Vaccinate or Not

[ShrekDawg]

Yeah some of them...

I had a flock of 30 chickens before this one and all of them were from tractor supply and healthy.

That’s awesome! Im now wondering if they vaccinate

I’m sure TSC is fine but we also have a local feed store and know the manager so if I got chicks from a feed store, I think I’d probably go there. And their minimum is less. There’s also another local feed store but I’ve only been there once. It’s a bit further away.

Our TSC is good but sometimes the chicks have pasty butt or the water is totally filled with shavings or whatever.

Our other feed store they’re in those cage things with the heat source at the back and food and water attached to the outside which is similar to how I raise mine with the heating pad or heat plate

 

[FortCluck]

So, you've got lots of people looking at chicks in bins at many Tractor Supplies as I understand it.
It's reasonable to assume the vast majority of these people already have chickens.
Out of the hundreds that pass through such places doors in a week and look into and maybe handle the chicks it seems probable that a significant percentage have been in contact with other chickens. Some of these people will be buying to replace lost birds. Some of this some will have no idea what killed their birds.
I suggest that your other precautions are a bit like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

I don't sell my birds in the parking lot for people to touch. They're setup appointments that we do and the buyer already wants them.

They see my ad and they call me to pick them up then we drop them off at tractor supply with the new owners and leave.

 

[ShrekDawg]

@CatWhisperer I don’t know that it necessarily creates the hotter strains but I think it’s just that the birds live long enough to be able to shed/pass on those strains rather than dying right away

 

[FortCluck]

Some of the comments are more fear driven to me than actually giving me information.

I do believe that if you are overprotective with anything that eventually it will fail... It's just like when you overprotect your child from germs, that's usually the child that gets the sickest.

I understand everything about biosecurity, but I'm not going to prevent friends who have chickens from coming in my yard. Especially when all of their flocks are healthy and none of them vaccinate.

The person who lived on this property before us had chickens for over 30 years and a bunch of other types of birds, not one time did they ever get a disease and they never vaccinated either.

I guess none of it adds up to me to why some vaccinate and some don't or the reasons behind it.

Is it just fear that makes people vaccinate or is it because they've actually had a personal experience?

I've only seen one person who has had experience with Marek's in this thread and they have been great with sharing information, but no one else has chimed in.

a lot of people on here tend to tell me that I shouldn't sell my chickens or this and that... I have never had a bad experience with selling or having people look at my chickens or meeting people at tractor supply to sell my chickens. I have been doing it for about 6 years now. I don't want to get on the defensive about it, but It's hard when you have a flock that's healthy and you maintain it then people are telling you that you're wrong for what you do...

 

[CSAchook]

Aren't you not supposed to mix vaccinated with non vaccinated?

I think I read that somewhere

Mixed flock covered this very well, but I will add my two cents as someone who kept Marek’s vaccinated and unvaccinated birds together. The Marek’s vaccine does not give the chicken a transmittable disease. That is why all my chickens could be safely and happily housed together. The potential problem is that a vaccinated chicken can later be exposed to and contract Marek’s from another source and become silent carriers that spread the disease to unvaccinated birds. But honestly, given that Marek’s can live in things like feather dander for years, and we all know that dust goes everywhere, I am not convinced that housing the unvaccinated birds separately would prevent infection.

I don't vaccinate.
If a chicken is carrying something contagious and potentially lethal then I want to know about it. I do not want to be responsible for transmitting a disease to other peoples flocks.
My opinion is many of these diseases would be better controlled through decent bio security. Wild birds get blamed for spreading Mareks and with many other diseases fault is found with something we have little control over.
My belief is the way we buy, keep, swap, show and in general manage our flocks must play a large part in the spreading of disease. It's we chicken keepers that need to sort ourselves out attempting to tackle disease.
I would like to see a little notice come with every chicken
Now you've got your chicken, close your flock.

Not in the parking lot. I think tractor supply has vaccinated chicks, but I'm not sure. They buy in large quantities.

Most feed stores including TSC sell only unvaccinated birds. They are cheaper.

 

[FortCluck]

I suppose you could call them and see if they vaccinate incoming chicks. Then you would know for sure. Well...maybe.

Most of them probably wouldn't even know

 

[NHMountainMan]

I don't sell my birds in the parking lot for people to touch. They're setup appointments that we do and the buyer already wants them.

They see my ad and they call me to pick them up then we drop them off at tractor supply with the new owners and leave.

From what I understand though, Mareck's is very virulent. If you shake hands with the person, or they touch your crate, there is a chance the virus spreads - if there flocks are infected.
I sounds like even just going into a tractor supply might expose you to the virus.
Even being NPIP certified is meaningless - as they don't test for Marek's. It just sounds like we should assume that we are going to come in contact with the virus - which case, vaccinating seems to make sense to me.

Unless your like @Meg-in-MT , and go the hermit route! (I'm with you. If I could figure out a way to never had to come down off what my wife call "walton mountain" - I'd be a happy man.)

 

[CSAchook]

I've only seen one person who has had experience with Marek's in this thread and they have been great with sharing information, but no one else has chimed in.

Tesumph and I don’t count, huh? Ok.

 

[FortCluck]

From what I understand though, Mareck's is very virulent. If you shake hands with the person, or they touch your crate, there is a chance the virus spreads - if there flocks are infected.
I sounds like even just going into a tractor supply might expose you to the virus.
Even being NPIP certified is meaningless - as they don't test for Marek's. It just sounds like we should assume that we are going to come in contact with the virus - which case, vaccinating seems to make sense to me.

Unless your like @Meg-in-MT , and go the hermit route! (I'm with you. If I could figure out a way to never had to come down off what my wife call "walton mountain" - I'd be a happy man.)

But going the hermit route would mean that you're not going to go anywhere besides on your property, which is probably not what she does.

So if you can contract this by going to swaps, feed stores, or other people's property... I probably have already brought it to my flock, which shows zero signs of it.

It's hard to vaccinate chicks when you are only hatching your own. I guess I could buy the vaccine for the new chicks, but is that really going to benefit my flock at this point... Probably not

 

[Meg-in-MT]

Most of them probably wouldn't even know

That's why I ended with "maybe", because that's exactly what I thought . Could be enlightening, though? Depending on who you talk to and how long they've been there. I know the mass feed stores get a bad rap, but some of them really do have knowledgeable people