Natural supplements are a great way to keep your homestead flock healthy using holistic methods that both heal and nourish your chickens. However, many natural supplements do not come with specific dosages for chickens since little study has been done using natural supplements for small scale-poultry raising. Natural supplements are foods or medicinal plants that you can use to achieve a desired result in your flock’s health. Learning the best way to use the appropriate amounts of specific natural supplements can help you keep your homestead flock healthy and their diet balanced! This Supplement Dosages for Chickens Guide should get you off to a good start!

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Why does it matter?

Some natural supplements are safe enough to give your flock in moderate amounts as a healthy snack or treat. Other natural supplements are so potent that they are best used in specific dosages. And still other times you are trying to use a natural supplement to heal a condition, in which regular dosages would be the most affective. 

By knowing how much of a supplement is needed to provide a specific benefit, you can use that supplement most effectively to achieve your desired results. Whether that be increasing the protein content in your flock’s feed, providing more of a specific vitamin, or using natural medicine to heal an ailment. 

You should know how much of a natural supplement to give your flock for these important reasons:

• Other Nutrients: even though you may be using a supplement for one specific nutrient, the supplement still contains other nutrients that impact the diet
• Balanced Diet: you want to make sure flock’s diet still stays balanced even when using natural supplements to prevent deficiencies or side affects 
• Under Dosing: if you are trying to treat an ailment, using specific dosages of a supplement can prevent under dosing which would yield no affects 
• Overdosing: using specific amounts of supplements can also prevent overdosing which could lead to dietary imbalances and side effects 
• Record Keeping: you can easily keep track of what natural remedies work best for your flock when you administer supplements in measured quantities 
• Achieving Specific Results: purposefully using certain dosages of natural supplements can help heal ailments faster than just random supplement dosages

Treat or Supplement? Treats and table scraps that are fed on an as-available basis are not considered natural supplements.

Essential Tips for Using Natural Supplements

• Frequency– Only supplements used to promote general good health should be used on a regular basis.
• Duration– Most natural remedies used for treating ailments should be used on a 7-10 day cycle. Do one week on the supplement, then take one week off before administering the supplement again if necessary. 
• Efficiency– Natural supplements do not work immediately, they need to be used consistently in order to heal an ailment. 
• Size– Dosages will depend on the size of the chicken. Bantam chicken breeds can have a 1/3 less of the recommended dosages. 
• Diet– A natural supplement should generally not exceed 10-15% of a chicken’s normal daily feed intake. An average size hen eats about 1/2 cup (1/4lb) of feed per day, which means about 1-1.5 T. of a supplement would be 10% of the daily diet. 
• Sickness– Chickens who are off their feed (usually because they’re sick) can still consume the 10% supplement ration since the supplement should be used to heal them. 

Common Natural Supplement Dosages for Chickens

Studies have been done on some more popular natural supplements, like the herb oregano, for use in the commercial poultry industry. Some of that research may be helpful for homesteaders. However, the data does not always apply directly to a small-scale homestead flock. And then there’s other natural supplements that the commercial industry doesn’t want to put time and money into but that can be extremely helpful for the homestead flock.

Here is a list of some common, beneficial natural supplements used for the homestead flock. I’ve also included the recommended dosages or usage guidelines. The following dosages are per chicken per day or dosage per amount of feed/water. 

General Health Supplements:

• kelp: 3.5 T. per 10lbs feed
• garlic: 4 large cloves per gallon of water
• cooked elderberries: 1 T. per day
• probiotics: 5 grams per 1 gallon of water OR 1/2 cup per 20lbs of feed
• apple cider vinegar: 1-2 T. per gallon of water
• fodder: 2-3% of adult chicken’s body weight per day
• sprouted seeds/grains: 2-3% of adult chicken’s body weight per day

Herbs & Spices: 1 T. per day or 1 tsp 3x daily unless otherwise noted

• oregano: use as needed
• parsley: can be offered free-choice on a regular basis
• wormwood: 1/4lb per 15lbs of feed, use with caution as it can be toxic
• nasturtium: use for worming, can be fed on a weekly basis
• black walnut: 1/4lb per 15lbs of feed, use with caution as it can be toxic
• thyme: can use on a weekly basis
• rosemary
• sage
• astragalus
• ginger
• cayenne pepper: 1 tsp. per day, very powerful spice
• turmeric
• cinnamon
• calendula

Most herbs can also be offered fresh and free-choice, however, free-choice feeding does not help you record specific dosages. Herbs and spices are best administered by mixing into feed, fermented feed, or healthy treats. Herbs can also be made into a tea for adding to your flock’s water.

Holistic Remedies:

• elderberry syrup: 1-2 mL per day OR 4-6 T. per 1 gallon of water
• black strap molasses: 2 cups per 5 gallons of water
• electrolytes: 1/8th tsp. baking soda + 1/8th tsp. salt + 2 tsp. honey per 1 cup of water
• Epsom salts: 1 lb per 5 gallons of water
• honey: 1/2 tsp. 3x daily OR 1/2 cup dissolved per 1 gallon of water
• herbal tonics: generally 2-4 T. per gallon of water
• herbal tinctures: 6-10 drops per day (low dose), 10-15 drops per day (high dose)
• collodial silver: 2-3 drops 2x per day
• diatomaceous earth: 2 cups per 50 lbs of feed

Disclaimer: Please note, I am not a veterinarian or herbalist. These dosages are recommendations and come from personal experience as well as my own research. These dosages are basic guidelines and they may need to be adjusted to achieve the desired results for your flock. The good thing is that most natural supplements can be used with flexibility. Just as long as they are not used for an extended period of time. 

How to Use the Pearson’s Square

The Pearson’s square is a helpful formula for adapting the nutritional value of your flock’s feed. You can use it when figuring out dosages for adding natural supplements to your flock’s diet. The Pearson’s square is most helpful when adding a supplement to your flock’s feed. Adding supplements to your flock’s feed can increase a specific nutritional value in the feed. You can use it to simply find out how much of the supplement you need to mix into the feed to achieve a certain nutritional value. 

There are two things you need to know when calculating supplement dosages using the Pearson’s square: the nutritional values of both the feed and the supplement and the desired nutritional value you are aiming for by mixing the supplement into the feed. You also need to express the values in percentage to parts.

Here’s the basics of the Pearson’s square formula:

• the center value needs to be the nutritional value you are aiming for in the mixed ration, it also needs to be intermediate between the values on the left of the square
• the values of the supplement and feed should be placed at the top left corner and bottom left corner and the goal value should be in the middle of the square
• if you are trying to decrease a value, the value in the bottom left corner of the square needs to be lower than the value at the top left of the square
• if you are trying to increase a value, the value at the bottom left corner of the square needs to be higher than the value at the top lefto of the square
• subtract on the angles, subtracting smallest from largest: so the supplement value minus the goal value will give you a numerical value to place in the bottom right corner and ration value minus the goal value will give you a numerical value to place in the top right corner
• ignore any negatives you get in the subtractions and simply consider the results at numerical value
• the results on the right side of the square are the parts you need to combine to achieve the goal value 
• to convert the parts to a percentage: add the two numerical values on the right to arrive at a total, then divide the bottom right numerical value by the total and multiply it by 100 to arrive at the percentage that the supplement needs to make up of the feed to achieve the goal value of nutrition

If that all sounds confusing, check out the graphic below to hopefully clarify the calculation process:

Supplements Used to Adjust Feed Composition

There are many grains, seeds, and other supplements you can mix into your flock’s feed to adapt the nutritional composition. Keep in mind that you only want to adjust your flock’s feed for a specific purpose. For example, you can increase the protein in layer feed to help with the fall molt by mixing in the proper ratio of a protein rich supplement.

Here are some common feed mix-ins that adjust certain nutritional elements of your flock’s feed:

• black soldier fly grubs– protein, calcium
• corn– energy
• alfalfa– protein, energy
• whole oats– protein, fiber
• sunflower seeds– protein, linoleic acid (type of fat)
• quinoa– protein 

You can use general health natural supplements on a regular basis to keep your flock healthy and more specific natural remedies to even treat or cure ailments in your flock. But knowing how to correctly use natural supplements and how much to give of a supplement to your chickens is key to ensuring the supplement is used effectively and your flock’s diet stays balanced. By following these general natural supplement dosage guidelines, you should be able to keep your homestead flock healthy… naturally and holistically!

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By Alexa