TIPS FOR YOUR CHICKENS

Here are some tips at your finger tips.  I will try to keep them updated for you as I learn and write about them and keep them in alphabetical order.

 

 

CALLING YOUR CHICKENS: HOW TO

Okay, chickens are not the brightest animals in the world, but they can be somewhat trainable and sometimes surprise me that they aren't always as dumb as we think. You should, from the very beginning, train your chickens to come to you when you need them to. Especially if you keep them in a pen and they escape. You should either bring a can of treats and shake it every time you give it to them or when you bring their treats you should establish a call like, "chick, chick, chick,", for example. Once they relate the noise with a treat, they will almost always come to you when they hear it.

MITES:  HOW TO GET RID OF THEM

This tip was given to me by a local chicken expert.  There are more details on my 8/31/2011 post.  I do not guarantee that it will get rid of your mite problem nor do I promise that your chickens will live through the process, but I found it to work very well for my chickens and it got rid of the mites:

1. No matter how many chickens a farmer has or how knowledgeable he may seem, NEVER, EVER put pine straw in your nest boxes even if he recommends it!  Pine straw breeds mites.

2. Start your eradication in the morning, so that your chicken house will have plenty of time to air out from the products you are going to use to kill the mites. Open as many doors, windows, and vents as you can to let it air out throughout the day. Also, if you have some vents or windows you can open up when they roost at night, then that will be good, too.

3. Scrub out your chicken house with soap and hot water, or vacuum it thoroughly with your shop vac.

4. Take Seven Dust (I know all you organics out there are cringing!!! So, was I!!!) and put it in a sock and thoroughly dust your chicken house paying special attention to the floors.

5. Cover your floor with a thin layer of cedar shavings approved for pet beds. I always put news paper down on my chicken house floors to keep it clean and change them out 2 or 3 times a week. So, I put the newspaper over the shavings thinking this might help with the strong odor that the cedar produces. According to the chicken expert, you should not use the cedar shavings if you lock your chickens up at night and don't have a window or some vents you can open to let fresh air in while they are sleeping.

6. Put a few cedar shavings in the bottom of their nest boxes and then cover with pine shavings for pet beds or you can use wheat straw. Pine shavings or wheat straw are excellent for nest boxes!

7. Catch your chickens and spray them with Adams Flea and Tick Spray for Dogs and Cats that comes in a blue spray bottle. It is a natural plant based spray. Spray one spray on top of their feathers in each of these areas: neck, back, top of wings, under wings, under body, and pay special attention to their vent (rear end). Also, spray their legs and feet if they grow feathers on them.

8. I also sprinkled Diatomaceous earth in their yard. BE SURE you use the edible chemical food type. I'm doing more research on this and finding it to be very organic and can be used on your pets to control fleas, mites, and ticks. It can also be fed to them to get rid of worms and parasites. AND it can be used on your garden plants to get rid of unwanted bugs looking for a snack! Who knew??? I will cover this and other organic methods I have found in another post.

*NOTE: If you are hatching chicks, have chicks, or chickens under 5 or 6 months then be sure to not use the cedar chips in your chicken house OR the Adams spray on your young chicks!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!