Chicken health and diseases
Check Chicken Health
How a Healthy Chicken Looks
A healthy chicken is a happy chicken, that speaks for itself. But how do you know whether you’ve got healthy chickens or not?
Since I am no vet, I won’t bother you with symptoms and disease I know nothing about. What I can tell you, is how a healthy chicken looks and behaves. Here’s a simple check list of things to look at in a healthy chicken.
- Eyes: If your chicken has ‘bright’ and alert eyes, it’s all looking good. But if she has hazy, foggy eyes or a film over her eyes, go see the vet.
- Noise: A noisy chicken is a happy chicken. If your hen is a talkative bird it is a good sign. They are social animals and need to cackle a lot.
- Struggling: A good sign, the chicken still has the power and will to fight back when caught. Usually ,hens do not like being picked up. If they’re docile they are either well tamed, but mostly it is a sign of a weak bird.
- Check the combs: If your hen has a warm and soft comb it is good. When it is hard/swollen there could be trouble. Although it is no tell-tale sign.
- Skin color: Normally a healthy chicken should have yellowish skin color. Of course every breed has its specific taint, but generally a yellow color is a good sign. Just push the feathers apart and you’ll see the chicken’s skin.
- Look in the bird’s beak. This is a bit hard to do. I get pecked a lot when I try to do this, but the color of the tongue tells a lot about how your chicken is doing. The tongue should have a light pink color.
- The feet: If the feet are swollen, they probably have some kind of mite or vermin.
- Droppings: The chicken poop should be a thick, black and white substance. If it’s very watery and/or yellowish there is something wrong.
When you have a sick bird, separate it from the rest of the flock and clean out the pen thoroughly to prevent disease from spreading.
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Chickens and Climate
I live in a beautiful mountainous countryside in Austria, near Salzburg. The views are amazing and yes, my hens enjoy them too. The climate is pretty extreme though. Due to the mountains, summer can turn into winter and back into spring within twenty four hours.
That’s gives me the occasional cough, so one can imagine how the weather can influence the health of your chickens and chicks. Although their plumage gives them insulation that can keep them warm or cool at will, long periods of moist weather and sudden weather changes will take their toll. Not only on the chickens, but on your chicken run as well.
Preventive measures
Insulating, ventilating and maintaining.
Insulation
Properly insulating your Chicken Coop is essential. I’m not talking double walls and heating here (although I sometimes think it is worth considering). Making sure that there is plenty of dry hay on the floor and that it is changed regularly will do a lot of good. Because of changes in temperature and humidity wooden boards expand, shrink and bend. Draughty slits will be the result. Having the right building plans and materials can prevent this from happening.
Ventilation
The placement of your ventilation holes is important too. The best place is directly beneath the roof. This way potential draughts will be above the nesting areas. The air circulation keeps humidity levels low, even in rainy periods. Moisture alone is danger to your chickens’ health. It attracts bugs and lice, and salmonella can occur in humid nesting areas.
So place your chicken run away from any sources of water, be it sprinkler systems or drainage. This will also keep vermin at a distance. And I can’t point this one out enough: Clean the coop regularly. Good hygiene leads to more and better eggs.
Maintenance
After building your chicken coop it is necessary to check on the structure on a regular basis. Knock on the wood so to say. It’s not a big deal, but if you find a crack in the boarding or rotten wood, repair it before it endangers the health of you chickens and the state of your coop.
