An Ounce of Prevention
Help your flock thrive with these attentive tips.
Tips that will help your flock thrive.
To become a chicken keeper is to become a bit of a detective. As animals of prey whose survival is tied to a strong social lifestyle, chickens don’t like anyone to know when they’re sick.
In a flock, if a hen lags behind or looks weak, she makes an easy target for predators. If she displays signs of illness or lameness and the flock takes notice, they may well cannibalize or inflict further damage as a way to eliminate her from the group. While this may sound harsh, this is how chickens have survived when absolutely everything wants to eat them, from the tiniest mite to those with sharp teeth and talons. And since these traits will be apparent in even the tiniest backyard flock, it helps to keep a keen eye and a sharp sense as their keeper.
Chickens are incredibly easy animals to care for if you get them set up with all they need. As you’ll read in a moment, I wholeheartedly believe that awareness and prevention are the two most reliable and inexpensive “medicines” of all, and that with these two tools, nearly every chicken ailment can be avoided.
Chicken Health and Wellness
The chicken keeper’s first tool — awareness — is largely about observation. What do you see when you watch your chickens? How do they act? How do they interact with each other?
At first glance, your family of birds may appear to be ignoring each other, simply pecking around, eating, drinking, laying eggs and grooming. If you look closely,
you may notice subtle (or not so subtle) gestures between two or more birds as they communicate through vocal sounds, body language and pecks, giving you a sense of hierarchy.
If you watch even more closely, you’ll get to know their individual personalities, where they fit on the hierarchical totem pole, and what their “normal” behavior looks like. How do they act when all is well? In order to be aware of any changes in your flock, you’ll first need this frame of reference.
The Healthy Chicken
A healthy bird is aware and alert. Her body posture is erect, she has a robust appearance, and she carries herself confidently. She moves easily and freely and goes about her normal chicken behaviors — scratching and digging in the dirt, pecking and picking at what she finds, laying as often as her age and breed dictate, roosting at night, and regularly dust-bathing
She makes noises based on her activities, such as clucking and cooing while foraging or singing her “hen song” after laying an egg. She can easily move her body, flap her wings, and fly up to a perch or roost. Her behavior should be typical of her personality, submissive if she is lower in the flock’s hierarchy or more dominant if she is an alpha.
For appearance’s sake, a healthy hen is rather beautiful. Her feathers are shiny, her eyes are bright and clear, and her comb and wattle are a rich, deep red (unless her breed sports a different color). Her feathers lie flat against her body (unless she’s a frizzled variety), her shanks are yellow or slate (depending on her breed, of course), and she is fully feathered (unless she is molting).
A healthy bird eats and drinks regularly throughout the day, her weight remains steady, and her droppings are fairly uniform. Droppings are a pretty reliable barometer of chicken health, so note any changes in appearance or odor. Firm, light brown to grayish green droppings with a white crest (the urine salts) are normal, with an occasional “cecal” dropping that resembles molasses in texture and color.
The Sick Chicken
Identifying a sick chicken is a bit harder than identifying a healthy one. For starters, a sick chicken may still appear healthy on the outside and to the naked eye. That is why it is so important to regularly monitor your birds and know their typical personalities. When something is amiss, you’ll likely spot it based on behavior rather than on appearances.
With that said, a sick chicken may still appear unkempt. Her body posture may lack strength, and she may sit idly for long periods of time. (Do not confuse this with broodiness; a broody chicken will be alert, making healthy vocalizations and likely defensive of her nest.)
A sick bird’s eyes may appear glazed and unfocused, and her comb, wattle, legs and feathers may appear dull. She may not dust-bathe or preen and groom herself. A sick chicken usually stops laying eggs or lays eggs with severe deformities. She may stand very still at times, refuse to eat or drink, or lack the strength to get to the feeder or water font altogether. A sick chicken may puff up
her feathers, may have clear leg or wing deformities, or may have obvious external pests. Droppings may change in color or consistency.
A sick or injured chicken may drag a limb or bleed. If her injury is very apparent to you, rest assured it’s very apparent to her flock mates. An obviously injured or ill chicken will likely fall prey to flock cannibalism. If you see excessive bullying, take this as a sign to investigate the health of the bullied chicken right away.
Finally, a sick bird will just not be herself. If you keep a small flock of laying hens and take the time to know each one’s unique personality, quirks and mannerisms, you can easily use this knowledge as a reference point on health.
The Basics of Prevention
The second tool in the chicken keeper’s arsenal is prevention. How you tend to your flock, set up their housing, and care for them day to day will largely determine how well you can manage the spread of unwanted pests and illness in the long run.
Biosecurity. These measures are the ones you take as keeper to prevent the spread of pests and disease in your flock. Here are some ways to practice good biosecurity:
Exercise caution when adding new birds to a flock and use quarantine methods. The same goes for “chicken sitting” any outside birds.
Have a designated pair of muck boots or Wellies for your coop and run and wear them only for chicken chores. Have a pair of “chicken boots” for each member of your family, and create a rule that children are only to wear them — and must wear them — while working with or caring for the flock.
Wash hands and change clothes between handling birds from separate flocks.
Shelter. Adequate protection from predators and the elements is another basic tenet of keeping a healthy flock. Chickens aren’t doing very well if they’re regularly being eaten by foxes. Your flock’s housing should be a well-ventilated shelter that is relatively clean (realistically, though, chickens make a mess of any structure they live in, so take the term “clean” here with a grain of salt). Fresh, dry bedding is a must, and waste should be removed periodically. Also, daily egg collection will avoid all manner of potential pests, predators and cannibalism, such as egg eating.
Food, Water and Supplements. Your flock should have access to fresh water, all day, every day, year-round. Water keeps your birds well hydrated, of course, but it keeps them laying, too. An egg is about 74 percent water, meaning it requires quite a bit of water just to produce it. Without water, not only will egg production suffer, but a flock’s collective health will also decline rapidly.
Your flock should also have access to ageappropriate food at all times. Supplements, such as grit and oyster shell, are critical
for good digestion and a functioning reproductive system, respectively. Just having those two supplements available to your flock will stave off most kinds of digestive and reproductive issues.
Identifying Stress
We could all do with a lot less stress, and poultry are no different. They respond to stress in much the same way we do, with a loss of appetite, lowered immune function and increased fatigue, to name a few symptoms. How we tend to our flocks determines to a large extent how much stress they’re under.
Whether from fear, overcrowding, the addition of new birds to the flock, or simply boredom, stress can manifest itself in unpleasant and unhealthy ways. Fear, for instance, is a relatively common experience for chickens. As creatures of prey, they must constantly be on the alert for danger. Whether the fear is from a legitimate source, such as a predator, or from an imagined threat, such as a loud noise, the stress response is the same.
Severe overcrowding or the addition of new birds to an established flock can lead to picking, pecking and cannibalism of varying degrees, from minor bullying to fatal wounds. Boredom itself is rare in chickens; if a flock is
confined to a small space without room to do what they naturally do, “boredom” ends up looking a lot like cannibalism.
Reducing Tension
Reducing your flock’s stress first means knowing their nature (as we just learned) and then adjusting your activities accordingly. Chickens are not picky. They don’t ask for much. If you simply allow them to tap into their natural behavior and express these traits, they will be adequately entertained and quite content. Here are a few ways to do that:
Many issues of cannibalism in an otherwise healthy flock can be warded off by providing space to roam and giving the freedom to be a chicken. Of course, this means having enough physical room in the coop or enclosure. But this also means having a place to dust-bathe and scratch around, doing the things that chickens do. With enough space, chickens feel less territorial; submissive birds have the ability to move away from any roosters or alpha hens that want to assert their dominance. In other words, with the ability to focus attention on normal chicken behaviors (like grooming and foraging), less attention will be focused on flock mates.
The stress caused by imminent predators is hard to control in most aspects, but you do your part by providing a safe coop and making sure the birds are securely locked up each evening. Take precautions against predators, such as burying perimeter fencing or using electric fencing. If your town or city allows it, consider adding a rooster to your flock; aside from fertilization, a rooster’s main occupation is security guard. A good rooster will be willing to risk his life protecting his flock, making the hens feel more secure day to day.
Finally, minimize noises in and around your birds’ housing when they’re inside. Schedule mowing, weed whacking, leaf blowing, and other outdoor maintenance when your flock is free ranging or otherwise occupied. If they can comfortably move far away from the noise, they will be less frightened. Especially try to avoid such chores early in the morning since the stress of loud noises may impact a hen’s egg laying.
Dust-Bathing
The health of a chicken’s feathers can greatly influence her overall well-being and her ability to ward off external pests. As a keeper of chickens, it’s your job to give your flock the opportunity and space they need to maintain pristine plumage.
Chickens maintain their feathers’ good health by taking dust baths, an entertaining series of romps in the dirt (for chicken and human alike). After digging a shallow hole, your bird will fluff herself sideways, tossing dirt and sand deep down to the base of her feathers. Once there, the dirt will asphyxiate pests that may prey on her. After bathing, the bird preens.
She sources oil from the uropygial gland (also called the preen gland) located at the base of her tail and distributes this oil among her feathers with her beak. This oil creates sheen, promotes health and ensures water resistance in the feathers. Birds that are debeaked are unable to properly gather oil
and preen, yet another reason not to buy debeaked chickens or to debeak them — ever.
Though a flock may often dust-bathe and preen in pairs or all together, each individual chicken will self-regulate her grooming patterns and hygiene, repeating the dust bath and preening only as often as she finds necessary.
Dust-bathing and preening are essential to good health, and as the flock’s keeper, you can provide optimum space and material for them to bathe in. If your birds lack an area in which to dust-bathe (or if you’re tired of their using your potted petunias), create an area yourself using the instructions left.
Molting
When I first began raising chickens, a farming friend and poultry guru warned me to keep an eye out for my flock’s first molt, probably in an attempt to spare me the inevitable panic when I saw my birds in such a state. Unkempt, disheveled and bedraggled birds are what I found that first November, and even with a seasoned poultry keeper’s warning, the sight was shocking. Luckily, there was no need for me to worry, and you shouldn’t either. Molting may look off-putting at first glance, but it’s a natural, normal, painless part of life with chickens.
What It Is. Molting is the annual process of shedding and regrowing feathers
that all birds go through. Molting usually happens pretty predictably in autumn, so there’s plenty of time to prepare.
Your chickens will typically molt during their second fall. The shorter day length signals the bird’s system to prepare for the coming cooler weather and to replenish plumage. Molting can begin anywhere from late summer to early winter and may take between 4 to 12 weeks to complete, depending on breed, age, and the health and vigor of your individual birds. Each one is different.
Though molting is triggered by waning daylight hours, it can also be triggered by stressful situations, such as going without food or water for a period of time. To safeguard against unnecessarily prompting a molt, make sure your flock has the “basics” covered. Expect your birds to molt annually. Your best layers and healthiest birds tend to molt quickly and efficiently, returning to laying within a few weeks.
It’s important to remember that molting is normal, so don’t be alarmed when you see the feathers fly. If birds have adequate space in their coop, run, or pasture, molting will not induce pecking or other cannibalistic behaviors. If your flock experiences extreme feather picking and pecking (evidenced by drawing blood), however, they probably need more space. Other than a few small behavioral differences (more on those to come), your flock should act normally during the molt.
What It Looks Like. Just before molting, a bird’s plumage becomes dull, losing its sheen as the old feathers lose health. Shedding begins at the head and works gradually back toward the tail. Each bird has her own molting “style”—some lose all plumage at once; others lose feathers so gradually and subtly, you’ll wonder if they’re molting at all. As the process unfolds, so to speak, you will see small pinfeathers emerging
from areas around the chicken’s body as new plumage grows; these appear as tiny quills at first and eventually open to reveal the fresh, new feathers.
The easiest way to spot if a molt is underway is to take a look around the coop. If you find feathers everywhere and have ruled out a predator attack, you can probably safely assume your flock is molting.
What You Can Do about It. Molting is really hard work. Regrowing feathers requires a lot of energy, so expect to see a dramatic drop in egg production for a while. The hen’s body pulls energy away from the reproductive system and puts it toward the growth of new feathers (as well she should; feathers are approximately 85 percent protein).
While this can be disappointing for the keeper of a laying flock, keep in mind that your bird’s overall health is critical to all future egg production, and feather health is of the utmost importance. With healthy feathers, adequate dust-bathing and preening opportunities, your bird will be able to keep mites, lice, and other external pests at bay.
So how can you help?
Consider offering supplements that contain a high percentage of protein. Mealworms are a fun treat and help to build trust with your birds. Kids will love to handfeed treats.
Better yet, allow your flock extra freerange time to find their own buggy source of protein. Some flock owners switch to a commercial broiler (meat bird) feed during a molt. Others give canned cat food, canned tuna, cooked ground beef, or other meatbased protein to their flocks during a molt as a supplement. This practice is fine in moderation but don’t offer so much that your chickens turn up their beaks at regular feed. The balanced commercial layer ration should still be the primary source of nutrients in their diet.
Further support your birds’ molt by reducing their level of stress. In addition to taking preventive precautions, consider rescheduling shows or other public events with your molting birds — chances are you won’t win any ribbons with your birds looking the way they do anyway.