Past due for an update, so here goes.
I hatched and vaccinated A LOT of chicks this year. Of my vaccinated chicks I had some classic Mareks paralysis losses and some that just wasted away over a few weeks and passed or needed to be culled. The second to last one that lost weight quickly and...
Thank you. That is very true.
I'm hoping the Mareks impact on the chicks will be minimal, I know silkies are susceptible and this chick's mother and father were from the same breeder and with the amount or surprise colors and such popping up, maybe they are too closely related and maybe not...
My one silkie with the crop issues is definitely not worse, maybe a smidgen better. I'm hoping to get her through the 5 day corid treatment and slip her back in with her flock while 5 are broody, it should be an easy integration with only 1 hen not broody to think about picking on her.
And of...
Today was day 7, so I've went to probiotics and stopped the Copper, her crop is still big and squishy ☹️ I'll try corid, my grow outs are on day 3 of corid, I had my extra fancy SFH cockerel acting lethargic and a pullet acting wobbly, so I started corid and they are both coming around.
That...
I sure hope so, I'm hopeful, but I do know ow my other silkies started symptoms at about the age my oldest hatch is now, and I still have all the younger ones to get past POL.
One encouraging thing, all the chicks I had bought in December before I knew I had Mareks, and were vaccinated in...
I am really behind in updating this thread, I had one loss in April. I had just 2 unvaccinated silkie hens from my hatch last year, she went broody and I think that was too much stress on her. My last unvaccinated hen just went broody yesterday so I'm going to break her this weekend. I have 4...
Less than 24 now!!!!!
The incubators will be sanitized and plugged in today to be ready for the little eggies tomorrow morning. Then I'll sanitize the eggs right before setting tomorrow. Safety first!
🥳 I'm so thankful for all the hope, fun, and excitement through this bumpy patch.
I'm super excited to see what hatches from your eggs and also what you get from mine! Your eggies are supposed to arrive today!!!! I already have permission from my boss to leave early tomorrow to go pick up...
Yay Chonkers and Fizzy chicks!
The two Chonkers chicks I have are HUGE! They dwarf the silkies. Seargent Pepper isn't growing much, he's half the size of the other silkies and even the bantam Ameraucanas are bigger than him now. I have high hopes he'll be ok though.
Yes! I'm so excited to maybe get a Marsha :love I will love every single one that hatches, no biases toward a Marsha baby... never... :lau
I am also hopeful for a chocolate as I'm having trouble getting good chocolates to start a chocolate pen with. Maybe I'll just have a mauve + chocolate...
That's amazing the adults didn't fuss. The chicks fight, some more than others, and they are so tiny and hard to hold. I can't say it went perfectly, I will share here that we lost two, we were using the vaccine gun but placing the needle correctly was harder to feel. We got through about a...
Oh, just one shot, although I have heard of people doing a second round 2 weeks later. I had 1 week old and 8 week old chicks when I learned my flock had Mareks, so I vaccinated them "late". The older birds were way easier to vaccinate than the day old chicks, they are SO tiny and you have to...
I guess it's time for an update. Since my last post I have had 1 symptomatic cockerel who we ended up culling just a couple weeks ago. Out of my 14 silkies, I have now lost 2 cockerels and 6 pullets. It is so hard knowing there's nothing I can do to fix them and make them better. I've been...
Everyone who was non-symptomatic going into the cold weather is still doing great, I did add a second heat source last night to give a little radiant heat to the tooshy feathers of the outermost chicken, I put it about 5" from him. It's a little cozy coop heater, and when I looked out later...
They just updated the weather with a wind chill advisory from now through tomorrow morning, wind chill at -10, I think I'll lock the chickens in their coops to keep the drafts down over night. I've been leaving the coop doors open, but I think this calls for a lockdown 🥶