This is something new that I'm currently trying because I heard of the health benefits. I want to make sure I'm doing this right though. For the past month I've been adding 1 tablespoon per gallon of water. My questions are is this the right proportion? And do I continuely add it to the water like I'm doing now or is it just a once in so often kind of thing?
I don't think there is an exact proportion that needs to be added to the chickens water. Some people measure exactly and some people just pour a little in. I have an auto fill system so I don't know exactly how much they drink, the final container is about 2.5 gal and it feeds three pens with 9 water cups and at this time a total of 24 chickens. About once a week, I try to do it on Monday, I add a gulp out of the vinegar bottle to the container. My birds are all healthy and in their deep litter system you hardly notice that there is any poop in the litter at all. I scatter scratch feed on the litter once or twice a week and they keep it well stirred. Add a little each week to your waterer, without regard to an exact amount , and you will be fine. If you personally drink a little vinegar weekly it will help keep you "regular" and it does the same for the chickens. They will most likely be okay without it as long as you are feeding them quality feed but it doesn't hurt to help keep the system clean. Personally I like cucumbers soaked in vinegar, a few every night with supper, this time of year they are so good and fresh and the vinegar helps keep them fresh and crisp in the fridge for a couple weeks! YUM-YUM
A lot of folks say buy the good stuff with the "mother" in it, but I only think you really need that when you are using it to ferment your feed(way to much work for me). The mother is like starter to keep the fermentation process going. I'm not rich and basically have very little money for stuff like this so I buy the cheap, I do this for most everything I get--buy the cheap. I bought 4 quart bottles today at Big Lot for $1 a bottle, one bottle stayed in the house to go on my cucumbers and the other three went to the chicken barn.