[grumpydad]

Olives Story.

Once upon a time there was a small little chicken, who was living with lots of other small chickens, unfortunately she caught a little bug called Coccidiosis, this lived inside her but because she was a healthy chicken was not too harmful for her, in fact all of the chickens on the farm had the same little bug inside them.
One day she was bought by a new owner with 5 other little girls, and taken to a new home, where she became very bold, friendly and was always happy to be picked up and loved. She decided one long hot sunny day to lay an egg and have a chick, but was unable to hatch an egg, and was not happy as her owner kept taking her outside to eat and drink, she kept going back inside and sitting, and even though the doors and nest box roof was open, she sat for a very long time and eventually she became very hot and stressed. This upset her and upset her immune system, which allowed another little bug that she had inside her, Mareks ,  to develop and produce tumours, which killed her.
Unfortunatley, at the time her disease developed, it also infected her sisters, and although they did not develop the disease like she did, it upset their immune systems so much in 3 of her sisters that the nasty bugs called coccidiosis , developed very quickly and killed 2 of her sisters before it could be diagnosed what was wrong, happily though it appears that 3 of her sisters were saved.

Moral of the story,
Be aware that a broody chicken sitting for a long time in a long hot spell can become so stressed that her immune system can fail and leave her susceptible to any disease or bug that she would normally be able to cope with quite easily.

Happily Olive also left a legacy,
Education. A hard lesson learned, and not forgotten, and passed on to other careful loving owners.
Feathers. Used by her owner, who turned them into imitation flies, and who will use them one day when he uses his Christmas present, a days trout fishing in Hawkshead to catch a lovely fat trout.

Love your chickens and what they give you back,
Love, Feathers for flies, and Poo for the garden.

Martyn

[GrannieAnnie]

Awww Martyn, that is sweet.  How are the other girls?

And if you do come over this way and see Joyfull, please pop in and see us too!  We ae on the A52 a bit nearer to Holme Farm than Joy is!  Wish I had some girls ready to go, but people keep buying ours while they are still chicks, and the pure breeds are still a bit young to breed!!

It's a shame HFP is a bit expensive though!

[grumpydad]

thanks, will do.
the only reason i am going to go to a large breeder, is that i know i now have Mareks in the other 3 i have left, so want whatever i buy to be vaccinated to at least give the new girls a good fighting chance, i know it may not work, but would find it very difficult to see any more going so young in the way that i have lost these 3.
martyn

[chickenlady]

I just had to wipe away a tear!  so hope you find some girlies. it has been a hard and emotional time for you! you need something good to happen now!

Debbie

[GrannieAnnie]

Mmmm that's true!  All our hybrids are vaccinated by the hatchery, but when I get my pension payment in october, I'm going to buy a vaccinator and simon who breeds our meat chicks is going to show me how to vaccinate them properly, so I can do my pure breeds too next season!

They will also start to have the others that I tried last year too.  AE, Newcastles, IB and another, but can't think what it is at the moment!

[iwantanallotment]

Lovely story Martyn, very poignant.

There's a great poultry place in Malvern too, where all the birds are vaccinated.

I had three from there. They're vaccinated against :

Mareks, Salmonella, Coccidiosis, Infectious Bursal, Infectious Bursal - Gumboro, Classical Infectious Bronchitis,/Newcastle Disease, Salmonella Enteritidis, Mycoplasma Gallisepticum, Variant Infectious Bronchitis, Avian Rhinotracheitis, Avian Encephalomyelitis & Egg Drop Syndrome.

I know we're not to advertise, but if you're interested at any time in the future just pop a pm & I'll give you their details