By Katy Donovan

There are many management practices that should be followed if you want to own a chicken. One is ‘Blinkers’. This is that the use of blinkers or other vision impairing equipment should not be used with out veterinary advise. They are not to be used in caged birds, they interfere with the access to water and food.

Dubbing or Desnooding is another practice. This should only be done by a competent operator soon after hatching. It is not to be performed on broiler birds.

Toe removal prevents injury to hens during mating. It is on male breeding birds and may be removed within 3 days of hatching. It is the terminal segment of each in-ward pointing toe.

What to feed Chickens

What to feed Chickens cont…

Egg Production

One of the diseases chickens can get is egg peritonitis. This is when the peritoneum becomes inflamed due to an infection from bacteria. Things like sudden death, loss of appetite, weakness, depression and yolk coloured droppings are some of the symptoms of egg peritonitis. Some chickens have been treated with medication like antibiotics to treat this disease. Some other ways are having fluid drawn off but it is often better to have the chicken put to sleep. There are no ways to prevent this, only treat it.

External Parasites-

Poultry Lice

Poultry lice are found on the chicken’s skin and feathers. They feed on blood, dry skin scales and feather parts. If your chicken has poultry lice, the easiest treatment is dusting your chickens with a proprietary lice powder. This will kill off any living lice but will need to be repeated 7 days later to catch any eggs that the first lot of lice left behind. All your chickens may need to be treated if one of them has it.

Want more chickens?

Why keep a Rooster?

For starters, roosters are male chickens and if you want your hens to give birth to beautiful tiny little baby chickens and keep your chicken farm growing, you will need a few roosters in your chicken farm.