i think you are talking about Mareks (if youre not, ignore this entire post). It is usually very cheap (1.00$-ish) and definetly worth it. Mareks can come in from flying biards that pass by and can travel through air and hurt your chickens. Definetly worth it. Highly recommend it. my chicks arent vaccinated because i didnt order them from a hatchery although i plan to do so sometime this week. Protect your hens! Vaccinate against Mareks! You won't regret it!
Quote:Nice article. I called my county extension agent, in the phone book under county government. All agents are not the same, but mine lined me up with a professor that teaches chicken disease at the state university. The professor also serves on the regional team that investigates disease outbreaks in chickens for this area and raises chickens himself. We discussed what diseases were being reported in this area. For example, there had been one reported case of Marek's in the past two years in my county. We also discussed how I planned to manage them, which was no shows or swaps, no exposure to outside chickens other than occasionally getting some new blood from a commercial hatchery, or getting hatching eggs and hatching them myself. After his comments and information, I decided to spend the $10 minimum charge to get any vaccinated and just purchase 5 extra chicks. Depending on your management practices and disease history, your answer may be quite a bit different than mine. As is normal with about anything chickens, I don't think there is one right answer for all of us. I do not see that it will hurt your chicks in any way to get them vaccinated for Mareks', but I decided it was not necessary for me. Good luck!
We do not. Why? -our flock is small- 17 birds, we can afford to lose them. (emotionally , maybe not, but financially yes.) We keep it small. -we will eat the roos, no way are we going to eat chemical birds. -we choose to have organic eggs and sell them accordingly. IF you have a large flock and are very invested in them, then vaccinate. If you do not plan to eat any, then go for it. If there are problems in your area, or are near neighbouring chickens, the do it. It is a very personal choice.
Best advice I can give you is to call your local agricultural extension agent. The phone number is usually listed in the government section of the phone book. The agent can tell you how much of a problem the major chicken diseases are in your area. After talking with my local agent, I made the decision not to vaccinate. ETA: Sorry Ridge, I failed to read your post but I agree 100%.
Thankfully I've never had Marek's evident in my flocks and I never vaccinate but it is a terrible disease if it manifests so I wouldn't blame anyone that does. Along the same lines I feel that preemptive medicating and vaccinating for anything isn't helping in the long run.
I didn't and won't. Disease is unusual in small, well-managed flocks that don't regularly interact with other captive birds. And chemicals injected into a living being always come with costs and risks. For me, it's not a money issue--it's a safety issue. I believe my birds are safer without the vaccine than with--I believe they develop stronger immune systems and in general grow healthier. Vaccine manufacturers would like us to believe that vaccines are all good and no bad. But there is no such thing as all good and no bad, and in the case of vaccines the "bad" is often unpublished and undocumented. I won't even go into the trouble various friends of mine have had with vaccine reactions in humans that the doctors have refused to acknowledge or record... suffice to say that I am deeply suspicious of the value of vaccines in animals that are raised in a healthy environment, and that I believe they are less thoroughly safe than the people who make money off of them would like us to think. And if you're planning to go with permaculture and biointensive methods, you are going to have a healthy environment that will not benefit from the injection of manufactured chemicals into it. I think you're doing it right for your situation.
