Help! My chickens/livestock are all healthy!!!!!

[vtsarahb]

My chickens free range too. They had medicated starter when they were little chicks, but no other meds since. I've never had a problem with diseases or parasites. Just keeping their bedding and water clean, and good flock management seems to do the trick. I don't use DE or ACV, but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt. My flock is now 25 weeks old, and doing great! This is the first time I've raised chickens, and it's been really easy and rewarding.

 

[patandchickens]

I don't get the impression (from casual reading, not an actual survey) that most BYCers DO use a lot of medications etc. This seems to be a pretty "natural" oriented group on the whole, at least until and unless a chicken gets sick (at which point there are two pretty distinct groups).

I don't think the two approaches are mutually exclusive anyhow. My chickens are generally healthy (which I attribute largely to not buying grown birds from elsewhere, giving the chickens lots and lots of room, providing a varied diet even though they are confined to a run). I sometimes use DE and ACV, I would be very reluctant to use antibiotics etc...

BUT, I personally think there are also some things to be learned from science and research, and I would certainly use antibiotics in some particular circumstances.

I think you can take the best of *both* approaches and combine them, it just takes an inclination for independant thought rather than following some model that someone else sets up for ya.

JMHO,

Pat, with a basically healthy flock despite the occasional 'incidents' that anyone would sometimes have.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Quote:
Good point and well taken! No meds here, nothing but clean livin and lots of free ranging and fresh air..... I know for certain they are healthy by looking at them, thier eggs and thier dookey... and I do think there is direct correlation with lots of room to range. Nothing gets over poo'd, over run, over eaten, over scratched. And I've gotten over myself..... I dont worry about them so much, they are fine!

 

[Cape Cod Chick]

So far so good with our six. They are happy, healthy and very friendly. We had to replace a rooster with an older hen and the transition went smoothly. At first the other chickens shunned her, but now they all get along and the older hen has replaced the roo for top position. When we first got her, she had some pretty bad damage to her shoulders from a rooster at her former home, but she has healed up nicely and her feathers grew back.

 

[PortageGirl]

Yeah well, I'll use meds in a heartbeat if I need to, though it's not my very first impulse, and I rarely need to.

As kids, we got healthy food, a good clean environment (though my mother's motto was, "Our house is clean enough to be healthy, and dirty enough to be happy."

) and lots of TLC first, as well as a little coddling before we were rushed off to a doctor's visit.

I stick to these precepts for my animals too. Dogs and cats get imunizations, goats and chickens (and anything else I ever got) get a watchfull eye, worming on a schedule, and sometimes, if they're too sick, a swift end to pain or suffering.

Yes, I'm old. Yes, I'm an old fashioned farmer sort. Chickens to me are livestock... livestock with sweet and interesting personalities, but still livestock. Yes I care for my critters carefully and consider animal husbandry a sacred and honorable duty. ... oops.... **steps carefully down off the soapbox**

...sorry!!

 

[cmom]

My birds are all doing great except several are molting.

 

[bnchristian]

All is well here too:

D 12 happy hens, one way too happy Roo and 14 pristine pullets ( for now we will see next week when they meet lol).Two healthy horses, two great and growing baby cows. Two goofy giant dogs, and one slimy frog all doing well. Even the preteen boy is healthy though he may not live to see the teens

 

[Beekissed]

I'm in the same boat.....

I don't know if there is a world championship for sheer laziness, but I know who would win it!

My son.

Gotta love 'em, though, huh?

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Well, I thought my girls were all healthy, but last night I caught one in the corner of the run smoking a ciggie. The week before I found an empty champagne glass underneath the shavings in the nestbox. So I might have to reconsider...

 

[Beekissed]

I'd be watching for fast foods next......