The Chick-Inn: Fade To Black!

Who could have known how this saga would end?  Certainly not me!

It all started so innocently—with such great hope!  A lifetime of free eggs!  Bonding with fowl!  Free feather pillows!

Our motives were pure…we wanted to make use of our pre-existing coop and boast to the world of our new roles as urban farmers.  We did both, but have now found ourselves ‘chicken-less’ but with lots of knowledge we never expected and frankly never hoped to acquire.

Yesterday we had our 'new' friends from the Florida Department of Agriculture visit to spray our coop and adjacent barn and grounds with disinfectant to rid ourselves of three different disease conditions we apparently were suffering from.  Our last rooster departed with our new friends in a plastic bag after being “depopulated and cervically dislocated”—(so help me that is the way they referred to his demise!)

He appeared healthy, but was alas, a carrier for at least two of the diseases.  We might have been the victims of a  nefarious source for our second round of fowl who wittingly or unwittingly provided us with sick chicks.  So it wasn’t long (apparently a month or so) after they arrived that we began to notice harbinger symptoms of what would be a slow and miserable period of sickness and ‘depopulation’ of our flock.

As one by one the new arrivals began to exhibit symptoms that were decidedly un-chicken-like (lethargy, weepy eyes, respiratory distress, unsteadiness on their feet, loss of body mass) we tried everything.  Cecily spent hours researching the different disease possibilities: Marek’s Disease, mycoplasma, tracheitis, etc. to try to determine what we were fighting.  We tried anti-viral drugs, anti-bacterial compounds, food supplements, a rich and varied un-chicken-like diet—but nothing really worked.  We called veterinarians, other chicken owners, and finally the Dept. of Agriculture.  They could only offer us sympathetic ‘clucking’.

So, finally, out of desperation as the final two hens we had (one of which was Betty) started to show symptoms, we coddled them, force fed them antibiotics, and tried to alter their environment to make it easier for them.  We even took Betty into the house and kept her in a little open box behind my desk here to get her out of the heat and make sure she ate and drank the concoctions we prepared.

When we lost Louise, the next to last hen, I took Betty and the recently departed Louise to a local vet we were finally able to find who specialized in fowl.  As we stood there discussing the options Betty breathed her last breath.  Not pretty.

So I authorized a necropsy to finally get a determination of what had decimated our flock.  The results were definitive.  Our flock was diagnosed with Marek’s virus, Mycoplasma and Infectious Laryngotracheitis.  All death sentences.  We think that the person who sold us the 7 new arrivals we acquired after Betty and Hercules might have been trying to clean their own flock.  It is hard to imagine that someone might have intentionally tried to deliver us some diseased birds…more than likely they didn’t even know it either.  However the net result is the same.

So now we are an ‘empty nest’ so to speak. We were advised to wait until the weather turns and it dries out here, probably December or January to try again with a new flock, preferably one that is inoculated with vaccines that prevent some of the problems that we faced.

From an economic standpoint it was a true disaster.  This was an incredibly expensive experiment, and considerably raised the cost of the few eggs we actually received from Betty.  The new chickens never gave us anything but poop and agida.

They all were innocent birds, and we were innocent poultry farmers.  Live and learn, I suppose.

I will say that I have learned that chickens are people too.  They truly do have personalities and are very funny looking when they run.  With Betty sitting behind me here at my desk for a week, I actually bonded with her and I think she enjoyed me talking to her and taking care of her. Chicken eyes are not particularly expressive, but I think she was happy to see me each morning. 

We will try again after the first of the year, once we are confident we have been disinfected long enough.

I yearn for the boundless eggs that my neighbors speak of when I tell them of our woes.  We are looking forward to a poultry renaissance in about 6 months. 

For now the Chick-Inn is closed for renovation and refurbishing, but eventually will open its doors again to most favored guests……VRBO is available for those of you with nowhere else to stay when in Naples.