Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[RoseMarie1]

 

[Triple Willow]

My dog has been suffering with fleas these past two years, for the first time ever....but I've never seen a flea bother a chicken.  They can cycle through a chicken, though, as the chickens eat worms, so not sure how to prevent that whole cycle. 

One solution another member on another forum gave and I've yet to try it but I remember the oldsters doing the same thing.....spread lime all over the soils in your yard and you can even do it in your coop and run.  Not caustic lime but the sweet lime...you should be able to purchase bags of it in garden centers.  They say the fleas cannot live and thrive in soils that are a little on the alkaline side and it also helps your lawn to have a little lime on it as well, so win/win! 

You can also use it in your coop and nest bedding if you are using deep litter and it will sweeten your composting....just don't go overboard...low and slow is fine. 

Free ranging your birds should help with ticks....I haven't seen a tick on the dogs, cats or us for many a long year now.  Only if one goes out into the woods often here will they get a tick.  That little tick you found could have been a deer tick and is no light or laughing matter....Lyme Disease is on the rise in this country and it's spread by these tiny vectors.  If you find a small place with a bull's eye red ring around it, don't wait...go to the doctor and get meds.  You can stop the process with the right meds.  If you ignore it, the consequences can be dire. 

The ticks aren't near as bad as they were back early. Back then they were SO BAD, now I just see one now and then. Yeah I think about Lyme Disease and Rocky Mtn Spotted Fever and all the other diseases they carry. I do watch for any bad reaction after I remove one. So far so good... I think my chickens have helped a lot with the ticks. I haven't had them out lately though because of neighbor's dog issues. I hope that has passed. I never let them out with out standing guard over them lol but a dog could do a lot of damage before I stop it! I saw a documentary on Lyme a couple months ago. That stuff is scary!

Well I went out a little while ago to check the coop and chickens. I pulled my pant legs up so I could see the little vermin on my white legs should they jump on me. lol Thank goodness, I didn't see any! I picked up one of the columbian rocks (because of their white color) to see if I could see any fleas. I tried looking under her wings but her feathers are so thick I couldn't find any skin. lol She was so nice for that but then I decided to look at her booty. She did not appreciate that at all!!! LOL But good news, no fleas. I think I may still spread some lime around and maybe some sulfur. I called my boyfriend and told him about it, first thing he blames my chickens! HA! The nerve of him! lol I think it's more likely to be that herd of dogs and cats next door to him! lol Whatever it is, he is spraying the house and yard today. lol He freaks over bugs about as bad as I do. hehehe

 

[Triple Willow]

Yeth, yeth! Keepths the cutesy little ticksies, she does! They are her preciousssssss....

Ohhhh my gosh, bad dreams coming! Cruel cruel woman you are! LOL

 

[Triple Willow]

Dawn dishwashing liquid sprayed on the nests and bugs can kill them as well...it's what they finally used to kill the Killer Bee swarms that were making their way up from SA.  From what I'm reading, they didn't get them all and now they are here in the US.  Eek!!

Dawn! I'm pretty sure it kills fleas too!

 

[TexasLisa]

...

Okay, you guys have got me rolling on the floor. I love Gollum! The ant head was GREAT!!

Lisa

 

[Triple Willow]

Okay, you guys have got me rolling on the floor.  I love Gollum!  The ant head was GREAT!!

Lisa

Is that what that thing is, Gollum? I don't like! Freakuth me oututh! lol

 

[Beekissed]

OK now I got another question this matter of worms. Some say the ACV also gets rid of worms and then they also say not to do the ACV everyday that it would effect their laying and I can't remember the WHY on the laying part. Anyway was just wondering if the ACV does give them an acidic intestant sp?cso the worms wont get to an infestation stage.

It does, but it's more than that, really...it's an increase in the health of the whole bowel that deters an infestation of the worms. The acidity is one determining factor but also the colonization of certain types yeasts from the acetobacter bacilli family that seem to create a hostile environment for intestinal parasites. I can't remember all that I've read on it and don't know if I have the information stored but I've read about it all and it's fascinating~if very dry~reading.

I would say, though, all sources agree that a bird with a low immune system is more susceptible to getting parasites and illnesses of all kinds, so if a person just kept all birds, no matter their condition..they are likely to wind up with some worms in their flocks. From what the biologists say, 90% of a flock's worm load is carried by 5% of the flock.

So, let's say you keep that 5% and rationalize, "Well, if they carry them and the other birds are healthy enough to resist them, there's really no harm in keeping just that bird and worming it every now and again or even worming the whole flock." But, at any given time a healthy bird can go through things that will stress even a healthy immune system....extremely cold weather, extremely hot weather, brooding, injury, or even a few days of diarrhea...then they are exposed to the oocysts the carrier bird is shedding at all times in her feces.

Then you have another bird that is carrying a worm load higher than normal....can she get her good health back with that added stress of the anemia caused by this load? Who knows? Will she then become a bird that is part of that 5%? But with each bird you keep that is a carrier and whom you try to keep worming to keep them healthy, is your 5% becoming more like 10% and pretty soon you have a flock problem and not a bird problem.

See how easy is the slippery slope of trying to manage a healthy flock while insisting on keeping weak and unhealthy birds in the middle of it? Pretty soon you have 90% carrier birds and only 5% who are healthy but...wait! You still have your worm medicine handy!

But, unfortunately, along the way you have bred worms that are resistant to your worm medicine because you have used it "regularly", just in case, to keep your birds free of worms. You now have super worms in a flock of birds with weak immune systems...you are basically up a certain creek without a paddle...it all gets increasingly brown and stinky from there on out. Not good.

Ohhhh my gosh, bad dreams coming! Cruel cruel woman you are! LOL

Yessssssss, my preciousssssssss.... sssssssoooooooooo cruelzy, I am!

 

[armorfirelady]

Thanks to bee sharing her knowledge last fall I only use pumpkins, gords, cukes, zukes & cayenne pepper as natural dewormers. I use the cayenne pepper more during the warmer months and give them the veggies all winter. I freeze them all chopped up and give them to them all winter. They all freeze great. The pumpkins I put on a pallet & covered with a tarp. I'd break one up a week & the girls devoured them. My mom & cruise the neighborhood for them after Halloween

 

[foreverlearning]

I think I have to name one of my broilers...faker... It is day 13 and it still looks like a day old chick. Everyone else has started to get feathers and this one is still all fuzz, even the wing tips! I have been checking and it has a full crop often so lack of food is not the problem.

 

[Triple Willow]

  Yessssssss, my preciousssssssss....  sssssssoooooooooo cruelzy, I am! 

I telling mom!!! ...lol