Garlic?

[JustinaMarie]

I wanna plant some garlic for my chickens to have next year what is a good kind? I'm new to planting so not sure any help would be good thanks

 

[chooks4life]

I'd recommend you get multiple types, plant all, and see what thrives in your area.

Best wishes.

 

[pound4pound]

any garlic that's big and gives that strong garlicy taste that can be crushed and mixed with waterers is good natural antibiotic.

 

[Mountain Peeps]

any garlic that's big and gives that strong garlicy taste that can be crushed and mixed with waterers is good natural antibiotic.

x2

 

[chooks4life]

About the 'big' garlic though, it's often genetically identical to tiny garlics, just grown in different altitudes or soil conditions to get the size that sells better. For example the giant single clove garlics are identical to the multiple clove smaller garlics, the only difference is altitude.

Also, many modern cultivars are bred to be a certain size for commercial reasons and their medicinal properties are either the same or weaker or even absent, usually the latter two. Smaller is generally better, though fiddlier.

If you want a really good garlic, you should try Russian, or Blue, or anything 'Heritage' generally speaking, but it may not 'take' to your area, so best to try many. I found Chinese garlic did well growing in my chicken coop floors.

Best wishes.

 

[redcowgirl2009]

Be careful feeding garlic it can cause Heinz Body anemia. Expert Herbalist Susan Burek suggests only feeding it if your hens are sick and feeding it crushed in water until the chicken appears to be better. Google her she is great, and has great natural advise for humans as well. Good luck with your garlic endeavors!

 

[chooks4life]

I've never heard of her before, but googled her as per your suggestion, and I think it's a good idea for people to take some things she says with a hearty pinch of salt...

No offense whatsoever intended to you, it's good to be aware of all potential risks, because even natural things can kill in sufficient excess, like any overdose, obviously.

From the Chicken Chick Blog: (note: the bold parts are incorrect statements)

, which is a serious blood disorder.

1) What a strange thing to say, that she "pioneered the concept of natural chicken-keeping". It's clearly and blatantly untrue. Never heard of the woman before this, but know of many people who died of old age a long time before she was born who were using natural chicken-keeping concepts, including using garlic. This statement she's made implies that she thinks our ancestors (before the advent of modern medicine) somehow kept chickens using conventional methods, i.e. modern inventions like artificial antibiotics etc. They were all, perforce, 'natural chicken-keepers'. And the same is true for their other livestock too.

2) The 'research' to back that notion up is inconclusive at best, it's not a solid fact. Generally speaking you shouldn't feed any medicine nonstop, but by the same token, every natural food has some effect one could justify as being 'medicinal', if we want to get pedantic about it. Vitamin C is medicinal, and safe to 'mega-dose' on in almost all cases just because it's one of those things it's almost impossible to overdose on. I feed garlic to them daily almost as a rule, haven't had any issues with it, and I've been doing this for years now. I'm not the only person who has done that, it has been done throughout history. Some didn't feed it as a staple, some did, there's been no proven issues caused by it. The important part is that you don't force feed them copious quantities; the initial studies done to frighten farmers into no longer using natural herbs had, as a standard, the methodology of force-feeding the herb being tested as a sole staple in enormous quantities until the animals died one way or another, from toxicity or malnutrition due to lack of other food sources. If you're not forcing them to eat it, and drink it, daily, I'd bet a significant sum that you won't have any issues due to it being a staple part of a normal diet, not counting of course correlated but not causative issues like pesticide toxicity from chemicals used on garlic. I'm just talking about garlic specifically.

3) From all the info I've found, the Heinz Anemia claim regarding garlic is not proven. It's a theory. All the studies I've ever read on it are contradictory and it's more correlation than causation. There's multiple factors involved and some studies previously claiming HzB is caused in poultry via eating garlic have since been retracted. Cats, dogs and horses are supposedly more at threat from it, and specifically from onions though garlic is also mentioned, yet there's widespread use of garlic in cats', dogs', and horses' feeds and no solid proof other than suggestions that some individuals may be sensitive. That's not too unlikely, but by the same token, you can find an animal or human sensitive to just about anything no matter how beneficial it is for others of the same species or even family. That said my cats and dogs never minded onions and garlic, raw or cooked, and plenty of other people's animals don't either. Same for chocolate, that supposedly uber-dangerous food. Some individuals are sensitive to the point of dying, and others simply aren't going to die from eating it; I don't believe it's as simple as 'chocolate is toxic', I think there's multiple factors involved. It's always good to be aware of possibilities, of course.

being Aspergillus, Candida, Salmonella, and Staphylococcus. (1) Garlic’s antimicrobial elements can work on these pathogens inside the body and on the skin. Internally, garlic targets more of the bad bacteria than the good, giving the good bacteria a better chance to regain balance upon recovery. (2) Another important function of garlic is as an immune system stimulator. (3)

There isn't any proof I've ever seen that garlic targets good bacteria, but plenty of proof it targets bad bacteria. Surely, considering I've been feeding garlic daily, if it were targeting good bacteria, they would have shown sooner or later inability to recover due to the endless assault they would be undergoing ---- if that were true.

In the early 19th century when medical care began to shift from homeopathic therapies to what would ultimately become today’s mainstream medical care, herbal practice and herbalism became nearly obsolete.

Small point here but relevant nonetheless, because historical accuracy is one of those things, you never know when it comes in handy...

Homeopathic remedies were never that widespread; they were never the main medical practice. The inventor was scorned in his own time and routinely ever since then, there hasn't been some kind of blanket acceptance. There were always conflicting schools of thought on medicine. Herbal practice never became 'nearly obsolete', but it did lose a lot of popularity in most places. In other places it persisted as the main medicinal practice, and in others still, it was never ousted, but became a complimentary aside to conventional medicine.

With pharmaceutical advances and government regulation of the practice of medicine much of the herbal folklore pertaining to humans was lost and herbal folklore as to animal care vanished completely. As a result, I had to start from scratch in my craft as a poultry herbalist.

No, herbal folklore pertaining to animal care did not 'vanish completely', and no, she did not have to 'start from scratch'. These two comments of hers are quite surprising. Any layperson with a little study into the subject knows better, and so does any other accredited herbalist I can think of off the top of my head, how come she's the sole person who not only never found the info yet then (re)invented it all 'from scratch' herself?

Much information has survived, in fact everything she's quoting regarding the proven effects of garlic is the work of others, not her own work. The very sources she cites, including PubMed, repeatedly refer to 'thousands of years of proof'!

A not insignificant amount of the ancient information is still present today, dating back thousands of years. Plenty has been lost, but no, she did not have to start from scratch, and it's downright strange that she would say that.

Her article will help people figure out some recipes for applying garlic in chook-keeping but the most valuable part of the whole thing was the links to other sources.

There are many more studies and sources out there, online and off, proving garlic works, I'd really recommend people research it for themselves and do not trust any one source, and yes I know that includes me --- (and so it should) --- but specifically trust no source that's claiming they practically discovered/invented its usage. That's intellectually dishonest at the very least.

Here's the links:

Citations & further reading:
(1) http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/content/53/5/832.full; http://aac.asm.org/content/49/1/473; http://ispub.com/IJMB/8/2/3874; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3217283/
(2) http://www.gaiaresearch.co.za/garlic.html
(3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11238818, http://jn.nutrition.org/content/131/3/1067S.long
(4) http://www.bashaar.org.il/files/6130.pdf
(5) KIM, MYUNG HEE, YOUNG DONG KANG, and KYU HANG KYUNG. “ Effect of Storage Temperature and pH on Stability of Antibacterial Effectiveness of Garlic Extract against Escherichia coli B34”
(6) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8024350
(7) http://www.iinr.org/overview/5007.html
(8) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8024350
(9) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16854181
(10) http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/phytochemicals/garlic/
(11) http://www.allicinfacts.com/garlic_supplement/

And a random one that I've added, with some more info, citations and links:
http://greyduckgarlic.com/Garlic_and_Pets.html

Best wishes with everyone's ongoing education. I make no claim to be an expert myself, in case anyone got the impression otherwise, I am very much a student myself, and frankly it concerns me when supposed experts go around spreading such misinformation.

 

[LindaB220]

I've never heard of her before, but googled her as per your suggestion, and I think it's a good idea for people to take some things she says with a hearty pinch of salt...

No offense whatsoever intended to you, it's good to be aware of all potential risks, because even natural things can kill in sufficient excess, like any overdose, obviously.

From the Chicken Chick Blog: (note: the bold parts are incorrect statements)
Best wishes with everyone's ongoing education. I make no claim to be an expert myself, in case anyone got the impression otherwise, I am very much a student myself, and frankly it concerns me when supposed experts go around spreading such misinformation.

That is a seriously good post. Kudos!!!!

 

[chooks4life]

That is a seriously good post. Kudos!!!!

Thanks. I hope it serves a positive purpose without offending anyone.

Best wishes.