by Lisa from Fresh Eggs Daily 

To kick off the new year, I thought it would be fun to recap the Top Ten Chicken Post on our Blog from 2012. So, without further ado, here are the top ten most-read posts:

#1 Got Flies? DIY Fly Catcher - The most popular post was a tutorial on making your own fly catcher to keep readers' runs fly-free.


#2 Make your own Feed Bag Tote - Empty feed bags re-purposed into tote bags was the second most popular post. Even if you only posses basic sewing skills, my easy tutorial walks you through sewing your own.

#3 Make your own Apple Cider Vinegar - Apple cider vinegar has great health benefits to humans and chickens alike. Readers were very interested in learning how to make their own.


#4 Nesting Box Herbs - Chicken Aromatherapy - One of my very first posts last January, this article on adding herbs to your nesting boxes to calm setting hens and provide health benefits as well as impart a pleasant aroma to your coop was extremely popular.

#5 Orange Peel White Vinegar Coop Cleaner - My recipe for this all natural vinegar-based coop cleaners was extremely popular.

#6 Beating the Heat & A Homemade Electrolyte Recipe - Keeping chickens cool in the summer was of great interest to our readers. My Homemade Electrolyte Recipe provides the recipe for a solution that can be quickly made at home to help combat heat stress.

#7 Pumpkin Soup as a Natural Wormer - Pumpkins contain a substance, cucurbitacin, which is thought to act as a natural wormer for intestinal parasites. This pumpkin soup recipe was another hit with readers who were interested in natural preventatives for their flock.


#8 Deep Litter Method/Coop Cleaning - Keeping your chickens warm in the winter was another popular topic covered not only in this article on using the Deep Litter Method.

#9 Weeds 101 - Learning which weeds are safe for chickens and which aren't was another popular post for free rangers and non-free rangers alike. Weeds are a free and extremely nutritious source of 'treats' that your hens will love.


#10 Breakfast of Champion Layers - I add a mix of supplements to my hens' layer feed to boost their health and immune systems. Readers were interested in learning my secret 'recipe'.

And there you have it. The ten most popular posts of 2012. Be sure to sign up to follow our blog so you don't miss out on any of the upcoming posts for 2013. We've got some great ones in store for you!

Did you know that you can make your own apple cider vinegar with just some apple peels and cores, sugar, water...and a bit of patience? I didn't know either until I started doing a bit of research.

We use lots of apple cider vinegar on our farm for its wide array of health benefits for us and for our chickens. I consider it one of the 'Holistic Trinity' of chicken keeping and vital to my and my husband's health, as well as a key ingredient in any good pie crust!

Adding apple cider vinegar to our chickens' water a few times a week not only makes the water more appealing to them, it also keeps the waterers cleaner and controls the bacteria both in the water and in the hens' digestive system. The vinegar boosts good bacteria and is thought to also even combat coccidia, which is present in most chicken runs, no matter how fastidiously they are cleaned.

Apple cider vinegar with the 'mother' in it, such as Bragg's, is raw and unpasteurized and has the most benefits. The mother is basically a yeast/live bacteria natural concoction that helps balance bacteria in the intestines of humans AND chickens. However, it's not cheap and we go through quite a lot of it, so I started researching how to make my own.

There are tons of blog posts and articles about making your own apple cider vinegar. I looked for the cheapest, easiest way I could find that seemed to yield good results on a consistent basis. Mother Earth News published an article that was the most straightforward of any I read (link below) and sure enough, it's not only easy, but you only need apples, sugar and water....and some canning jars and cheesecloth. No special kits or ingredients.

So the next time you bake an apple pie, save the peels and cores and make a batch of apple cider vinegar for yourself.

Here's how to do it:

Wash, peel and core 5-10 (preferably organic) apples. Another nice thing is that there's no set amount, you can make as much or as little as you want.


Place the peels and cores in a large glass or stoneware bowl and cover with water by an inch or so. Add 1/4 Cup of sugar for each quart of water you used and stir to mix thoroughly.

Cover the bowl with a heavy plate. The apple scraps need to be completely submersed in the water. Cover the whole thing with a clean kitchen towel and let sit for a week in a cool dark location. Between 65-85 degrees is a good fermentation temperature range, and be sure to keep it in a dark place, because UV light destroys the fermentation process.

The mixture will begin to bubble and foam as yeast forms. That's normal and in fact by Day 3, I had bubbling!

When the week is up, spoon off any black mold that has grown. That's also okay and will occur if the mixture isn't kept cool enough, but if you keep the bowl in a cool spot you shouldn't have any mold.

Strain out the apple solids and pour the liquid into sterilized canning jars, leaving about an inch of head room and discard the solids. Cover each canning jar with a square of doubled cheesecloth and screw just the ring part of the top on. (Hang onto the flat parts of the lids, you'll need them later) This allows the yeast to 'breathe' and prevents the metal from corroding.

Store the jars on a shelf in your pantry and wait about six weeks. A film should start forming on the top. The is the 'mother'. You can open up the jars and stir or swirl them so the mother settles on the bottom and more will grow on top.

After six weeks, replace the cheesecloth with the flat part of the lid and screw the ring back on. Stored in a cool, dark place, the apple cider vinegar will last indefinitely. By this point the yeast will have eaten all the available sugars and you will be left with a 'shelf-stable' vinegar. The flavor will develop and evolve over time.

Note: If you save some of the mother from each batch and add it to the next batch, the vinegar will be finished more quickly. It's been hard waiting the six weeks for my first batch, but I have several batches started now that will finish at the end of consecutive weeks, so I will always have a batch of homemade apple cider vinegar ready going forward.
  

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I firmly believe in an ounce of prevention.  In fact, wasn't it Benjamin Franklin who said 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure' ?  He was a smart man - and I bet he wasn't even talking about chickens when he said that!

But he was right, it's far easier (and cheaper) to keep your chickens' immune systems strong and healthy and give them the best chance at fighting off illness and infections themselves than to try and treat something after they have contracted it.  Being the ultimate prey animal and being part of a pecking order that preys on the weaker members of the flock, chickens work very hard to hide signs of any illness or injury, so often by the time you see any symptoms, it is too late to treat whatever is wrong.

Because of this, in addition to the layer feed mix  I give to our chickens, I also supplement their diet with what I call the 'Holistic Trinity' of healthy chickens: Apple Cider Vinegar, Garlic and Diatomaceous Earth. 

First in the Trinity is APPLE CIDER VINEGAR. 

It's great for their immune systems, guards against bad bacteria and maintains digestive health in the intestines by lowering the pH levels and is an overal health booster.  It increases calcium absorption so your chickens will get more 'bang for the buck' from the eggshells or oyster shell you provide them.  ACV aso acts as an antiseptic by killing the germs that cause respiratory problems - which chickens are extremely susceptible to - in the throat.

Add apple cider vinegar (raw,organic ACV with the 'mother' is best, Bragg's brand for example) to your waterer a few times a week, or alternatively one straight week every month. The ratio is 1 Tablespoon per gallon of water.  The ACV will also help keep your chickens' water free of harmful bacteria and algae.  Be sure and use a plastic or stoneware waterer tho. The ACV will rust the metal and galvanized waterers.

I have also started using the generic store brand ACV to rinse and clean the waterers instead of bleach or another commercial cleaner.  I just mix it with water in a spray bottle or pour some into a pail of water.

Second in the Trinity is GARLIC.   Garlic boosts immune systems and it is also thought that mites, lice, ticks and other parasites are not as attracted to the blood of animals who eat alot of garlic. Garlic is also a natural wormer.

Garlic can be added to your chickens' diet in a couple of different ways.  You can float whole cloves in your waterer (mashed up a bit), replacing them every few days.  You can offer crushed fresh cloves in a small dish free-choice. Or you can add garlic powder to their feed.  I have tried all three and find it easiest to just add the powder to their feed (2% ratio), but every once in awhile I also give them a bowl of the fresh garlic.

Small chicks should also be offered crushed fresh garlic, free-choice, early on so they develop a taste for it.   A splash of apple cider vinegar in their water is also a great health booster for chicks. 

The third in the Trinity is DIATOMACEOUS EARTH (DE).  DE is an all natural silica-based crushed fossil that kills hard-shelled insects.  It kills fleas, ticks, flies, aphids and digestive worms while being completely safe for chickens.   Only food-grade DE should be used around the chickens, because they will inevitably end up eating some.  I  add DE to their feed in a 2% radio.

DE does also kill good bugs and can cause lung aggravation if the dust is inhaled, so take care where and how you sprinkle it.   You can wear a dust mask while sprinkling your coop floor, nesting boxes, around the feeders, in the dust bath area, etc.  

I find that one good way to disperse the DE is from a plastic shaker bottle, like the kind Parmesan cheese comes in.  I keep a full bottle in the run and sprinkle it liberally, especially in the summer when the flies get bad.

Bonus health tips !  Plain yogurt with live cultures and black strap molasses are also good to give your chickens on occasion as both have health benefits for your flock.  A weekly serving of yogurt will help keep the good bacteria levels high in your chickens' digestive systems and molasses contains lots of minerals including iron and copper, manganese and potassium, as well as calcium.  Molasses helps flush toxins out of the chickens' systems. 

Yogurt can cause diarrhea so it should only be given in small amounts and conversely, probiotic powder can be added to their feed in place of the yogurt to help boost the good bacteria in their intestines.

And there you have your Holistic Trinity plus something for intestinal health.  The holistic secrets to raising healthy chickens.

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