Propolis tincture?

[CoordinatedChaos]

I've been seeing some things here and there about giving propolis extract to chickens to help with overall health and egg laying production. Does anybody know anything about this, have any information about it, or where to purchase it? All the tinctures I see have alcohol and they say not to give the alcohol ones to chickens.

 

[nuthatched]

Nothing will modify egg production besides hormone shots, it's ovulation, on a cycle based on age and light levels.

 

[CoordinatedChaos]

Nothing will modify egg production besides hormone shots, it's ovulation, on a cycle based on age and light levels.

I think I worded that wrong. What I meant was that its supposed to help with better eggs, such as stronger shells and better yolks. It seems the main draw to propolis though, is that it can help with the chicken's immune system and gut health.

 

[nuthatched]

I think I worded that wrong. What I meant was that its supposed to help with better eggs, such as stronger shells and better yolks. It seems the main draw to propolis though, is that it can help with the chicken's immune system and gut health.

Have you ever seen it listed how it does these things? Unfortunately, you won't, because it can't. You can only strengthen an immune system so much and any birds kept right and fed right already have it, they also don't have a "gut" like we do.
You could buy powdered propolis and use that but it won't offer any benefits.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I've been seeing some things here and there about giving propolis extract to chickens to help with overall health and egg laying production. Does anybody know anything about this, have any information about it, or where to purchase it? All the tinctures I see have alcohol and they say not to give the alcohol ones to chickens.

Can you post any links? Especially those whose URLs end in .edu or .org, or that otherwise link to scientific journals.

It’s getting hard to separate true info from clickbait or AI-generated nonsense.

 

[RoseHawke]

It’s getting hard to separate true info from clickbait or AI-generated nonsense.

True. It's getting to where I don't trust anything that's not, as you suggested, from a .edu or .org, or better, a scientific abstract. Although even those you really need to chase down and make sure it's from the actual researcher and not from a study of studies as it were.

 

[CoordinatedChaos]

Can you post any links? Especially those whose URLs end in .edu or .org, or that otherwise link to scientific journals.

It’s getting hard to separate true info from clickbait or AI-generated nonsense.

Honestly, I originally started hearing about it from social media, but of course, who trusts that now-a-days, so I did some superficial research.

This was a study done by World's Science Poultry Journal. I only mention this because researchgate seems to be hit and miss with reliability of the studies it publishes, but WSPJ seems to be a fairly reliable source.

https://www.researchgate.net/public...ropolis_as_a_natural_feed_additive_in_poultry

This study showed propolis lowered bacterial count in egg shells and helped with shelf life of eggs.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34817037/

This next study was done to see how propolis affected the fatty liver of caged egg-laying chickens who are fed high-energy feed. That doesn't apply to mine specifically, but it does show some benefits of it. How those benefits compare to a chicken raised in a coop with access to a run? Unknown.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10539770/

It seems promising, but I'm not a scientist and haven't done any experimenting, so I was just wondering if anyone out there had tried using it and if they saw any results.