Understanding how to quarantine new or old chickens is a important key when you want to own a flock of chickens. Whether your bird is sick, or if you are thinking of introducing new chicken(s), it is extremely important to quarantine to reduce the risk of possibly bringing in new diseases to your farm or allowing one to spread to your other birds.
New or sick chickens should not be around your flock for AT LEAST a month after being finished in quarantine. If your chicken(s) were sick, you could wait even longer to introduce them back into the flock. The MINIMUM time for quarantine time for sick or new chickens is 30 DAYS. If there was a smaller injury, then you could possibly bring them back into the flock sooner but it is always better to hold off and wait.
In my opinion, it is important to know that you cannot quarantine a chicken closer than 30 feet from your chicken coop. You can either use a large dog crate or separate fencing to quarantine a sick (or possibly sick) chicken from the rest of the flock. If you use a dog crate, make sure to line the bottom with hard cardboard and than layer the cardboard with hay (OR straw/pine shavings), just so it will be easier for you to clean. Once you start to clean out the crate, you are going to want to dispose of the cardboard and remaining hay into separate garbage bags so that you can flush away the worries of anything affecting the rest of the flock.
When the chicken is in quarantine, they obviously still have to eat and drink. A plastic chick waterer will hold enough water for one chicken if a crate. Also, this waterer will not take up as much room as a full sized waterer would. For the food part, you can use a chick feeder. If the rooster or hen is being stubborn and constantly spilling all of the food out, you can feed them outside during light hours. If you do not have access to a chicken feeder, you can always improvise and use some type of flat container you have laying around your household.
Once your chicken is officially done with quarantine and you do not see anymore symptoms, you have to make sure to disinfect everything that was touched. Including the crate, gates, feeders, waterers, and most definitely the floor surrounding where your chicken was staying. Whether you had your chicken in a basement, garage, or outside where your other flock does not go.
Wash your hands well after handling a sick or injured chicken or it may even be best if you take a shower too. Make sure to change your shoes also before you head to take care of the rest of your flock.
I hope you find this article entertaining and informative on how to deal with quarantining new/sick chickens! Please comment if you have anymore questions or concerns!