Phew! The biggest problem to being new at something is you often don't know what you don't know. And in this case, ignorance is not bliss. My chicken-guru friend Catherine recommended that when I ordered my chicks that I get them vaccinated for coccidiosis. I didn't really know what that was, but I trusted Catherine and followed her advice.
Six weeks later, I went to buy feed for the chicks, and coccidiosis couldn't have been further from my mind. When the nice guy at Agway asked whether I wanted feed with or without antibiotics, I had no idea, so I said "with." We then pulled up to the loading dock to get the 50-pound bag of feed. It was pouring, and we motioned to just stick it in the back and wouldn't you know it, the guy loaded the wrong type of feed.
The next day we had to go to New Hampshire for a family event and managed to find a nearby Agway. We were desperate to get food as the chicks were arriving the next day. This particular Agway carried a completely different line of feed, and I had only one choice for baby chicks: a Poulin Grain crumble with definitely no antibiotics added. As it turned out, luck was on my side!
It turns out that if you get your chicks vaccinated for coccidiosis, you should not give them feed with antibiotics as it wipes out the vaccine. Makes sense when you think about it. Besides, if your aim in raising chickens is to do so organically, you don't want to be loading them up with antibiotic feed anyway.
Oh and I finally did figure out what coccidiosis is. Coccidiosis is a common protozoan parasite that is found in almost all chicken yards. It can lay dormant for years and pop up when chickens are introduced. Heavy infections of coccidia can kill chickens and most commonly affects young chickens (4-16 weeks). I'm kind of attached to my chicks now and wouldn't want anything icky happen to them.
Moral of the story: Learn from my almost mistake!
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