Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Leigti]

Now they are all laying in the dirt. Can somebody explain this behavior to me? Is it their way to cool down?

 

[Melkuda]

congratulations and welcome    glad to have you I hope your time here is enjoyable, educational and fun

Thanks Penny1960! Has been an adventure so far

 

[Chickielady]

This is a little off topic but does anyone else have issues with backyardchickens.com loading slow? This site is sooooo boggy for me.

I did with my old computer which had like 1 G............................seriously, kicked me off so many times, my old computer was like a step above, actually inches above dial up.

How many Gs do you have ?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Now they are all laying in the dirt. Can somebody explain this behavior to me? Is it their way to cool down?

they love dust bathes laying in the dirt is cooler

 

[Chickielady]

Thanks for tagging me on this. It is nice that someone remembers the plight of my birds. I have not been around to post here because I think some people are being extremely rude to others. There is also some misinformation people are posting, probably to make themselves seem right when they are not.

Despite what individuals believe about vaccinating and Marek's, everyone's beliefs deserve to be respected. I am not going to argue with people who have small minds and even less education.

As for my flock, I had a very virulent strain of Marek's go through and kill every chick/pullet/cockerel that hatched for two seasons. I lost a couple of adult birds as well. In addition, I lost an entire line of project birds that can never be replaced. The rooster was killed by a predator and every single one if his offspring died from Marek's. There were a few birds that I thought were resistant. They lived to be 11 months old and did reproduce, but they were not the quality of birds I could use to continue my project. Besides that, I am no longer able to sell birds to others anyway.

Watching a bird suffer from Marek's is heartbreaking. Based on that alone I don't know why people would be against vaccinating. The research on the vaccine is old; more research needs to be done to make it more relevant and accurate to today's poultry standards. A couple of things I would like to clear up are:

• Birds that are vaccinated to not shed the virus from the vaccine.
• Vaccinated birds that come into contact with the virus do not always become carrier and shed virus to other birds.
• Marek's is everywhere, especially in Washington. Wild birds can bring it to your property despite proper "biosecurity"
• If you have a bird that is sick with Marek's, all of your other birds have already been exposed. Culling the sick bird will not remove the threat to your other birds.
• Marek's virus lives for years in the soil and coop. Killing all your birds to start over will only be exposing the new birds to the virus that is already on your property.

I'm sure there is more, but I'm not here to write a novel, plus I have work to do.

People spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on coops, runs, electrified fencing, automatic coop door, guardian livestock dogs, etc. to protect chickens from predators, but they don't want to spend 25 cents on a vaccine. It makes no sense to me. Why not breed birds that are resistant to predation? Seems like a silly idea, doesn't it? Same for contagious diseases. Makes more sense to protect them from disease and predators at the same time.

The things that have helped me are the helpful people on BYC. Also, knowing that I'm not alone in this has been reassuring. I know for a fact that there are people on this thread that have active marek's in their flock and continue to trade birds with other people without disclosing it. You may be one of the recipients of that stock, so no one is safe from getting it.

It has also helped to know that Marek's does not survive incubation. Chicks will hatch without contracting the virus. The vaccine is the only way I could continue to have chickens and not have them die a slow, horrible death from the disease. Having to cull all your babies one by one is heartbreaking; I would not wish it on anyone.

I will never forget what you went through...never !

 

[pennyJo1960]

I will never forget what you went through...never !

see none of that was around when I was a kid...

 

[Chickielady]

Thank you everyone in this thread...ill take my leave untill allof this arguing is over...posts and questions are getting burried in the walls of txt. Ill check back in a few weeks and maybe subscribe again.

This is normal discussion, not arguing

 

[Chickielady]

How's everyone?

Hey Howdy !!

 

[Rod-T]

see none of that was around when I was a kid...

Ya but when I was a kid I had to walk to school in 20 feet of snow. . It was uphill both ways too

 

[Scram85]

I did with my old computer which had like 1 G............................seriously, kicked me off so many times, my old computer was like a step above, actually inches above dial up.

How many Gs do you have ?

I have a pretty good gaming Alienware computer. But perhaps my internet is lacking.