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You are here: Home / Herbs in Use / Happy Balding Hens

Happy Balding Hens

May 19, 2020 By SandRa Timmins Leave a Comment

I’ve been having fun lately making up herbal concoctions for our flock of ladies.

bantam rooster with a rose comb, natural chicken keeping
Ice is our bantam rooster with a rose comb. Peaches is a buff orpington x

We currently have 33 chooks (four of those are roosters) and 15 chicks. Too many really but we are a family of five and we like our eggs!

mixed breed pullets, natural chicken keeping
Some young-uns

They free-range around our property when they’re not locked up at night, so they’re pretty lucky and have access to green pastures, tasty weeds and if they’re really naughty fresh fruit and vegetables from the garden!

free range chickens
Blue, our blue orpington x silkie, looking gorgeous

Right now though most of them are molting so just to give them an extra boost I’ve formulated a herbal crumble supplement..

moulting chicken
Poor Blue

When chickens are moulting they need vitamin A, folic acid and zinc for feather growth. As well as extra protein, warmth (circulation) and they’re a little down in the dumps and exposed, so some immunity support as well. They won’t be laying eggs as their energy is going into feather growth rather than egg production, so expect empty nests.

Moulting chicken herbal blend
She’s like a shadow of her former self

In my Moulting Blend (yep, it has a capitalised title because it’s going to be up for sale soon) I have…

  • Flaxseeds… folic acid (B9), feather growth
  • Garlic… warming, protection from infection, vit A
  • Parsley… vit A, protein, feather growth
  • Dill seed… high protein
  • Mint… feather growth, digestive health
  • Star anise… warming, anti-microbial
  • Seaweed… all round health, zinc

Moulting is a natural thing to happen to your chooks, usually yearly and usually in autumn. You can’t stop it and you can’t speed up the re-growth but you can make sure they’re getting a bit of a boost in the vitamins and minerals they need to supplement their normal balanced feed.

I’m giving my girls about a teaspoon each, every 4 days.

Moulting mama
Moulting mama, Star & chick (Barred rock x)

Other things you can do to help them through this awkward phase is to feed them sprouted alfalfa and cat meat/kibble (as in cat food – not minced cat! 😮)

Rooster and hen
Hei Hei, ironically the rooster not the chicken (hei hei is Māori for chicken) and Cocoa Pops

If this is a product you may be interested in for your own flock do let me know in the comments section or via the contact form. Would be handy to be able to gauge interest…

Other potions in the pipeline is a boosted vaseline lotion for scaley leg mite, a golden layer health blend, worming blend and a chick blend…

Sad Sam

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Filed Under: Herbs in Use, Pretty Pictures, Uncategorized Tagged With: chicken keeping, chickens moulting, herbal chicken health, herbs for chooks, natural animal health, natural chicken keeping, new zealand, urban chickens

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Beautiful, strong herbs
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Grown
with passion
and persistence.

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