How do you feed your chickens red pepper flakes?

[Al Gerhart]

Chickens live on a razor edge line between health and sickness, so yeah, sometimes "stuff" happens. Still, following the basics is the first step but yes you are likely spot on about the benefits being to the owner not the chickens.

The dilemma is that people come asking for advice to solve a problem, hopefully they don't come for validation. Given a choice between some cold hard facts and something that makes them feel better we can only hope they will chose the former over the latter. Regardless, forums are valuable because they are market places for ideas, if an idea exists only to salve someone's conscious or feelings then the idea will struggle to survive when faced with clear reasoning and facts. The thing about people like U Stormcrow is that if you proved him wrong he would thank you and be better for it. That is why he receives so much respect on this forum.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Sometimes chickens don't do fine, which is why people are always looking for something else to do. Doing everything right isn't a silver bullet either. I sympathize with the impulse. It probably helps the owner even if the benefits to the chickens are doubtful.

I would argue that by investing in quality feed and adquately sized, well ventilated, and draft free housing one provides greater benefit to one's birds, and are less likely to need further intervention than engaging in wasteful "feel good efforts" of dubious health or nutritional benefit. Worse, when people link studies showing minimal (and sometimes contradictory) benefits at much higher inclusion rates than they themselves are using, and have clearly not read beyond the headline.


Personally, I've nothing against people wanting to food color their eggs by offering dried red peppers, farmed salmon, or crab/shrimp shells. Its their money, to spend as they want. Just wish they'd be honest about it, instead of making unsupported health claims that others, of lesser education on the subject, might both believe and repeat.

Similarly the antibacterial properties of oregano (or a host of other herbs). Plant some in the garden, let the chickens eat it if that's what you want to do. I do this myself - my birds dust bathe in the middle of the patch. But don't pretend it has reliable or significant medical value.

[One of my several Oregano patches - this is the smallest, at about 4' x 3'. The roundish bowl is where they dustbathe year after year - not much so far this spring, which is why theyre are still some twigs and leaves there]

If it doesn't harm the birds, and makes you happy? No further justification is needed.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Chickens live on a razor edge line between health and sickness, so yeah, sometimes "stuff" happens. Still, following the basics is the first step but yes you are likely spot on about the benefits being to the owner not the chickens.

The dilemma is that people come asking for advice to solve a problem, hopefully they don't come for validation. Given a choice between some cold hard facts and something that makes them feel better we can only hope they will chose the former over the latter. Regardless, forums are valuable because they are market places for ideas, if an idea exists only to salve someone's conscious or feelings then the idea will struggle to survive when faced with clear reasoning and facts. The thing about people like U Stormcrow is that if you proved him wrong he would thank you and be better for it. That is why he receives so much respect on this forum.

You are entirely too kind. Yes, I love learning new things, Particularly once I get over the fact that I was initially wrong in my assumptions or misunderstood my readings. But mostly, my "expertise" is a well crafted illusion. I try not to comment on things I am ignorant of, and I try to keep my sources handy to reference as I'm posting.

 

[Al Gerhart]

You are entirely too kind. Yes, I love learning new things, Particularly once I get over the fact that I was initially wrong in my assumptions or misunderstood my readings. But mostly, my "expertise" is a well crafted illusion. I try not to comment on things I am ignorant of, and I try to keep my sources handy to reference as I'm posting.

LOL, you last sentence brings back a memory. Put this picture in your mind, a very nice housewife turned new partner in her husbands new optical retail store under construction and an elderly guy from Germany who was the general contractor. I was installing the cabinets and overheard the lady remark something along the lines of "You know, every time I think we have a problem, you explain it to me and I realize there is no problem." The old German guy says "Zat is because I think before I do or say." Luckily the lady took it in good humor.

 

[Ohio Duck]

Just wish they'd be honest about it, instead of making unsupported health claims that others, of lesser education on the subject, might both believe and repeat.

Yep, I agree. I was just musing on why it happens. I was kind of that person a few weeks ago, ready to buy oregano, red pepper flakes, and any other remedy that people suggested. I stopped myself because I realized what was happening. It might have made me feel better, but realistically, shaking some orageno flakes in their feed wasn't going to cure anyone.

Yesterday I saw someone on a Facebook forum suggest apple cider vinegar as a possible remedy for a woman who had lost 14 birds over the past month. Sorry friend, but I don't think that's going to fix it.

 

[sdm111]

Like said before, a good pellet, proper housing and cleanliness and your chickens will be just fine. It's simply not as difficult as people make it. They just choose to make a mountain out of a mole hill

 

[Ohio Duck]

Like said before, a good pellet, proper housing and cleanliness and your chickens will be just fine. It's simply not as difficult as people make it. They just choose to make a mountain out of a mole hill

They won't always be just fine even with good care. Birds die easily and nothing is guaranteed. I used to say the same stuff but after losing most of my favorite birds to internal infection, I no longer believe it. Sure, speaking broadly over years of chicken keeping, they'll do fine. But you can still have off years and bad luck and lose a bunch of chickens to stuff that isn't realistically preventable.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Then raising chickens might not be for you. Like I said earlier, chickens walk a razor thin line between health and disease. There bodies already have the disease agents but their immune system keeps things in check. The slightest change in their routine or situation can tip the cart over. This is why we always quarantine new birds coming into the flock, the move itself can tip the balance.

Chickens are prey species. Their place in life is to eat vegetation and smaller species like bugs, convert them to fertilizer, then in time be eaten by larger predators. Prey species generally can reproduce quickly and chickens are masters at it. Think about it, close to 300 eggs per year, a hen can lose most of her nests and still manage to replace herself and the rooster that fertilized her several times over. She can lose 90% of her off spring each year yet the population stays viable.

So they pay a price for huge reproduction and fast egg to breeding age time line. They are not designed to last.

They shouldn't be dropping like flies over infection though. I would re assess the coop and litter. Is there plenty of room, ten square feet would be minimum in my opinion. Is the litter deep enough and fresh enough that their waste gets buried quickly? Can you keep the waste out of the water and feed? Can wild birds and rats spread disease and bring in vermin like mites or fleas? How about friends or visitors? Is the coop protected so that stress isn't an issue?

 

[Ohio Duck]

Then raising chickens might not be for you.

I am still very happy to be raising chickens.
The only thing I'm pushing back on is the idea that if you have a good setup, the chickens will be fine, and that's that. It was nothing you said, only the other commenter. I think people talking like this gave me a false idea of what to expect when I first started. I now know from experience the razor thin line that birds walk. If you keep chickens, you will lose some. As you said, they're not built to last.

I appreciate your suggestions. The infection they suffered from was blackhead and it only affected my 4 month old pullets, probably because of their underdeveloped immune system. I lost a total of three birds. The adults (and half of the pullets) were unaffected. The coop is 60 sq ft, food and water are elevated, and I had deep litter prior to cleaning it all out because of the illness. I turn the litter every couple days.

Unfortunately we had a cold snap and a series of snowstorms and they refused to go outside for about two weeks, which I think caused stress and more waste buildup than usual. It was towards the end of this period that symptoms started.

I talked to a video vet and the avian specialist who did the necropsy and told them everything about my setup. They both seemed to think it was largely a matter of crappy luck.

I'm still going to make some changes. Going to add a roof to the run to keep it from getting so swampy. I also will not be brooding chicks in September again. The winters here are too harsh and wet.

 

[Altairsky]

Every doctor will tell you that the best medicine is a varied diet.
Feeding chickens industrial feed and nothing else is equal to feeding a human diet bars and nothing else. Yes, diet bars have every nutrient a human body needs, like industrial chicken feed has everything a chicken body needs.
Will a doctor say that living off diet bars for the whole lifespan is healthy? No.

A varied diet is the key for human and animal wellness. A varied diet with fruit and vegetables improve the immune system. Red pepper has a lot of micro nutrients and vitamins that are definitely healthy for chickens. Scolding and calling stupid people who want to give some extra healthy food to their chickens is extremely rude. Certainly red pepper don't harm anyone other than wallets, but it's nobody business how people wants to spend their money.
I threw away a few huge plants of hot chilies, my chickens ate over a hundred red hot chilies in one go. Nobody died.