What area's run the risk of Cocci?!

[suebee]

So excited for you!!!! Yes, pine shavings. We raised the coop only 8 inches off the ground, but go to coop pages for advice.
We want pics when they arrive!

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Part of the confusion here may be over the definition of brooder. My brooder is in the house. The chicks have no ground exposure until they move outside. They live on shavings in the house seperated from all the other chickens. Other people have outside brooders or they brood on the ground as a part of their larger set up.

Keeping things clean and letting them build up a natural immunity makes sense if they are outside only chicks. My hen raised chicks have never had any cocci problems and they are raised in the same area as the poor chicks that died. Until I had the cocci problem I didn't feed any of them medicated feed. The only difference between the two was that one set of chicks had the chance to slowly build up that immunity versus the chicks that moved outside from the house and had no opportunity to slowly build up an immunity. In that case, medicating seems like the best solution to help them out.

 

[Kelly G]

I'm excited FOR you!!! The anticipation is soooooooo hard!!!

I am expecting my fourth shipment on April 21st from Ideal...and I am so excited I can hardly wait!!! *sigh* This order is for 15 EE's. Greeeeeeeeeen eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[silkiechicken]

Waiting for chicks is ALWAYS exciting!!!

What I like to do for any flock that will touch dirt in their lives is to take some dirt and let them play with it in indoor brooders. That way they can at least get some exposure. Cocci can survive in soil for years given the right conditions, and because it is species specific, a flying by wild bird can drop a new strain off.

 

[Morgan7782]

Again, so helpful! Everything. Here is the plan:

Chicks will be IN my bedroom (yes I know they smell lol) until 3 weeks old.

Once they are 3 weeks old, they will be moved to an UNHEATED sunroom, with a heat lamp of course.

Once they have feathered out completely, 9-12 weeks? They will be moved to the coop.

I think the feed store that I will be going to only carries medicated feed. The medicated vs unmedicated seems 50/50, just depends what your own experience is. Because I am fairly new, I will start with medicated chick starter. Thanks for everything guys

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

Good luck and HAVE FUN!!!!

 

[Kelly G]

Good luck....you're going to do a GREAT job!

 

[chickenwhisperer]

I think its still too cold here for coccidea to be a problem.
In the summer, its too dry.
Cocci needs warm and damp.

I let my my chicks go outside at 2 weeks, and do not feed medicated.

As they grow, you can give them small amounts of "outside" to pick thru.
I give mine chopped grass, and usually a scoop of dirt(like a hand trowel).

Imo, thats the best way to give their systems a head start.
Cocci usually only kills VERY young chicks that havent built up immunities(which, I believe is bacterias that kill/eat cooci).

All the stores around here get their chicks mostly from Belt . . .
I have bought tons of them this year, and cannot attribute 1 death to cocci.

I hear that the "live" yogurt has the beneficial bacterias that will deal with cocci, but my chicks dont really eat it.

 

[underground chickenman]

Quote:
I guarantee you the inside chicks with no exposure to the outside are pooping coccidia. You can put them in a sterile indoor brooder with sterile litter and sterile food and water, to start with, but once they start pooping in there, if they eat too much of their own poop, they are going to get coccidiosis. Coccidia is not in the soil, it is in the chick. It gets in the soil or litter from the chick, not the other way around. The chick eats its own poop, or the poop of the other chicks and it overwhelms their system and they get sick. Indoor, outdoor, sterile brooder or not. Obviously, exposure to a ground that is already covered with other chickens' poop will have that much more coccidia exposure.

Indoor chicks with a sterile brooder (to start with) can build up immunity to coccidia just like any other chick unless you keep the brooder too clean--which is probably nearly impossible. Chicks raised on wire, for instance, are more likely to come down with an infection once put on the ground than chicks raised on litter since they do not have as much access to their poop and therefore do not consume enough for the coccidia to build up in their system and give them immunity.

I am not saying you shouldn't medicate them. I am just saying, in my opinion, you don't have to if you manage their environment, whether it is indoor or outdoor.

UGCM

 

[silkiechicken]

Sorry, but hatch a chick and have it poop and you can test all you want but there will be no cocci. Cocci is a protozoa, a living single cell organism which spends it's "life" dividing in the intestines of birds and stays "suspended" as an oocyst in soil or any other media. It is NOT a bacteria or a virus. In a sterile egg, it cannot be passed from hen to chick via artificial incubation. Chicks may be able to get a stray oocyst in feed perhaps, but eating poop from chicks that do not have cocci wont give them cocci. Put a bottle of water in an autoclave and do not open it, it will never grow bacteria. And bacteria are "simple" organisms that can fly though the air suspended in aerosols. For any living organism to grow, it must be started somewhere.

wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccidia

Cocci is short for coccidia in animals. Medical/biological term "cocci" refers to bacteria shape which may lead to the confusion of many people who only search "cocci" without context of poultry disease.