snazzyc

3 Steps to Treating Scaly Leg Mites

Scaly leg mites are small (invisible to the naked eye), but they tend to make diagnosis pretty simple. These mites spend their entire lives burrowing in the scaly, unfeathered areas of a bird’s legs and shanks or, less commonly, beak. A flaky or powdery appearance to a bird’s legs is often the first sign of a problem. Infestations can become gruesome as lesions form and eventually develop into the large, crusty “scales” that have earned the mite its name. These growths can cripple a bird if left unchecked – so you may want to have suspected cases confirmed by a lab as soon as possible but there are some quite simple treatments that can be very helpful in getting rid of the mites (especially if caught early) and are not too intrusive to your chickens – although if yours are not handled very often they are bound to be a bit indignant.

scaley Step One : Killing The Mites

The simplest treatment for Scaly Leg Mites is to suffocate the mites which essentially means holding your chickens legs in a bowl of vegetable oil or baby oil etc for at least a minute or perhaps lathering their legs with vaseline. Any oil would work at sufficating the mites but obviously from your chickens point of view it needs to be a non-toxic one – your old motor oil would probably not be a good option for example.

If your birds will let you then soaking their legs in warm water and gently brushing away some of the dirt from underneath the scales should help soften and clean the scales ready for the treatment but if that is going to upset them too much just stick with the oil/vaseline initially so as not to stress your chickens out too much.

I say chickens – plural – because with parasites if one has them, they all do, and it is better to treat everyone together so they can’t keep spreading them between themselves.

Step Two : Re-apply at least once more

To be sure you have dealt with all the mites repeat the method you used to suffocate the mites at least once more in a week or so’s time.

Step Three : Clean the Coop

It is easy for parasites to hide out in the cracks and crevices and nesting material etc. so giving your coop a good clean and changing out the bedding can only help.

~ If you are dealing with a more advanced case and the leg scales are looking very lumpy and sore a stronger treatment such as Ivermectin may be advised by your vet (they still may also suggest using something like vaseline as well).

Why Do Chickens Peck Each Other’s Feathers?

By snazzyc 10 Comments

flockinlargepen It can be one of the less attractive aspects of chicken keeping. No-one likes a bully, and seeing one of your favourites being pecked for no apparent reason can change the way you feel about the chicken(s) who are doing the pecking.

Although the chicken being pecked on probably wouldn’t agree, especially if things have turned nasty, it is a normal part of chicken life.

Feather pecking is a behavioral issue and gentle feather pecking is often taken to be normal investigatory behavior where the feathers of the victim are hardly disturbed.

You may have noticed some of this investigatory pecking happening to you, perhaps with shoelaces, or toes (best not to wear sandals) being pecked as you were standing near them – I’ve been a little more careful bending over near since receiving a peck on my bottom whilst I was squatting which made me lose my balance into a deposit nearby. Those kinds of pecks don’t really hurt, your chickens are just exploring what is around them.

Severe pecking on the other hand may involve grasping and even pulling out of some feathers. This is of course painful to the receiving bird and its end results could be trauma of the skin or bleeding. Then the redness of the skin or blood if the pecking was particularly severe itself becomes attractive to them and can escalate into everyone joining in…and chickens can be pretty relentless…

…so much so it can end in death.

Usually, feather pecking starts on the back feathers and with time it progresses to the tail and then eventually throughout the body. It can happen when they are roosting at night as well as during the day when they are out and about, but the reasons for it can vary.

peckedfeet

Causes Of Feather Pecking

The possibility of a nutritional deficiency is one of the first things to be considered. Hens are used to ground pecking, scratching and foraging for food. However, often domestic hens are kept in an enclosed environment that is usually relatively barren and so will have restricted foraging opportunities. More than that, the feed they get is nutrient dense and can be consumed in a few minutes compared to the hours it would have taken in normal foraging time to find insects or worms.

Feathers have protein in them (and also require protein to grow back) and so if you notice that the feathers are actually being eaten that may mean that they are plucking at the feathers and then eating them because of their instinct to get more protein into their diet.

At least that is how it may have started, once these sorts of behaviours have begun they can become a habit for them if we are not careful.

Boredom is another explanation offered as to why hens peck at each other. When the weather is bad or they generally are penned in a small area for whatever reason, the activity of the hens such as foraging and dust bathing are limited. And in efforts to break boredom, the hens can start to peck at each other.

Finding interesting ways to serve their food and treats so that they can still do some foraging can be more entertaining for them (and you to watch).

Consider hanging a cabbage or some leaves of kales or a cob of maize slightly above their heads so that they are able to jump and peck at it. Adding a ladder in their cage or some roosts etc. for them to clamber about on and perch could also help keep them more occupied.

When the housing of your hens starts to feel a bit cramped, then there are high chances that they may start feather pecking. Crowding increases stress levels in poultry and as has already been mentioned, hens love to forage and scratch and peck the ground. If there is not enough room for them to do this, then the chances of a pecking war breaking out increases.

Hens also love to lay their eggs in dark and secluded areas rather than in direct light. Hens will fight for the favorable nests, and it may add to problem if there are too few nests or too few that are nicely secluded and scuffling for nest boxes could potentially lead to broken eggs and egg eating.

Having said that though, even with plenty of perfectly good nests you will often find them all trying to cram themselves into the same one or two favourite ones, but still it is something to bear in mind, if you find you are having thoses kinds of problems.

To reduce and manage feather pecking, ensure that :

You feed your hens a balanced diet packed with all the necessary nutrients (if feeding scratch it should be only as a treat).
You select less flighty hen breeds if they are not going to be able to free-range regularly.
Your housing and husbandry meets all the needs and requirements of the hens in order to manage their stress levels.
They are free of parasites – chickens might pull at their own feathers if they are feeling itchy.
Around the vent and under the wings are key places to check.

scratchandpeck

Add Some Colour To Your Egg Basket

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For those that only buy eggs from a supermarket it would be easy to believe that eggs only come in two colours; brown and white (and some may also assume the brown ones are healthier – not true). In fact there is a wide range of colour variety between the different breeds and you can end up with a very colourful egg basket if you pick and choose your breeds for the colour of their eggs.

In a lot of cases you can get an idea of what colour eggs will be laid by looking at the colour of their earlobes. For instance there are several colour varieties of the leghorn breed of chicken but they all have white earlobes and lay white eggs. Sadly one of the exceptions to the ear lobe rule are silkies who have metalic blue earlobes but lay a pale egg (metalic blue would have been great!)

Here are the eggshell colours of some of the most common chicken breeds:

Ameracauna: blue to blue-green
Ancona: white to cream
Australorp: brown
Easter Eggers (a hybrid breed bred from Ameracaunas) : blues, greens, pinks etc.
Leghorn: white
Marans : brown, chocolate brown
Orpington: brown
Plymouth Rock: light to medium brown
Rhode Island: medium brown
Silkie Bantam: light (whiteish, beige, pinkish, creamy)
Wyandotte: light, medium, or dark brown

Maran Eggs : Black Copper (left), Cuckoo (right)

While the eggshell color has everything to do with your chickens’ breed, the color of the yolk has everything to do with what your chickens eat. One very noticeable thing to those who first start eating their own fresh home grown eggs is the colour of the yolk – so much darker and orangey. This is because chickens that are allowed to free range eat a wider variety of plants and grubs. It is not altogether surprising that healthier chickens that are enjoying a wide range of foods and able to enjoy some fresh air and exercise lay healthier eggs. Eggs from free range chickens reportedly have less cholesterol, more omega-3 fatty acids, and more vitamin A and E than eggs with paler yolks. So if you want stronger yolk colours let your girls forage for grass and grubs and you will soon see (and taste) the difference 🙂

How to Keep Intestinal Worms Under Control

By snazzyc 1 Comment

Like most other animals, chickens are subject to intestinal worms. Worms are parasites that, upon entering your chickens’ body, will live in their intestines, leach nutrients from your chickens, and shed eggs in your chickens’ feces. Among the most common worms your chickens can harbor are roundworms, tapeworms, and hairworms. Intestinal worms are extremely contagious because their eggs can remain infectious for up to one year after they are shed.

Determining whether or not your flock (if one has them chances are they all do) is infected with intestinal worms can be difficult, as symptoms are vague and can also be indicative of other diseases. Symptoms of intestinal worms include:

Poor chicken growth and development
Poor morale among flock
Rough or scraggly-looking feathers
Pale combs and wattles
Soft feces
Anemia
Reduction in egg-laying frequency
Reduction in egg size
Poor hatchability among fertilized eggs

The surest way to determine if your chickens are infected with intestinal worms is to have a veterinarian perform an analysis of your chickens’ feces. Most intestinal worm eggs are readily visible under a microscope.

If you are seeing general symptoms like the ones listed above and your chickens haven’t been wormed recently you may feel that worming them on the off-chance could be worthwhile. Many chicken keepers routinely worm their chickens for the most common types of worms (often the eggs will need to be chucked during, and possibly for a little while after, their treatment – the manufacturer / prescribing vet should be able to give you more information on that).

roosting-in-chicken-pen

Simliar symptoms can be seen with other parasites such as lice and mites so they are always worth keeping an eye out for. Parasites in general are a huge drain on your chickens health and can eventually kill them if left unchecked so although a common problem it is not something to be taken lightly.

Follow these simple steps to treat and prevent further infestations of intestinal worms among your flock:

Seek treatment for worms. If you suspect that your chickens are infected with intestinal worms, seek treatment from a veterinarian or county extension specialist immediately. Your veterinarian will prescribe a “dewormer,” or medication that get rid of parasites living in your infected chickens. Dewormers are usually specific to one or two species of intestinal worms, so it’s important to seek professional help to determine the right medication.
Treat your chickens aggressively. Intestinal worms are extremely contagious, so if one of your chickens is infected, it’s likely that others are as well. Use the dewormer prescribed by your veterinarian as directed, and inquire about treating your other chickens and livestock for worms as well. Your veterinarian may recommend deworming your chickens several times each year to prevent further infestations of intestinal parasites.
Regularly clean and replace litter. Intestinal worm infections are transmitted through feces, so make sure that you are scooping your chicken’s feces out each day to prevent excess fecal matter from building up in your coop. Replace your chicken’s litter when it becomes too wet or dirty.
Develop good hygiene practices. Keeping a chicken coop clean can be difficult, as chickens are inherently messy. However, good sanitation practices are the best way to prevent intestinal worm infestations. In addition to regularly changing your chicken’s litter, perform routine cleanings of your chicken coop walls, windows, doors, and any other areas.
Don’t leave feed lying around or on the floor. Excess feed attracts pests like mice and rats that can harbor intestinal parasites as well, so store feed in closed containers and in appropriate chicken feeders.

Ways to Stop Your Chickens from Eating Their Eggs

By snazzyc 4 Comments

guardingnestbox One of the most frustrating problems that can develop with chickens is if they start to eat their own eggs. This often begins accidentally; perhaps they have clumsily broken one or maybe they have laid a soft or shell-less egg which has splattered into the nesting box. Their natural inquisitiveness could have led them to pecking at the yolk on the floor and they have now decided they like the taste and would rather keep their eggs for themselves than have you collect them and take them away. Problem!

Firstly, bear in mind that other things like eating eggs, so there may be a possibilty that your chickens are being framed by rats or snakes or your dog etc. but let’s assume it is definitely your chickens that are enjoying the eggs. If it is early days, it may be that it has not turned into a habit yet. It could be partly down to something like not enough bedding in the nestbox that is causing their eggs to break, or perhaps they are not eating a balanced diet and so are craving the nutritional elements of the eggs.

eggsinnest Nutritionally they should get what they need from a layers feed so if that makes up the majority of what they are eating, in theory the cause should not be nutritional. If the eggs are breaking because of a lack of bedding in the nestbox then obviously adding more bedding may help (if you have a hen whose first task when she enters the nestbox is to kick out all the bedding you have put into it – like one of mine does – a nest box pad may be the answer).

If your hens really have become dead-set on eating their own eggs it can be difficult to persuade them otherwise. If you can get to the eggs before they do and collect them regularly then that is obviously one way that would help, but ideally we would like the chickens to stop eating their eggs altogether. It may be that the issue can’t be resolved in a positive way but there are a few sneaky tactics that are worth trying before you resign yourself to either going without fresh eggs or removing the offending chicken(s) (let’s hope it doesn’t come to that).

Being Tricky

Make the eggs taste bad : Take one of your chickens eggs (or if things are really bad, buy some from the supermarket) and replace the contents with something that will not taste as nice – mustard for instance. Place the egg into their nest box and see if they try it. Perhaps the first time you try they will eat it, or part of it, but after a few days of unpleasant tasting eggs you will hopefully find that they decide not to bother with them.

If that doesn’t work….

Try adding false eggs to the nests – even brightly coloured plastic eggs – to us they are obviously not edible, but chickens don’t pick up on that straight away and will probably try to eat them anyway, giving them more disappointment on the egg-eating front. Likewise, people have found that scraps of paper masquerading as bits of egg shell on the floor can help put them off pecking at their eggs.

If that doesn’t work….

A ‘roll away’ nestbox to keep the eggs out of your chickens reach may be worth a try. These aren’t too expensive to purchase, or you may want to have a go at making your own.

If that doesn’t work….

A bit more trial and error on making the eggs taste bad so they are put off eating them? Good luck!

checkingoutnestbox

7 Reasons To Elevate Your Chicken Coop

By snazzyc 1 Comment

One of the things to decide upon when building a chicken coop is the general style and that can include whether or not to have the chicken house elevated. Normally the extra height is not too much – perhaps one to three feet. Here are a few reasons you might want to raise your hen house.

1. Protection from predators

Raising your coop even just one foot from the ground should help make it harder for things like rats to burrow or eat their way into the coop through the floor. If there is a nestbox overhanging make sure the floor cannot be pushed up from underneath as that could be a weakness a fox or some other predator may try to exploit (any catches should also be secured so they cannot be easily unhooked).

2. Easier Access

With small chicken coops especially, raising the house off the ground can make it easier to clean out than one that you have to stoop down to (or even worse, crawl around in!).

3. Shelter

A raised coop can provide additional shelter from the elements for your chickens. Having at least one or two of the sides solid (as opposed to just wire) will help to give more protection from the wind and rain (although try to position your coop somewhere fairly sheltered from the worst of the weather in the first place).

4. Dust bath

What starts out as a sheltered area for your chickens may eventually turn into a dusting area (as happened with my smallest coop a few years ago!)

5. Snow and Ice

There is less chance of your chickens getting snowed in if their coop is raised of the floor as the door will usually be well above the height of any settled snow. Watch out for slippery ramps though!

6. Extra Space

A raised house can give extra run space underneath and can make a big difference to the overall square footage they have access to. Even if they are intended to be free ranged there are sometimes reasons to keep your chickens in a secure pen area (such as because of extreme weather conditions or perhaps you are going out for the night and won’t be able to lock them in until some time after they have gone to bed etc.) and so the space under the house can be handy for that as well.

7. Floods and rotting

A raised wooden coop will help prevent the underneath rotting as quickly because it will not be in direct contact with damp earth and puddles (the wood would also benefit from being treated).

Apple Cider Vinegar : A Natural Way to Improve Your Chickens’ Health

By snazzyc 1 Comment

You probably already have some apple cider vinegar in your cupboard for things like salad dressings, homemade pickles and marinades and may have heard of its reported health benefits for those who include it in their diet, but did you know similar benefits can be given to your chickens as well?

Apple cider vinegar is full of vitamins, minerals and trace elements, and is also an anticeptic and mild antibiotic and can be a great tonic for chickens. You can find raw apple cider vinegar in health food stores, supermarkets and poultry supply stores. Some of the benefits of making use of apple cider vinegar around your flock and coop are :

An improvement in the digestive health of your chickens by maintaining proper pH balance in the digestive tract
Increase in egg production
It kills the bacteria that can cause respiratory illnesses
Keeps your chickens’ waterer and feeder disinfected and free of harmful bacteria and mildew
Eliminates mold, mildew, dust, and odors from your chicken coop when used as a cleaning agent
Repels flies and ants
Can also be used as an abrasive cleaner for difficult-to-clean surfaces.

Giving your chickens apple cider vinegar directly

Adding apple cider vinegar directly to your chickens’ drinking water once or twice a week (or some will do one full week every month) can help to maintain digestive health by lowering the pH in their stomach. Because of that it also in theory makes your chicken a less agreeable host to internal parasites such as worms* and can act as an antiseptic, killing any harmful mucus or bacteria in the throat that can cause respiratory ailments. Perhaps as a result of these improvements to a chickens ability to fight off parasites and bacteria some people have observed that their chickens egg production has increased after using apple cider vinegar.

* Do not use ACV at the same time as treating for internal parasites such as worms or coccidiosis

To add apple cider vinegar to your chickens’ water, preferably use the raw, unfiltered, and unpasteurized vinegar, as this has more of the ‘good stuff’ left in. A general guideline would be to use four teaspoons of apple cider vinegar for each gallon of water, or one quart apple cider vinegar per fifty gallons but the ideal thing is to aim for a PH of 4/4.5 so if you can test your water to find out exactly how much avc your water would need that would be even better. Only use a non-metalic waterer when adding apple cider vinegar as metalic ones can be affected by the acid in the vinegar and rust and possibly also leech out metalic particles into the water.

Using apple cider vinegar to clean your chicken coop, feeders, and waterers

You can also use apple cider vinegar in and around the coop (and your house!) as a natural chemical-free cleaner. Chicken coop walls, floors, roof, windows, feeder, and waterer all need cleaning regularly and just a few teaspoons of apple cider vinegar added to a spray bottle filled with water can be just the job. For cleaning purposes, any type of apple cider vinegar will work.

To clean with apple cider vinegar, just use it as you would any other type of cleaner, spray any dirty surface with your solution, leave for a minute or two and then wipe clean with a cloth. As apple cider vinegar is an anticeptic frequent cleaning will disinfect any surface and help prevent mold, mildew, dust, and unpleasant odors from building up. It’s hard to prove one way or the other but I am also pretty certain that there have been less flies around since I started using apple cider vinegar around the coop.

Using apple cider vinegar as an abrasive cleaner

For a more abrasive cleaner mix apple cider vinegar with coarse sea salt to help safely rub off any build-up on more difficult to clean surfaces such as brooders, window panes, and cages.

4 Tips for Letting Your Chicks Outside

By snazzyc 2 Comments

chickongrass Chicks that are being brought up by their mother hen will usually be out and about from just a few days old. She will take them out and show them how to peck for bugs and grass at a very young age and she may not be very careful about it (watching a mother hen and her chicks you will sometimes see her doing things that are ‘wrong’ such as leaving a chick behind, or leading them over wet grass).

For us human mother hens it is usually advisable not to be quite so slap dash about it. Chicks can enjoy being outside but they will need to be kept safe which means :

A warm day which is dry underfoot – it is not good for chicks to get cold and wet and they need to be warm enough, very young chicks more so than the older ones. If they were out with their mother hen they could get under her feathers whenever they wanted to but you will need to watch them closely to check that they are happy and enjoying themselves. If they are chirping loudly then they probably want to go back in.

A pen they can safely explore the world from – a secure pen, or dog crate etc. which can protect them from any predators (which may include your own pets). Even so, do not leave them unattended.

Chick grit – their formulated chick feed doesn’t need anything extra but for anything else they might eat (bugs, grass etc.) they will need to have grit available to help them process it.

Shade and water – they will need constant access to water whilst outside, and an area that is shaded from the sun and protected from the wind.

chickinhand

The Best Chicken Treats

By snazzyc 1 Comment

gettingatreat Chickens love to eat. They are like little pigs and the quickest way to get them to come running to you is to go out to them shaking your bag or rattling a box or whatever you use to give them regular treats. They will eat pretty much anything, but some favourites seem to be raisins (you may even be able to get them to jump for those!) and mealworms. Mine will literally do anything for mealworms and if you ever have trouble trying to get your girls (and boys) to go into their coop or pen my recommendation would be to try throwing in a few mealworms and see if that helps 🙂

Treats should ideally not make up any more than 10% of what they are eating throughout the day as their layers feed is what they really need. If you notice your egg numbers dropping, try reducing the treats you are giving and see if that helps. As with humans, healthy treats are obviously better for them. Chickens love corn but there is very little nutritional value in it so that would be one thing that could be given as an occasional treat (as opposed to a staple of their diet).

A nice treat on a hot day would be something like water melon (chilled in the fridge will give it extra coolness). I once gave mine some strawberries that were a little past their best and the chickens loved them but I got a bit of a fright when I saw gooey red blobs around the run and thought they were blood until I remembered the strawberries they had earlier in the day.

Incidentally, if they eat blueberries their poo will turn purple and beetroot will make it pink!

Enjoy finding out what your chickens like to eat, but avoid things that are salty, sugary and anything moldy. Here are a few specifc foods to avoid.

Yoghurt anyone?

How to Keep Your Chicks from Clogging Their Feed and Water Containers

By snazzyc 1 Comment

Whether you’ve purchased chicks as babies or your chickens have hatched their eggs, you are surely aware that your baby chicks are active, hungry, and a true joy…

…but they also have their quirks and idiosyncrasies.

One quirk many new chicken parents struggle with is that their hungry and excited chicks tap dance in their feed, poo in their water and kick litter and other shavings into their food and water feeders, causing them to clog.

You might wonder why chicks do this. It’s not exactly sanitary and you would think they might prefer to eat and drink without any of their added ‘ingredients’, but perching, scratching and pecking is their main enjoyment – it’s just kind of what they do.

Although scratching is a natural behavior for chickens, there are a few ways you can keep them from constantly requiring you to unclog their feeders.

It may be possible to prop the containers up off the ground in some way or perhaps suspend them. While your chicks are small enough, you can use a hamster-watering container for their water and mount it on a pole or wall. As your chickens grow, you can put the nipples from the hamster bottle on a larger container. You can also suspend feeders and watering containers from the ceiling with a chain or rope and raise them higher off the ground as your chickens grow.

It is also possible to purchase feeders and waterers specifically made for chicks which make it harder for them to get up to their usual tricks, and this is perhaps the best way to go if you can.

A ‘normal’ bowl will obviously give them access to feed and water but make it easy for them dirty and also quite likely cause the area around them to become damp (also unsanitary). Whilst these can work you do have to be particularly careful with water in bowls, as apart from the constant spills there is also quite a strong potential for accidental drowning (marbles in the bottom of the bowl may help reduce that risk but ideally a chick proof waterer would be better).

If you want to make your chicks work and keep their litter out of their food, get them a feeder with a roller bar on it. You’ll hear them cheeping away as they try to get to their food, but they won’t be kicking litter into it!

dinnertime