Vaccinating 2 day old chick that is still in incubator for Marek’s

[VRMC]

Hi I’m looking for advice about vaccinating chicks that we’ve hatched out. So far 2/4 of our chicks have hatched, and the oldest will be 24 hours old tonight. I only purchased one vial of vaccine for these guys because I didn’t think about the fact that it could take multiple days for everybody to hatch. Once mixed, the vaccine goes bad in an hour. Can I wait till everybody is hatched and dry to vaccinate them all if none of the chicks leave the incubator before being vaccinated? The oldest chick will be more than a day old by then, and I read that Marek’s vaccine is generally considered ineffective for chicks older than a day old but only because they could have already been exposed to the disease.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

You don't really have a choice but to vaccinate when they all hatch I suppose.

 

[VRMC]

Yeah, I really should’ve thought about this before now. Do you have any thoughts/advice about taking chicks out of the incubator briefly (for cleaning or in this case vaccinating) before they have fully fluffed out? Just thought that might somewhat reduce the wait

 

[Wyorp Rock]

It's my understanding, the chicks need to be kept in a brooder away from any existing poultry that you may have for at least 2 weeks so the vaccine can take.

You don't want them exposed to any other chickens during this time and you'll need to observe strict biosecurity so you don't introduce dust/dander from an existing flock to the chicks during the quarantine period.

So theoretically, if your brooder is quarantined, then you should be able to move those that have hatched to the brooder now and just vaccinate them all once the others have hatched.

You'd really have to do a deep dive on vaccinations; I don't vaccinate my birds.

 

[VRMC]

It's my understanding, the chicks need to be kept in a brooder away from any existing poultry that you may have for at least 2 weeks so the vaccine can take.

You don't want them exposed to any other chickens during this time and you'll need to observe strict biosecurity so you don't introduce dust/dander from an existing flock to the chicks during the quarantine period.

So theoretically, if your brooder is quarantined, then you should be able to move those that have hatched to the brooder now and just vaccinate them all once the others have hatched.

You'd really have to do a deep dive on vaccinations; I don't vaccinate my birds.

Thank you for your response! This makes sense. I’ll keep looking into it, but waiting it out with good biosecurity does sound like the best bet right now.