The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Steph Hen on October 06, 2013, 09:07:18 am
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I swapped some cockerals with a friend a few days ago. They are shut away in quarentine. My birds health is paramount. They look fine, and the person who reared them has kept birds for years and says they're all fine.
How long does it take for sypmtoms to start showing?
I wondered if its worth me putting one of my birds in next to them for a few days incase new birds are carrying something which they're immune to, but which mine might be suseptable to. (Am I just over thinking and worrying about this?)
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Generally we don't unless its a certain breed I want to keep in a run - until I find the others to go in with them or youngsters that need to be kept on heat or in a run until larger. It's like today I'm getting some new ducks & bantams off friends who I've bought poultry off before the ducks from tonight will be kept in for 2-3 maybe 4 days to get used to each other before been let out to free range as we have a river so its a nightmare looking for them sometimes if they decide not to come in. My bantam hens though I'll be trying to catch & put them with some new suitors & another female xx
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I quarantine for as log as possible and at least 6 weeks. I've lost quarantined stock (from supposedly reputable sources) to both Avian Leukosis and Marek's Disease in the past. Not a risk worth taking.
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Very new to this but decided to quarantine for 2 weeks. By then symptoms of disease should be showing in acquired stock unless the stock are carriers, in which case I'll not know until my stock are mixed and become ill I guess :-\
Looking at your view to add one of your stock to the new ones after a period of quarantine is probably a better way. At least if the new ones are carriers I'd only lose one bird instead of my whole flock
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I do try but it varies. I can't quarantine geese because I haven't had the room. The chickens I've held separate for a couple of weeks but it's no guarantee - I lost a lot to avian leucosis and the first symptoms of the first ill chicken didn't show until two months after I'd got them. There's no way you can realistically quarantine them for that long and it's a very slow moving disease.
H
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Thank you for your replies. They are in a small pen (3*6 feet) in the garage at the moment, but I have a larger pen at the side of a shed, its an old brick and wire dog run, maybe about 12*8 feet. I don't like limiting their foraging and always think chucks do better on grass, but never mind, can't have everything I guess.
I seem to have ended up with a some cross-bred maybe cockerals/maybe pullets, so will put all these in there with them. Hopefully all will be fine, and it'll give my boys a chance to fatten up if they're not all running about the place.
I would like to operate a closed flock, with only hatching eggs brought in from outside, so this ought to be a bit of a one off. Although obviously there's all the wild birds carrying lord knows what! :-[
Will move them over tonight, I guess they should be ok for a few weeks, I'll keep them there till I feel too sorry for them or they fatten enough to be worth eating!
...does anyone need a cuckoo marrans, light sussex or buff sussex cock? (Not for eating, I can do that myself!)
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It's stress that triggers the health problem. The immunity system crashes and any ailment will rise to the surface.
Keep the new birds calm and as stress free as posible.
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I've just bought some Banty Game birds and they are really quiet at the moment so i'm going to quarentine for about 4 weks just in case.
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always and for 4 weeks. its for them as much as existing birds (although they were so hard come by that I wouldn't risk them). They have to raise immunity to the new environment and are under stress from moving.
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As castle farm but also remember no matter how healthy a flock is every flock will build immunity to different things it's when you mix those flocks any problem will arise.