[omnipeasant]

I wondered about this too Womble. Is it a wives tale? People used to be worried about vaccinated dogs affecting unvacc ones but that doesn't happen now.

[in the hills]

I have read about it in several places but don't know anyone that has had an incident confirmed by a vet  .


Think I will ask my vet next time I'm there.


Any vets on here? 

[kegs]

Does this explain it, or am I getting confused?


http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/Ceva_Animal_Health_Ltd/CEVAC_Transmune_lyophilisate_for_suspension_for_injection_with_solvent_for_chicken/-43706.html


para 4


[size=0px]The vaccine virus is excreted by vaccinated birds and can spread to susceptible birds and can be detected in unvaccinated birds 4-7 days later. To control the spread of the virus, the immunisation devices used for injection and the hatchery premises should be decontaminated after vaccination.[/size]

[Maddie]

I am very new to having chickens and my Buff Orpingtons are fantastic   

[Moleskins]

Boy this question opened up a can of worms 
Thanks for all the advice I keep Googling the various breeds to see what they look like 

[Castle Farm]

Theres a bit more to it than just picking a breed you like the look of and other factors have to be taken into account.

The housing and feeding and amount of time you spend on husbandry. No two systems are the same and 1 keeper could be succsessful with a strain and another fail to get the birds to reach the potential of that strain, you notice I state strain not breed, as there is a huge difference between them.

If your looking to breed your own replacements from your birds don't get commercial hybrids. Breeding from your original choice makes sence, as buying in new birds buys in health risks. Breed your own and run a closed flock system.

If your breeding you need to get a breed and that the cockerels are a decent size for table work, as it's a total waste to cull young males and dump them.

As for egg colour White eggs are usually from the best layers followed by Buff, Blue and finally brown and the darker the brown the fewer the eggs.

Lots more information on my web page and facebook page.

[Victorian Farmer]

Summary
Poultry vaccines are widely applied to prevent and control contagious poultry
diseases. Their use in poultry production is aimed at avoiding or minimising the
emergence of clinical disease at farm level, thus increasing production.
Vaccines and vaccination programmes vary broadly in regard to several local
factors (e.g. type of production, local pattern of disease, costs and potential
losses) and are generally managed by the poultry industry. In the last decade, the
?nancial losses caused by the major epidemic diseases of poultry (avian
in?uenza and Newcastle disease) have been enormous for both the commercial
and the public sectors. Thus, vaccination should also be applied in the
framework of poultry disease eradication programmes at national or regional
levels under the of?cial supervision of public Veterinary Services. This paper
provides insight on the use of vaccination for the control of poultry infections,
with particular emphasis on the control of transboundary poultry diseases.
Keywords
Avian in?uenza – Disease control – Newcastle disease – Poultry – Vaccination strategy
– Vaccine – Vaccine ef?cacy.

[Moleskins]

I do know what you mean by buying a breed that's right not what you like the look of. The same applies with the sheep, but you do need to like them, as I've said on the sheep forum, when you've got to get intimate it's a lot easier if you like the animal ........ stop thinking that, it's not what I mean and you know it    Plain brown birds are bit boring, feathery legs are going to get messy, Gold Laced Wyandottes are probably what I'd go for on looks.
Having looked into this a bit I think we'd want a reasonable amount of eggs from birds that can cope with a bad Winter if we get one again. That can be eaten, though at this stage I don't want to breed them myself I think I'd try buying eggs in at first. And as has been said the cock birds have to go.

[darkbrowneggs]

Hi Victorian Farmer
 
Nice bit of info and well put.  Do you have the link for it? 

[Victorian Farmer]

http://www.poultryhub.org/health/health-management/vaccination/ http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps030 http://www.ehow.com/how_2073075_vaccinate-chicken.html                                                               2 good reads for you dark brown eggs ,as things gone well eney new stock .iv been into utility roads roadbar etc .people dont wont rare breeds they wont egg layers forfar mart £80 4 blue bells ,haw things have changed .i hope all is well with you .all the best


 

[Womble]

Any vets on here? 

Don't know, but I found a tame one and asked her. She basically said that this shouldn't be a problem since most vaccines are 'dead', i.e. they can't transmit the actual disease, so the vaccinated hybrid hens would not be carriers of that disease (the vaccine didn't give it to them, and also made them immune from catching it from another source).

Note, she didn't say it couldn't happen (depending on the specific disease / vaccine), but did say that in her opinion it was pretty unlikely, and there are probably more important things to worry about in life  .

So Moleskins,  Very sorry for hijaking your thread!   I suggest that you buy whatever birds you like the look of, but keep in mind factors like hardiness and laying rate.  Actually, when we started out, we went to a breeder, sat down in his pen and stuck our hands out full of grain. Funnily enough, the birds that chose us turned out to be real crackers! 

[ellied]

I only got my first hens just over a year ago and had a similar discussion - in the end I went for 4 different hybrids to start with, I wanted eggs not meat from them and a way of telling one from t'other helped plus I also couldn't make up my mind and wanted more than one breed

I then took on some BHWT spent hens in November and as they feathered up and started laying again, and the POLs didn't moult that first year, I had loads of eggs - I imagine this winter will be a different story as the BHWTs will be 2-3year old and the hybrids will all go into moult - hence considering taking on some more but for various reasons I have delayed that urge for now.

My advice, such as it is, is to go for something robust and productive, possibly more than one breed so you can compare how you get on with each and then get more of those once you've had time to decide based on your own experience and your surroundings/facilities.  Easier to get a few more than to manage too much to start with or realise you've gone all out for one breed and it's not the one for you or your home area..

[Moleskins]

Thank you Ellied seems like good advice, I also like the idea of letting the hens pick you, seems as good a way as any.
We've a sale soon at the local auction mart so I'm trying to get fixed up with accommodation for them ASAP as the OH might enjoy getting them that way.

[HelenVF]

Speckled sussex is another nice breed and reasonably good layers. Nice, friendly birds.

We have those, some old english pheasant fowl but lnly hatched this year so no experience but they are a bit more flighty than the ss  we also have a few bybrids and mixes. We got some silkie x light sussex to be used as broodies and they are excellent layers.

Good luck deciding! Lol

Helen

[plt102]

We have a mixture of bhwt rehomed hens and bantams of various breeds. We also have a number of cockerals. We eat any boys we hatch out unless they are special. The best eggs we get are a cross between either hubbard or the bhwt hybrids with araucana. We get lots of large blue eggs which taste great. Just experiment for a few years and you will settle on what you like. The most cuddly and friendly and pretty are our polands and silkies but they are our worst layers (one every two days or so) but they reward you in others ways with cuddles. Our best layers are the crippled featherless hybrids that we rescue and it is very rewarding to see them grow their feathers back and get used to being pampered. Other cuddly good laying bantams are the pekins but they lay rather small eggs. Other pretty birds who are good layers are our seebrights but they are a bit flighty. Between the whole of our mob, they keep us amused and loaded with lots of eggs of different shapes, sizes and colours. Good luck deciding! You'll love em!