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Keep your bed chickens healthy by allow for them to innocent - compass in a secure place on your urban farm .
find fresh egg from your backyard is n’t as easy as just plump a chicken in a coop . To get timbre bollock — keep your layer chickens healthy in the process — you need to leave your hens with a bit of TLC . Whether you ’re newfangled to wimp keeping or have been at it for awhile , keep up these eight tips to help your chickens stay healthy and generative .
1. Provide quality feed.
To keep your chickens productive and good for you , feed them the serious food you could afford . The basic of their diet should be a premium laying mash or pellet , supplement with casual fresh yield , light-green veggie , repast worms and other healthy goody .
2. Clean nest boxes frequently.
To boost your Gallus gallus to position , provide them with plenty of sanitary nest boxes layer with comfortable bedding . recycle - newspaper pellets make a soft control surface for hens to nestle and deposit their egg and are well-situated to toss away and replace .
3. Allow free-ranging.
Happy chickens put down more testis and are more likely to outride sizable . If possible , lease your chickens roam freely on your place . If this is not safe for them because of predators , take using a report exercise pen you may move around , which will let them to “ graze ” on your lawn while still being protected from hawks and eagles .
4. Supplement with calcium.
nut - lay leeches a pot of calcium from a hen ’s body . In addition to feed a quality lay food for thought , provide liberal - option vanquish oyster shells in a cupful in the chicken coop . Your hen will supplement their calcium as needed . Crushed oyster shells are available in feed fund that sell poultry supplies .
5. Inspect chickens regularly.
Handle your hens whenever potential to try their organic structure , include combs , wattles , bills , feet and wing , for problems . Be on the lookout for infected wounds and broken bones . If you are concerned about your chickens ’ , do n’t hesitate to take them to the vet . Avian veterinarians are often experienced in consider with chicken issues . Before you even bring your chicken home , physical contact veterinarians in your region so you know who to go to in an emergency .
6. Secure the coop.
lay hens are specially vulnerable to predator because of their reluctance to allow for the nest . verify your coop is predator - test copy to ascertain raccoons , quat and other animals ca n’t put on access to your chickens . This mean making sure latch ca n’t be opened by prize hands ( raccoons are notorious for this ) and the wire - meshing fencing is modest enough that predators ca n’t reach through the parallel bars to snaffle your chickens .
7. Provide fresh water.
Chickens call for constant memory access to water system to ride out tidy and fertile . They will void water that is n’t white and will go athirst if they ca n’t discover a fresh source . render your birds with fresh body of water every mean solar day .
8. Control parasites.
External parasites eff to prey on chickens . Mites are the biggest culprits and will take up manse in your hencoop without you ever notice . Make it a habit to regularly inspect your chickens at Nox , when mites become active . If you see modest , reddish - brown insects scurrying around on your chicken ’ heads , care for your hen and your cage for mites . Gallus gallus are considerably treated with a dose of ivermectin ( usable in injectant mannikin from an avian veterinarian ) , and the coop should be cleaned and dusted with solid food - grade diametreceous earth .
