Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[TurtlePowerTrav]

I got my very first egg today! But...... it was soft. . Its strange cuz yesterday I was thinking that I should buy some oyster shell. So I did. Now I don't I think that they've had enough time to get used to the oyster shell so I wonder if I should get layer crumble. so I know that they're getting enough calcium

I would just keep offering the oyster shell as free choice. They will eat it when they NEED it. First eggs can be shell less, soft, weird shapes and such. Takes a couple of weeks to get their body into the swing of it. If this is still happening in a couple of months, then I would maybe change to a layer feed.

 

[CarolynF]

Quote:
You can also add DE to their feed -- food grade of course -- just pour some into the container with the feed and let it coat the pellets/crumble.

 

[sweetmsmisty98]

You can also add DE to their feed -- food grade of course -- just pour some into the container with the feed and let it coat the pellets/crumble.  

I still don't understand what the DE does for the birds?

 

[BGMatt]

Glad she's actually going to give you *your* hen finally, but please don't forget to quarantine her! 30ft for 30days, different shoes, the whole thing. Esp. considering how not honest this person seems to be! Don't risk your flock for a 'frizzle friend'! Will let everyone know what the test/necropsy reveal as soon as I know. Have another chicken starting the sniffles this morning - AGH!

If you're going to bother with quarantine it needs to be a larger separation. Preferably inside a building away from rest of flock. Wind and critters do a great job communicating illness otherwise.

 

[tammyfarms]

Hear you Stumpfarmer. Spend all weekend trying to sort out what to do with my sick chicken, then while I was on the phone with the lab in Puyallup, she died. So had to wash her in soapy water and put her in a gallon bag in the refridgerator. Going to take her all the way to Puy. tomorrow afternoon (oh, joy) for a necropsy. 4th lost this summer, so not sure if it's bad luck or something, well, bad. So going to find out. Mentally preparing myself for the worst and hoping it's 'just' mareks or 'just' viral bronchitis... either of which would be better than something I'd have to slaughter 'em all for so I can start 'clean' for my HRIR in Fall (lordy, that's comin' fast). Those of you that pray, may I ask for a blessing? Thank you.

Thanks Deborah for the blood sample supplies ( I know you read here sometimes) - seriously have no idea what I'd have done otherwise.

The lab tech said "oh, you should be able to pick up a few syringes and red vacuum tubes at your vet." Ha! Have they told the vets around here??? Bunch of unhelpful unuseful pains in the arse-keisters! Like it's a weird thing in a farming community to need to take a blood sample? I can get horse sized stuff at the feed store for Pete's sake. Oh, and the local feed store.... don't even get me started. What on earth do people do around here? Ignore it and hope it goes away I guess! Or spend 300$ on a chicken that dies anyway at the vet office, where there's an avian specialist (read, macaw, that sort of thing) on staff once a week and didn't return my calls last week... pheh.

Sorry. Needed to vent.

Went' to the fair. Scrupulously avoided the chickens. Wore clean clothes and freshly washed shoes, just in case... wouldn't have gone at all but had promised the kids the pony ride etc. The crazy things we do. Was fun, other than madly wondering what I was missing in the poultry barn!

I hope all goes well with the vet lab. I found that the waiting was awful. I don't know how long WA takes to get results back, NC seemed to take forever. Ok, a week is NOT forever, but when you have sick chickens and don't know what to do for them, it sure does seem like it! Proud of you for spending the money to get results and know what you are dealing with. Too many folks chalk it up to "bad luck" and don't get an answer to why their birds are dying. That can often lead to more losses in the end and much more expense.

Looking forward to hearing about the whole experience, and of course hoping that it is "just" something that you can manage easily and not something awful.

 

[AletaG]

If you're going to bother with quarantine it needs to be a larger separation. Preferably inside a building away from rest of flock. Wind and critters do a great job communicating illness otherwise.

The "30ft/30days" is the base I've been told by a lot of people - as a minimum, and memorable. I have my quarantine area as far in the 'front' yard as I can get it, fenced away from neighborhood roamers, but best I can do on a .25acre lot. My house and garage are between that area and the actual coops/runs/fenced area in the back. Ya do the best you can. Convince the V.A. to loan to us on a bigger property with a non'perfect' house, and we could separate more. Dumb bureaucracies.

I hope all goes well with the vet lab. I found that the waiting was awful. I don't know how long WA takes to get results back, NC seemed to take forever. Ok, a week is NOT forever, but when you have sick chickens and don't know what to do for them, it sure does seem like it! Proud of you for spending the money to get results and know what you are dealing with. Too many folks chalk it up to "bad luck" and don't get an answer to why their birds are dying. That can often lead to more losses in the end and much more expense.
Looking forward to hearing about the whole experience, and of course hoping that it is "just" something that you can manage easily and not something awful.

Thanks Tammy! I really liked talking to Dr. Crespo yesterday, but didn't make it past her 'gatekeeper' Linn to shake her hand as I'd hoped . Basically it's a drop and run and wait for an email. Which is darn annoying because boy do I have a lot of questions. Like, what IS the smallest size syringe needle you can use to take blood and not destroy the blood cells? All I could find is 22gauge, and man alive! Getting blood out of the full grown RIR was hard enough, then I had to get one out of a 20wk old Marans, and an OEGB (full grown, but so what?)!! The systems around this area sure seem to set you up for "give up n let 'em die and hope for the best" or to enourage you to spend hundreds and hundreds at the vets office for a, bless it, *chicken* who you probably intend to eat anyway!

 

[CarolynF]

Quote:
DE is very controversial with VERY strong opinions on both sides of the discussion. And most of the farming research is done with other animals, only a couple I've seen with chickens. So... the research with chickens says they can measure and document that their shells get harder, poop is firmer, and there are fewer flies. They also use it in large scale feed storage systems to absorb moisture and reduce clumping. Research in other areas talk about how the microscopically tiny sharp edges will cut the protective coat on insects causing them to die (I don't recall exactly how that works, can't think of the word). This is the reason so many of us use it in the coops and dust baths... to kill bugs. Gardeners use it for slugs and bugs, too. The biggest point of disagreement seems to be whether or not it's useful in killing internal parasites. I haven't seen any research one way or the other on this one.

So for chickens, the most useful application seems to be in their feed and in their coop & dust bath.

Hope that helps.

 

[BGMatt]

The "30ft/30days" is the base I've been told by a lot of people - as a minimum, and memorable. I have my quarantine area as far in the 'front' yard as I can get it, fenced away from neighborhood roamers, but best I can do on a .25acre lot. My house and garage are between that area and the actual coops/runs/fenced area in the back. Ya do the best you can. Convince the V.A. to loan to us on a bigger property with a non'perfect' house, and we could separate more. Dumb bureaucracies.

This is one of many reasons I think quarantine is over rated. Inspect adult stock before you buy it for health, don't buy from shady people, breed flocks for resistance, never buy birds from people who vaccinate. You have much fewer issues. Otherwise yeah inside somewhere is way to quarantine.

DE is very controversial with VERY strong opinions on both sides of the discussion.  And most of the farming research is done with other animals, only a couple I've seen with chickens.  So... the research with chickens says they can measure and document that their shells get harder, poop is firmer, and there are fewer flies.  They also use it in large scale feed storage systems to absorb moisture and reduce clumping.  Research in other areas talk about how the microscopically tiny sharp edges will cut the protective coat on insects causing them to die (I don't recall exactly how that works, can't think of the word).  This is the reason so many of us use it in the coops and dust baths... to kill bugs.  Gardeners use it for slugs and bugs, too.  The biggest point of disagreement seems to be whether or not it's useful in killing internal parasites.  I haven't seen any research one way or the other on this one. 

So for chickens, the most useful application seems to be in their feed and in their coop & dust bath.

Hope that helps.

DE is very effective dealing with both internal and external parasites. The only reason there's any "disagreement" with this is people are not educated on it. It will NOT do anything against eggs either internally or externally. Most internal parasites have an incubation period of around 30 days, so to 100% get rid of everything you need to use it for at least 30 straight days. For prevention I have used it in horses, dogs, cats, and all poultry 7 days out of every month.

 

[TerrorBird]

Quote: Chickielady vaccinates her chicks. I don't think that means that her birds have issues. She knows what she's doing, so if people are going to be so picky about vaccinated birds, that's their loss.

 

[AletaG]

DE is very effective dealing with both internal and external parasites. The only reason there's any "disagreement" with this is people are not educated on it. It will NOT do anything against eggs either internally or externally. Most internal parasites have an incubation period of around 30 days, so to 100% get rid of everything you need to use it for at least 30 straight days. For prevention I have used it in horses, dogs, cats, and all poultry 7 days out of every month.

Yep. Actually, we use it ourselves (internally, being around so many animals, seems like a good idea) and on the dog for flea prevention and lots of other things. The only thing I don't quite understand is why it would help harden shells (saw a few people talk about this recently) and I didn't think silica (primary component in DE) would help 'harden' a Calcium based eggshell... I'm missing some piece of info somewhere.