What did you do with your flock today?

[kurby22]

Lots of yard work today and hung out with the dwarfs for a bit while feeding them treats.View attachment 3402144View attachment 3402149
Got a kick out of how the light made his wattle glow in this one.View attachment 3402153View attachment 3402154View attachment 3402156View attachment 3402157View attachment 3402158

Your dwarf babies are just so cute!! they look so happy in their fun coop!

 

[FBMcrazy8]

Intros are always hard! My top take aways from my experience…

1 - look don’t touch should happen for at least a couple days. I bring mine out in the dog kennel and plop them in the run for the day

2 - make sure when you let them free that they have a place to run and hide and do the intros supervised.

3 - there will be pecking and some fighting. They have to establish that the newbies are at the bottom. Sometimes it can get mean and they gang up on one that’s meeker—so that’s when I end the session and try again the next day.

4 - if they can go a whole day with no drama, I help coop them that night. If after a bit I find them all huddled in a corner or their kennel, I bring them inside to sleep. I tried the “coop them at night and in the morning they will all be buddies” and it did not work. The morning when they are all full of saucy energy is not great for newbies.

5 - flock personality matters a lot. My bantam run is really easy to integrate newbies and littles. They accept new ones quite willingly. My big chicken flock takes more effort, they aren’t quite as willing haha.

6 - sometimes your sweetest chickens are the meanest to newbies. They don’t want to stay at the bottom of the pecking order—so they can get a bit relentless to the new ones. So watch for that

Good luck!! I hope they get along great!

Well I took mine out into the run today and let them set in the kennels for a few hours. I went ahead and let them out of the kennel due to me being there and all of us being outside all day. And there was a few scratchy areas between the bantam Cochin rooster and my original hens. He has been saucy anyway with my husband, so we knew he may be a problem and challenge going out there. But other than that everything seemed to go ok. They ate next to each other and drank water together. One of my Cemani’s was able to dance and well…with one of my original Ameraucana’s. I was really surprised by that. I wanted to wait before letting them out until tomorrow but I wasn’t going to be able to be out all day tomorrow. There was enough space they were able to separate but also hide.

 

[kurby22]

Well I took mine out into the run today and let them set in the kennels for a few hours. I went ahead and let them out of the kennel due to me being there and all of us being outside all day. And there was a few scratchy areas between the bantam Cochin rooster and my original hens. He has been saucy anyway with my husband, so we knew he may be a problem and challenge going out there. But other than that everything seemed to go ok. They ate next to each other and drank water together. One of my Cemani’s was able to dance and well…with one of my original Ameraucana’s. I was really surprised by that. I wanted to wait before letting them out until tomorrow but I wasn’t going to be able to be out all day tomorrow. There was enough space they were able to separate but also hide.

Sounds like it went as well as one could hope! Might need some more pictures of them too!

 

[FBMcrazy8]

No clue here either. You're very observant though and thats fantastic. Our main large animal vet will see chickens...I've never asked the other one though.

I've always wanted royal palms! Such beauties...very excited for you! I'll never have turkeys here though because I know hubby would want to eat at least one. We did have one named Gravy for a while long ago. I'm tired of butchering is all. I'll keep going with my ridiculously small little birds

Looking forward to enjoying the royal palms vicariously through you

I told my husband we could do the turkeys for Thanksgiving or something but I have to keep at least one Tom and all hens. I wanted to do the Broad breasted white turkey for that though, until I read they had to be artificially incremented. I’m not doing all that to keep the breed going. But even if I did, I would still want Royal Palm. They are just so pretty. So kind of a win win. We want to add some Peafowl to the mix so bad too but that is a future project. I’m truly excited to share my Royal Palms with you all!

 

[FBMcrazy8]

Sounds like it went as well as one could hope! Might need some more pictures of them too!

Oh for sure will get some more. I wanted to take some today but I was too busy watching them all and making sure no one killed one another. Luckily it was all more establishing who was in charge and who wasn’t. It was so nice though cause by the end of the day my Mottled Cochin Bantam was following me around. However before today she wasn’t a fan of mine. Although she didn’t attack me like she did my husband. It is pretty clear that the people we got them from didn’t handle the chickens.

Oh but I forgot to add to all this…these people had a ZEBRA!! I want a Zebra now. I have no idea how I’m gonna get one but it will forever be on my want list . This is the best picture I could get of the Zebra though…it was WAY to cold that day to walk out to where it was to get a better picture.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Oh for sure will get some more. I wanted to take some today but I was too busy watching them all and making sure no one killed one another. Luckily it was all more establishing who was in charge and who wasn’t. It was so nice though cause by the end of the day my Mottled Cochin Bantam was following me around. However before today she wasn’t a fan of mine. Although she didn’t attack me like she did my husband. It is pretty clear that the people we got them from didn’t handle the chickens.

Oh but I forgot to add to all this…these people had a ZEBRA!! I want a Zebra now. I have no idea how I’m gonna get one but it will forever be on my want list . This is the best picture I could get of the Zebra though…it was WAY to cold that day to walk out to where it was to get a better picture.

Sounds like it went well!

I read once that zebras have never been domesticated and lost all interest . There's some seriously gorgeous Zorses too...I wonder if they're trying to breed?

 

[FBMcrazy8]

Sounds like it went well!

I read once that zebras have never been domesticated and lost all interest . There's some seriously gorgeous Zorses too...I wonder if they're trying to breed?

I only seen donkeys with this little guy. But I do wonder if it has something to do with the Zoo nearby. I did some research for how you can own one in Illinois and it is pretty strict but there are ways. One of which is being a Zoologist. And with a Zoo not far from them I am wondering if one of them aren’t a Zoologist. I didn’t really ask how but part of me wishes I did. I didn’t really do a whole lot of reading as to how you can own one in Illinois as it was kinda all worded weird for me to read. But maybe being tired and trying to cook dinner at the same time didn’t help . I may look into that again.

 

[FBMcrazy8]

Well, I had an idea last night to just let the newbies sleep in the coop with the other chickens. Probably not my greatest idea ever but I kinda figured that I should since things didn’t go terribly yesterday. Not only that but I did find that when I took my little guy out to be with his girls he sometimes had to “fight” for his position again with a few girls. I kept an eye on them through out the night. I just checked on them and everyone is still alive and some are/ have been roosting with the big girls.

 

[FBMcrazy8]

And here is the problem with the vet my friend goes to…..I don’t know how many other people have vets telling them this but this is problematic. I told her I was doing it regardless. She has expensive and pure breeds as well and I told her it may not kill the whole flock but if they survive they still shed it and be hen you add new babies they can get it and die. I told her no matter what it is worth it.

 

[ChicksnMore]

And here is the problem with the vet my friend goes to…..I don’t know how many other people have vets telling them this but this is problematic. I told her I was doing it regardless. She has expensive and pure breeds as well and I told her it may not kill the whole flock but if they survive they still shed it and be hen you add new babies they can get it and die. I told her no matter what it is worth it.

Don't know if this helps you but my understanding is that a lot of adult chickens have been exposed to some form of Marek's. There's different strains and some are deadly, but a lot aren't. That's why Marek's is given to newly hatched chicks rather then adults. You're getting the vaccine into them before they're exposed to another strain. Chickens can be given the vaccine at any age...but it only works if it's the first strain they're exposed to. That said, when I had my outbreak my vet had me vaccinate every bird on my property regardless of age. No idea if that helped or if the disease ran it's course, but deaths ended quickly after. I was told to let my current birds die out, disinfect and wait preferably a year before getting more birds. Then get vaccinated chicks from a hatchery. The idea was to rid my property of the disease. I do believe that it worked because though I vaccinate now, I don't vaccinate every chick...I vaccinate when both incubators are full and hatch at once and then I vaccinate the day old chicks and any other unvaccinated bird regardless of age. It's an annual affair rather then every new hatched chick. A leg band tells me if the birds been vaccinated and the bands color tells me if it was vaccinated as a new hatch or older. Orthodontic bands make great chick bands...you have to change them as the bird grows though with the permanent band after pol. I've never had a second outbreak so I believe my property is 100% free of that deadly strain of Marek's.

Ive found different vets give very different advice. It's like when my one horse had cancer. One vet said it was worth doing surgery. The same vet that gave me the chicken advice said yes, we can do surgery but he'd recommend against it because it was unlikely to be successful. When my kids dog had his eye punctured right before we got him, one vet said he needed his eye removed. My favorite vet said it's fixable. He sewed Billy's eye shut, intensive eye drop regimen and Billy's eye was saved. Billy wasn't ours at that point or I would have had the eye removed actually...but I've never known this vet to be wrong. I trust him.

That said, I have no idea what another vet would recommend or if the way I use the Marek's vaccine is considered acceptable. This vets an old old guy and often gives different advice from the other vets I use. I just know I've never had a second round of Marek's on my property and it's been years and years now.

Any way... thought I'd share the details of how I vaccinate in case that's helpful.