Cassie LeMaster 0:00

Hello, welcome back to the Extension Connection Podcast. This is Cassie LeMaster Extension Livestock and Forage Agent for Polk County, North Carolina. Today we're back with part two of our series on keeping backyard poultry, and we're gonna pick up with housing. So in designing your housing, remember that low density housing, more space per bird, results in less stress for the birds. Less stress means less pecking and fewer health issues. Consider providing considerably more than the minimum required living space per bird with the opportunity to free range in a grassy area on occasion as well. Allow a minimum of two and a half to three and a half square feet per bird inside the weather tight coop, and an additional minimum of four to five square feet per bird in the fenced outside area. Cover the floor of the inside watertight area with about four inches of moisture, absorbent litter, such as wood shavings. Stir the litter often to keep it dry and to prevent caking. Dry sand is a perfect ground cover for the outside run area of the coop. You may find recommendations for as little as only one and a half to two square feet of total coop space for light breeds such as leghorns or buttercups. And two to two and a half or three square feet of total coop space for larger brown egg laying breeds, such as Rhode Island Reds. These recommendations are for large scale commercial egg production facilities. Keep in mind that these are the minimum spaces in which the hens can survive and produce eggs. The smaller the space, the more likely it is that your hens will experience stress. When designing your chicken coop and run, you must consider these species specific needs. Social housing. A chicken should never be left alone. Laying nests, elevated perches, natural light, and areas for pecking, scratching and sand or dust bathing. Chickens naturally spend 35 to 50% of their day scratching and pecking for food. If they do not have an adequate area in which to forage, they tend to peck, pull and tear at objects or at each other. Be sure that you give your chickens enough space to thrive. You'll need at least one nest box for every four or five hens. The nest box should be located off the floor inside your weatherproof enclosed coop area. A nest 12 inches by 14 inches should be large enough for any breed. Nests should be located at the rear of the hen house away from the windows as the hens preferred darker areas for nesting. Each nest should have a board on the front of adequate height to hold in a six inch deep layer of shavings or straw. Design your coop so you can easily reach into the nesting box. A hinge door accessible from the outside of the coop works well to gather eggs and clean the nests. In addition to this nest space, each bird should have a minimum of nine or 10 inches of perch or roosting space within the weatherproof enclosed housing unit. Make the roosts out of two inch by two inch lumber with the upper edge slightly rounded and place them below the entrance level of the nests, preferably in an area of enclosed housing that is separate and distinct from the nests. Allow about 14 inches of horizontal distance between the perches. For feeding. Allow three linear inches of feeder space per bird and make sure clean fresh water is available at all times. Many small home flocks are allowed at least some time out of the coop or run to range more freely in grassy areas. If the hens are to be allowed outside of their own fenced, outside run, the ranging area should be fenced, especially if your yard is small and there's any chance the hens will wander off your property. If you plan to allow your hens some time to free range within your fenced yard, consider letting them out within the hour before sunset, as they will naturally return to their coop on their own when the sun goes down. You can just close the door behind them. This is much less stressful for the hens and for you than trying to herd them back to their coop after time out in the yard. Hens don't herd very well. Now to egg production. Young hens begin to lay at 16 to 24 weeks of age, depending on breed and environmental conditions. Commercial egg laying operations regulate the number of hours of light their chickens receive each day as a way to ensure an even steady production of the maximum number of eggs. Small backyard garden flocks usually are not placed under this light regulation. With the understanding that egg laying will slow or even stop during the darker months of the year, go ahead and let your hen rest during the shorter daylight months of the year. Egg production will begin again when the days lengthen in the spring. Naturally decreasing day length in the fall or early winter frequently causes hens to molt a natural process by which a hen replaces its feathers and stop laying for about two months. This is normal and not a cause for concern. 12 hens will produce an average of nine or 10 eggs per day for several months with peak production at 32 to 34 weeks of age, and then may slow down until you're averaging only six eggs a day by the 12th month after laying begins. Most eggs will be laid in the morning and should be gathered as soon as possible, and twice a day if possible. Dirty eggs should be cleaned with a dry cloth. Really dirty eggs may be cleaned with a warm damp cloth or with warm egg washing compound. Clean dry eggs should be placed in cartons with a small end down in the carton and the large end facing up and refrigerated as soon as possible. Unless you're very careful manager and find a niche market, you will not make a profit or even recoup your cost through egg sales with a small home flock. Some home flock ordinances prohibit the sale of eggs, and other states may further regulate such sales. Think carefully before you plan to use your eggs as a source of income. Commercial operations, cull hens that are no longer producing eggs at a high rate. This may or may not occur in your own home flock. Now to talk about flock health. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. May sound old fashioned, but it is especially true for poultry. There are very few veterinarians who treat chickens or other poultry. This means that when disease occurs in your flock, you have few options to treat it and prevent it spread to the rest of your flock. Most poultry diseases can be prevented by providing good management and excellent sanitation in the hen house and yard. Make sure you have dry litter, fresh dry food, clean fresh water, good ventilation, and a healthy diet. Understanding causes of disease will help you prevent problems in your flock. Diseases are generally divided into two groups, infectious and non-infectious. The term infectious refers to diseases that can be spread from one bird to another. Non-infectious diseases are not transmitted from one bird to another, but are the result of an environmental condition such as inadequate nutrition, physical or traumatic injury, chemical poisons, or stress. The flock is generally subject to the same environmental conditions. So multiple birds are likely to exhibit the same symptoms of non-infectious conditions. It is important to identify the cause of non-infectious diseases and remove them from the bird's environment. infectious diseases are caused by organisms generally too small to see without a microscope. These organisms invade the bird's body and attack healthy cells resulting in disease. Disease causing organisms can generally be divided into four groups, bacteria, viruses, parasites, and protozoa. Although these groups vary in size and other characteristics, they all like moisture, shade, and rather cool conditions, and can be introduced to your flock in manure or other body secretions from an infected flock or from free living birds. Manure tends to be transported by people, borrowed equipment or during bird shows or auctions. Infected flocks pose a risk only if you visit those flocks and return with the organisms on your boots or clothing. Free living birds generally pose the greatest risk to flocks near ponds or other water sources, but spilled feed will attract birds of all types as well as rodents. Even when taking many precautions, there may come a time when an organism lands on your property and infects your birds, despite the uncrowded, dry, well- ventilated area you have created. It can be days to weeks before you realize that your bird's health has been compromised. This incubation period occurs from the time the birds become infected until they exhibit clinical signs. Unless the birds are sneezing or limping, you may not notice more subtle signs. Birds tend to mask signs of illness until they're quite sick. Of the four types of organisms that routinely infect birds, parasites are the only ones that you may be able to see with the naked eye. Parasites can live inside the bird or outside on the skin, shanks and feathers. Although you cannot see the parasites inside the bird, sometimes parasites are visible in fecal droppings. A visible worm is an adult worm, so your birds have been infected for at least several weeks if you see one. There might be loose stools with or without evidence of blood. Internal parasites require either oral treatment or injection. Visit your farm supply store and ask for help in finding the appropriate product for treating intestinal parasites. Birds should generally be treated at least two times to break the development cycle. Conventional parasite treatments generally kill adult worms but not eggs, which means that a second treatment is needed to kill any leftover eggs that hatch out after the initial treatment. The interval between treatments should be two to three weeks, follow the label directions, and always adhere to withdrawal times for eating eggs or meat from treated birds. For those growing organic birds, some essential oils from plants have been shown to kill some parasites in laboratory setting. These studies have not been validated in live poultry. Conventional dewormers are very safe and are a good choice, if permissible. To prevent reinfestation, clean the coop, and run thoroughly, allow plenty of sunlight and air movement through and if possible, move birds to a new location for a time. External parasites. Infestations with mites and lice can be irritating to your birds. You might see areas of skin irritation on your birds, and they might try to scratch themselves by rubbing against objects within their reach. You may notice feather loss, red, irritated skin, or small scabs on the skin. You may see mites on the shanks, which appear white and powdery. Medicated dust baths using either an insecticide powder or diatomaceous earth should rid the birds of their parasites. These products change over time, and the ones currently approved for use often can be found at the same store where you purchase your feed. Know that some products will require that you discard any eggs produced for a period of time after use. If a medicated dust does not work, an injectable insecticide might be needed. Again, herbs such as fleabane, pyrethrum, and garlic are believed to be effective against external parasites on dogs, but there are no data to support these claims in poultry. Whatever treatment you consider, it's important that birds be treated. Birds with parasites will at a minimum not produce eggs or meat as efficiently, and if the infestation is severe, they could die. For more information, you can check out this section in this fact sheet, on diseases Keeping garden chickens in North Carolina. Now, unfortunately, mortality in small flocks is more likely to occur from predation than disease. Either way, you need a plan to deal with the remains. Depending on the size of your flock and how often your birds die, you may need to have a mortality disposal system in place. Most growers with fewer than 25 birds bury their mortality on the property. Approved methods for disposal include burial, composting, and incineration. It is best to dispose of birds, particularly birds that died from an infectious disease on your property rather than removing them, which could result in disease spread. If you have questions about mortality disposal, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Service is a good source of information as they regulate mortality disposal in North Carolina. Litter Management. You will reduce odor risks if you keep bedding dry and be sure to clean out old manure on days when there is breeze, preferably blowing away from neighbor homes. Never clean out or spread manure when neighbors are using their yard for entertaining or for family recreation. Flies are potentially the most serious nuisance in a home flock and control requires daily attention. The best way to control flies is to manage the manure so that it is not attractive for fly breeding. Reducing the natural 60 to 80% moisture levels of the manure to 30% or less will virtually eliminate fly breeding. Stir the bedding daily so that the manure is more evenly spread throughout and moisture can be absorbed. Pest management, rats and mice like chicken feed will kill young chickens and will destroy eggs. Keeping all feed and metal containers and using metal or wire shields around all chicken houses and runs, will help keep rats out and keeping all trash and all sheds clean and organized will eliminate breeding areas. To minimize disease and pest risks, keep the coop dry. Dispose of excess water from dishes and buckets so there are no stagnant pools. And make sure the ground allows for good drainage. Keep the coop area neat and clean. A weedy area with old equipment lying around will all but guarantee complaints by neighbors. Troublesome habits. Egg eating may become a problem in your home flock. Once a hen starts eating eggs, the habit is difficult to stop. The best way to prevent egg eating is to prevent egg breakage in the nest. Make sure there is adequate nesting material and space that eggs are gathered frequently. Once you have a problem, darken the nest area. Remove broody hens and place glass eggs or torn pieces of white paper on the floor to frustrate the hens who are pecking at eggs or egg pieces. Artificial eggs painted white of comparable size may also be used to deter egg eating, as the hen will get no reward from pecking the artificial egg. The final and possibly most disturbing problem you may encounter is cannibalism. Chickens may exhibit cannibalism in the form of toe picking, feather picking, or body picking, especially if the birds are confined, housed in too small an area or otherwise under stress. If you see chickens pecking at each other, try to determine the environmental stressor that may be encouraging the behavior and modify the environment as best you can to remove that stressor. Immediately remove an injured bird and do not return her to the flock until fully healed. Some chicken owners beak trim the hens to prevent injury from cannibalism. This should not be necessary in a garden flock that has adequate space to thrive. Cannibalism is rarely a problem in small backyard flocks with only two or three birds. Partly because such flocks are often kept in environments with little stress. Social pecking orders are stable in small flocks. Once social structure is established, aggression is very low. Adequate space allows subordinate hens to keep their distance and still get enough food and water. For more resources on this topic, contact me here at the extension office and I can point you in the right direction for your questions. Thanks again for tuning in. You can find a new podcast episode every Wednesday, a new livestock topic the third Wednesday of every month. Thanks again for tuning in to the Extension Connection.