How do you feed your chickens red pepper flakes?

[HowIsItDone]

It colors the yolks. That is all. To have even mild antibacterial properties, the inclusion rates have to be substanitally higher than the suggestions passed around YouTube and Facebook. At which point it starts making the base feed less valuable (being displaced by red pepper flake) and driving costs up. Please note that most of the studies focus on capsaicin as the key antibacterial. Capsaicin is concentrated most highly in the pith of a pepper, then the flesh, then the seed - so if you are interested in antibacterial properties, you are better of w/ say, chili powder than the "red pepper" seen on many tables at the local pizza joint. And better still if you buy dried hot chilis in bulk, remove the seeds, and grind them yourself. A 2% inclusion of chilis d' Arbol will just about double your regular feed cost and provide a very mild antibacterial effect.

Obviously, if the dried chilis were harvested early, poorly stored, or are very old, your capsaicin content will be lower.

and yes, rats, mice, roaches, beetles, weavils, and essentially everything else will still eat the feed.

This is good advice.
Thanks.

 

[Irishmom80]

I've been reading about potential benefits of feeding chickens crushed red pepper flakes (anti-bacterial/worm properties of capsaicin, and yolk color). Does anyone do this? If so, how do you do it? We have a 10lb feeder in the run for 8 hens and I'm wondering if I should just dump a bottle of the red flakes in with a full bucket of feed or distribute it in some other way. Half a bottle for a bucket of feed? Just spread the flakes out on the ground with treats? What do y'all do?

My girlfriends son made my girls a little picnic table. I put their treats in that. It's not on the ground, and they can get around it.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

This is good advice.
Thanks.

A pleasure. That's what BYC is for.

 

[lintlicker]

I've been reading about potential benefits of feeding chickens crushed red pepper flakes (anti-bacterial/worm properties of capsaicin, and yolk color). Does anyone do this? If so, how do you do it? We have a 10lb feeder in the run for 8 hens and I'm wondering if I should just dump a bottle of the red flakes in with a full bucket of feed or distribute it in some other way. Half a bottle for a bucket of feed? Just spread the flakes out on the ground with treats? What do y'all do?

we usually just sprinkle this into a large feeder we have and havent had any issues. My wife is the herb lady and usually incorporates other herbs into their feed as well such as oregano etc.