Chicken Head Cold Remedy for Chicken with Croaking Noises

Two days ago our sweet Barred Rock hen May had a bad head cold.  Her beak was crusty, and she was making strange croaking noises.  I think she picked up a cold from a wild game bird who was carrying something that May hadn't previously been exposed to.

Moira with our Barred Rock May with the late Arucana Teri (RIP)

I found this youtube video of a sick croaking chicken.  May sounded exactly like this:



She also wasn't eating and just wanted to stand or sit still.  She felt very hot and feverish to the touch.

I checked in Juliette de Bairacli Levy's book The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable for a natural remedy for May.  This is the second time I have used her book for a chicken health issue.

I used 2 recipes from her book.  The first was a beak wash.  I used 2 teaspoons of water, 2 drops of Eucalyptus globulus essential oil, and a pinch of fine sea salt.  We cleaned her beak outside with q-tips, and then inside with fresh q-tips.  (The type of Eucalyptus oil was not specified, so probably other species of Eucalyptus would be just fine also, for example Eucalyptus smithii).

photo by Marja Flick-Buijs

The second recipe was for a garlic vinegar paste.  This was made up easily with 2 teaspoons of ground fresh garlic with 1 teaspoon of vinegar.  I used Juliette's recommended dosage which was 1/2 teaspoon, 2 times per day. We checked on May the morning after 1 day of this treatment.  She was more active, her croaking sounds were not as loud, she still felt warm, but not terribly hot or feverish.  We fed her one more dose of garlic and washed the outside of her beak, but she was strong enough that she would not allow us to wash the inside of her beak.  So she only received the one dose on the second day.  Today is day 3 and we are very happy that  she is back to her normal self.

Win 200 business cards from 24 Hour Print

It's time for another business card giveaway.  Thanks so much to 24 Hour print for offering 200 business cards to one winner at our blog.  The prize details are as follows:

200 Business Cards for one (1) Winner
2×3.5 Standard Business Card Size
Quantity: 200
Colors: 4/4 Color Both Sides
Paper Options: 14 pt. UV Coating on Front or 14 pt. UV Coating on both sides
Ready To Ship In: 3 Business Days
Free US shipping only

You can enter to win this prize using the rafflecopter widget below. If you have trouble seeing the widget, try reloading your page or viewing the blog post in a different browser.  Aquarian Bath will receive a thanks you set of cards also for hosting this giveaway. Thanks again 24 Hour Print!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

#1 DAD Father's Day Soap Sets by Aquarian Bath

Need a special gift for the #1 DAD in your life?  Check out our new gift sets.   New soaps to choose from for these sets include Key Lime Patchouli and Cedarwood.

For dad and made by dad.  Special thanks so our Aquarian Bath's VP Scott who is now weighing all the oils for the soap batches at Aquarian Bath.  He loves our deodorant formula so much, he wanted to include it with the gift set.  Choose from Unisex, Teat Tree or Spearmint.  Sets are available with just soaps and deodorant or with soap, shampoo bar and deodorant, plus 2 handmade cedar soap decks.  We ship fast with USPS priroity mail.  Check out the soaps sets at AquarianBath.com.

Scenery from Washington Oaks Garden

We recently enjoyed a trip to Washington Oaks Gardens.  The roses smelled wonderful.  

There was a lovely collection of colors and shapes, yellows, whites, pinks, and reds.

An the beautiful blue Salvias caught my eye.  

On our next visit we may bring the fishing poles along.

Grow Sustainable Quinoa for your Kitchen

Quinoa has become trendy food worldwide, but at what cost? In Bolivia where it cultivated the demand for this super food is leading growers to abandon traditional land management practices.  Crops are not being rotated, and farmers are over planting llama grazing area.  The llama manure is required to organically fertilize the quinoa.  Poorer people in Bolivia and Peru, where the Quinoa is also grown, are no longer able to afford this traditional staple grain.

I recently planted a little raised bed of Quinoa from a seed trade.  Mine were planted a couple of weeks after these flowering and seeding Quinoa plants at the Bonner Center Community Garden. They are a lot like Amaranth, but seem to be more dense with seeds. If you like eating Quinoa, you can grow your own.  Or if you know someone who loves Quinoa, let them know they can grow their own  Seeds are available from SustainableSeedco.com.  If you have never winnowed grains before I it very easy and best to do on a breezy day.  Check out this how to webpage for winnowing seeds.

Man with Winnow by Vincent van Gogh

Here are some other beautiful flowers that were blooming when I took the Quinoa photos.

Zinnia

Wild growing Phlox