Hi, giving this thread a bump as there is some great information in here for natural chicken keeping methods. I am in Colorado and we use herbs medicinally on us, the flock and our dogs. When we got our baby chicks and did the butt check for pasty butts every night on 28 chicks, we used a Calendula Salve I had made and this helped with the pasty butt issue a lot. It is a great skin herb and helped the girls heal quicker. Here are some of the things I have in process....
From left to right
Nettles - Olive Oil extraction
The base for all my salves, hemp oil and coconut oil, I had it stored in the cabinet until I could actually make some of these herb recipes.
Elecampane - alcohol extraction, that is not for the animals but for us. Great for asthma, bronchitis, etc. opens the bronchial air ways
The two jars that are stacked - the top one is Calendula oil extraction, and the bottom is nettles in Olive oil.
I was waiting on the Calendula oil to finish some more salve, now that it has sat for a couple weeks, it was strained and now it is ready to use.
Great thread, let's see if ex can keep it going now....
You might want to check out the Natural Chicken Keeping thread too. We focus on PREVENTION but sometimes treatments are necessary....
There are many immune-strengthen/supportive herbs that help keep us from having to treat after the fact, in addition to good husbandry methods as well. Hope to see you there
Thanks, I didn't mention the preventative stuff we do, I ferment organic non-gmail, soy, corn free feed, ex make our own farmers cheese and that is apart of the regime, use DE for prevention I. The coop and run, I make my own coop cleaner from citrus peels and white wine vinegar. I just was reminded about the use of squash and pumpkins as a preventative de wormer for chickens, I sprouts seeds and nuts. We have an organic veggie and medicinal herb garden, believe in permaculture, we compost and recycle as much as possible. Lol. I will check out the thread!
I really like this thread and prefer to use prevention.
I will check out the natural chicken keeping thread too. Thanks Leah's Mom.