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.

 

[21hens-incharge]

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

 

[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?

 

[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.

 

[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?

 

[FortCluck]

And if your neighbors had diseased chickens, the diseases that they carried can still be in the soil. I'd keep your flock as far away from their land as possible.

when I move to my property it had previously had livestock on it and I had to verify with the owner that there was no disease present when they were on this property just for my own piece of mind.

If there was disease, at least if know what I was tackling.

Do you know what disease(s) their chickens had?

 

[21hens-incharge]

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.

Did I read your answers correctly?

Yes you see wild birds near the chickens a lot.
Never have fed medicated chick feed.
Visit places with other chickens quite a bit.

 

[cleoandtheflock]

Did I read your answers correctly?

Yes you see wild birds near the chickens a lot.
Never have fed medicated chick feed.
Visit places with other chickens quite a bit.

Your right