Pointing It Out To You!!! Rooster Science

As some of you might know, I love a spectacle. Gimme a party with loud people, off color jokes, a bit of gentle ribbing, a few colorful characters and I’m all in. Last weekend in Myrtle Beach delivered all that and a bit more. The 50th Anniversary of the creation of the UGBA went off without much of the drama that has been associated with it in the past.

I drove up to the sunny shores of South Carolina facing a whole lot of rain and obstacles, and the clouds broke when I hit town. The rest of the weekend was full of sunshine and good cheer. As one of the keynote speakers, I was well received. My talk was on “Treatments - It’s Rooster Science, not Rocket Science”.

It really is you know…

Rooster Science is knowing that these birds don’t require much treatment, however, they do require a lot of maintenance. I read a book back in my younger days that was written in 1931 and on the first page of the book it said you need two things to preserve health within any flock. the two key ingredients are a good cocciostat and a hatchet. I challenged this information back in the day, I did what I could to save every bird I could because…hello… new technology and world class antibiotics gave us all we need to insure the survival of these birds. Let me be the first to admit, I couldn’t have been more wrong. There is so much of the big picture that we are missing.

We raise athletes. Every defect is a point against you. Every show is only as good as your worst bird. What this means is for every bird you save by hook or crook, its time you could have spent tending to the ones that don’t require anything from us other than good nutritious feed and fresh clear water. Every bird you prop up to raise to adulthood is one that will cause you some kind of heartbreak in the end.

So, you might ask; Do we worm? What if we have an illness come through from the wild birds? What about everyday injuries? Should we vaccinate against viral infections? How do we combat stress on any yard?

To become a substantial breeder, it takes a good bloodline…hell we all know this. Good bloodlines also have good health to back them up. Try your best to reduce stress on your yard. This is obtained by constant attention to detail.

Cleanliness is key, but also maintenance to insuring there are no receptacles that are filling with rainwater and being a habitat to mosquitoes and other insects. This also includes your feed, the average bird needs 4 oz of feed a day. Feed once or twice a day depending on your schedule. ( As for me - keep birds get twice a day feed, and birds in pens and on cords get fed 1 time a day. I normally do not feed on Sundays as this allows the birds to do a cleanup)

Fresh grass is a treat for these birds and good source of some vitamins; this requires a lot of pens moving about. In rainy weather, you need to move regularly to prevent “mud fever”. Laying down straw or hay is also a good way to prevent these birds from mucking about in their own slop. Worm on a 45-day cycle. Use a good cocciostat (I like Corrid) on a 45-day cycle. Handle your birds frequently, except during the molt.

Quarantine any birds that are acting off in any way. I subscribe to the 3-day rule. Do not overpopulate your yard. Too many birds bring more problems. Get rid of excess hens - i used to have a barbeque once a year to rid myself of the problems these girls can cause to your yard.

Culling is a big part of being a successful breeder. Don’t be nostalgic, don’t be indiscriminate. If you see a problem, handle it fast and efficiently especially when it comes to crosses and battle stock. I understand that brood stock is different, but know when to say enough is enough.

If you have a problem, identify the problem and use the right antibiotic - don’t second guess this.

Keep the vermin and pests off your yard with due diligence. A good dog is a roosterman’s greatest investment, but a bad dog will wipe you out faster than anything. (Hell I used to get the kids to bring me King Snakes that I released around my farm, they helped to control the rat population and they kept the lethal snakes away as well. I have run like a bitch a few times when I came across one of those big-assed snakes in a pen, but it was and is a necessary evil).

Vaccinations are great for commercial poultry houses and hard to sustain for gamebird owners. This can get real expensive real fast and in the end can cause you more problems than any it might save. (I use a method called “Natural Vaccination” this includes raising your older birds and younger birds in close proximity to each other - what one has, they all have.

There is more, much more that I could convey but these are the basics - use common sense. Recognize that technology and science only go so far. Remember that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Quick story for ya.

F B loves muff roosters for some reason. I got in touch with an old man out of Northern Michigan that had a line of muffs that he’d been raising for over 50 years, he also had a line of Whitehackles that he’d had for over 35 years. The man didn’t sell his birds, and it took me months of talking for him to send me a trio of each. They came in and they were perfect. Everything was great with them - put them in a side yard and had them classified as an experiment, a looky-looky to see what we could do with these birds.

Fast forward a few months and its late spring/early summer, and I’m in the office, and in comes Jerry and he’s hopping mad -he’s yelling about flock infection and diseased stock, that was going to infect his good roosters, and I go out the door. All six of these birds are covered in clusters of warts, it was the ugliest thing I ever seen. I took pictures and threatened Jerry with bodily harm if he killed these birds before I got some answers. I sent the pictures to my guy at the State Lab at LSU in Baton Rouge and he called me back pretty quick.

He was laughing at me, and said, “Monique, this is what Fowl Pox looks like”. I was shocked as hell. and told him it didn’t look anything like any pox I’d ever seen. He calmly told me that Upstate Michigan didn’t have pox carrying mosquitos like we do in South Louisiana and he asked me if I had any Poxine on hand. I did and he told me to give each bird a healthy poke in both wings and let him know if I needed him to come out. Within 3 days, the warts dried up and started falling off, within 10 days they were clear.

What I discovered was our birds are bitten by mosquitos regularly from the time they are born, they survive and grow, they become immune to Dry Pox as they mature. Now this doesn’t mean that they can’t get Wet Pox later in their lives, but Wet Pox is normally triggered by stress in the late summer months.

What I had witnessed was an adult bird getting the Dry Pox, this was something I’d never seen before, because by the time our bird’s hit maturity, they had already gone through it. The birds survived, and to me it seems you can teach and old bitch a trick or two on occasion. As for Jerry…I’m sure he’s in heaven, tending to god’s roosters and freaking out over something. I miss that man’s excitement.

Keep ‘em crowing!