The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

If it is leg mites I have a suggestion and it will be a pain to do.

get a large pot with a lid...might want to purchase one at good will..

buy cheap cooking oil enough to fill the pot up to 5 inches and cover it..take it out to the coop and leave it till night time roosting.

Every night,remove the lid on the oil, lift a bird up off the roost and dip the legs in the pot..count to 10
do every bird, even ones not noticable.

Eventually the birds oily legs will also kill the mites living in the coop and discouragee them from reattaching.
You need to do this for a solid week.

Keep the pot in the coop
In a month you need to do it again

Than re evaluate

 

[Melabella]

A while ago I posted about these products, and if anyone had any experience with it, or had heard about anyone had. No one responded so I thought I would bump it up again. Penn State Ag school. I found it at my local small feed store, and it looks interesting with it's all organic and natural approach and ingredients. I especially was thinking about people hatching and getting deliveries of new chicks. The website is quite informative as well.

An All Natural Wellness Kit for Poultry Health and Productivity

Raising backyard chickens, or other poultry, can be a rewarding family experience, but it requires daily attention to keep you chickens healthy - and to protect your family. In fact, chicken mortality can be as high as 50% without simple measures to help fight the common causes of disease. That's why we created the all natural, easy to use Backyard Chicken

Health Pack.

Building on the years of experience DBC Ag Products has in helping to improve the health and productivity of poultry in commercial hatcheries and layer operations, including organic and natural producers, we decided to develop a simple three step program utilizing proven technologies for the rapidly growing backyard chicken market that has a large number of families raising poultry for the first time.

Backyard Chicken Health Pack contains three key products to deliver the most comprehensive poultry health approach in one attractive, innovative package that conveniently delivers enough of each product to treat 90 gallons of water. Here are the three individual products that address critical areas that can affect poultry health and survivability.

1. HealthyFlock
   
   Tabs – Targets harmful pathogens, helps improve intestinal health and balance while helping to get more out of every pound of feed
2. Oxy E-100 – Sanitizes drinking water to help reduce exposure to pathogens that can cause disease
3. Zyfend
   
   A – Aids in improving performance in the presence of intestinal parasites (worms) and helps offset worm-related issues

The Backyard Chicken Health Pack is designed to effectively improve intestinal health, provide safe drinking water, and help protect chicks and poultry of all ages from worm related issues in just three easy steps. Each product in the pack will treat 90 gallons of water, which is enough for 25 chickens for approximately 50 days.

The Backyard Chicken Health Pack gives you a safe and easy way to help protect your chicks and poultry of all ages from naturally occurring disease-causing organisms and internal parasites. This comprehensive solution will help increase chick survivability, support overall well-being and increase the chicks' ability to handle stress.

• Targets harmful pathogens
• Improves intestinal health
• Contains beneficial bacteria
• All natural formula
• One bottle treats 90 gallons of water

• Use during worm infestations
• All natural with no synthetic chemicals
• Helps offset worm-related issues
• One bottle treats 90 gallons of water

• Safe and easy to use
• Reduces exposure to pathogens
• One bottle treats 90 gallons of water

Bolster the Health of Your Poultry in 3 Easy Steps

Step 1: Starting on day 1, add 6 drops of Oxy E-100 to each gallon of fresh drinking water. Wait 15 minutes.
Step 2: Starting on day 1, add 1 HealthyFlock Tab in each gallon of fresh drinking water 15 minutes after the addition of Oxy E-100.
Step 3: Starting on day 21, also add 6 drops of Zyfend A in each gallon of fresh drinking water for 7 days. Repeat the Zyfend A dosing every 21 days.

View Backyard Chicken Health Pack Brochure • View Product Labels • View Product Insert
View HealthyFlock Tabs MSDS • View Oxy E-100 MSDS • View Zyfend A MSDS​

 

[aoxa]

Been there , done that, never worked! Also bag balm and other salves. I don't understand why it doesn't work as you are not the only one who has had it work! THe scales don't fall off, although if I soak the legs for 15 minutes or so in epsom salted water, I can slowly work a little of the debris off. too fast and it will bleed.

Maybe you have a super strain?

I've had it work really really well.

PS: You can try PAM instead of cooking oil, as it's easier to apply if you have a lot of birds. I haven't done so yet. I just treat those I see. My two that started this whole thing have yet to pass it on to anyone other than that broodie's babies. I wonder why?

I've had the two since November 2011, and they must have had them before I brought them home, but didn't show until early fall this year. I treated the two and they have been good since September. Her chicks are just showing signs now. Already in 2 weeks it looks better since using vaseline.

 

[aoxa]

MB,

LOL I completely did not recognize you with your new avatar. I was about to welcome you.

 

[armorfirelady]

I had the same pro

I actually slit the tube open and put it all into a small canning jar (jelly size).  Scraped out every bit of it that I could get out of there into the jar.  I think it will be much easier to use that way and I'll be able to use every bit of it instead of losing any inside a tube. 

Mine was actually a little more liquid than you're describing.  Wonder if it was on the shelf longer than mine was?

I sit the tube down on it's lid just like the store displayed it, and I think the sulfur has just hardened near the opening.  It was easier to come out the first time.

I had the same problem with my nustock so when I had an empty plastic mustard container I put the nustock in there and shook it up real well. I figure if I ever need to use it it will be easier to use that way as well.

 

[lalaland]

If it is leg mites I have a suggestion and it will be a pain to do.

get a large pot with a lid...might want to purchase one at good will..

buy cheap cooking oil enough to fill the pot up to 5 inches and cover it..take it out to the coop and leave it till night time roosting.

Every night,remove the lid on the oil, lift a bird up off the roost and dip the legs in the pot..count to 10
do every bird, even ones not noticable.

Eventually the birds oily legs will also kill the mites living in the coop and discouragee them from reattaching.
You need to do this for a solid week.

Keep the pot in the coop
In a month you need to do it again

Than re evaluate

thats a good idea - I still have the quart yogurt container filled with cooking oil out in the coop - I used to take each chicken, dip each leg in, wait, drain, repeat with the other leg - had a special sweatshirt to wear doing this as you can imagine the mess - did it for the month. no dice. oh, they started looking good, just came back.....
as soon as I figure out how to post a pic anywhere with this chromebook, I'll post. You'll see some downright ugly poor legs...unfortunately. I am using nustock maybe once every week or two now - when it was -30 I just wasn't up to it. Can't wait for warmer temps, will do the soaking cleaning thing then when I don't have to worry about wet and cold.

 

[lalaland]

ok, here's another issue I could use some help with: spurs.

I have some hens with large spurs that are beginning to grow downward and starting to touch the toes on the foot. I figure this can't keep on going this way. any ideas? they are all the hens that were kept by that guy in his bedroom for the first year of their life. They look so much better now, but will always be undersized (smallest black orps I have ever seen)

 

[Bulldogma]

MB - That looks like a pretty interesting product. I poked around their website... kinda neat.

 

[aoxa]

I love this!

 

[lalaland]

mellabella,

I don't know - looks like the probiotics you could get from your own yogurt, possibly the ff too.
never have seen a need for disinfecting water - as Stony has pointed out, the hens will drink the nastiest water on the ground/puddles, etc anyway
and I haven't had worm problems ever (knock on wood).

are you going to try it?