Health & Disease
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Regular Maintenance
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Regular Maintenance Tasks
- Keep beak and claws filed (rather than clipped) to shape.
- Check vent for stuck faeces and remove these.
- Flubenvet (the only licensed poultry wormer that controls all pathogenic worms) is available from agricultural merchants and vets for backyard flocks with no egg withdrawal time and should be used for 7 days, 3-4 times a year, more often if the hens are on the same patch of ground all the time. It is a powder, so if a little vegetable oil is put on the pellets first, this sticks the powder. Or feed may be purchased which has Flubenvet already added, the choice is yours.
- Handle every bird to check that weight is normal, feel the pin bones for fat coverage and the breastbone for muscle coverage (known as Body Condition Score (BCS) and should be around 3 on a scale of 1=thin to 5=obese).
- Check for mites on the hens.
- Check the hut for mites at dusk.
- Check for scaly leg mite.
- Check fencing for escape areas.
 
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