What am I doing wrong????

[cleoandtheflock]

In the past 6 months our flock has been through mareks, fowl pox, coccidiosis, respiratory diseases, mites, lice, and more!! Can someone tell me what am I doing wrong? 3 chickens died because of this. Every day I notice something new like oh that hen has white dots on her face or that chicken is puffed up. Please give me some advice.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Pictures of your coop and setup will help us critique.

Don't feel too bad. Marek's, coccidia, lice and mites are everywhere in the world.

To begin, huge ventilation and a dry place to dust bathe will prevent many problems.
Coccidia require moisture to continue their life cycle. Bone dry bedding goes a long way to help.

 

[FortCluck]

There are some things that you can do to prevent diseases, but they're not 100% fail-proof.

- Don't ever wear shoes from a friend's farm or a fair or anything like that into where your chickens live. Disinfect your shoes if you go somewhere that has poultry or farm animals. you can spray Clorox bleach on the soles and wipe down your shoes with Clorox wipes.

- If you are introducing new birds make sure that they are not close to your older birds for a few weeks so that you can make sure they are disease-free.

- clean your animals feeders and waterers weekly. You can use Dawn dish soap and white vinegar, let them soak for a bit.

- Make sure your animals have adequate space in the coop and in their run

- do not put wild bird feeders anywhere near your birds and if you have free range birds, do not keep any bird feeders at all because wild birds carry lots of diseases.

- clean your coop regularly. It all depends on how many birds you have, many do it every couple days or once a week.

- give your birds vitamins and minerals, nutrition is a huge thing to keep their immune systems strong

- I add apple cider vinegar into all my waterers, it's a tablespoon per gallon. This helps keep algae and other things from building up in the waterers on hot or damp days.

What breeds do you have? Are you medicating the chicks when you get them? Where are you buying your chicks from? How big is your run and your coop? How many chickens do you have? When your chickens get sick, do you medicate them with antibiotics? Did anyone have animals on your property before you resided there (sometimes the diseases can come from animals that previously live there because some of the diseases that you mention do not go away for a length of time)? What do you use in the coop as a bedding? How often are you cleaning your coop and the yard that the chickens live in?

 

[21hens-incharge]

Migratory birds?
Bird feeders for wild birds in your yard or the close neighbors?
Are you keeping delicate breeds?

 

[21hens-incharge]

Your right

There is a high likelihood that the wild birds are bringing in a lot and that your visits to other chicken properties is also a source.

I would remove whatever is bringing in the wild birds and either stop going places with other chickens or plan on spraying shoes and lower pant legs with lysol (or another germ killer) before even getting in your car. Then fully change clothes as soon as you get home and scrub down.

Seems easier to just not go where other chickens are to me.

 

[Acre4Me]

Sorry you’ve had a lot of troubles!!

Here are some questions to answer that may help with the answering you better.


How old are they and where did you get your birds? How many birds? Have you ever had a previous flock without trouble? Do you have neighbors with chickens? Do you notice wild birds in the area with chickens a lot? Did you ever feed medicated feed to any chicks? Do you visit other flocks, like at a friend or relative’s house?

 

[FortCluck]

Answers to your questions in order-
Plymouth Rock, Cornish, Easter egger, and D’Uccles.
I don’t medicate the chicks they are already medicated.
I buy them from breeders, and I did buy one from a show/swap which I feel really bad about because I know you should never do that but she is very healthy and one of my sweetest birds and I had to have her.
They have a Big coop and huge run.
I have 12 chickens currently.
When my chickens are sick I either treat them myself or vet.
Someone had a poodle, I don’t know anything else.
I use pine shavings.
I put mulch in the yard and they do the rest, for the coop I change shavings in the nestboxes weekly, and I clean the poop board monthly.

There's nothing wrong with buying chickens at a swap, I do it at least twice a year.

I would just be careful visiting other chickens that do not belong to you because what your chickens have and have had can spread very quickly. Visiting other people's animals puts their flocks at risk

 

[Acre4Me]

Mites: spray your birds directly with a permethrin solution -read directions for the dilution rate. I use a garden sprayer bc it sprays a fine mist. You can do it with one person, but we have one person that holds bird upside down, the other person sprays vent and between legs and under wings. We do it in the daytime bc we will begin with a full clean out and spray the entire coop, and put in new bedding, then the birds, and they get put into the closed and clean coop. This way only sprayed chickens in the clean coop and we know who remains to be sprayed. Repeat in 10 days to get newly hatched (not yet mature) mites. No egg withdrawal with permethrin-so eggs safe to eat!

Medicated feed for chicks: helps them to develop natural resistance to coccidosis. The medication keeps the illness from getting a hold on them, then they will develop a natural immunity over time. Many recommend introducing chicks to your dirt in the first two weeks to get their immune system going on developing resistance.

Mareks stays in the soil for awhile. We visited a chicken keeper once who walked all through her coop and run area then told us these were the Mareks survivors!!! Luckily we were on a trip and threw away our shoes (old ones, thankfully), washed our clothes a couple times before going home.

Many healthy birds are sold at swaps etc, so she may not have brought any illness to your place.

If your birds free range, then keep them away from neighbors place.

If the run stays wet or quite moist, add several inches of more bedding, etc.

Good luck

 

[cleoandtheflock]

Migratory birds?
Bird feeders for wild birds in your yard or the close neighbors?
Are you keeping delicate breeds?

We only have a feeder up for hummers.
We have Easter eggers, D’Uccles, Cornishs, and Plymouth rocks.

 

[cleoandtheflock]

Sorry you’ve had a lot of troubles!!

Here are some questions to answer that may help with the answering you better.


How old are they and where did you get your birds? How many birds? Have you ever had a previous flock without trouble? Do you have neighbors with chickens? Do you notice wild birds in the area with chickens a lot? Did you ever feed medicated feed to any chicks? Do you visit other flocks, like at a friend or relative’s house?

All under a year except one 6 year old hen. 12 currently. Yes we have never had troubles that we noticed except one eggbound hen. One of our neighbors used to have chickens (very diseased also) but they moved. Yes. Never. Quite a bit.