Yet more ideas from the poultry seminar I attended last week. Behavioral specialist Richard Blatchford of UC Cooperative Extension had a great idea for entertaining hens like ours that are confined to a run: give them a bale of straw and don’t even undo the strings. I used to cut the strings and toss them the bale in sections. Keeping it intact keeps them occupied for a much longer time. They’ve been obsessed with the bale for days now and are slowly breaking it down and spreading the straw.
Photo: Amanda Goodpaster.
Above you’ll see me and fellow chicken enthusiast Roberta Kato modeling something like what you’d need to wear to go into those commercial chicken farm sheds: Tyvek suit, plastic booties and hair net (you’d also need a mask). We put this on for the necropsy session at the two day poultry seminar we both attended. Dr. Rodrigo Gallardo, a poultry veterinarian at UC Davis and one of the seminar’s presenters, noted that in his daily rounds, in addition to this type of suit, he has to take up to seven showers a day.
Obviously, these measures aren’t practical or necessary to keep healthy chickens in our backyards. While not exactly casual about our own coop’s biosecurity, I did come away from the seminar with some ideas on how I can improve my flock’s biosecurity and prevent problems before they happen.
Dedicated clothing
Right now I’ve got a pair of flip flops I use to go into the coop to let the chickens into the run in the morning and shut them up at night. This is a bit dumb. A pair of rubber boots or, at least, closed-toed rubber garden shoes would be a better option. Many poultry diseases are spread on the ground. I’d be smart to not use these dedicated coop shoes for anything else. For instance, walking under the wild bird feeder in the front yard. And I’d be smart to dedicate a shirt and pair of pants for times I’ve got to handle one of our birds.
Controling flies and rodents
I’ll let you in on a secret: Los Angeles is a city of rats and mice, and I’m not talking about the entertainment business. Rodents have been disease vectors in a number of incidents involving large scale producers. I know I’ve got a rodent problem in our backyard that I’ve avoided dealing with. I’m looking into treadle feeders for the chickens (which will be the subject of another blog post). I do keep the feed in a rodent proof garbage can. As for the flies, when I got back from the conference I cleaned out the coop and put down some more bedding.
Keeping things clean
Accumulated poop and feather dander greatly increase the chances of disease. I keep the coop clean, but I’ve decided to increase the times I change out the litter.
Trips to the feed store
The place I get my feed from is, to put it charitably, dirty. They also sell chickens, and pet birds that don’t look healthy. Unfortunately, it’s the only place that carries the feed I like (Modesto Milling). From what I learned at the conference, you need to be careful about trips to the feed store. I should change clothes, put them in the wash and take a shower before getting anywhere near my hens after a trip to buy supplies. The same precautions should be taken after visiting a farm, a friend’s coop or a poultry show. Better safe than sorry.
Preventing contact with wild birds
Due to the flighty temperament of my hens and my desire to protect our garden from marauding chickens, I keep our hens in an enclosed run during the day. I rarely see any wild birds in the run, but there are some improvements I could make to keep wild birds out entirely. Obviously, if you free range your hens you can’t keep them away from wild birds, but it was suggested at the conference not to keep chickens near ponds or even small water features since wild ducks are carriers of avian influenza. I’ve never seen a duck land in our yard, but if you have a pool or water feature this could be something to think about.
Some other suggestions from Dr. Gallardo:
Gallardo suggested being practical not perfect. The goal is to reduce risk while accepting you’re never going to eliminate diseases. He also noted that educational activities such as 4-H are worth the risk. Kelly and I get requests to bring our chickens to public events. We’ve decided that we don’t want to stress our flock and potentially get them sick for the sake of a book signing. Decisions about risk management are never clear cut or easy.
Have you had poultry disease problems? How did you change your biosecurity?
While Kelly restores our breakfast nook, I’m at a two day poultry seminar sponsored by the California Department of Food & Agriculture. The point of my attendance is to learn good husbandry practices and share them with you, our dear readers. I’ll break down the voluminous information into a series of future blog posts. The takeaways from yesterday’s session:
UC Cooperative Extension has a
Thanks to Craig Ruggless of Winnetka Farms for tipping me off to this class.
College student Sheila Cassani transformed her rental unit in Oakland California into a beautiful garden space she calls Kansas Street Farm. She’s turned a small space into a productive paradise with fruits, vegetables, chickens and bees.
Thank you to reader James for this tip:
Coursera is offering a 5 week online course on chicken behavior, taught by the staff of Scotland’s Rural College.
For those of you who haven’t heard about Coursera, it’s an online platform offering free courses in a wide variety of subjects, taught by professors from genuine big name universities, via video. The classes may or may not also include homework and discussion groups, but these are optional, and required only for those who wish to receive a certificate of course completion (which is not the same as credit from the host university.)
The chicken class has already started, but don’t worry, you can jump in and catch up. I’m not 100% sure, but I believe you can look at the class video any time, but you may not be able to access the teachers via the forums after the official course run is finished. This one is in its first week still. We’ll be watching!
