03/18/2023
With the weather changing and getting warmer, I thought I'd share a few tips I've learned for keeping my chickens healthy. This could easily turn into a book, but I'm talking specifically about adding Echinacea (Purple Coneflower) to your chickens' diets.
The easiest way is to take the leaves or the flower and simply make a tea. Bring the water to a boil and turn off the heat source. Then let it set until the tea is no longer hot and voila, you have herbal medicine. I usually add a small amount approximately half the size of a coffee cup to my 5-quart chicken waterer. I've noticed that my chickens don't have respiratory problems even in the coldest months. They also don't have intestinal parasites such as coccidia.
I started out using it when one of my chickens got sick and noticed that they quickly recovered. It's safe and I have not seen a single negative side effect from adding this to their waters. In fact, in the spring and summer months when algae becomes more prevalent, I've noticed that I need to clean the waterers much less due to the antifungal properties of the Echinacea.
Echinacea is a perennial and easy to grow from seed. It comes backs every year and is a cut-and-come-again type plant. Take a leaf or two, or the flowers, and come again in a few weeks.
For anyone who made it this far, I'll be making some more videos on the CHAZ youtube channel soon and will likely start making informational videos for topics such as this. Thanks for reading and share with anyone who loves chickens!