Good Hen Keeping Guide
Healthy hens come with good hygiene and care.. Below I have comprised a general guide to good hen keeping.
I have added disinfectants, mite control, wormers that we use and recommend, you may find other products suit you better.
Hens are generally low maintenance when you keep on top of the foes such as mites, disinfecting, and worming. If these things are left until they are a issue, then you will have an expensive job to right it.
Hens moult once to twice a year, usually starts anywhere between February and April and sometimes August and November. Your hens will become shabby looking, if you look under their feathers you should notice feather spikes appearing, they should go off lay for this time. This can last 3-8 weeks, and can be made quicker by adding vitamins to their diet, there are many useful tonics, and supplements available on the market, most advertise the fact that they help moulting. Adding protein treats also help them, we use meal worms, suet balls for wild birds, and some people use oily fish. Please be aware that if they continue to lay whilst moulting their eggs may become soft or brittle, if they do lay those they may take to eating them. Try not to worry continue adding extra proteins and see it through.
Everyday care..
Your new hens will need letting out first thing in the morning, feeding and clean water.
Eggs will need to be collected at some point, the sooner than later to stop any being stood on or bad habits developing
Your hens will happily scrap and peck around until dusk when they will take themselves to bed at which point you will need to lock them up in hen house to keep them safe from predators.
Cleaning out..
Your hens will need cleaning out regularly, this can mean a quick removal of soiled areas, followed by a monthly thorough clean. Your hens will need to be cleaned out more often winter than summer time, due to less light hours and mud!
Every big clean out you should thoroughly clean with an antivirual disinfectant, we use 'Total Mite Kill' its a insecticide as well as a antivirual disinfectant. This product is available in concerntrate and is a reasonable price online or in some shops. It covers everything you might need.
Another good product is Virkon disinfectant and stalosan F powdered disinfectant.
Good practice is to clean hen house with a insecticide disinfectant and get under roof, into cracks and corners. A good way is to buy a cheap water spray to get to the places that are awkward and/or sprinkle louse powder into bedding.
Worming..
Regular worming is the key to healthy chickens, fluben-vet poultry wormer is the only proven wormer for hens.
This should be done at least once every 4 months, if you have a worm infestaton already it should be done every 3 weeks for a couple of months, then back to the usual 4 months.
Mite and louse control
Please view our mite control page 'fighting mites and louse'. If you regularly spray and clean hen house and lightly dust litter with a powder like 'Battles louse powder', your hens should never get a bad problem.
Good luck and happy chickens!