Washingtonians

[justbugged]

Quote:
What was her response?

Well, she was very nice to me for the one I had that died and offered me another bird or an incubator, and the final responses to everyone else were pretty much "what do you want me to do about it".

I know what I want her to do. QUARANTINE HER BLINKING FLOCK UNTIL SHE IS SURE THAT IT IS HEALTHY! That should not be that difficult to do. I would do it if I needed to.

Those of you that have received sick and dying birds from her need to report her to the State Agriculture department. I caught at least a fairly adequate portion of what has been said. I have been on the receiving end of snarky comments here on this thread, but this case is different! This isn't about a person’s personality or beliefs or even something they said. This about selling and giving away chickens that the owner knows are sick, and dying.
She seems to be trying to recover some of her economic losses, and may have been trying to save some of her flock. There are a lot of new people that have gotten into chickens just in the past few years. Most of these people have not had any prior experience with farm animals, so in all fairness to her she may not have known in advance that once she had a problem with her flock that she needed to quarantine her flock. Instead she has managed to spread a problem to other flock owners. Once a person knows that they have a problem like this though, all the bets are off in my book. She is now responsible for the losses and damages that anyone else incurs. That is from the time she first knows that she is spreading disease between flocks. A small claims judgment might just stop her. She needs to QUARANTINE her flock until she can guarantee they are healthy again.
The other person that was so offended here is from what I read here is a practicing Veterinarian that should have warned her "good" friend to cease and desist when she started to sell her sick and dying flock. Both of the member here and the woman apparently show birds also. So I am could assume that they both knew better, but I will also give them some leeway in that neither of them may have ever encountered the situation before, so they may illegitimately not known what they should of done under the circumstances.
It was also stated that the new owner was somehow responsible for their birds dying because they didn't quarantine the new birds. I thought from what I read that the “New Owner “had quarantined the birds from her main flock. So I am having a hard time with coming down on a member that has very illegitimate complaint and was just trying to warn the rest of us. I would be upset to have dying birds, and I would be terrified that somehow the rest of my flock could become sick and die because these new birds were carrying a contagious disease.

I offer my apologies again, if I am coming across to hard for some. If anyone has a problem with me now, I would prefer to discuss it via PM, rather than here in Public.

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Not to ruffle any more feathers (pun intended), but do we know what this lady's flock has? What are the symptoms? I am no were near your area, but would like to be educated on what to look for in my flock..what kind of symptoms to watch for and to know what the illness is, just for my own education.

I am sorry for everyone's loss.

 

[justbugged]

Quote:
I like the idea of putting the chick under the hen at night. On the other hand I would probably fix up a brooder pen and put all the hatched chicks in it.


If the chick has a scab like you have described it may have to brooded by it's self until the scab area has healed completely. If the other chickens know that the chick is not healthy or is possibly damaged they will try to kill it. When my sister has had hens with bloody spots from being picked on by others she has to isolate it, otherwise the rest of the flock will continue to pick at it until it dies. My sister has had chickens now for almost 30 years.

 

[NWChicks]

Totally off of any subject that's been discussed but I have a question! This is my first time with chickens and i have a lovely coop that my DH made for me. I have a run that's temporarily covered with plastic sheeting, to be replaced before monsoon season, er, I mean Fall with a more substantial roof that keeps the run completely dry.

I cleaned out the coop today and found that some of the food that has spilled out of the feeder had gotten moldy.

My question is, how do I avoid this. I know I need more ventilation and hopefully DH will be cutting those in for me very soon. I have two large windows that need wire mesh over them before I can have them open and those are more for cooling in the warmer weather than ventilation anyway since they are lower and could be drafty (vents will be up high).

The coop itself is about 8-10 inches ('ish) off the ground, the roofing extends past the edges of the coop though the rain can be driven into the sides if it's windy. I do have one area that needs a bit of an extension and we'll take care of that when we fix the run roofing. There are also a couple of areas where there can be puddles if (when) it rains heavy so we'll also grade away from the run and have the roof run off away from the pen.

What else do I need to do?

I am very careful about not spilling water when I put that in. I use wood shavings from the co-op on the floor. Is this a good choice or should I switch to something else? After cleaning it out today I have decided I'm going to ask DH to put up some poop boards under the roosts. I'm sure that will help keep the flooring cleaner.

Also, how do you maintain the run? I have a run that is a large dog kennel and I am planning to expand that to the give the girls more room. I know the ideal is to free range them but I don't have that kind of property or neighborhood so I'm using a run. We will be making a little portable tractor so they can have some field trips but primarily they'll be in the run so with all of those birds pooping, how do you clean it? Do I shovel the soil out and replace it? Lay a big tarp down and cover it with sand? Layer more soil over the existing stuff? Doesn't the poo just build up if you don't do something?

Sorry for all the questions and I know I could (should?)

have placed this in the flock maintenance but I was curious what other Washintonians do since we share the same climate. Thanks for any help.

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
LOL:

First I wanted to mention that we Washintonians Do Not share the same weather..other than this year we seem to...it is the middle of june 60 degrees and raining here. Right now it should be dry and around 75-80. Crazy weather.

I have a question: What is a poop board? Never heard of this. I may need one of these if this helps in aiding cleaning.

My run is just dirt with one side having some sod down. I just planned on raking and cleaning the pen every so often to keep it clean. My run is 8' x 40' for 14 chickens, I think this is okay size. But my girls do get to get out and free range whenever I am home.

YOu need to share photos...I love seeing other people's coops/runs, it gives me ideas for mine.

 

[Jessica Rabbit]

Quote:
Well, she was very nice to me for the one I had that died and offered me another bird or an incubator, and the final responses to everyone else were pretty much "what do you want me to do about it".

I know what I want her to do. QUARANTINE HER BLINKING FLOCK UNTIL SHE IS SURE THAT IT IS HEALTHY! That should not be that difficult to do. I would do it if I needed to.

Those of you that have received sick and dying birds from her need to report her to the State Agriculture department. I caught at least a fairly adequate portion of what has been said. I have been on the receiving end of snarky comments here on this thread, but this case is different! This isn't about a person’s personality or beliefs or even something they said. This about selling and giving away chickens that the owner knows are sick, and dying.
She seems to be trying to recover some of her economic losses, and may have been trying to save some of her flock. There are a lot of new people that have gotten into chickens just in the past few years. Most of these people have not had any prior experience with farm animals, so in all fairness to her she may not have known in advance that once she had a problem with her flock that she needed to quarantine her flock. Instead she has managed to spread a problem to other flock owners. Once a person knows that they have a problem like this though, all the bets are off in my book. She is now responsible for the losses and damages that anyone else incurs. That is from the time she first knows that she is spreading disease between flocks. A small claims judgment might just stop her. She needs to QUARANTINE her flock until she can guarantee they are healthy again.
The other person that was so offended here is from what I read here is a practicing Veterinarian that should have warned her "good" friend to cease and desist when she started to sell her sick and dying flock. Both of the member here and the woman apparently show birds also. So I am could assume that they both knew better, but I will also give them some leeway in that neither of them may have ever encountered the situation before, so they may illegitimately not known what they should of done under the circumstances.
It was also stated that the new owner was somehow responsible for their birds dying because they didn't quarantine the new birds. I thought from what I read that the “New Owner “had quarantined the birds from her main flock. So I am having a hard time with coming down on a member that has very illegitimate complaint and was just trying to warn the rest of us. I would be upset to have dying birds, and I would be terrified that somehow the rest of my flock could become sick and die because these new birds were carrying a contagious disease.

I offer my apologies again, if I am coming across to hard for some. If anyone has a problem with me now, I would prefer to discuss it via PM, rather than here in Public.

Now I wish I hadn't deleted my post but i was getting some flaming emails.

For her to stop until she knew what was going on and was able to rectify it was all we ever wanted... The problem was when the first few birds died she offered more birds to replace them, I know one person who took her up on it and that bird died as well.

sadly this is a hard lesson learned for all involved. And yes, my friend DID quarantine her birds. I was the one that put the marans straight into my flock (God only knows why) and luckily I only had the Marans die.

We don't really know what the flock has. The symptoms are mainly these:
Lethargy
Loss of appetite
sudden death

one persons did experience bloody fecal matter.

Again, I know this is a hard subject for some but it does need to be brought into the light. You can't have 4 or more people that have received chickens from one person and most of those chickens die (at least one or more per person) and then try and say that the seller is not the source. It is simply too much coincidence for coincidence.

This lady is VERY nice. But to ignore it because she has been nice or a friend just isn't justified.

 

[NWChicks]

Quote:
A poop board is a removable board that sits underneath the roosts and catches the poop, thereby keeping the floor a little cleaner.

I'll have mine covered with some left over linoleum to make it easier to scrape off.

Here's the outside pic of my coop. It's built into our firewood holder.

This one is of the interior with the nest boxes. I need to update my coop page though because it now has a slanted board over the nest boxes to keep the girls from roosting up there. It also has roost bars in two different places which aren't installed yet in this pic. I also haven't gotten around to taking pics of my run!

There is another window off the right side. On that side is also the pop door with a ramp that goes into the dog kennel run. I want to get another kennel and attach it to the first one so I have two runs that are connected but I can separate the little boogers if someone is being naughty.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote:
I introduced mine to yogurt today. They also loved it. Of my four girls, Roz is always the first to try anything new. She's very curious. Do you have any clover? My girls adore it. It's the first thing they look for in the morning. When I move the tractor, there isn't a leaf left.

 

[Chickaholic]

I would like to first and foremost thank all of you who have stuck up for me in this situation on here!! It feels great knowing I can still post here. I have been a victim of the snarkies too. This was very hard for me and my family to go through (loosing beloved chicken friends) and also to post what I posted last night and got heat for, so I also deleted what I said, I named the person who we got these birds from, but apparently thats not "kosher" on here by some people. I thought all of you should know who she is so all of you could know who to stay away from! I would also like all of you to know that we will have results on Monday as to what all of these birds are dying from. To whoever was concerned that I didn't separate and quarantine them, the answer is I most certainly did quarantine them! NONE of the rest of my flock are sick at all!! and to the person that had such strong feelings against me and what I said last night on this thread, she might be your friend and you may have had good experiences with her but thats not the experience that I and THREE other people have had with her now and whoever else was a victim to her craigslist adds and so on!

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
A poop board is a removable board that sits underneath the roosts and catches the poop, thereby keeping the floor a little cleaner.

I'll have mine covered with some left over linoleum to make it easier to scrape off.

Here's the outside pic of my coop. It's built into our firewood holder.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/50190_josh_party_chicken_coop_071.jpg

This one is of the interior with the nest boxes. I need to update my coop page though because it now has a slanted board over the nest boxes to keep the girls from roosting up there. It also has roost bars in two different places which aren't installed yet in this pic. I also haven't gotten around to taking pics of my run!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/50190_josh_party_chicken_coop_061.jpg

There is another window off the right side. On that side is also the pop door with a ramp that goes into the dog kennel run. I want to get another kennel and attach it to the first one so I have two runs that are connected but I can separate the little boogers if someone is being naughty.

Lovely coop...very inginuitive. I love seeing other people's. Mine is in the bottom of my kid's 2-story play house. The kids are old enough they don't really play in it any more, so I confiscated the bottom....then the neighbor's tree fell and crushed the swing, so the swing got moved and my run was built. The tree was cut up.....so no worry of tree falling on it. I have 3 large windows that I am going to place windows in 2 and board up one. We actually got a very nice sized vinyl window, with a portion that slides for FREEEE. Can you believe it? Gotta love it. I still have lots of work to do before this winter...which with the weather we are having I think winter is coming next month.