Greenzonelife

A couple of weeks ago, my silkie chicks start sneezing. I started to get worried when the sneezing become severe and they were keeping their beaks open, sign that they could not breath normally. I concluded that they are ill and start asking questions how to treat them. All the answers I got were to give them antibiotics.

I don’t agree with antibiotics on humans, except the most sever cases, so why should I agree with them on my chicks? I start searching the internet and found a natural remedy, but unfortunately it is available only in the USA.

So I decided to recreate it in my kitchen combining the majority of the ingredients listed on the package.

I also made the some echinacea tea to help their immune system and offered it instead of water.

Meanwhile I kept looking for the causes of their sneeze, because it was just sneeze, no other symptoms, just continuous and annoying sneeze.

Finally I found the cause – hay bedding. Two weeks ago, before moving them out to the balcony, I changed their bedding from pine shavings to hay. It seems that on some chicks, in my case silkies, hay bedding can cause severe respiratory problems. So I changed back to pine shavings, kept giving them echinacea tea for few days and use the mixture of oils direct onto their nose, under wings and into their tea/water. Not long after started this treatment my chicks are back to normal, no sneezing at all 🙂

The original product is good for all kind of problems on birds, and I assume that my mixture will also have some of the original product benefits. If you are interested you can find more info about the original product online.

If you want to try my recipe:

50 ml of sunflower oil (at that moment I did not had corn oil at hand)

20 drops of each essential oil (make sure is for internal use) – oregano, rosemary and eucalyptus (I replaced the camphor oil with eucalyptus as in our country we don’t have internal use essential camphor oil)

I keep it at room temperature and every day I put 2 ml of mixture into 500 ml of warm echinacea tea, than after 3 days I replaced the tea with tap water but continued to add the 2 ml mixture for another couple of days until all the sneezing disappeared. I also rubbed the mixture using a cotton swab onto their nose 3 times a day on the first 3 days and in the evening I put few drops under their wings.

Essential oils – good for humans, good for chicks too 🙂

As you probably know, I wanted some Ayam Cemani chicks, so I went to buy some eggs. As a bonus, because the man who sold me the eggs was not sure how good they are, gave me some Barnevelder Gold eggs. So I ended up with 10 eggs of Ayam and 10 of Barnevelder. It was a good thing because only 5 of each hatched. I also could not resist and put again some of Ameraucana eggs in the incubator along with the others.

So I ended up with 14 new chicks 🙂

Ayam Cemani

The Ayam Cemany ware the smallest chicks I have ever seen, but they were born hungry 🙂 So I think they will rapidly grow into gorgeous chickens.

Barnevelder Gold

Ameraucanas

They are so adorable 🙂

Every couple of days I offer to my chicks treats – anything extra that is not they daily food (chicks crumbs).

Their favorite is the scrambled egg. I make a scrambled egg, let it cool down, mash it into small pieces and add 1 tablespoon of cornmeal or grounded rolled oats – prevent pasty butt, 1/4 teaspoon of Sea kelp – reduce the incidence of coccidiosis in baby chicks and 1/4 teaspoon Garlic powder – boosts immune system.

I mix them well together and serve to the chicks

If giving them anything than chicks crumbs, you have to provide them grit, so after giving them “treats” I provide them access to a tray of grit where they also love to scratch, bath and sleep 🙂

As you know I helped a chick come out of its egg. What I did not known back than was that the little one was not a Silkie. It’s egg got through the others eggs by mistake. It is a Bantam (the miniature-type of chicks).

That is why it pipped the egg on day 19, because Bantams chicks come out earlier than the other chicks. But because I did not know it was not a Silkie egg I kept turning all the eggs until day 18, so the pour little thing did not have enough time to position itself in the egg for hatching. That is way he could not brake the egg, it pipped on the wrong place.

I’m glad I could save it. It’s a happy ending story 🙂