This forum is the most amazingly helpful resource, and I have read hundreds of pages since I joined just a few weeks ago. I've been picking up fantastic tips on care and have been trying to keep a list, but it grows and grows, and I have them scattered in multiple formats on different devices. I have several questions for the people who have so much experience, please. I love my chickens as pets, but I treat them like my food. I also have noticed a lack of honeybees in my area and will use no commercial poisons or pesticides on my acreage. While reading through some threads for woundcare and parasite control, I was pretty amazed at what people will put on their birds. Your flock, your thing, but I would greatly appreciate any tricks you have to care for and treat your flock naturally. Is there a good organic tip resource already on BYC that I haven't found yet? Do you already have favorite threads with organic advice? Has anybody worked with maggots as a debridement tool? I have a bird with extensive skin loss due to a predator. The last time this happened I noticed that hen had developed a case of them, and as I was carrying her at arms' length to the sink to wash her, it occurred to me that getting rid of them was the worst thing I might do for her. It was so hard to put her back in her tub with them still on her, but by the next day she was smelling better, looking better, and a little more spry. That, however, was in the summer, and I'm not going to get a spontaneous manifestation of maggots when it's barely above freezing. Any ideas on how to get them? And before you think I'm just gross, those things make my skin crawl and I retch whenever I see them, but nature built them with a brilliant purpose.
Good for you! They may be gross, but like you said they were built for a purpose! I try to be as natural as possible with my birds. The only topical antibiotic I use is Neosporin - and I use it infrequently. For cleaning wounds (without maggots) I use soap & water. For infestations such as lice/mites, I don't know of a surefire cure. I do use DE in their bedding & house. So, how to get maggots - a fishing tackle outlet might have some, other than that - grow your own! Not as hard as it sounds. Somewhere on this site are instructions for growing mealworms. I don't think flies would be too different except for the 'diet'. A piece of meat, couple of flies voila!! Theoretically! I don't know of any organic chicken sites, but if you find one let me know! Sue
