Pro - Does anyone else's nest boxes get soaked in rain?

[debbiedoobs]

Can anyone help me come to a decision or a better understanding of how breeding for resistance against Mareks works? After recently losing one of my girls to Mareks I'm unsure of how I should go about introducing new chicks to my group, I have an incubator and really need to have an understanding before I plan to go ahead. I let one of my broodies hatch a chick last year, she is now 6 mths and I'm wondering if she has some kind of natural resistance to the disease? Can anyone give any advice or info as research online gives a good fight for either way. Thanks , Debbie.

[gavclojak]

Not sure if this helps but my vet said something interesting, she asked if I was considering more hens and I told her yes but only ex commercial girls. She then said that's all I would be able to have, I wouldn't be able to mix vaccinated commercial girls with posh unvaccinated girls due to the fact they can secrete the live virus and infect unvaccinated hens.....well I never

[debbiedoobs]

Lol, that's the thing, it's so crazily complicated and everyone has different opinions. I'm just all confused with it. I think that with the natural resistance thing, the majority say that you should cull all infected birds. WHICH I CANNOT DO! Ive also read that mareks is everywhere, it seems that more people have it than not!

[gavclojak]

I know what you mean! I think the fact you have seen one of your girls go through it, you want to avoid the chances of them and you going through it again. I thought this chicken lark was supposed to be easy??

[mollyripkim]

Not much help but just to add to the mix I lost a vaccinated silkie who are prone to mareks. I guess even if you go down the vaccinated route it's not 100 percent as much as anything due to the way and timing of the vaccination.

[UKMARCH]

I've done some reading on this too as we had a hybrid who was vaccinated and we think had mareks and exposed our others to it. If they are vaccinated in Europe on a huge scale there are bound to be some who get missed or the vaccine is unsuccessful for and then there are the breeds who are more prone. We have two left who are resistant as by the time we eventually had a necropsy done we had lost quite a few and these ones have always remained in good health. There are also several strains ours didn't have the usual symptoms and just seemed to go light. Our farm vet said we should despatch or ideally wait until these died or before getting any more and then get vaccinated ones. We couldn't bring ourselves to despatch them so last year we got some 6 week old vaccinated chicks and brought them up away from our others. I know that in a garden you can't get far enough away but it seems to have worked as they have grown up and are now in an adjacent run they do not have contact and can't see each other and I will keep them separate to avoid any stress which could bring it on. I can see the benefit of breeding for resistance from hens you know are resistant if they are young enough and if you have a cockerel but for us this isn't possible I would think that if you buy in eggs you would be taking a chance on resistance unless you knew the breeder well.

[Grandmashazzie]

On your comment Gavclojak is that complete rubbish?From vet I mean,surely if given a live vaccine once you have built your antibodies you don't secrete live vaccine.I have vacc ex batts and am planning new ones in Spring and would'nt want any problems.

[debbiedoobs]

God this is complicated! I was planning on buying in the eggs, so wouldn't necessary know much bout where they are from. I'm also not sure where the Mareks has come from or how long we have had it for. I think the reason I'm questioning things so much is because of the youngest who we hatched last year. I'm thinking maybe she has built up some resistance or we haven't suffered the consequences of the Mareks with her yet? I'm bothered that if we get the new chicks vaccinated then what if it's a different strain to what we already have and they all infect each other. And Yes grandmashazzie I have read what gavclojak said is true, complicates things doesn't it xx

[Grandmashazzie]

Gosh Debbie we need words of wisdom from Dogmother and mods,it does all become a nightmare.No one wants illness if it can be avoided.

[debbiedoobs]

I completely agree, I can't bear the loss that comes with keeping chickens, want to protect them as much as possible. It's becoming a difficult decision x

[gavclojak]

On your comment Gavclojak is that complete rubbish?

I really wouldn't have mentioned this if my vet wasn't chicken savvy and as she is on the BHWT and RSPCA vet approved list for chickens I bow to her better judgement.

Also see the quote from the dogmother....an amazing source of information in the post 'possible egg peritonitis?

Thank you