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Overheard a guy at the feed store in Tacoma say he never quarantines new birds
He was bragging about how he just tosses new chickens right in with his flock to 'toughen them up'. I lost two hens last fall to what I'm sure was something brought in by a bird I didn't isolate long enough. It took weeks to clear up and cost me over $80 in vet-recommended treatments. What's the shortest quarantine period you all actually stick to?
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terry_walker12d ago
Hold on there, I gotta push back on this a little... I used to be just like you guys, never bothering with quarantine, and I lost half my flock in one week to something that came in on a "healthy looking" bird from a swap meet. It wasn't just a sickness, it hit my whole coop like a freight train, and I still get nervous when a bird sneezes two years later. That whole "toughen them up" idea sounds good until you're burying your favorite hen and scrubbing the coop with bleach for days... I'll stick with a solid 30-day quarantine in a separate pen, even if it feels like overkill.
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