Vaccinated vs non Vaccinated chicks together

[Msmagic]

Hello! Hope everyone is doing well and baby chicks season is full of chirps! This is a two part question but the main part is based off the headline.

I was supposed to get all of my chicks from one location but they had some last minute shipping issues so I got 4 of my soon to be 13 from a different location. I found out today while picking up my 4 that they are vaccinated and my others coming are not. I was told since these 4 are to put them on a non medicated starter but the ones that won't be need to be on medicated starter feed, how do I keep the feed separated? Can I personally vaccinatate, is it hard? My husband built me one large wooden brooder so not really a way to separate.

My other question is my chicks are all arriving at different times. I got 4 today, I'll get 4 Friday, a couple next week and the rest the first week in April. I was told today that the first week the temp needs to be between 95 -98 and then lessen 5 degrees each week after. How do I keep the temp of the brooder proper for all the different gapped chicks? I was told my gaps were not big enough to cause concern for major bullying but didn't take into account temp.

All help is greatly appreciated. I'm new to chicks and all this is somewhat overwhelming.

Thanks everyone!

 

[rosemarythyme]

Vaccinated for what, coccidiosis? If that's the case I would feed non medicated so you don't kill off the vaccination in the vaccinated chicks, and have Corid on hand if needed.

How large is the brooder and what's the heat source?

 

[Msmagic]

They are vaccinated against Mareks.

picture of brooder attached. Heat lamp is the current heat source on one end. I have a thermometer in there to keep an eye on the temp. It's attached to a chair so can be adjusted if needed.

 

[rosemarythyme]

They are vaccinated against Mareks.

Medicated feed is for coccidiosis not Mareks so you can use the feed of your preference.

If you want to vaccinate for Mareks at home it would need to be done immediately and the chicks would need to be housed separately for around 2 weeks, which you've already mentioned is not possible. So I don't see a reason to vaccinate at home.

picture of brooder attached. Heat lamp is the current heat source on one end. I have a thermometer in there to keep an eye on the temp. It's attached to a chair so can be adjusted if needed.

With heat on one end the chicks will be able to adjust for the amount of heat they need by moving around the brooder. So with chicks of differing ages you may find the younger closer to the center of the heat and the older ones a little further.

 

[Msmagic]

So it's better to just put them all on a medicated feed to help with coccidiosis as it doesn't effect the vaccination against mareks? I started non medicated today for my 4, will it hurt them to switch to a medicated in a few days?

Can I keep my vaccinated and non Vaccinated together?

 

[rosemarythyme]

So it's better to just put them all on a medicated feed to help with coccidiosis as it doesn't effect the vaccination against mareks? I started non medicated today for my 4, will it hurt them to switch to a medicated in a few days?

No it won't hurt them, but if you want to switch to medicated once you do so I would stick with it until you're done with the brooding and moving out process, mostly to ensure that you don't dilute down the dosage of amprolium to a level too low to do its job.

Can I keep my vaccinated and non Vaccinated together?

To be honest I don't know if there's a "correct" answer for that as I see the question come up every once in a while, but I haven't seen a good explanation for or against (my birds are all vaccinated only because our feed stores all order them that way). Hopefully someone can better address this question...

 

[RoyalChick]

I believe the answer to the Marek’s vaccine question is that yes you can mix them together. If however at a later stage they get exposed to the Marek’s virus there is a higher chance that the unvaccinated ones will die.
They might die even if they were not in with vaccinated chicks and got exposed to Marek’s, but it is possible the vaccinated chicks could incubate a more lethal form of the virus.
If none of them gets exposed to Marek’s then it will not be an issue.
So it all hinges on whether they would get exposed to Marek’s and I have no idea of the probability of that.

 

[Altairsky]

I still can't figure out if chicks vaccinated for marek will became carriers of the disease for the non-vaccinated birds? Any definitive answer to this question? I've read everything and the opposite of everything on this subject.

 

[RoyalChick]

I still can't figure out if chicks vaccinated for marek will became carriers of the disease for the non-vaccinated birds? Any definitive answer to this question? I've read everything and the opposite of everything on this subject.

Only if they get exposed to Marek’s.
In an environment where they are not exposed to Marek’s the vaccinated chicks will not be carriers for the disease.
However, if they are exposed to Marek’s the vaccinated chickens should be fine, but could possibly become carriers.
Possibly not certainly.
And, in a worst case scenario they could become carriers that allow the virus to evolve inside their bodies so that it becomes more virulent than the strain they contracted.
Again could, not will.

So, if there is no Marek’s exposure there is no issue.
If there is Marek’s exposure the unvaccinated chicks are at risk.