Do you provide local soil to young chicks instead of medicated feed to build immunity and prevent Coccidiosis? What were your results?

[Florida Bullfrog]

I started brooding my chicks on the ground from day 1 and it seems to have made them much tougher. I no longer use medicated feed.

I have also provided soil and compost for chicks brooded off the ground, but it seems like it doesn’t expose them enough. The biggest vector in my farmyard seems to be green grass.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

If not broody raised, then yes, I provide a plug of sod along with sifted dirt from the adult runs within a couple of days of hatch.
I do keep Corid on hand.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

This is yet another of those problems brought about by hatching chicks in an incubator and keeping them in an brooder.
Coccidia isn't uniformly distributed over an area. Some areas of ground may have a high concentration while others perhaps none at all.
I've used medicated feed in areas where it was known that Coccidia was in the environment and in other places relied on natural immunity to develop over time.

I don't use indoor brooders but then again I don't buy chicks. The mothers usually have their chicks out and about on day two and the chicks eat what mum tells them is okay. I kept a bottle of Coccivex at hand just in case and this worked out well.

I think that it helps my soil pile is a collection of samples from all over the county. The road maintenance trucks will occasionally dump extra soil from digging ditches around the area on our property and that’s what I use for brooder chicks. We are renovating the lean-to off of the barn so the broody’s can be separate, culling most of our hatchery line, switching to quality English Orpingtons and hopefully by next spring I can let the broody’s hatch the chicks instead.

 

[Shadrach]

I think that it helps my soil pile is a collection of samples from all over the county. The road maintenance trucks will occasionally dump extra soil from digging ditches around the area on our property and that’s what I use for brooder chicks. We are renovating the lean-to off of the barn so the broody’s can be separate, culling most of our hatchery line, switching to quality English Orpingtons and hopefully by next spring I can let the broody’s hatch the chicks instead.

I hope you find having a mother hen hatch and raise chicks as enchanting as I have.

 

[Shadrach]

Sorry. Senior moment. Posted in the wrong thread.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

I've only brooded 3 times (one included ducks), but each time I have given them soil from different parts of the yard and had no coccidiosis problems. This time I included parts where my ducks and chickens roam in the yard while they are out. I've never fed medicated feed.