OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION

Healthy Practices for

Backyard Poultry
Timothy McDermott DVM
Ag/NR Hocking Co.
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION

What is your purpose?

• Meat Production
• Egg Production
• Dual Purpose
• Show breeds

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Considerations:
• Rules and Regulations
• Franklin Co. website

• Where to get your bird(s)?

• Hatch, chick, adult

• Housing
• Food
• Water
• Health

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Where to Find Chicks

Day-old chicks from hatchery
(NPIP)
Most require ordering minimum
amount
• For example, Meyer Hatchery, Polk, OH
15 minimum January-March
3 minimum April-December

• What will you do with remainder?

• Can order sexed large fowl,
but straight run bantams
Need brooder and heat source
• 90-95 degrees first 2 weeks then reduce by 5
degrees every week until 1 month old.
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Incubate Your Own

Learning experience for family
Eggs from hatchery or breeder
Can get fewer from breeder
Could end up with all cockerels
Percent hatch varies
85% considered good hatch
Need to find homes for remainder
Need to brood chicks 2-week old Salmon Faverolles

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Do you need a Rooster?

• Not needed for egg production
• Only if you want to hatch chicks
• Can be aggressive
• Can be noisy
• May not be allowed
• Request hens, not “straight run”

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Terminology
• Chickens
• Hen and Rooster
• Baby chicken is a chick
• A pullet is an immature female chicken
• A cockerel is an immature male chicken

• Turkeys
• Males are Toms
• Females are Hens
• Babies are poults

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What do Chickens Need?

• Food
• Water
• Shelter

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Feed and Feeding

• Store feed in rodent proof container
• Types of feeders
• Cleanable, safe, sturdy

• Commercially available feeds:

• Primarily corn and soybeans
• Vitamins and minerals added for nutritional balance
• Formulations vary based on age and purpose
• Starter
• Grower
• Layer

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Starter Feed

• Higher in protein 18-20%

• Feed for at least 5 weeks
• DO NOT feed to layer hens
• Not enough Calcium

• Medicated
• Amprolium – coccidiostat
• Not needed in older chickens usually

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• Feed until sexual maturity

Grower Feed • OK to supplement rations up to 20%
• Table scraps, etc….

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Layer Feed

• Lower in Protein, Higher in Calcium 4%

• DO NOT feed to growing birds
• Will result in Phosphorus deficiency RICKETTS
• Pulls Calcium from bones if no supplement
• Bones are set when older, less critical to supplement

• MIXED FLOCKS?
• Can supplement Grower feed with oyster shells to layers

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Egg Colors and Sizes

• White hens can lay white or brown eggs

• Some breeds can lay blue/green eggs
• Hens lay about one egg per day
• Leghorns – bred for high egg numbers – Commercial breed
• DO NOT wash eggs, they have pores

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Water and Waterers

• Fresh water every day (65 degrees)
• Twice per day maybe, might be out by midday

• Keep manure out of water

• Keep from tipping over
• Chickens cool off like dogs
• Needs change with age and weather

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Housing
• Where to place it?
• Ventilation – dry and draft free
• What kind of litter to use?
• Predator proof
• Cleanable
• Heatable?
• Size? (How many birds)
• Avg. 2 sq. ft. per bird

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Housing

• Lighting
• Year round eggs?
• 60w bulb every 40’(13w CFL)
• 14 to 16 hours
• Nest Boxes
• 1 for every 4 or 5 hens
• Need to be easy to clean
• Egg access
• Perches
• Chickens like them – safe place
• 6-8 linear inches per hen, 2-3” diameter round
• Not right above nests or get manure in nests, make perches part of your cleaning plan
• Domestic chickens originally from SA jungle fowl

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Things Chickens Want

• Temperature Regulation
• 65-75 degrees is ideal

• The ability to do their thing

• Freedom from fear and stress
• Friends

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Other Considerations
• Manure
• Molting
• Diseases
• Biosecurity

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Manure Management
• Compost?
• Need hot or long compost for pathogens

• Bag and throw away

• Keep out of food, water and nest boxes
• Clean everyday, keeps it off eggs

• Do not let build up

• Bugs
• Disease
• Smell
• Moisture

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Molting
• Losing old feathers and growing new feathers
• Egg production usually stops at this time
• Can be variable when this happens
• Hens will lose weight during this process
• Can be brought on by stress
• Can be brought on by nutrition

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Common Chicken Diseases

• Respiratory
• Parasites
• Internal
• External

• Gastrointestinal

• BIOSECURITY
• Good husbandry will minimize illness

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Biosecurity Practices Aimed to Prevent Indirect Transmission

of Disease
Domestic Animals
Don’t bring pets or allow them access to your birds
• Cats carriers of diseases to birds more so than dogs
Wild Animals
Must house birds in animal-proof/bird-proof houses

VS

HUMANS??!!
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Many thanks!!
• Jean Sander DVM, MAM DACPV
• Dean , Center of Vet Health Sciences, Okie St.

• Lucinda Miller OSUE Specialist 4-H

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?’s

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