Vaccine Gun

[Rosie85]

Hi everyone!

We are going to start vaccinating our own chickens we are thinking. I’ve been looking around online after hearing about vaccination guns for administering vaccines to chicks and chickens, but there are more out there to choose from than I thought there would be. Does anyone have a recommended type or brand that they use for this? I just want something that is quick and efficient for giving Mareks vaccine to chicks.

Thank you!

 

[FrostRanger]

Unless you have a large amount of birds you need to do, you probably don't need a gun. Idk about the Marek's vaccine in particular, but ik when I brought the fowl pox vaccine it came with the applicator included and it was easy enough to use. How many birds do you currently have and how many birds to you plan on raising every year?

 

[Rosie85]

Unless you have a large amount of birds you need to do, you probably don't need a gun. Idk about the Marek's vaccine in particular, but ik when I brought the fowl pox vaccine it came with the applicator included and it was easy enough to use. How many birds do you currently have and how many birds to you plan on raising every year?

Thank you and that makes sense to me. Right now, I have the ability to hatch out 300 chicks at a time, and my flock is at 150

It used to be a smaller operation, but locally gained interest from others, so we just finished going NPIP etc for selling nationally, and it seems like most everyone wants vaccinated chicks, so I was starting to look into what transitioning into always vaccinating hatches would look like. Might also vaccinate for other things (asking my local vet for her recs on which vaccines tomorrow). Just seems like a lot of tiny things to vaccinate each time, so I was wondering if a gun would be worth it at all or are they damaging considering how little chicks are?

I appreciate the insight!

 

[FrostRanger]

If you're hatching a lot of chicks, at that level I think a vaccine gun might be worth it if it'd make things easier. I would try and do a small amount of birds by hand first before deciding one way or another though just so you have baseline of how much work it'd be without so you can make a better decision

 

[Rosie85]

If you're hatching a lot of chicks, at that level I think a vaccine gun might be worth it if it'd make things easier. I would try and do a small amount of birds by hand first before deciding one way or another though just so you have baseline of how much work it'd be without so you can make a better decision

Thank you and that’s a good plan! I’m nervous to jab such tiny floofs over and over, but it ultimately might not be all that bad once I get used to it. I was worried the gun might be rough for such tiny things, but I’m probably just overthinking it.