Common Parasite Problems for Backyard Chickens Spend time with your hens in your chicken pens regularly and be alert for changes in their behavior and appearance.
Sick birds mope about and hunch their heads into their bodies, fluff out their feathers and let their tails droop.
Some common problems are listed below: Internal parasites: roundworm, hairworm, caecal worm and a variety of tapeworms are the most common.
Worms can be controlled either by medication 4 times a year or by natural remedies.
External parasites: external parasites are more of a problem in tropical and subtropical regions but there are a few species which may afflict chickens in cooler climates.
Lice are more prevalent in the cold time of year and don't suck blood.
Mites breed up in the chicken pens during the warmer months and are blood suckers.
The chickens themselves help keep pest levels down by preening each other and taking a dust bath.
Dust bathing is an important activity for chickens, therefore they need to have access to dirt in their chicken pens.
By taking preventative measures you really shouldn't have to deal with either internal or external parasites How To Keep Your Chicken Pens Clean When you have chickens, you don't get much in the way of compost because they are such good scrap eaters but the droppings more than make up for that.
Manure needs to be responsibly managed or it will leach into the soil and can pollute groundwater and streams.
Except in a deep litter house, it is important that you remove droppings from the hen house regularly as part of the general program of hygiene.
About half of the droppings will be below the perch and these are the easiest to remove.
If left to build up, the manure will provide a breeding place for flies and make the hen house smell badly.
The droppings should be removed about once every couple of weeks.
In a deep litter house where the chickens have mixed all the material together it should only be necessary to remove the litter once a year.
Manure from your chicken pens has one of the highest fertilizer values of livestock manures but is too strong to be directly applied to most plants and needs to be broken down for best results.
It can be easily made into liquid fertilizer for your garden or added to the compost heap to break down.
If the manure is left to dry out, most of the nutrient value will be leached out by rain or destroyed by sunlight.
Therefore it needs to be dug into the compost heap or straight into the garden, but not too close to plants or it will burn them.
How To Make Liquid Fertilizer Using Manure from your Chicken Pens * soak fresh manure in water, at about 1 part manure to 10 parts water * keep a lid on the container as the mixture is very smelly * one week later dilute the mixture down (1:10) until it is golden in color -this can then be applied to your garden * only apply liquid fertilizer to wet soil * to avoid burning the leaves do not apply fertilizer directly to the plants
Sick birds mope about and hunch their heads into their bodies, fluff out their feathers and let their tails droop.
Some common problems are listed below: Internal parasites: roundworm, hairworm, caecal worm and a variety of tapeworms are the most common.
Worms can be controlled either by medication 4 times a year or by natural remedies.
External parasites: external parasites are more of a problem in tropical and subtropical regions but there are a few species which may afflict chickens in cooler climates.
Lice are more prevalent in the cold time of year and don't suck blood.
Mites breed up in the chicken pens during the warmer months and are blood suckers.
The chickens themselves help keep pest levels down by preening each other and taking a dust bath.
Dust bathing is an important activity for chickens, therefore they need to have access to dirt in their chicken pens.
By taking preventative measures you really shouldn't have to deal with either internal or external parasites How To Keep Your Chicken Pens Clean When you have chickens, you don't get much in the way of compost because they are such good scrap eaters but the droppings more than make up for that.
Manure needs to be responsibly managed or it will leach into the soil and can pollute groundwater and streams.
Except in a deep litter house, it is important that you remove droppings from the hen house regularly as part of the general program of hygiene.
About half of the droppings will be below the perch and these are the easiest to remove.
If left to build up, the manure will provide a breeding place for flies and make the hen house smell badly.
The droppings should be removed about once every couple of weeks.
In a deep litter house where the chickens have mixed all the material together it should only be necessary to remove the litter once a year.
Manure from your chicken pens has one of the highest fertilizer values of livestock manures but is too strong to be directly applied to most plants and needs to be broken down for best results.
It can be easily made into liquid fertilizer for your garden or added to the compost heap to break down.
If the manure is left to dry out, most of the nutrient value will be leached out by rain or destroyed by sunlight.
Therefore it needs to be dug into the compost heap or straight into the garden, but not too close to plants or it will burn them.
How To Make Liquid Fertilizer Using Manure from your Chicken Pens * soak fresh manure in water, at about 1 part manure to 10 parts water * keep a lid on the container as the mixture is very smelly * one week later dilute the mixture down (1:10) until it is golden in color -this can then be applied to your garden * only apply liquid fertilizer to wet soil * to avoid burning the leaves do not apply fertilizer directly to the plants
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