Avoiding and Treating Health Problems in Poultry

The suggestions given here are for general purposes only. For specific advice please contact your veterinarian.

How can I control flies in the barn?

To avoid fly problems, keep the barn clean, dry and well ventilated so that the droppings dry out quickly. Add sawdust to wet areas in the barn or add new bedding daily. An effective, but labour-intensive, way to break the life cycle of the flies is to clean out the bedding every seven days. Adding bentonite to the feed (at a rate of 2-5% of feed) makes the droppings dry faster, and helps to reduce problems with both odour and flies.

How is coccidiosis controlled without using chemicals?

Unlike conventional feeds, organic feed does not contain coccidiostats. Most organic poultry farmers do not have problems with this disease. Providing adequate ventilation, clean dry bedding, and reducing the density of flocks can reduce the incidence of coccidiosis. Using a premium feed with probiotics, adding diatomaceous earth to the feed, and using organic feed with a lower protein, higher fibre formula may also reduce problems.

My chickens are attacking each other; what can I do?

Egg-eating, pecking, cannibalism - these unhealthy behaviours can cause devastating losses in both small and large flocks. Fortunately, these behaviours can often be prevented through good management, such as maintaining a maximum flock size of 60-70 birds in any one area, and providing areas for foraging, dust baths and scratching. Behavioural problems can develop from unbalanced nutrition with inadequate levels of protein or methionine. Also, low-fibre diets tend to leave hens unsatisfied and more likely to become aggressive or destructive.

Recommended solutions:

• Feed organic poultry feed at the recommended amounts for the age, class and type of poultry (as per the previous feeding tables). The feed is carefully balanced to provide complete nutrition, however the actual intake of protein and nutrients can be lower if the birds are free-ranging or eating other food.
• Provide crab meal free choice to boost the levels of protein and methionine and correct problems of cannibalism.
• Offer free choice oyster shells to improve the calcium levels if egg-eating is a problem.
• Provide kelp free choice to provide additional micronutrients to correct a range of behavioural problems.
• Keep the birds busy as boredom can induce violent and aggressive behaviour. If they are not free-ranging, scatter a small quantity of mixed grains and/or fresh greens in the bedding. This will allow them to scratch and perform normal foraging behaviour. Oats are also particularly valuable in reducing cannibalism.
• Segregate the cannibalistic birds quickly as such behaviour can be copied by the others.