A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens (34 page)

Some jobs can be done weekly:

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Cleaning out the henhouse

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Cleaning the run and dust-bath

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Repairs and maintenance

•
Giving the hens a thorough physical check

Probably not a favourite job but an important one – remember that chickens do most of their droppings at night.

Arm yourself with rubber gloves and wear old clothes or overalls. Keep your cleaning-out tools together where they are easily accessible.

Take out the perches and droppings board. Remove the dirty bedding to the compost heap – make sure the chickens can’t play with it.

Clean out the nest-boxes – you can save on bedding by recycling clean nest-box material to use on the henhouse floor.

Use a scraper and stiff brush to give the house, perches and droppings board a thorough clean.

Leave the house to air with the door open in fine weather. Disinfectant powder helps dry-up wet patches.

Cleaning out the henhouse is an important job and everyone can help

Put in fresh bedding – preferably an hour or so before the chickens go to roost so any dust can settle. Add insect repellent or diatomaceous earth as necessary.

When cleaning out, look for any signs of red mite (see
Chapter 11
) and take immediate action. They multiply very quickly, especially in warm weather.

Plastic houses can be hosed out – as long as the house is thoroughly dry before the chickens go to bed.

Give the feeder and drinker a good scrub as part of your cleaning routine – disinfect them occasionally.

If you regularly pick up droppings in the run, the weekly clean will be much easier. Remove droppings and any spilt food. You may need to turn the run material over, change it or hose it down. Use sanitizing products regularly, especially in warm weather.

Remove feathers and droppings from the dust-bath. Add fresh sand as necessary. Mite powder or diatom can be sprinkled into the dust-bath to help with parasite control.

Look for signs of gnawing – this was done by a fox trying to gain access through the pop-hole

When cleaning the henhouse, see if anything needs attention. Find loose door catches or weak spots in the run before the fox does! Look for any evidence of rats – droppings, wood being gnawed, small tunnels – and deal with them quickly (see
Chapter 9
).

Check electric fencing and trim any vegetation that may cause it to lose power.

If the chickens are unwilling to be caught, wait until evening when they can be easily picked off their perches. A large landing net is useful for catching a chicken in the daytime – with a little practice it can be dropped over the bird fairly easily. Don’t try chasing chickens. You are unlikely to catch them but will cause them stress (and end up hot and stressed yourself too).

Hold the chicken securely but not tightly – enlist an assistant if possible – and check the following (see also
Chapter 11
):

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Are there any injuries or swellings?

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Does the hen feel lighter or heavier than usual? A sharp breastbone is a sign of weight loss.

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Look carefully under the feathers for any signs of lice or mites, and dust the bird with mite powder when necessary.

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The crop (at the base of the neck) will be full if the chicken has just eaten, but should be loose and empty by the morning.

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Eyes, ears, nose and vent should be clean with no discharge.

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Breathing – are there any rattling noises?

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Legs and feet – scales should be flat, with no build-up of debris on feet.

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If nails are starting to curl under, trim the tips with nail clippers, cutting above the dark line – a styptic pencil is useful, just in case the nail bleeds.

Regularly give each hen a thorough physical check

Look under the feathers for lice or mites

Check that the vent is clean

Remembering Other Tasks

There will be other occasional jobs to do. These might include:

•
Worming

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Changing the run material

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Moving electric fencing

•
Scrubbing the henhouse

•
Preparing the henhouse for winter

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Wing clipping

All chickens are at risk from several kinds of internal worms. They are passed on through droppings or may be transmitted via wild birds, earthworms, slugs and snails.

A chicken with a worm problem will become thin and listless. The feathers will look dull and rough, and the comb pale. The chicken may have diarrhoea and worms are sometimes visible in droppings. Egg production will be affected, with paler yolks – worms have even been known to appear in the eggs! The bird will be weakened and susceptible to disease or may die from the build-up of internal parasites.

Worming a chicken with a heavy infestation can also result in death due to the toxins released from the worms when they are destroyed. Regular worming helps to keep internal parasites from reaching dangerous levels.

Flubenvet wormer is licensed (and therefore fully tested) for chickens, and can be purchased from the vet, via online outlets and from some feed stores. It should only be sold by a suitably qualified person (SQP). When buying online you should be asked to complete a form and be given additional information about the drug.

Flubenvet is added to feed over a seven-day period. Mixing the powder with a little vegetable oil helps it to stick to feed pellets rather than sifting through to the bottom. It can also be mixed with wet mash. Alternatively you can buy pellets that include Flubenvet but this might prove expensive if the feed passes its expiry date before it is time to worm again.

Your vet can prescribe other types of wormer, but there will be an ‘egg-withdrawal period’ when you cannot eat the eggs. This will be advised by the vet. Flubenvet has no withdrawal period so you can continue to eat the eggs, although not the chicken itself until seven days after treatment has finished.

The general advice is to administer Flubenvet at least every six months – in early spring when mild days encourage worms to hatch and again in autumn to clear up the summer crop. Winter weather should then stop any more emerging until the following spring.

Your chickens may need worming more frequently than this. Chickens in a static run are likely to be more challenged by worms than those regularly moved to fresh ground. Ex-battery hens will have no natural immunity to worms. Consult your vet for advice on individual worming regimes or if you suspect a bad infestation.

When dealing with an infestation be prepared to dose again after a couple of weeks. This is to destroy the worms that will have hatched after the first treatment.