Now this is interesting, Clayton, sounds like you are gonna have a whole lotta fun. You little chickie gals will bring you mountains of fun, you are becoming addicted.....as so many of us are.
I may get slammed for this, but that is OK, it is freedom of speech that is such a wonderful thing. With all my incubated chicks and let me tell ya, there has been many, non are vaccinated. BUT....I do feed a medicated chick starter crumble for the first few weeks of life. Period.
The medicated chick starter has one ingredient in particular that I believe in. This medication goes by many names, but one of the names is amprolium. This medication is used to assist the chicks to build up an immunity to a most dreaded chick disease that goes by the name of
coccidiosis :shock: :shock: sounds horrible eh? well, it is.
Wiki has an interesting write up, cocci is found in most animals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoccidiaSome infomation from the Government of Alberta, in my country
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex4616
Coccidia is in every chicken yard, it is there, period, something that lives and can for many years. Some chickens naturally get immune to this parasite and do just fine, others may not build up an immunity to cocci, naturally and pass from this world.
Now I am not a professor at this, but I do know that I want to give any chicks that I raise the best chance of not dieing from coccidiosis, it is a clear and present danger and causes thousands upon millions of dollars of losses in the chicken industry in the world. I have tried to study and understand as much as I can about this chicken disease, as said, far from knowing a whole lot, other than my chicks get this medicated food. I have lost a few chicks to this and it is not nice. I am not a believer of using a whole lotta drugs for a whole lotta bugs, but sometimes I find some things just necessary, it works for me. I go on the assumption that when I sell chicks that they will probably contract cocci from their new home, so I just want these little babies to have a great start on building up their immunity to coccidiosis.
I am opinionated, I express how I feel and have no problem to say things, take these things as you will. AND....go and have that most wonderful day, to love and enjoy your life, with love and health. Cindi