Keeping Chickens Healthy! 8 Top Ways That We Do It!

[@MrDavePed]

Lay out 4 x 8 plyboards for your chickens. Every few days depending on ground dampness flip one over to provide excellent bounty of creepy crawlers with no digging ! In dry areas try watering your boards for better production. ..

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Ah yes. That does work well.

[@Fritz0616]

Thanks for the tips. If you add colloidal silver 1-cup to 1-gallon of water prevents so many diseases.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

You’re welcome

[@angelawagnon9778]

Hi Eric, one thing I do is I have herbs growing around the perimeter of my run. Oregano, thyme, rosemary, mint and some sage. As the herbs grow, the stems go thru the run fencing and the girls feast on them periodically. These herbs are perennials so once I got them planted they keep coming back as long as I keep them watered. You could also plant some plants inside your run area with some wire caging around them to keep them from over munching as they get established. Once they are established, they will spill out thru the wire and provide your chickies with some good health benefits.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Cool

[@Hybscrafthouse]

Just found your channel. Lots of good info. Hope your channel stays strong.

[@marshamallow5329]

Up in the north its gets so cold in winter. A neighbor had no bedding in coop and the chickens were injured. Basically, know what you are dealing with and act accordingly. I use fine pine and clean daily. Coop stays dry and smells good

[@dmark6699]

Your chickens do look healthy.

[@mobiltec]

Very helpful indeed.

[@paulsherlock537]

just building my coup now, being in Canada. some things i gotta do differently. i have an animal sanctuary here and was recently given a huge truckload of 6ft by 6ft interlocking cage fencing, enough to do 40ft by 40ft area roughly , including a ceiling to eliminate sky predators, this was my starting point..and my hen area is working out similar to yours,..thanks for the vid..its my reference point now

[@CountryLivingExperience]

What a blessing to receive that cage.

[@timetothink-mk7]

I laughed out loud when you said your chickens lay in the same nesting box even though there is more than one box. Our chickens do the same thing. I have gone into the coup and there will be a chicken standing outside the "preferred" nesting box, squawking at the chicken in the box like she is telling her to get out. Hilarious! Something I have done to help keep a cleaner coup - Got a piece of vinyl flooring (about 3 x 5), put large grommets in one end and hung it on nails behind the roost. I can take it down and power wash it when needed.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

They are crazy creatures. Seems like mine squawk at each other all day long.

[@jacquesjooste]

Agter Ostrich emporium is n saagmeule waar jy goedkoop saagsels kan koop vir mulch. Of andersins koop hooi bale en cover die grond daarmee na jy geplant het. Probeer bale koopvan dieselfde graan as wat jy plant, win win

[@amsohn1]

Thanks Eric, great info... weve got a dirt floor coop, so habr to keep some sort of shavings or the like... straw is my most hated and we get natural untreated pine shavings from some friends... and clean it regularly. Love the info - Blessings ❤

[@CountryLivingExperience]

You're welcome. Dirt floors are great. They absorb a lot.

[@garybrinker4522]

My coop has a sand/dirt floor and stays dry with Pine shavings..Outside metal siding into the ground 8-10"s..My friend's has a concrete floor and r​eal smelly🐓🐓🐓@@CountryLivingExperience

[@jerex112]

very nice

[@jesshorn257]

good tips but I will make the case for pine shavings in a coop not so much for the chicken health but for the ease of you. You get ready made compost as you have the carbon already being mixed with the high ammonia chicken crap. I also think the pine sap is a natural disinfectant so it seems to cut down on bugs and helps with the smell

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Those are good points. I have just not had great luck with them because of that moisture being held in causing issues.

[@jesshorn257]

@@CountryLivingExperience may just be a region thing as I'm up north so I have less heat and humidity with access to pine plus my coop is 2 ft off the ground to make it harder for predators so maybe that also is a factor. Maybe if others have similar environment it may work for them.

[@corruption2.066]

I use hemp with the deep litter method. It’s expensive but I’ve had the same hemp in my coop for almost three years. It will make awesome compost when I finally change it out. All I do is turn the bedding about once a week. Takes 5 minutes to do. There is no ammonia or smell at all believe it or not. I have a humidity sensor and it’s less moisture in the coop than the outside humidity. I put first Saturday lime in the coop from time to time. I sprinkle a little pdz on the top of the bedding every time I turn the bed. It’s always super dry in my coop. I spoil my little chickens 😊

[@tribalismblindsthembutnoty124]

Diatomaceous earth works by cutting the exoskeletons and dehydrating the creature. It can be mixed in to feed to eventually kill the bugs feeding on it, but it will not work in a chicken internally. Blood sucking mites actually live mostly in arid climates, but lice can occur anywhere. I suggest treating the coop every three months with permethrin and dusting once a month with diatomaceous earth. Its been really dry here lately, so I should go check for all the boogers.

[@lisacarden1309]

🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼

[@BUTTERFLY31214]

🦋🇺🇸👍 Reposted

[@heatherrios6125]

Do you have any good ideas to keep flies at bay in the coop? Im constantly battling them all summer. Even cleaning every morning doesn't stay ahead of them.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

This is a solution that we use....amzn.to/3AB9a15. They seem to work well. I also just try to keep the coop as clean as possible.

[@goodieswithgrace1004]

Does fresh corn cause the same issue as cracked corn? I’m a new chicken mama and have 9 hens. They just started laying eggs last week and all the eggs seem really healthy. But I have been giving them fresh corn on the cob each week.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

It does. Same fat content.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Once a week will not harm them. Unless it is a mountain of fresh corn once per week.

[@goodieswithgrace1004]

@@CountryLivingExperience okay thanks. I was giving them 2 cobs of fresh corn nearly every day for 6 of the hens to share.

[@sallyeblen7032]

Do you put shavings or something in nest box? I saw several people make their food from several grains and etc. so you don't recommend this? And I'm still waiting on an egg, they are over 18 weeks. :)

[@CountryLivingExperience]

No. The nesting boxes we have are a special roll away box because our hens like to eat eggs. Here is a video on that.....kzbin.info/www/bejne/moG7fK1soceKkNk. They work well.

[@CountryLivingExperience]

I do not recommend giving them an all grain diet. They need a variety of different foods.

[@BUTTERFLY31214]

🦋🇺🇸Good Morning Everyone. Question 🙋‍♀️? My Daughter had bought Chickens to help with the increasing Price of Eggs to feed a family of 7. But she is saying it’s actually costing more to keep the chickens healthy. Maybe she is doing to much. Any Advice?

[@CountryLivingExperience]

Without knowing what she is doing exactly, it is hard to say if she is doing too much. I spend about $35 per month on feed for 10 hens and get 7 eggs a day.

[@BUTTERFLY31214]

@@CountryLivingExperience 🦋Oh wow 😮, I know she’s spending more than that . Thank you so much for your time

[@jesshorn257]

if it is the feed cost let them get more greens from the lawn(basically dump lawn clipping in to the run as long as you aren't spraying the lawn with chems). Dust baths can be wood ash mixed with soil to cut down on the lye(also rain will wash the lye out of the ash so you want it to be in a rain free area)...could also raise bugs/worms for protein boost on the kitchen scraps you can't feed to the chickens...depending on the area you can get bulk feed(seed) from local grain coops if it seems she needs alot of feed(really I only see that during winter time for my area and if you have really large flocks) garbage fish also can be used as feed( my area has sheepheads that no human would want to eat but chickens will gladly pick them apart)...my guess would be the hens are hiding the eggs in the run somewhere or the hens are too young yet and are not laying yet( at $3 a dozen eggs my 30 laying hen eat $15 every 2 weeks in the winter and I get avg of 20 eggs a day) oh I forgot to say winter time you need a light (12 hr of light works for me) on to keep egg laying going or they will slow up production

[@BUTTERFLY31214]

@@jesshorn257 🦋🇺🇸👍Thank you. She lives in Central Pa and she doesn’t use any chemicals to Spray. She’s all about Organic. She has about 10 to 12 chickens. Some of which are Olive Eggers if I’m saying that correctly . Our Egg Prices in the Grocery Store here are about 4 to 5.00 a dozen. I appreciate your input Thanks again

[@Doc1855]

Eric, Let me tell you how to break a dog from killing chickens. Years ago I had a dog that would kill a neighbors chickens. He came to me and told me that my dog had killed 2 of his chickens and the next time he caught my dog, he was going to shoot my dog. I paid him for the 2 chickens that my dog killed. The very next day my dog came home with a dead chicken. I didn’t know what to do so I called my grandma. She told me to tie that dead chicken around my dogs neck and leave it tied to my dog until the chicken was literally rotting off the rope around my dogs neck. I did exactly what my grandma told me to do. After a couple of weeks that chicken was rancid and my dog hated it. During those weeks I wasn’t mean to my dog but he wasn’t allowed in the house and no other domestic animal would stay around him. By the time that chicken was literally rotting off the rope, my dog didn’t want anything to do with a chicken. My grandma was right and that’s how you break a dog of killing chickens. From then on when that dog saw a chicken, he’d go in the opposite direction. Try it, it works !

[@CountryLivingExperience]

I have heard that from many people. I don't have any dead chickens to tire though.

[@joy_to]

Wow. Mine was pretty easy. I picked up both dogs by the scruff of their necks and marched to the poultry where they had killed all of my chicks and spoke to them in a loud voice saying, “I do not ever want to see you here. You see them lying around dead? How would you like it if I did the same to you?” Then went outside and took them a distance from the poultry, and said to them, “when you see me come here, this is your boundary. You must not pass this boundary or go with me into the poultry ever again.” Then I locked them up in their cage for two days but provided food and water. When I let them out after two days, they never went to the poultry again. I tested them by leaving the door open but they never went in there. They suddenly became protectors of even the native birds who walk around my home and wouldn’t even bother them.