spike water with catenne pepper?

[JennsPeeps]

Getting back on topic...

You can't get pullets to lay sooner by giving them hot/spicy anything. Proof: when my girls hit 5 months I bought a massive packet of red pepper flakes and mixed it with a bag of frozen corn. The 4 girls ate 2 lbs of corn & about 6 ounces of red pepper flakes in about 2 days. I didn't get an egg for another month, and only from one girl at that.

Regarding the whole issue of natural herbs & their effectiveness. I believe that nature has cures for many of our ailments. Look at penicilin & aspirin. I also know that it's nearly impossible to properly dose out those herbs without careful refinement. A plant grown in one climate will have a different amount of X chemical than a plant of the same variety grown under different conditions.

As for giving chickens (or people, or dogs, or any other animal) antibiotics, it shouldn't be done unless there's proof of an infection. Giving antibiotics without cause kills the beneficial bacteria in the intestines and can lead to "super bugs" that are resistant to drugs of any kind.

 

[kristenm1975]

PS - This is a fascinating topic of conversation! I really appreciate all the discussion about what types of natural health/herbal methods of healing that may be used with chickens (or people, for that matter!).

I've only just started using herbs to help in the various areas where I felt doctors had been of no use. Some things have worked wonderfully, others have worked but I've wondered how much of it is just because I wanted them to work and put all my energy into it working, and some of them simply did nothing as far as I could tell.

It feels really good to go out into the fields around my house to find a cure for something that's ailing me, rather than driving into town to see a doctor, paying the $150 examination cost, another $15 for the prescription drug, and then another $20 for all the yogurt it takes to straighten my system out after the antibiotics wipe out the healthy bacteria.

Do I think it works in every case? Nope. But it sure feels incredible when it does. Worth a try!