[Mega]

Hi

More questions     On reading what I can on-line & in books etc some people offer birds for sale with vaccinations others don't state or have said not required for backyard settlings ? Can anyone clarify what I should or should not look for when going to purchase chickens please 
Also we had been told that 19 gauge welded wire mesh would be foxproof - I have since heard 16 gauge ?    They will be made into panels and erected - total run size is to be 8 - 9' long x 4'wide x 6' high.

Hope you good people can help 

[Chookiechook]

Up to you if you buy vaccinated or not....

Generally not required in a backyard flock as if all were wiped out by disease it wouldnt have the same impact as if a battery farm was wiped out.

But you shouldnt mix vaccinated and unvaccinated birds as the vaccinated ones can pass on any diseases they have that are masked by the vaccine.

Backyard breeders generally dont produce the number of chicks needed to make the vaccine cost effective.

[Jomtie]

Our 4 girls are all vaccinated. However, I agree that you don't need to do this because a small backyard flock is probably less likely to get these problem diseases and can be replaced fairly cheaply if they do. We preferred to buy vaccinated birds purely to reduce the chance of major emotional upset if ours got wiped out. Our girls are primarily pets though, so I suppose it depends on what basis you are having chickens.

[kegs]

I bought 4 vaccinated hybrids a year ago.  Unfortunately I then caught the chicken bug and wanted to buy an incubator and hatch our own table birds and Faverolles.  These obviously would be unvaccinated which meant I had to buy a second coop and create a second run in our garden so that both flocks were kept apart.  Just something for you to bear in mind before you make your initial purchase. 

[joyfull]

The reason for not mixing is that a lot of vaccines are live vaccines which allow the birds to build up their own immunity. I have had both together when I got in some ex batts and had no problems but I could have just been lucky.
The amount of vaccinations you can give to a bird in it's first few weeks makes it prohibitive for small breeders so you will find most birds offered aren't vaccinated or at the most are vaccinated against just a few illnesses.

[Jomtie]

According to our vaccination certificate, our hens had 17 vaccinations between day 1 and 16 weeks. These included salmonella enteritidis, coccidiosis, infectious bursal, newcastle disease, mycoplasma gallisepticum, infectious bronchitis, avian rhinotracheitis, avian encephalomylitis and egg drop syndrome. I'm assuming this is why we paid a bit more for them and is also why the supplier guarantees all her hens for 6 months. As I said before, our hens are pets; we have our cats vaccinated so we wanted the girls vaccinated too. 

[GrannieAnnie]

One of our members on here, Grumpydad, had 6 fully vaccinated hens, 5 of which died of something they hadn't been vaccinated for.  The remaining hen was then a carrier and I think the next lot of his hens died too.  These were pure breeds if I remember rightly.

GD then bought some hybrids and they have been fine.

So even having vaccinated birds is no guarantee they will live a long time.

Like Joy, we have had vaccinated hybrids living with our own hatched non vaccinated hens, and they have been fine.

Sometimes I think its just the luck of the draw.  Good housekeeping helps a lot though!

[joyfull]

Grumpy dads hens died from Mareks which the supplier claimed they were vaccinated against. However with the mareks vaccine it has to be administered within 90 mins of the phial being opened otherwise it offers no protection at all.
Likewise if you feed medicated chick crumb and growers pellets to guard against coccidiosis your chicks are not guaranteed to not get it as I have seen and then to treat them with an anti-cocci medication (Baycox or Coxoid) you have to buy non-medicated feed.

[Mega]

Wow - thank you all 

So good husbandry should = Happy Healthy Hens really 

Ok next question - could I mix Orpingtons with Welsummers ? We are only getting 3/4 hens. 

Would this size coop 3' x 2 1/2' x 3'  be ok for that amount of hens ? We could make it on high legs for sheltar underneath for the hens.

Thank you all 

[grinling]

Doesn't matter about mixing hens if all arriving at same time, if they are not then the newer ones need to be quarrantined.
I prefer to raise the house off the floor so no rodents can live underneath.
Weld mesh needs to be dug into the ground and out i.e L shaped to prevent foxes digging in.
My enclosed area is 6'x8', this is roofed and poly sheeting around to keep off wind/rain/snow (weather!!). Trying to seed outer run areas, but as it is raining daily not working. They have additional outside chicken wired area to keep them off the garden, but they have access to the garden at the mo.