The Benefits of Vaccinating Chickens

If you’re planning on adding chickens into your backyard coop or welcoming them into your farm family, you should strongly consider vaccinating them first.

There are a wide range of vaccinations available for chicks that are designed to protect them from serious diseases.

Common Diseases

Some diseases that chickens are likely to catch without a vaccination include Marek’s Disease, Infectious Bronchitis, Avian RhinoTracheitis, Mycoplasma Gallisepticum, and Salmonella. It’s a good idea to vaccinate your chickens against certain diseases at a young age. In fact, chicks must be vaccinated as close to the time of hatch as possible for vaccines to be effective.

Marek’s Disease

Marek’s Disease is one of the most common and widespread diseases affecting chickens. It’s an extremely contagious viral disease that can cause lesions that will take a toll on everything from a chicken’s nervous system and organs to some of its tissues. Chickens that are under the age of 16 weeks old are usually more susceptible to this disease than others, and unfortunately, there is no known treatment or cure for Marek’s Disease once a chicken is infected with it.

Vaccinating Against Marek’s Disease

The biggest benefit of vaccinating your chickens against something like Marek’s Disease is that you won’t have to worry about them catching it. You also won’t have to worry about one chicken that has it spreading it to other chickens in your flock. It can be very difficult to control a Marek’s Disease outbreak once it starts, and if you’re not careful, it could end up affecting all your chickens in no time making it impossible to cure them.

At Chickens for Backyards, we will help you enjoy the benefits of vaccinating your baby chicks against Marek’s Disease by vaccinating them for you. We vaccinate all our own breeding stock and strongly feel that you should do the same, especially if Marek’s Disease is active in your area.  Vaccinating your birds for Marek’s is another appropriate step in strong poultry management.