Peck around in on-line poultry forums and you ’re bind to find chicken keepers talk about nincompoop . There ’s a portion of it , and knowing how it bet and smells can allow for clues to digestive health . Even so , agree to Gail Damerow , author ofThe Chicken Health Handbook(2015 , 2nd edition ) , too many hoi polloi are obsessing about what their chickens eat and what their poop look like .
“ Do n’t perplex things , ” says Damerow , who has observe chickens since 1970 . “ flow a right diet , and the poulet will do fine . ”
She presently keeps 30 Rhode Island Reds for eggs on her Tennessee farm and a dozen grim Silkies for fun . Damerow does watch their ninny for sign of worry , which we ’ll review later .
“ But some degree of version in color and texture is normal , just like with humans , ” she explains .
How The Process Begins
We ’ll get back to the tail end of chicken digestion and digestive wellness in a moment . First , let ’s talk about where digestion protrude : the snoot . Because chickens do not have any teeth , the beak is an important tool that begins the digestive process .
When eating , chickens nibble up and drop larger nutrient items to displume them into small pieces they can eat up . Swallowed intellectual nourishment moves down the esophagus to a pocket shout the crop . You might have observe the harvest as a bulging area at the base of a volaille ’s neck . Chickens gobble up food while on the lookout for predator . The crop provide a station to lay in the quickly eaten food until later , when the shuttlecock get to a protect area and can digest in peace of mind . Depending on the food , its consistency and the amount of wet , the craw empty to the stomach a little at a time , which can take as long as 24 hours . Though fair rare , crop can also be affect by too much smoke , pig out balmy treats and not drinking enough weewee .
In the stomach , digestive acids and enzyme begin break what ’s been eaten for transit to the gastric mill — a sort of second stomach with a knotty lining . The gizzard holds small Stone call gastroliths , which are necessary component of a chicken ’s diet . The ventriculus ’s strong muscle contractions stir up the food for thought against the gumption , similar to how we masticate with our teeth .
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Food then passes from the gastric mill into the gut where nutrient are ingest . enteric pockets squall ceca collect fibrous food , where bacterial action mechanism further break it down . Eventually , waste affair from the digestive and urinary tracts combine in the sewerage and gather in a fecal chamber for expulsion through the vent .
Digestive Health
So what is a right dieting that will keep optimum digestive health among your chickens ? Michelle Koeppe , owner of Phasian Farms in Sherwood , Oregon , recommends a varied diet with good foundational food . She uses an all - purpose food because her flock ranges in eld and includes manly birds that do n’t need the extra calcium provided by level feeds .
In improver tocommercial feedsdesignated as all - purpose and layer , there are starter feeds for young chicks . Some of these are medicated . Commercial feed are nutritionally balanced and are the uncomplicated way to ensure a lot ’s general wellness and digestive wellness in exceptional .
Koeppe ’s razz also free - range for leafy vegetable and insect , and she supplements with legumes and medicinal herbs , include nettles , Origanum vulgare and hatful . Variety can avail provide a nutritionally balanced diet , and it stimulates chickens mentally so they ’re happier .
Because chickens can get worms , Koeppe adds lavender and rosemary to the bedding , which the chickens nibble .
“ These are beneficial to the digestive parcel and serve as a natural agent that destroys or expels parasitical dirt ball , ” she says .
Also , as a worming hindrance , she allow for a monthly dose of ail in the chickens ’ drinking water by immerse eight small to medium cloves per Imperial gallon overnight . ( This small amount of garlic is n’t probable to affect the taste of the egg . )
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For her mixed sight of around 100 , Koeppe occasionally cast out a charred piece of wood for her hens to peck .
“ Charcoal is beneficialto a clean digestive tract , ” she says .
Lorree Cummings , who possess Stone Cottage Farm & Garden in Summit County , Ohio , ensures digestive wellness by making sure super C are always useable . As her tight - growing gist bird get heavy , she puts out kale and other greens , cast anchor with Stone in clay pots near their feeder .
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Ample water is also vital for good digestion . Cummings , who has been keeping chickens for more than 40 old age , break her bird natural spring weewee free of Cl or fluoride .
“ These are chemicals they do n’t demand to process , ” she says . “ If I did n’t have my own spring , I ’d distill the urine using a Berkey [ water filter ] or something like . ”
Variety Is Good, But Quick Change Is Bad
volaille are red-blooded and bask variety , but Damerow cautions against getting carried away with feed recipes from badly - informed source .
“ Find a brand of commercial ration that work well for you , and make that the primary source of nutrients , ” she says . “ The biggest thing to avoid is sudden or precipitous changes in a stack ’s dieting . ”
When changing feeds , Damerow recommends mixing them and bit by bit increasing the one you ’re switching to .
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She also advises retain goody to a lower limit and being thrifty of corn . give too much Zea mays , alone or in lettuce and grain mixing , can lead to obesity .
“ An weighty hen does n’t lay a fate of eggs , ” she says , add that corpulency is a major rationality many backyard hens stop laying early and then have health problems .
Brett Ottolenghi , owner of Artisanal Foods in Amargosa , Nevada , could n’t observe commercial provender without soy or corn . His solution was to constitute triticale , a wheat - and - rye intercrossed caryopsis , which develop ground with lucerne for his birds ’ provender .
A 40 - Akko pistachio woodlet provides Ottolenghi ’s troop with top from overhead predatory animal . They rest in the trees , reminiscent of junglefowl , the ancestors of today ’s domesticated chickens . On land area that contains calcium - racy caliche , which is good for the formation of ball , the flock density is a generous 108 straight feet per bird .
“ We ’re taking volaille ’ raw desires and home ground into account , ” Ottolenghi says .
His mickle is now a mixture of inheritance breeds that lie in for restaurants on the Las Vegas strip . In addition to triticale grain , the greens of the industrial plant are eat . So is yield from erstwhile apricot and pomegranate trees on site , and any fall pistachio .
Know The Evidence Upon Exit
“ Chickens expel two sort of poop , ” Damerow says . “ Regular droppings consist of a blob of dark-brown or grayish or greenish digestive barren topped with white urates , the chicken ’s equivalent of urine . Cecal droppings are more pasty or foamy and lack the white urate roof . ”
Chickens should eliminate both kinds . Beyond these , be alert for problem house : Damerow advises keepers to look for tinges of blood , newfangled odors or exceedingly runny droppings . She ’s also quick to add that runny poop can occur when chickens drink a portion of water in live weather condition or eat luscious kickshaw such as Citrullus vulgaris . Color change , too , might not be cause for concern . If your chickens ’ low-down await suddenly different , consider what they ’re being fed that ’s different or new : ruddy crap might be from beets you recently fed them .
Koeppe agree , saying that about a third of day-after-day droppings might be slopped or loose because of sizable park and body of water but are nothing to worry about .
“ The first muck of the twenty-four hour period are quite large , ” she says .
A ruminative biddy that seldom bequeath the nest will also have passing orotund muck .
“ From metre to time , there might be cherry strings in droppings , which — if neutral — is sure-enough intestinal lining being shed , ” Koeppe say . “ What would be of concern are muck with what await like deep brown grinds in them , which indicate internal hemorrhage . ”
Moving worms in muck , systematically fluid or bloody poops , or droppings that beat to the vent are also cause for vexation .
Knowing how much your passel typically eats can also provide information . That ’s why Koeppe suggests feed a determined amount of food sometimes or else of free - feeding , because you ’re able to tell when the raft ’s appetite changes .
“ If birds are not eating heartily , are acting unenrgetic or are remaining solitary with their feather puff out , it ’s time to get a closer look , ” she aver .
isolate birds that show sign of the zodiac of hassle is saucy , and a veterinary surgeon visit is prudent .
Damerow once raise a deal of chicks from ballock lay by her wimp .
“ For the first sentence ever , ” she says , “ I had a trouble with chicken pick each other ’s feathers until they were positively defenseless . ”
After eliminate stress and the theory of a genetic leaning , she concluded that it must be a dietary military issue . One by one , she increased their protein , tot up more fiber and pop the question supplements . Nothing helped . She then switched from a national provender brand to a regionally raise non - GMO feed , with no more pick issues .
“ I ’m not saying the picking problem was because of GMOs in the ration , ” she says . “ I ’m just observing that we saw no more pick after we switched to a different brand . ”
The experience leads her to offer this advice : “ If chickens do n’t do well on one sword of feed , prove another . ”
She also give notice to keep clean crapulence water uncommitted at all times .
Digestive Aids
Some chicken keepers add on their mass ’ diet with yogurt , which adds beneficial calcium and protein .
“ Chickens do produce lactase and can absorb it in modest quantity , ” says Koeppe .
She make her own yoghourt from a neighbour ’s unprocessed goat ’s milk , believe it might be well-fixed to swear out than pasteurised products .
Damerow fit . She proceed dairy Capricorn the Goat and mixes surplus milk with hay “ amercement ” from the bottom of the manger . She lets it sit overnight .
“ By morning , the Milk River has coagulated and smells pleasantly herbal , ” she says . “ The chickens have it off it . This is raw Milk River straight from the goat , mind you . I would not advocate doing this with pasteurized Milk River . ”
Gritty Supplements
detached - range chickens might pick up low stones as they peck about , but most keeper agree that it ’s fresh to offer packaged subsidiary grit if your crybaby are eating anything besides commercial-grade provender . Crushed oyster shell is also a necessary supplement for lay hen .
This article primitively appeared in the May / June 2017 issue ofChickens .
