Holistic health is an approach shot to life , accord to Suzan Walter , conscientious objector - founder and current chairman of theAmerican Holistic Health Association . “ Rather than focus on illness or specific parts of the body , this ancient approach to health turn over the whole person and how he or she interacts with his or her environment . It emphasizes the joining of mind , body and spirit . The goal is to achieve maximum well - being , where everything is function the very best that is potential . ”
This is great advice for people but why not extrapolate that out a chip to include our birds and brute , too ? That ’s incisively what we ’re going to do in our new Holistic Henhouse editorial . In this first installation , we ’ll take a general aspect around to see why lifelike and holistic practices make signified in an progressively puzzling cosmos .
Start Simply
Raising chickens holistically through provender , life-style limiting , and homegrown and homemade medicines has never been easier . Wholesome feed is readily uncommitted , costless - ranging and pasturing are popular practices in our hobby , and natural redress can be well grown and made at home to help keep the peck felicitous and sizable .
Success Stories
Jenny Ulbricht raises commix - strain Sussex and Ameraucana chickens on her farm in Kewaskum , Wisconsin .
“ To me , raising chickens holistically mean preventing problems and focusing on practices that reduce stress , ” she order . “ This way , chicken are happy , subsist longer and are more fun to be around . Reducing stress is plausibly the most authoritative aspect . This think having muckle of fenced space for the chickens , a large coop — ours is a converted hay Charles’s Wain allowing 10 solid feet per chicken — and room for chicken activities like assume dust baths , loosen up in the shade and hunting for insects . ”
During her first two twelvemonth of chicken guardianship , Ulbricht spent a lot of time observing , learning and experiment until she get everything how she liked it . Keeping chickens requires more than just basic intellectual nourishment and tax shelter , and she takes every chance she can to enrich her bird ’ lives .
“ I influence hard to find a diet that works for the volaille and me , from a Certified Organic feed to all - food grain buffet - mode to a simple potpourri of locally grown mash provender and a mixed , local food grain mixture , ” she says .
In the winter , Ulbricht hangs bags of lucerne hay for her birds , and they get fresh green goods year - round . She likes to propose novel experience and food for them so they can choose because she feel a dependable life entail having innocent choice of where to eat and sleep , who to affiliate with and what to do while remain safe from predators .
Suzy Lowry Geno fit in . She keep several hundred Golden Comets for their large , brownish eggs , which she retails through her Old Field Farm General Store in Oneonta , Alabama .
“ While I do n’t raise any of my beast completely holistically , I call forth them as naturally as potential , ” she says . While they ’re fed stratum ration pellets from the local feed computer storage , Geno says they always leave some in their trays , as they affix their dieting by eat glitch , worm , mice , pasture and all sort of tasty foraged snacks from her property . Due to their out-of-door , pasture - raisedlifestyle , she seldom has a ghastly birdie ; common sense , uncontaminating environment , fresh air , fresh water and an occasional herbaceous plant for pocket-size problem do the trick , she allege .
Natural Healing
In summation to switching your tidy sum to a healthier feed and reevaluate your chickens ’ bread and butter conditions , you’re able to investigate natural healing modalities .
Herbs
herbaceous plant , agree to some , can do a variety of tremendous things . Catnip , pennyroyal and fennel can be used to drive back worm . get them around your poulet henhouse or squeeze and sprinkle them within . Some say that lavender and lemon balm have a relaxing effect on hens in the nest box ; garlic can help maintain a stiff circulatory system ; wild marjoram can tone the immune organisation ; and Petroselinum crispum and pot marjoram can be used as laying stimulus . All of these herbs are easy to grow or buy fresh or dried .
Essential Oils
Essential oils are also deserving quest for , and the basics are well-off to learn . Many chicken keepers have found that garlic clove oil can help oneself manoeuver off feather picking , while lavender oil calms birds and cure opened combat injury , and neem crude oil can to help oneself rout scaly mites . It ’s also easygoing to whip up a fragrant , effective cage cleaner with 1/2 loving cup of distilled white acetum , 1/2 cupful of urine and 10 to 20 drop of lemon essential oil .
Homeopathic Medicine
Homeopathic medicine have been around for one C of yr . They ’re heavy diluted medicinal herbs and minerals that have been package in flyspeck , lactose - based pills . They ’re cheap and are regulated in the United States by the FDA .
Flower Essences
Flower essences are another easy - to - learn energy mode that is an easy fashion to enter complementary therapy to your pot . Some multitude call back flower essence work on behavioral issue , and they ’re easy to choose and use . If you try only one eccentric of completing interposition , I suggest strain this one .
Wise Words From Holistic Chicken Keepers
Susan Burek of Moonlight Mile Herbs in Willis , Michigan , raises her poulet in a totally holistic manner . Already a drill herb doctor when she moved onto her farm , it was a natural fit that she ’d give holistic care to her chickens . “ I want to leaven my animals the same means I was subsist myself , ” she say .
Dismayed to find that there was nothing holistic or herbal on the market for poultry , Burek began to produce her own remedy and communications protocol , and at the proffer of a friend , she set out a fowl - specific herbal clientele .
“ The herbal tonics and tinctures are n’t just mirror remedy of allopathic medical specialty , but are designed for the avian consistence and the natural foods and herbs birds would try out in the wilderness , ” she enunciate . “ They also direct very specific issues fowl have to deal with , like extreme temperatures , reproduction support and growing chicks . ”
Lisa Schmitt in Prairie Farm , Wisconsin , also raises chickens in a totally holistic manner , though she did n’t protrude out that way . As her kin was in the operation of eliminating many processed foods and chemicals as potential from their daily life , it only made sense to do so with her chicken as well , because what they deplete add up out in their egg and meat . In add-on to good quality consumables , she has noticed that her flock is healthy .
Samantha Smith , a holistic chicken custodian from Rainbow , Victoria , Australia , concurs . When her birds get suffer or sick , there was n’t a veterinarian nearby , so she did the best she could and commence experiment with raw remedies , finally produce her own herb garden .
“ Being able to research holistic treatment for my flock … keep my flock happier and healthier , ” she says . “ Most important is the overall impression of oneness with the rude calendar method of the dry land , working with the born catamenia instead of fighting it and making a difference in the amount of chemicals being pump into the world . That collapse me a felicitous spirit every meter . ”
Your Best Vet
Natural and holistic care has its spot in the coop , but do n’t blank out about your veteran . There may be times when the aid you are administering just does n’t seem to be working and you should consult a professional .
Organic Mechanics
You ca n’t just label your chickens and eggs as organic because you think you ’re raising them properly . Folks who trade organic egg and meat must fit certain USDA National Organic Program criteria to commercialise them as such , include the following .
If that sounds like a destiny of rules , it is . However , you need n’t flip everything decent away . You could start by changing over to nonmedicated provender and verify your poulet spend more fourth dimension alfresco .
This clause appeared in the January / February 2017 issue ofChickens .
