Chickens Every Day
Dedicated to helping backyard chicken owners keep the happiest and healthiest flocks we can.
Chickens Every Day
Beat the Heat: DIY Electrolytes for Healthier Summer Chickens
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Podcast Introduction
Speaker 1Are we ready , pawpaw ? Hello friends and welcome to Chicken . Every Day , a podcast for you , the backyard chicken enthusiast , and mine . Your host is my Pawpaw , gary , Gary Valerie of Senla Backyard Chickens . Here we have fun while sharing ideas and learning how to care for our foul-feathered friends . Check out our videos at Senla that's C-E-N-L-A Backyard Chickens on YouTube , tiktok and Facebook . So , without further ado , let's start today's show . How was that ? Oh , yes , it's recording . I'm sorry .
Three Essential Summer Chicken Care Tips
Speaker 2Hey guys , gary , with CENLA , backyard Chickens and the Chickens Everyday Podcast , and if you live in the Northern Hemisphere it's hot , and if you live in the United States it's hot and dry or it's hot and wet . The theme of that is hot , and heat stresses out your chickens , and stress is one of the things that causes egg laying problems . It reduces their health . We have issues with that . So I have got a recipe for electrolytes for you today that you are absolutely going to love . But before we get into that , let's remember the three important things about whenever summertime hits for your chicken , and that's shade , fresh water and air circulation . Okay , you always want shade . If you look out here at our place , we've got shade trees . We've got shade trees around . We're able to free range . If you don't have that option and if you don't have that option , then build some sort of shade for your chickens . It's very , very important .
Speaker 2Next is air circulation . Inside my coop over here I have two large intake fans . I run one at the time . At night time it gets very hot inside this thing and that does two things it keeps us cooler in there whenever I have all that fresh air and it keeps ammonia down at the same time . Number three is that fresh water that we always want to keep for your birds . If you're able to change your water out every day , there's little tips and tricks that you can do . You can freeze a gallon , put it , put it in a bigger container for your chicken to have cold water . I will give my chickens watermelon and cantaloupe that is very , very cold . I will take slice up grapes , slice up blueberries , put them in ice trays and freeze them . Anything to get them enticed into drinking . Some good cold water is always good for your chickens .
Speaker 2So one of the things while we're here , and while we're here and I'm gathering eggs , I'm going to talk about
DIY Electrolyte Recipe Ingredients
Speaker 2that recipe . This is stuff that you probably have in your pantry already and , if not , it's things that you're probably going to want in your pantry , and it's four easy ingredients . We use apple cider vinegar with the mother , and this is per gallon , two tablespoons . We use standard molasses two tablespoons per gallon . We use non-iodized salt , plain salt one teaspoon per gallon . And we use crushed grated ginger root and at one teaspoon per gallon as well . Now what this does what this does it replenishes the minerals that your chickens lose whenever they're under stress or whenever they're too hot . So we start off with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar from the mother and I say from the mother , you want to make tablespoons of apple cider vinegar from the mother ? And I say from the mother , you want to make sure that it says
Benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar
Speaker 2that on the bottle .
Speaker 2The mother is just the term they use for the beneficial bacteria that they leave in the apple cider vinegar . If you look in the bottom of the bottle you'll see a little layer , quarter inch or so thick , of some brown stuff . That's the bacteria that we want to have in there . And if you're curious how they make that , it's really a simple type of recipe . You can even make it at home if you have the stuff that you need . But you crush apples to extract all the juice , you add yeast to it and the yeast eats the sugars in the apple juice , converts the sugars to alcohol . Now we have hard apple cider . Then they put bacteria , certain bacteria . It starts an L big long word like that and they put inside there and that eats the alcohol , converts the alcohol into lactic or acetic acid and then you have vinegar . That's what acetic acid is .
Speaker 2And apple cider vinegar with the mother is good for pH balance . It's good to not to help keep out the unwanted parasites , like some worms . It's good to help keep the good bacteria up inside the chickens . And again , you want to be cautious . Do not overdo this recipe . This is not one of these recipes that , oh , a little bit of this stuff works . A little bit more will work even better . That's not how this stuff works .
Speaker 2You can overdose your chickens . So , two tablespoons per gallon apple cider vinegar , two tablespoons of plain molasses . Molasses has tons of
Benefits of Remaining Ingredients
Speaker 2benefits . It's got calcium , it's got iron in it . Both of these are essential for proper blood and cell moving inside the chickens . Essential for egg laying . The molasses has a little sweet taste to it because it's got some sugar in it Promotes the chickens and makes them want to drink more . Drinking more is a good thing because it helps them to stay hydrated . Hydrated is what you want .
Speaker 2Next we get to the salt . One teaspoon of plain , non-iodized salt . You can get that at any grocery store . The reason you want to get non-iodized is because if you feed your chickens a poultry ration from a box store , like I do Purina or any other big name brands they put the iodine in the feed and you don't want to overdo how much iodine that you give your chickens . So plain , non-iodized salt , salt , sodium chloride . It's good for nerve function , for muscle function . It's an essential part of what chickens need in the minerals of their body .
Speaker 2Last but not least is that grated ginger root . One teaspoon of grated ginger root and we give that to our chickens for the same way we take it as humans . It is just a wonderful superfood . It is a natural antibiotic . It has antioxidant properties to it . It has stuff inside it that helps the cells maintain and hold on to the moisture . It is really really good stuff and that's it .
Speaker 2Two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with the mother , two tablespoons of molasses , one teaspoon of salt , one teaspoon of grated ginger and that's all it is to it . And by the time you put this in your pantry , look at how many gallons of electrolytes you can make with this versus what you're going to buy by the little dry packets that you get at the box stores . It is obviously a win-win . You're going to love it , your chickens are going to love it . I appreciate you listening in and if you guys have any questions or comments or you want to be on the show , just send me an email . Chickenseveryday
Closing Thoughts and Contacts
Speaker 2at yahoocom . That's chickenseveryday at yahoocom . Hope to hear from you soon . Thanks for listening in .
Speaker 1Bye-bye . That's all we have time for today . I really hope you enjoyed listening to the podcast . Be sure to watch our videos . So , on behalf of my pup , gary , and me , sylvie , thanks for listening .
