Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[CackleJoy]

Just my .02 on the medicated feed...

Cocci is a parasite rather than a bacteria. Research shows that if they are exposed to it in their environment from hatch they will be able to handle it better as they grow. Many folks don't put their birds on the ground until around 6 weeks and the incident of cocci is pretty high at that age since they haven't been exposed early.

I think that the sand may likely your be your issue as it harbors more bacteria and parasites than a wood shaving base does. It's even been shown that using a deep litter that comes from your other pens with your chicks can help with cocci immunities. And...as counterintuitive as it sounds, a little ammonia in the bedding has actually been shown to keep the cocci down. NOT EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS... just "enough".

I always get sod plugs from the yard in which the chickens are running and add to the brooder within the first week for them to dig through if they can't be outside. Switch them out after they've had them awhile as they destroy them quickly! If I'm brooding inside, I always put a hand full of litter from the regular hen house on the floor of the litter as soon as I add wood shavings.







There is a lot more info in that article. They recommend lime in the litter but I DON'T recommend the use of lime in any form in the litter. It can burn little legs and feet if used improperly.


Also - a deep litter in your outdoor runs keeps the ground extremely healthy and makes the best garden soil in the spring. Tree services will often drop off wood chips free for you if you call around and ask. I let the piles sit to cure until I see worms and other life in them - usually within 6 months and often sooner depending on your weather - before I put them onto the runs. Keep building it up by putting it down in a pile from time to time. The birds will spread it for you. No more slick, nasty, unhealthy, disease-breeding ground! It's probably one of the best things I've done for my chicken runs...no...it IS the best thing I've done for them.

My daughter took some of that soil that had composted under the deep litter this spring and has the best garden ever. Full of worms and very healthy for the birds - and for us!

We inherited 2 hen houses, but the 3 we built all have earthen floors and we deep litter. I'm blessed with an arborist husband who generates a lot of tree chippings The sand was already in place where we put the broody house so I just went with it. Before I used the store bought pine shavings. Good thoughts on the sand! I will go back to the pine and see if that helps.

I also used to add the weeds and dirt starting at 3 weeks. But they were inside a building at that time. When they are outside I hardly think that is necessary.

Just to clarify, you don't empty the shavings between batches? You just make it deeper? I'm used to that in the winter with the big chickens but always went to a lot of work cleaning out the brooder between batches. I'd like to avoid as much work as possible.

 

[CackleJoy]

Also, I forgot Cocci was a parasite. So probiotics won't help.

 

[Leahs Mom]

In my hen shed I don't have dirt floors so I have to put some out from time to time. I've been putting that right outside into the run to help build the litter there. The poo will actually disappear within a couple days and the girls love to dig through what I put out from inside and spread it around.

I always leave some of the litter inside and then start again until I have to put it out into the outdoor run. Since my floors aren't dirt in there, I will often go outside and get a shovel-full of dirt to put onto the floor inside too. Then the pine shavings on top and build from there.

Any of my pens that have dirt floors, I keep building. The ones that are outdoors and get rain will break down underneath into a nice soil. That is where we dig some out in the spring to put in gardens if anyone needs it...for ourselves and our adult kids. Then keep building the wood chips and old indoor litter on top of that all year again. The stuff we dig out is just the soil under it...full of worms and good bugs. The soil doesn't smell of droppings - just a nice rich soil that can be used directly in the garden.


My last brood was a "surprise" when I quickly got some Swedes from Walli. I had them in a box in the house for a couple weeks until I could get things ready outside. I brought in some of the litter from the floor of the hen shed to put on the floor of their box. I would bring in a handful every couple of days and also some fresh wood chips too. Then they went out into the hen shed on old litter that has been in there for a couple of years. They're still on it now and I've been adding as needed.... Also a bit of peat moss for them to dust bathe.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Oh...and probiotics can still help strengthen the immune system and make the digestive tract less susceptible to parasites as well. The only pro-biotic I recommend is Avi-Culture II. It's the only avian probiotic on the market that is not grown on GMO substrate. Not expensive and goes a LONG WAY. Their website leaves a lot to be desired but the product is good. Can last up to 5 years if refrigerated properly.

The small container goes a long way.
http://www.avi-culture.com/shop.html

 

[subhanalah]

Oh...and probiotics can still help strengthen the immune system and make the digestive tract less susceptible to parasites as well.  The only pro-biotic I recommend is Avi-Culture II.  It's the only avian probiotic on the market that is not grown on GMO substrate.  Not expensive and goes a LONG WAY.  Their website leaves a lot to be desired but the product is good.  Can last up to 5 years if refrigerated properly.

The small container goes a long way.
http://www.avi-culture.com/shop.html

fermented feed also provides lots of probiotics.
Do you think the acidity of it would affect the cocci? Make it an inhospitable environment?

 

[Leahs Mom]

I do think that properly lacto-fermented feed helps as it has a high lactic acid content. A lot of folks don't lacto-ferment, however, and I can't recommend the methods that are being taught by most on the byc threads as they aren't using lacto-fermentation.

 

[Melabella]

Oh...and probiotics can still help strengthen the immune system and make the digestive tract less susceptible to parasites as well. The only pro-biotic I recommend is Avi-Culture II. It's the only avian probiotic on the market that is not grown on GMO substrate. Not expensive and goes a LONG WAY. Their website leaves a lot to be desired but the product is good. Can last up to 5 years if refrigerated properly.

The small container goes a long way.
http://www.avi-culture.com/shop.html

Awesome Leah,, wonderful information! How do you feed your avi-culture? Do you generally add it to drinking water?

MB

 

[Leahs Mom]

Quote:
@Melabella
I have used it several ways.

If I am feeding dry, I just top dress it or stir it into their regular feed. It can be put in water but I always feel like I'm wasting a lot of it when I do that as it won't all be drunk. I guess I could just not fill the waterer as full and wait for it to be gone.

I am still fermenting so I have used it as a "booster" culture in my ferment container from time to time. I've also stirred it directly into the wet feed in their bowl. Another option is to soak a serving of feed overnight stir it into the wet feed just before feeding so that it sticks a bit better.

The photo insert is not working tonight on BYC...I was going to post the instruction sheet so you could see it. I will try posting it later or you can pm me w/your email address and I can send you a .pdf of the instruction sheet to look at.

 

[TxFlowers]

Have you kept track of rate of lay on these...how many do you estimate you are getting per year

It would be very difficult for me to determine that with the number of birds I have in each breeding group and with groups changing members periodically. Also none of the birds I have now have even been laying a full year but I will say this, when they were laying good during spring and early summer, Generally I was getting the number of eggs daily that was equivalent to 80% of the birds laying. They slowed down when it got hot but kept up laying pretty good until just a couple of weeks ago. I have a laying group of 14 right now and I am getting only 4 or 5 eggs at most in a day however some days it's less than that so they have really slowed down but this is August and very hot and I see some molting.

 

[TxFlowers]

I have one cockerel that is enormous. Larger than my Brahma (taller and wider at the chest) but not as heavy. He is young yet we'll see how big he gets. The other one is more normal sized. He's gorgeous but I might get rid of him once I have another for back up. I'd like to use the bigger - stronger genetics as well. This is my big boy at 7 months. His chest has filled out significantly. His ears have gotten more red too He stands taller than our Dark Brahma.

He looks nice. I got about 40 SFH chicks directly from GFF last year and in those I noticed some that were getting much larger than the others. I asked Jenny about it and she said they had one line of SF that got particular large. She said they didn't breed those as a group but bred all the lines together. I know that among my birds from all sources, I have gotten birds that were very light in bone/size and others that were much larger. I have been concentrating on keeping the larger birds but also trying to keep enough genetic diversity to prevent issues from inbreeding.