Post by twistedtimbershomest on Dec 10, 2022 14:25:25 GMT -5
This is kind of a long story but I'll try to cut it down to the important details! Last year I bought 9 adult hens and as a newbie chicken owner did not quarantine them from my existing flock of pullets and cockerels I had hatched myself in the spring. They brought with them leg mites, coccidiosis and I'm now realizing, MG. The coccidiosis I was able to treat naturally with garlic and other herbs and everyone recovered. Then in the winter some of the older hens started having respiratory symptoms, gasping, sneezing, foamy eye discharge and the worst one smelled bad. One hen dropped dead as did a cockerel and I ended up culling 4 hens who were lethargic and never started laying after their moult. Everyone else in the flock was either unaffected or had mild symptoms and fully recovered.
Fast forward to spring of 2022, all my flock seemed healthy and robust, hens were going broody and I decided to hatch a bunch of chicks. They were pretty much all healthy and are some of the most lovely pullets we've had (the cockerels were gorgeous too but are in the freezer). I also got broilers in early August and besides being slower growing than they should have been, didn't have any problems with them. Around the same time I also got 6 bresse chicks and 6 random assorted svart hona mixed chicks to give my remaining broodies who hadn't hatched their own eggs. Some of those chicks, mainly the pullets, grew so slowly or got to a certain size and did not continue growing. I thought maybe bad genetics or something. But as the weather got cold they started getting sick... The bresse and black mixed chicks being the youngest have been affected the most. And I'm noticing the tell tale symptoms my flock had last year. A few weeks ago my tiniest pullet dropped dead. This week another black one and two bresse have keeled over. A bunch of other ones are clearly sick but, so far, don't seem as bad. My friend says if it were her, she'd cull the whole flock and start with clean birds in a new location/coop next year. But I have 12 hens and the 12 pullets we hatched this year that seem healthy still. I know now that they're all carriers and I can't bring new birds onto my property or hatch chicks or anything... But should I cull the healthy ones or let them live out their laying careers in a closed flock and start over once they're all dead??
Also, would I be able to raise meat birds next year if they're on a different area of the property or would that be too risky? And is that possibly why my broilers grew so slowly?? Also, is it fine to eat them if I do cull healthy looking ones? This is so disheartening! 😔
Fast forward to spring of 2022, all my flock seemed healthy and robust, hens were going broody and I decided to hatch a bunch of chicks. They were pretty much all healthy and are some of the most lovely pullets we've had (the cockerels were gorgeous too but are in the freezer). I also got broilers in early August and besides being slower growing than they should have been, didn't have any problems with them. Around the same time I also got 6 bresse chicks and 6 random assorted svart hona mixed chicks to give my remaining broodies who hadn't hatched their own eggs. Some of those chicks, mainly the pullets, grew so slowly or got to a certain size and did not continue growing. I thought maybe bad genetics or something. But as the weather got cold they started getting sick... The bresse and black mixed chicks being the youngest have been affected the most. And I'm noticing the tell tale symptoms my flock had last year. A few weeks ago my tiniest pullet dropped dead. This week another black one and two bresse have keeled over. A bunch of other ones are clearly sick but, so far, don't seem as bad. My friend says if it were her, she'd cull the whole flock and start with clean birds in a new location/coop next year. But I have 12 hens and the 12 pullets we hatched this year that seem healthy still. I know now that they're all carriers and I can't bring new birds onto my property or hatch chicks or anything... But should I cull the healthy ones or let them live out their laying careers in a closed flock and start over once they're all dead??
Also, would I be able to raise meat birds next year if they're on a different area of the property or would that be too risky? And is that possibly why my broilers grew so slowly?? Also, is it fine to eat them if I do cull healthy looking ones? This is so disheartening! 😔