How to Prevent Disease & Death in Chickens

How to Prevent Disease & Death in Chickens
by Alexa Lehr | The Pioneer Chicks | Sept. 3, 2024
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Preventing disease & death in the homestead flock is my number one priority every year! It seems like everything I do for my chickens revolves around what will keep them the healthiest and the happiest. I know this may sound depressing, but every year I review my flock’s mortality rate and try and do better each year. Over the years, I have seen a sharp decrease in my flock’s mortality rate and I attribute that decrease to my increased knowledge of how to best raise a homestead flock of chickens. The following 10 precautions that I list may sound simple at first, but if you practice each one, you will be able to prevent disease and death in your flock!

#1. Practice Good Biosecurity

Every homesteader probably already knows this precaution to preventing disease and death in their flock. However, not everyone knows what good biosecurity actually means. In my article on BioSsecurity Tips for Backyard Chickens, I go over 8 simple measures you can take to practice good biosecurity on a regular basis.

Good biosecurity is meant to protect your flock from diseases that may come from outside sources. While cleaning, not sharing equipment, and keeping a closed flock are important, they do not always do the job or are practical. I feel that the single most effective way to practice good biosecurity in a homestead flock is to buy chickens from a reputable source.

There are now many ways that you can acquire chickens, either through a farm store, hatchery, breeders, poultry shows, small animals swaps, Facebook, Craigslist, and the list goes on. No matter where you find chickens, always do some research into who you are buying from. When researching a source, consider these factors:

• Is the area where the chicks or chickens kept clean?
• Do the chicks or chickens themselves look healthy?
• Does the source you are buying from practice biosecurity?
• Can you get genetic history for the birds you are going to buy?
• Does the resource have a reputation for selling healthy, strong birds?

Remember to always ask questions. If the resource is reliable and honest, they should be happy to answer your questions and tell you all about their birds! Well-bred birds who come from a reliable source will be less likely to have genetic diseases or internal problems like cancer.

Starting off with healthy, strong birds in your homestead flock goes a long way for preventing future problems. Allowing your flock to reproduce on their own is a great way to minimize risks while still adding birds to your flock as well.

Action Step: Buy chicks from a reliable resource or allow your chickens to reproduce on their own!

#2. Do Regular Health Checks

Performing a regular health check on your homestead flock is a great way to prevent disease. A health check allows you to examine each bird in your flock individually. You can identify any potential sources of disease or hidden symptoms that may not be immediately apparent. While monitoring the overall health of your entire flock is important, monitoring each individual’s health can help prevent the spread of a disease or parasite.

A health check entails examining each bird from beak to toe for sign of disease, injury, or parasites. Some common things to look for when doing a health check include:

• poop stuck to the vent feathers
• external parasites and their eggs (commonly found near the vent)
• bumblefoot
• gurgling or rattling noises from respiration
• dirty, crusty, raised scales on the legs and feet (indication of scaly leg mites)
• missing feathers
• yellow pigmentation of the feet, legs, face, and around the vent of laying hens (indicates that the hen is not laying)
• pale, shriveled, or abnormally colored comb and wattles

Identifying a problem in one bird before it gets too serious could save your entire flock. Plus, it’s a lot easier to manage one sick bird rather than a whole flock of sick birds. I recommend doing a chicken health check once every month. Regular health checks will help you keep control of your flock’s health and prevent death in the flock.

Action Step: Add a chicken health check for your flock to your monthly homestead planner.

#3. Be Prepared for First Aid Emergencies

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And this can be true of being prepared as well! Chickens are small animals, so when they get sick, they tend to go downhill quickly. Plus they instinctually hide any early symptoms as much as possible. However, there are actually many ailments that can be treated successfully if you have the right tools on hand.

Being prepared to treat a disease, injury, or ailment in your flock can easily prevent the ailment from becoming too serious and spreading to other flock members or causing death. Here are some ways you can be prepared to deal with injuries and ailments in your flock and prevent disease and death:

• First Aid Kit– Have a chicken first aid kit that is easily accessible and contains some of the essential poultry first aid supplies.
• Know First Aid– Know basic poultry first aid. (Chicken First Aid Crash Course)
• Be Pro-Active– Be pro-active about preventing disease and parasites. Following these 10 precautions is one step towards being pro-active about your flock’s health!
• Internal Parasites– Have an all-natural wormer on hand for when your flock shows signs of having a worm overload.
• External Parasites– Have a reliable external parasite treatment available for immediately dealing with parasite infestations.

Action Step: Put together a chicken first aid kit.

#4. Clean Regularly

Disease, germs, and harmful pathogens often like environments that we would consider dirty and gross. That’s why cleaning is so important for maintaining the health of your flock. Not only should the coop be clean, but the enclosure or run should also be clean if your flock spends any significant amount of time there.

Everybody’s cleaning regime will be different since there are many styles of coops, different litters, and unique schedules to work around. However, here are the cleaning basics for preventing an environment where disease could thrive:

• Ideally, clean up your flock’s nightly droppings every day in the coop.
• Manage daily droppings by promoting the composting process of the droppings in the litter.
• Do a yearly coop cleaning that will thoroughly remove dust, debris, and droppings from the coop.
• Clean the chicken coop enclosure weekly to prevent the build-up of manure and other scraps.
• Practice pasture rotation if you pasture raise your birds.
• Clean water founts every day to prevent the build up of algae and bacteria.
• Empty, clean, and sanitize feeders at least once a year.

Cleaning may sound like a lot of work, but I have good news for you! DON’T be a clean freak about your chicken coop! A little bit of droppings and messiness actually helps your chickens build up immunity to disease and parasites.

If all sources of disease and parasites are eradicated from your flock’s living area, they will be more susceptible when a disease or parasite does become present in their environment. The goal is to prevent a build up of messiness where disease and parasites can thrive and become out of control. Exposure to small amounts of pathogens and parasites can help a chicken’s body build immunity to diseases and parasites.

Action Step: Create a cleaning plan for your chicken coop and enclosure.

#5. Raise Em’ Natural

Raising chickens naturally should be easy on the homestead!

When someone mentions raising chickens naturally, my mind tends to go immediately to herbs and natural supplements. However, there is much, much more to raising chickens naturally! I have now come to view that phrase as meaning more like raising chickens in a natural setting. Paying more attention to how chickens would have survived in the wild and what their physical make-up requires for them to survive.

Here are what I consider the basics of raising chickens naturally:

• Free-Range– Free-range your flock or let them have access to pasture. Roaming and searching for food is a natural instinct for chickens.
• Instinctual Behaviors– Allow instinctual behaviors like nesting, dust bathing, mating, preening, perching, and foraging.
• Pioneer Breeds– Choose heritage chicken breeds. If bought from a reliable resource, heritage breeds will live longer, produce better, and thrive in a homestead setting.
• Supplements– Use natural supplements to create a balanced diet.
• Herbs– Use herbs to prevent disease and promote overall good health. (learn how to use herbs with chickens properly first though!)
• Holistic Remedies– Try using natural remedies to treat or prevent disease and parasites.

Raising chickens naturally can be viewed as mimicking how a chicken would survive in the wild while still keeping in mind that our modern day chickens are very different from their wild ancestors.

Raising chickens naturally helps prevent disease and death by allowing them to live a natural lifestyle. It allows us to work with a chicken’s natural instincts and needs without introducing foreign chemicals, substances, or un-natural behaviors. Raising chickens naturally can prevent un-healthy stress, promote a strong immune system, and support overall good health to fight off disease!

Action Step: Incorporate one natural element into your weekly flock care routine.

#6. Watch for Signs & Symptoms

Watching for signs and symptoms of disease in your flock goes right along with being pro-active and doing regular health checks. Since chickens are prey animals and since they live in a dynamic flock, individuals who are sick often don’t show symptoms until the ailment is far progressed. However, some symptoms may appear early on without showing any other indication of sickness.

Some of things I listed under performing a regular health check are also early indications of illness that you can look for. Other signs of illness include:

• listlessness & droopiness
• ruffled feathers
• limping
• excessive preening (may indicate external parasites)
• weight loss
• shriveled/pale comb & wattles
• diarrhea

By observing your flock and watching for non-normal behaviors, you can keep a sharp look out for the beginning signs of illness. If you catch a disease or ailment as soon as possible, you have a better chance of treating that ailment.

Action Step: Make it a point to watch your flock for a few minutes each day to monitor their behavior.

#7. Evaluate the Environment

Another consideration to make when trying to prevent disease and death in the homestead flock is evaluating the environment. Every homestead flock lives in a different environment. Whether it be in a backyard or on a farm, the environment that a chicken lives in will affect its overall health. Certain environments can also present specific hazards or risks.

Here are things to evaluate when considering your flock’s environment:

• Are your chickens close to any other animals? This could be other chickens, wildlife, pets, or other farm animals.
• Do you live in the woods? A field? A city suburb?
• Is the area where your chickens live/roam exposed to the elements or is it more sheltered?

Chickens who live near or around other animals are exposed to more harmful pathogens and disease. However, if exposed in small amounts, your chickens can build up immunity to many of the diseases that may be present in their environment. The location of where your chickens live or are allowed to roam will also influence their health. A flock that mostly forages in a grassy backyard will experience different issues than a flock who forages mostly in the woods.

Lastly, the amount of exposure your chickens get to their outside environment will impact their health and immunity. By exposure, I mean both free-range exposure and element exposure. Confined chickens will have different issues than free-ranged chickens. Likewise, chickens who live more exposed to the elements will have different needs than chickens who live in a more sheltered environment.

Controlling what elements your chickens come in contact with along with recognizing what risks each of those environmental elements present will help you prevent disease and death in your flock.

Action Step: Make a list of the factors in your flock’s environment that could cause health issues. Think of things like mud puddles, swamps, wild birds, insects, harmful plants, etc….

#8. Be Aware of Regional Conditions

The region in which you live will present its own unique challenges to your flock’s health. Learning to raise chickens in your specific region is part of the responsibility of raising a homestead flock.

In my article, Regional Chicken Keeping Considerations, I go over a couple of the most common regions and provide some tips for raising chickens in each region. How you care for your flock will differ from other homesteaders based on what region you live in.

Some common regional differences that you will have to consider are:

• What seasonal weather your region experiences (lots of rain, snow, etc…).
• Does your region experience more consistently warm temperatures or cool temperatures?
• Is your region known for specific weather patterns? (hurricanes, flooding, windiness, etc…)
• Does your region have regular seasonal changes or does it stay consistent throughout the year?

Extreme cold, extreme heat, windiness, excessive mud, and other regional factors can all have an impact on the health of your flock. Being prepared to deal with these conditions will help you prevent disease and death in your homestead flock.

Action Step: Make a list of the regional elements in your area that could affect the health of your flock. Consider things like winterizing the chicken coop or preventing heat stress.

#9. Control the Diet

You know we couldn’t get away without talking about one of my favorite chicken keeping topics: their diet! I love getting ‘science-y’ and doing in-depth research, but I’ll just keep it simple for now.

Controlling your flock’s diet is key to helping them maintain good health. So many things can be consumed by chickens that will either help or hinder their ability to stay healthy. Even too much of a good thing can be detrimental to their health and cause death. Overdoses and under-doses of certain dietary elements can cause deficiencies, disease, and death.

The key to keeping chickens healthy through their diet is balance. Balancing the homestead flock’s diet is actually easier than it sounds. It starts with choosing a healthy, well-rounded chicken feed. Then you can use natural supplements and herbs to boost certain aspects of chicken health, like the immune system, digestive system, or respiratory system. Balance the amount of kitchen scraps, garden scraps, and treats your flock gets by offering things in moderation and with consideration.

I wrote a whole article on how to balance the homestead flock’s diet, so I encourage you to check it out!

Another key aspect about your flock’s diet that will keep them healthy is feeding the right food for the right ages and genders. Chicks and young birds need a different food than older birds. Roosters thrive better on a different diet than laying hens. Certain breeds even have different dietary needs than others. All ages and breeds can be given supplements and scraps in moderation and with consideration to their age and body size. Sometimes these supplements and scraps can even help balance out any dietary needs that are specific to individual birds.

Action Step: Consider how you can adapt your flock’s diet to enhance their overall health.

#10. Have Good Management

While all the precautions mentioned above can be considered good management, there are some other management tips that can help you prevent disease and death in your flock.

• have plenty of space- Space can go a long way towards preventing the build-up and spread of a disease or ailment.
• proper care- Chickens who have their daily needs (food, water, shelter) met every day will be less stressed, more happy, and a lot healthier!
• control sources of parasites and disease- Remember those lists you made for #7 and #8? Consider how you can eliminate or decrease the affects those factors will have on your flock.
• quarantine– Immediately quarantining sick birds, new birds, or birds who have been transported off your property is a good bio-security management practice.
• start early- Start practicing these precautions as soon as you have chicks to keep them healthy throughout their adult life!
• care for the young before the old- If you have different ages of chickens, care for the youngest birds first. Also, care for any healthy birds before tending to sick or quarantined birds.

Managing your flock well will ensure that your flock is not stressed, has controlled exposure to harmful pathogens, and can stay healthy.

If you check off these 10 precautions, then you are well on your way to preventing disease and death in your homestead flock! From practicing good bio-security to controlling external factors to balancing their diet, there are many things you can do to promote good health and build a chicken’s immunity to prevent disease. A chicken’s health is fragile, but homestead chickens can live to a ripe old age and be none the worse for wear!

Wondering if your flock is a homestead flock? It doesn’t take much! All you have to do is be a modern pioneer with a few chickens! Join our modern pioneer community for tips on how to raise a homestead flock as well as get your modern pioneer starter package!