Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => The Hen House => Topic started by: georget on February 13, 2014, 15:46
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Am I doing the right thing giving them apple cider vinegar all the time.I give them fresh water every weekend and add a cap of apple cider vinegar to each drinker.I then top up the water daily or as it is needed,so it is in the drinker all the time. Should they only get it once a month or so.I also add crushed garlic one week in four.
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They should not get it all the time! I'm sure someone will be along with more precise advice as to how much for how long for how often :)
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some people say just 3 out of 4 weeks however I tend to have one waterer with ACV in and another without so they can choose which they want :)
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Thats what i do joyfull and sometimes i put a garlic clove in the one with plain water in.
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I understood that it was once a month for a week. Also you shouldn't use the ACV from the supermarket as it is not from a ' mother'??? I don't give my hens any ACV as they hated it, even though there was only a drop in the water. They're fussy so and sos, though.
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I add a 'splash' to my girls' water container once or twice a week, but I make sure it's the unfiltered type of ACV (I read somewhere that this is better than the filtered variety).
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We add a half cap of ACV often to our waterers, partly for bird health, partly to keep algae growth in check.
The birds aren't fussy over it but tough - we're not calling in vets if they get sick, which they very rarely do. Over time they get used to it.
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You do need to feed ACV only in plastic containers and NOT in galvanised ones :)
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I went to buy some more ACV for the girls yesterday and they only had ACV for horses - would this be suitable for the chicks? All I could see on the label was that it was unpasteurised and as ever the assistant didn't know?
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Hi Elvira,the last lot I bought from Mole Valley was for horses but when I queried it they confirmed that it was the same stuff only marketed as equine and in this case put on the wrong shelf.
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yes it is the same stuff and will have the mother in it (unlike the stuff on the supermarket shelves), the mother is the floaty bits in it which contain all the goodness you need :)
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You can buy it with the real deal for yourself ! I had a builder here and he said he drank it all the time but he drank the rough stuff he bought for his hens. I bought some Ostlers, as I was a bit squeamish about using stuff that might have been divvied up by folks with mucky hands, and I have to say I really like it. I put a bit in the bottom of a glass and top it up with whatever I'm drinking :)