Chickens coming down sick daily

[Judykaymayes]

Ok we can do that

So it’s probably safe to stop the corid treatment?

 

[HollowOfWisps]

So it’s probably safe to stop the corid treatment?

Yes I would. It’s very very common for chickens to become nutritionally deficient when put on a feed where the nutrition is in powder form and it is not wet into a mash.

 

[Judykaymayes]

It’s winter where we live now ,we need to figure out a way to warm the feed so it doesn’t freeze .

 

[RojoMarz]

When I make mash, I take a pie pan and fill with powder/crumbles. I then add warm water and mix until it's somewhere between paste and crumbly. I then split the mash between multiple pie pans and take them to the coop. We are also in winter (and in Colorado.) If there are any left overs, it does freeze into a blob.

If you are wanting to leave the mash out and in a sufficient quantity for free feeding, what about a heated base that is used for waterers and set the metal pie pan on it?

 

[Judykaymayes]

Great idea and Thank you

 

[Al Gerhart]

It is always better to use a commercial feed instead of something homemade. Chickens need feed available 24/7 and if you tried to keep the wet feed warm, be sure it is at food safe temperature level and the remains and dishes are sanitized no different than a buffet for humans.

The other thing is spend a day researching diseases in chickens. It is terrifying how much disease is always present but being held in check by a chicken's immune system. The slightest change will tip the apple cart and you lose the bird and sometimes the entire flock in days.

This is why we quarantine new chickens. Yes, they will have disease, but quarantine allows them to survive the change in routine, feed, water, and stress of being moved so the disease develops before you move them into the main flock.

A chicken walks a tight line its entire life, they reproduce fast for this very reason and that of being a prey species.