I prefer the natural remedies.

[Chickens R Us]

I use ACV in my chickens water and sprinkle Food Grade DE in their food, in the nest boxes and the pine shavings on the floor. I also put some with the wood ash in their dust baths

 

[Sandstorm495]

Our chickens pecked away all the grass in the run so too bad for them!

 

[cluckcluckluke]

I use ACV in my chickens water and sprinkle Food Grade DE in their food, in the nest boxes and the pine shavings on the floor. I also put some with the wood ash in their dust baths

I hope to get some DE it sounds great but my local feed store has never heard of it

. But I've had it before, so not sure.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Quote:
Make sure the DE is food grade, anything else can be harmful to the chickens. Also cluckcluckluke,there is a thread you all might be interested in, it moves VERY fast but has a TON of info on it. But I am not trying to take away from you thread, so by all means continue it. Can't have too many "Natural" threads on here.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/729605/the-natural-chicken-keeping-thread-ots-welcome

 

[AVintageLife]

A great thread and I hope you keep this going! Now that it's so cold, my little flock of seven get a warm breakfast every morning, usually fresh kale with oatmeal, hard boiled egg, assorted veggie scraps, sometimes cottage cheese with freshly ground flaxseed and chia seed sprinkled on to add protein and omega-3. My family uses ground flaxseed and chia seed every day in breakfast smoothies so its always on hand. I cringe when I hear of people feeding their chickens donuts and other junk food like that. Not healthy for people, not healthy for chickens.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Make sure the DE is food grade, anything else can be harmful to the chickens. Also cluckcluckluke,there is a thread you all might be interested in, it moves VERY fast but has a TON of info on it. But I am not trying to take away from you thread, so by all means continue it. Can't have too many "Natural" threads on here.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/729605/the-natural-chicken-keeping-thread-ots-welcome

Oh are different types of DE? I will definitely get the food grade stuff then.thanks.
I will check out the link thanks, maybe we could get some of them to share with us.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

AV It's good to hear you treat you girls well, It's summer over here so my hens are getting plenty of protein. So do you give your hens a commercial feed eg: pellets, mash etc or do you mix your own feed? I would love to be able to mix and match but time isn't a friend around here.lol.
Hope the hens are not feeling to cold and I also couldn't imagine giving "sweat" scrapes to my birds.

 

[cluckcluckluke]

Does anyone here feed their chickens meat either as part of their diet or just as one offs in the chicken scrapes because I'm not sure whether to put the odd (like once a week) cooked piece of fish or beef in the chook bin or whether it is a bad idea?

 

[cluckcluckluke]

I have discovered you can use Vegetable oil to kill scaly mites, you just either dunk their feet in a container of it or paint it on. Who would have guessed.
I know it's not as natural as ash but at least it's not as horrible as that spray stuff.

 

[AVintageLife]

Chickens are omnivores and do eat/need the protein in meat. In the summer, it is plentiful in the form of bugs, larvae, frogs. In the winter, when they're out foraging there are fewer bugs for them to find. My DH cleared a spot around his wood pile over the weekend and the chickies were scratching around, one found a worm and then there was a serious game of keep away until one was finally able to eat the prize. So I am feeding my chickies the leftover scraps of meat/fish from family dinners as well as mealworms, scrambled/hardboiled eggs from time to time. They love it all - hamburg, pork, turkey, salmon, etc. The one thing I won't give them is the country ham, too salty.