Vaccines on small homestead flocks?

[Newchickontheblock23]

I don't know much about silkies, but can they be free ranged in the same way Vanakrishna says? Sounds like gamefowl / semi-feral breeds rather than silkies. They have very different feathers than most chickens, and may need special care. I'm not sure, not an expert.

I've seen lots of people suggest that the best protection from coccidiosis is putting a pan of dirt in the brooder, or just brooding outside.

For organic feed, sadly lots of organic feed doesn't have proper amino acid levels when compared to non-organic. I started feeding organic at first for the same motivations as you, but I decided to just get a commercial feed that gives them what they need now. They don't 100% feed themselves because they're all dual purpose or layer breeds, but I do see my fayoumi hen catch beetles out of the air and chow down, so she's at least supplementing herself with that. I'm out rural though, and have bugs aplenty. They're still cheap eaters though.

yea I def didn’t mean free range I meant to say they will be let outside supervised but I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t missing anything vital to their survival and success. But this is great to know, the organic feed is expensive so if reg. Feed will do fine for now as baby chicks then that is great. I really appreciate everyone’s feed back!

 

[wolfcat87]

I have over 100 "extreme free-range" chickens outside right now.
They sleep in trees.
They eat poop.
They eat squirrels and fight rats.
I have a meat bucket that predators get thrown into and it rains maggots down for my chickens.
They visit neighboring flocks, sometimes leaving for days at a time.
Sometimes they never come back, and sometimes entirely new birds arrive and never leave.
I have a fox that comes here every day and almost never catches anything.
In all of my time and with all of the many birds I've seen, I have only ever beheld one sick bird. One.

And she recovered

I have not ever vaccinated an animal and they reward me far beyond anything I could ever have asked for. I trust the immune systems of the chickens that God has already made perfect

I think chickens only get sick when kept in artificial confinement. In other words, cleanliness is what's going to kill your birds

It doesn't exactly sound like you're checking them for sickness... The sick ones could easily be the ones getting caught or never coming back.