larryh1108
Well-Known Member
You mean the Coward County Sheriff?
Chickens
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We got four sapphire gem chicks and two ducks Friday. Been looking for some other different breeds, I kind of want some turkens, and will be getting more turkeys this year hopefully, none of mine made it from last year.
we got 10 Silver Lace hens for the 4H competition later on in May. My oldest got a ribbon last year with the Golden Comet or Barred Rock and then overall 2nd place at the County Fair. Hopefully he'll do well this year.
The Golden Comet is one egg laying machine.
The Golden Comet is one egg laying machine.
I’ve been thinking about getting some golden comets. We got some white leghorns last year, and one brown leghorn and they lay extremely well to. Lost a few chickens to a hawk, trying to build the flock back up.
thrillhill
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We (my wife and daughters lol) just managed to hatch 23 (that lived more than a day) from the incubator. A little bit higher than average.
My house feels like a zoo for one reason or another pretty much year around.
And everybody makes their brooders out of old military containers right? LOL!
My house feels like a zoo for one reason or another pretty much year around.
And everybody makes their brooders out of old military containers right? LOL!
Cookout at thrillhills this summer!
thrillhill
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Oh, we carried 50+ chickens through the winter. Not counting ducks and turkeys of course.
It would be no surprise to me if at any given point in the summer we have around 200 chickens or so.
We'll lose a few to predators. And then we'll have a big killing and canning spree in late fall. Go back into the winter with 40-60 or so.
It would be no surprise to me if at any given point in the summer we have around 200 chickens or so.
We'll lose a few to predators. And then we'll have a big killing and canning spree in late fall. Go back into the winter with 40-60 or so.
My wife picked up four Lavender Orpingtons and two Easter Eggers about a month ago.
On another note, a coworker gave me a shoulder from a wild pig his Uncle killed. I couldn't believe the fat on that thing! After about 30 minutes of trimming, I had quite a pile of fat. I decided to try something I saw on YouTube. I took some of the trimmings and put them in a container that I had drilled some holes in. I hung that up in one of the coops. The idea is that flies will lay eggs in it and when the maggots start crawling, they will fall through the holes.......chicken food.
On another note, a coworker gave me a shoulder from a wild pig his Uncle killed. I couldn't believe the fat on that thing! After about 30 minutes of trimming, I had quite a pile of fat. I decided to try something I saw on YouTube. I took some of the trimmings and put them in a container that I had drilled some holes in. I hung that up in one of the coops. The idea is that flies will lay eggs in it and when the maggots start crawling, they will fall through the holes.......chicken food.
THAT's going to get nasty odor, and that smell!
You sound like my wife. Lol.
I used a small amount just to try. Maybe if I keep the bits minimal, the smell will be, too. It's not like I have a wildebeest hanging from the rafters.
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Now drop down and feed me chickens MAGGOTS!!
Render the fat next time and make lard. You'll get more use out of it.
That's interesting. There's a lot of energy in fat, the flys will leave butter sitting out alone as well.
I have a watering system I built to water my chickens. It is a set of 2 totes, 275 gallons each, connected to the roof gutters on my shed. It has a line running to the chicken pen that is connected to a pvc pipe. The PVC pipe has 10 chicken nipples on it. The only time I have to water chickens is when the temps get below freezing. yes the PVC pipe watering device will freeze and bust if not drained ahead of time.
Sadly, my wife's Lavender Orpington rooster died today. No outward signs of trauma. Nothing really standing out as a reason. Just a dead bird, lying on the ground.
RIP Horatio.
RIP Horatio.
They just drop dead. Most likely a heart attack.
The first rooster that we hatched was found dead at about 6 months of age. He was just laying there dead.
yes, it sucks.
Going to be a little long. Let me preface this by saying I am not a poultry expert. Far from it. Just my recent experience. Nearly two years ago the family and I drove 2 hours to a hatchery to pick up some chicks that were not your common variety tractor supply chicks. Got some Ayem Cemani's, Mille d'Uccles, Apenzeller Spitzhauben and Easter Egger/Ayem Cemani mix. Ended up getting a few more locally over the last few months for a total of 15. No problems so far. These are more pets than anything else. They stay in a 10X20 dog fence with wire on the top to keep out predators. They are not let out to free range. 2 weeks ago I bought 19 different breeds for Tractor Supply for mainly egg purposes. 10 days ago I noticed one of the Spitz's had tracheal rales and and a cough. The Mille d'Uccle rooster had a sneeze and sounded like he had laryngitis. Quarantined them two. I wanted to know what is going on. None of the local vets are poultry experts, but one of them has a few chickens and said she will look at them. Carried them in. She took a swab to send off to the state lab, checked a fecal sample, and prescribe Tylan to mix in the water. Told me to let them free range some to improve their diet. Got a call later in the week. They were positive for mycoplasma gallisepticum. A bacterial infection that is treated with antibiotics, but also makes them lifetime carriers even after antibiotic. And it is easily passed to other poultry and birds. Her words were "It is no big deal. They will need to be quarantined and I did speak with someone at the state to ask about when you can start back eating the eggs. There is a 28 day wait period after the last day of antibiotics. You can however scramble the eggs in the meantime and give it to the chickens for protein. I also asked him about the chicks you bought and he said more than likely they have already been exposed. It's also a reportable disease to the department of agriculture so she told me someone from the state would be in contact." Guy called Saturday to arrange a meet time. More on that later. A couple of days later the vet called back and said to start treating the whole flock with the Tylan as they were most likely already exposed.
Back on February 9, my wife sent me text saying my chickens had competition along with a picture of hundreds of migratory black birds in the trees, on the ground etc. This was along the time we had all those days of rain. Chickens can have mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) for a long time and not have any symptoms. Stress is a triggering event. It can be as simple as a change in weather or relocation. MG has an incubation period of 4 to 21 days. Remember me saying it is easily passed along to other poultry, birds? What I *think* happened is that some of those black birds passed it along. It can be as simple as flying over the pen and taking a crap that lands inside or sneezing . To quote the poultry site, "Transmission may be transovarian, or by direct contact with birds, exudates, aerosols, airborne dust and feathers, and to a lesser extent fomites." Either way, I'll never know for sure. Also noticed that one of the hens inside the fence has a sneeze. That makes 3 with symptoms. Having said that, my neighbor 4 houses down has chickens as well. He bought them within the last year. Could have been them too. Don't know. I have a friend that owns chicken houses. He's said some diseases could be transmitted by something as simple as a fly coming in on the chicken truck to deliver chickens to the houses that can cause a lot of problems.
Having been told what they had, of course I used Google Fu to find out more even though the vet filled me in on most of it. It's not zoonotic. No harm to humans. You can eat the eggs (unless they had antibiotic then you have a wait period) and the chicken. Again, they will be lifelong carriers and it is easy to pass on to other poultry and birds. It's common in backyard flocks. One website stated around 30%. Guy from the agriculture department calls Saturday and arranges a time to come out. Comes out after lunch. I thought he would come to the chicken coop/fence. He didn't as he had been around chicken houses. Chickens are quarantined for 45 days after the end of symptoms. After that I could let them free range if I wanted as the vet recommended. I took the opportunity to ask and reaffirm what I had read. He stated "You can eat the eggs and the chicken. It doesn't affect humans. It's one of the more common infections in backyard flocks." I mentioned the 30% number in backyard flocks I had read and he stated "It's probably more than that. Most people don't carry their chickens to the vet because if they have something it may reportable and their flock is quarantined so most people won't even go to the vet to avoid that. Let me tell you what the department did about 20 years ago right after Hurricane Floyd. They did this behind the scenes because they didn't want people to get mad and upset that their chickens were being tested. We went to the State Fair where people show their animals and swabbed poultry. 70% came back positive for mycoplasma gallisepticum." I asked him if I could put the two chickens in quarantine back with the other since I was treating the whole flock. He said "I would because they most likely have it anyway." I also told him these were more pets than meals so he asked if one died what I would do with it. I told him bury it. He said you could "bury it or incinerate it if you don't want to eat it. Either one is fine."
Bringing this to a close. When the chicks are fully feathered they will be outside in their own coop. As the vet said the man from the state she spoke with stated, more than likely they have already been exposed. So, these will be closed flocks. All in- All out. No new ones in and none out. They will die here. I don't sell hatching eggs or chickens. As stated they are mostly pets, but my original intent (and still is) is that if the SHTF I would have a source of food. I had read on Backyardchickens.com that a lot of people culled their entire flock and started new after cleaning and waiting a few weeks. I didn't know why until I investigated further. Those that chose to do that were either selling hatching eggs or sell chickens for profit and didn't want to expose other birds to MG. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THIS IF YOU ONLY WANT YOUR CHICKENS FOR EGGS AND MEAT. This is for MG only. I do not know about other diseases. For those of you that are interested in starting a flock AND MAY BE INTERESTED IN SELLING HATCHING EGGS OR CHICKENS, I suggest you do NOT go to the local auction house, the local farmer/neighbor/Craigslist, etc selling/giving away chickens. Go to a local hatchery (Dragonfly farms in Hillsborough is AWESOME). Tractor Supply chicks are fine I would think but buy them in the store, not the parking lot. Having said that, you can take all the biosecurity measures you can to protect your flock, but all it takes is a wild bird that has MG fly over your flock and take a dump on it, drop a feather, or sneeze nearby.
Addendum- Also meant to state that MG does not live in the environment long. Typically about 3 days.
Back on February 9, my wife sent me text saying my chickens had competition along with a picture of hundreds of migratory black birds in the trees, on the ground etc. This was along the time we had all those days of rain. Chickens can have mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) for a long time and not have any symptoms. Stress is a triggering event. It can be as simple as a change in weather or relocation. MG has an incubation period of 4 to 21 days. Remember me saying it is easily passed along to other poultry, birds? What I *think* happened is that some of those black birds passed it along. It can be as simple as flying over the pen and taking a crap that lands inside or sneezing . To quote the poultry site, "Transmission may be transovarian, or by direct contact with birds, exudates, aerosols, airborne dust and feathers, and to a lesser extent fomites." Either way, I'll never know for sure. Also noticed that one of the hens inside the fence has a sneeze. That makes 3 with symptoms. Having said that, my neighbor 4 houses down has chickens as well. He bought them within the last year. Could have been them too. Don't know. I have a friend that owns chicken houses. He's said some diseases could be transmitted by something as simple as a fly coming in on the chicken truck to deliver chickens to the houses that can cause a lot of problems.
Having been told what they had, of course I used Google Fu to find out more even though the vet filled me in on most of it. It's not zoonotic. No harm to humans. You can eat the eggs (unless they had antibiotic then you have a wait period) and the chicken. Again, they will be lifelong carriers and it is easy to pass on to other poultry and birds. It's common in backyard flocks. One website stated around 30%. Guy from the agriculture department calls Saturday and arranges a time to come out. Comes out after lunch. I thought he would come to the chicken coop/fence. He didn't as he had been around chicken houses. Chickens are quarantined for 45 days after the end of symptoms. After that I could let them free range if I wanted as the vet recommended. I took the opportunity to ask and reaffirm what I had read. He stated "You can eat the eggs and the chicken. It doesn't affect humans. It's one of the more common infections in backyard flocks." I mentioned the 30% number in backyard flocks I had read and he stated "It's probably more than that. Most people don't carry their chickens to the vet because if they have something it may reportable and their flock is quarantined so most people won't even go to the vet to avoid that. Let me tell you what the department did about 20 years ago right after Hurricane Floyd. They did this behind the scenes because they didn't want people to get mad and upset that their chickens were being tested. We went to the State Fair where people show their animals and swabbed poultry. 70% came back positive for mycoplasma gallisepticum." I asked him if I could put the two chickens in quarantine back with the other since I was treating the whole flock. He said "I would because they most likely have it anyway." I also told him these were more pets than meals so he asked if one died what I would do with it. I told him bury it. He said you could "bury it or incinerate it if you don't want to eat it. Either one is fine."
Bringing this to a close. When the chicks are fully feathered they will be outside in their own coop. As the vet said the man from the state she spoke with stated, more than likely they have already been exposed. So, these will be closed flocks. All in- All out. No new ones in and none out. They will die here. I don't sell hatching eggs or chickens. As stated they are mostly pets, but my original intent (and still is) is that if the SHTF I would have a source of food. I had read on Backyardchickens.com that a lot of people culled their entire flock and started new after cleaning and waiting a few weeks. I didn't know why until I investigated further. Those that chose to do that were either selling hatching eggs or sell chickens for profit and didn't want to expose other birds to MG. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO THIS IF YOU ONLY WANT YOUR CHICKENS FOR EGGS AND MEAT. This is for MG only. I do not know about other diseases. For those of you that are interested in starting a flock AND MAY BE INTERESTED IN SELLING HATCHING EGGS OR CHICKENS, I suggest you do NOT go to the local auction house, the local farmer/neighbor/Craigslist, etc selling/giving away chickens. Go to a local hatchery (Dragonfly farms in Hillsborough is AWESOME). Tractor Supply chicks are fine I would think but buy them in the store, not the parking lot. Having said that, you can take all the biosecurity measures you can to protect your flock, but all it takes is a wild bird that has MG fly over your flock and take a dump on it, drop a feather, or sneeze nearby.
Addendum- Also meant to state that MG does not live in the environment long. Typically about 3 days.
Last edited:
larryh1108
Well-Known Member
Thanks!
Good info.
Good info.
I've got one and she lays good but she sure can get broody!
Haven’t bought any new chicks this year. Needing to get some new pullet, our leghorns are around 3 now and will likely not lay as much. I am trying to get into quail, have three to start and once I finish my coop I will get a few more and an incubator.
