Vaccinations

[Phillbryant]

Hello,

I have been offered some young chickens by someone I know - they are coming from a chicken farmer and they will not be vaccinated. I'm told that farmers do not vaccinate their chickens and that it is not seen as an essential thing to do - is that correct?

Any comments or guidance would be appreciated.

 

[chrismahon]

None of our Pedigree chickens are vaccinated. No need, as it's intensive rearing and keeping that breeds the diseases and it only takes 1 to infect 100's. The hybrids are, as they are intensively reared. Innoculation programmes are complex and expensive, as the purchased doses are for flocks of 500 plus. The small breeders can't entertain them. We have 3 treated hybrids and 38 untreated Pedigrees.

But a chicken farmer will be keeping large flocks and should therefore have an innoculation programme. So I would worry if the chickens are from a commercial source and wouldn't if they were from a small Pedigree breeder. Hope that helps

 

[Chuck]

I think you need to dig a little deeper if you really want to know if they have been vaccinated or not.

If the farmer has bred them himself, he may not have vaccinated them because you need to rear in very large numbers before vaccination becomes economical.

Most people who farm chickens commercially have hybrids and they are bought in usually having already been vaccinated and as Chris said, if chickens are kept in large numbers commercially they could not afford to leave them unvaccinated due to the disease risk.

I would try to find out what type (breed) of chickens they are before you buy them. Let us know how you get on.