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We lost at least one chicken to sudden death from fatty liver disease, that our vet said was most likely caused by the high corn content of commercial scratch. It's only 10-20% cheaper than flock raiser pellet, so not worth the risk. We stopped using it, and find that flock raiser + free range +...

Those are good rules of thumb, except that the ventilation is overkill in a dry climate with cold winters. We have up to 16 chickens, 4 ducks, in a 10×10×8 ft insulated coop, with 20 sf of closable ceiling vent, 6 nesting boxes. About 26 linear feet of roost. Unlimited free range area. This...

You can't have too much roosting space. They'll cluster together when they feel like it. The dowels you're using look about right for the bird size you have. I've tried many roost materials from 2×4s to tree branches - the best all around for comfort, foot health, etc. seems to be 2×2 stock...

To clarify: it mite (ha ha) not be necessary to do more than add sulfur to dust pits, even for a bad outbreak. But when we find them on our birds (usually by getting bitten ourselves), we want them gone NOW. So we work a teaspoonful or so into each chicken's feathers, and by the next day they're...

The only (very minor) downside I've found with sulfur is that if you get it all over yourself - like while dusting the coop for a bad case of mites - your skin and clothes will have a mild sulfur smell that can last for a couple of washings and showers. It's harmless, temporary, avoidable by...

Yes. But I see it on Amazon as low as $14 for10lb. It's never really "organic," because it contains no carbon or bio material, so no point in paying extra for that. You might also find it at a nursery, because it's a good natural non-toxic treatment for plant mites and fungus. And it's a soil...

A cheap and easy addition is a garden hose and one of those little flat sprinklers with a single hole in the top. Turned on to a very slow trickle, water stays cold, chickens love it, and it can run all day without making a muddy mess. We also use a perforated sprinkler hose, set so water...

We've never seen one get that bad, but for moderate cases, a week or two in a neoprene chicken bootie seems to be the most reliable treatment. We don't always remember, but it's worth the trouble of checking all their feet at least every couple weeks, and keep an eye out for any limping...

A little-known, highly effective, ,NON-TOXIC, and _cheap_ treatment/preventive is powdered elemental sulfur. We've had northern mites twice and poultry fleas once. Every time, sulfur wiped them out, like overnight. Just work a little into each bird's feathers, scatter it around roost and nest...

I would order chick/starter feed immediately, and if you don't have it for a few days, feed whole grains, peanut butter, and scrambled egg. Don't give too much protein or calcium. Common sense about nutrition - they're pretty sturdy and adaptable, should be fine with a week or two of...

For chicks and ducklings from one day old, we've used a little hanging nipple/dripper waterer for years. For compactness, I used a little round plastic apple juice bottle. I drilled a hole in the cap, about 10 mm or 3/8" diameter, screwed in the nipple, and poked a tiny pinhole in the bottom of...

Hello. I'm not sure which poultry dust you're referring to, but we've found sulfur powder to be very effective against mites when I put a soup ladle scoop or so in each of 8 or 10 dustbath pits around the yard, maybe 3 times per year. We've never mixed it in the feed, and from what I understand...

What I meant was that when you described SO2 as toxic and H2S as harmless, you had it backward. I stand by that, and if "H2S is harmless" is exactly as you meant it, that's simply wrong. Hydrogen sulfide was even used (briefly) as a poison gas weapon in WWI.

Trivia note: humans can smell H2S at 0.5 parts per _billion, which is several hundred thousand times lower than a lethal dose. No doubt, that's to warn us away from places where enough H2S might build up, to be dangerous. Yes, I'm quite familiar with H2S as an indicator of problems in well...

I don't mean to quibble, but there's no difference between farm and industrial when it's exactly the same molecule, and one more time: it's all about quantity or concentration. Hydrogen sulfide is H2S is hydrogen sulfide, no matter where it occurs or why. When you deal with it in water...

Agreed on most of that, except that you have it backward about SO2 vs. H2S. It's all about concentration, but hydrogen sulfide is far from harmless: it's hundreds or thousands of times more lethal than sulfur dioxide. I used to work with huge quantities of both. Several workers in that plant...

Sorry it took so long to reply...and I'll be brief (on the road with smartphone) Your comment "sulfur dioxide, ew!"is a good example of not getting it about compounds and elements, or about concentrations and toxicity. SO2 is generated by numerous natural and human processes, it's reactive and...

Thanks for your thoughts about Cream Legbars, Brooke. It's nice to know that all of yours are as friendly as our Amy. We live in Ellensburg, on the other side of the mountains, and I've flown hang gliders many times from Blanchard Hill. It can be spectacular there.