I'm wanting to supplement my chicken's feed with some natural antibiotics, healthy herbs and spices. Is anyone else doing this? Would love some advice please on amounts per kilo of food. The herbs and spices I'm particularly looking at, at the moment, are dried oregano (can't afford the oil) and cinnamon.
I've been supplementing with herbs for over 5 years now. Although if it's just standard in their homemade feed (based on Nat'l Academy of Sciences publication, 1994), I'm not sure I should call it "supplementing." We add very little. I researched the herbs and spices literature (studies online by universities) back 5 or so years ago; there's probably more info and less info online now. (Meaning that some of the literature has now been taken off the internet or is now being charged for and some new studies have been completed and published.)
The recommendations at the time indicated that I could give the chickens (in a 100 pound (about 45 kilos) batch of feed) 5 Tablespoons of powdered turmeric, 1 heaping Tablespoon of cinnamon, and 1 heaping Tablespoon of cayenne without supposedly negative consequences. If there have been negative consequences with my chickens, I haven't noticed them. I have doubled up on all of those at times and have given a couple tablespoons of cayenne into just 5 pounds (about 2 kilos). This has been in their standard feed for over 5 years contiuously. Not all the chickens are over 5 years, but a few are.
I would have started putting in a pound of green tea into their feed at a rate of 1 pound per 100 pounds (1/2kilo for 45kilos) if I could justify it because some serious study claimed that green tea could keep certain worm varieties out of a chicken's ileum (part of mid- or small intestine), but you can read anything on the internet. NOTE: I lost my copy of that article in a computer crash so I can't give you the source and haven't been able to find it online again. Regardless, I tend to take it all with a grain of salt.
I give the chickens ginger bits and peels with no ill effects, but it's only at most a tablespoon for 20 or so chickens. You know, when we eat it or make ginger tea. I'm sure you do, too. (Or would)
I mixed into their feed mix some expired oregano leaves a while back. I didn't go over a pound per 100 pounds (1/2kilo per 45kilos) because I was clueless as to what would be okay for them. I figured the oils had probably already dissipated (better word?) and that was why we were going to use it, but I didn't want to throw it away when I guessed that the chickens could derive a bit of benefit from it and that it wouldn't hurt them, but I'm not a certified chicken nutritionist or herbalist--I just pretend to be one here at home. So, of course, take all I say with a few grains of salt, also.
I drink herbal tea most days, with all sorts of crazy stuff in it--devil's claw, cat's claw, ginseng, yucca root, lemon myrtle, rose petal, blackberry leaf, lemongrass, chamomile, rosemary, thyme, eucalyptus, nettle, thistle, etc., etc., etc., cherry tree bark powder. I open all the used bags and dump them in the kitchen scraps and feed them all to the chickens. Each chicken only gets a few bites of it, so I can't imagine it ever hurting them. (It's like I'm their "medieval royal food taster" for them anyway. If it doesn't poisin me, it's probably safe for them.) Yet, they are getting miniscule bits of minerals, etc., from leaves of plants that they would never have any access to ever if I didn't give it to them. Their feed is usually just grains, legumes, sunflower, kelp, vitamin/mineral mix, alfalfa. They are probably lacking something if they eat only that day after day all their lives. I figure they are much better off with a little bit of odd herbs from other soil/countries in their diet to actually give them a broader variety of nourishment ... even if it's on a super small scale. Plus it makes their eggs a little healthier for us when it comes right down to it.
Edited to fix glaring error.
