Raising backyard chickens doesn’t take a lot of extra work, and when it comes to nutrition, they pretty much eat anything you give them.
I feed our chickens a well-balanced chicken crumble for layers. This ensures they get adequate nutrients to stay healthy and provide healthy eggs. Then, they get a bunch of scraps from our kitchen as well as free range time. Free range time includes them eating greens, bugs and whatever else they can find! With this very diverse diet, I always include prebiotics and probiotics for my flock! Prebiotics and probiotics are essential for good gut health which is the building block for the body’s systems.
What are probiotics?
Simply put, probiotics are the good bacteria we have in our gut. Probiotics fight bad bacteria that cause disease and digestive issues. Gut health is incredibly important for everyone…including chickens!
If you’ve ever been on antibiotics, you know they wipe out all the bacteria in your gut; good and bad. Consuming probiotics puts that good bacteria back in your gut to defend and protect against bad bacteria. Chickens are a lot of the same when it comes to important gut health. They need it to have a strong system all around. Using Strong Animals Chicken Essentials products makes it easy to incorporate probiotics into my flock’s diet.
What are prebiotics?
Prebiotics, easily explained, are the food for the probiotics! Giving your flock prebiotics will help their good bacteria stay vibrant and healthy. This obviously strengthens your chicken's system even more.
How do I get prebiotics and probiotics for my flock?
Incorporating prebiotics and probiotics is super simple! I use Chicken E-lixir everyday in my chickens’ water. Chicken E-lixir contains prebiotics (food for the good bacteria!), to encourage a healthy gut! It also contains organic oregano essential oil, vitamins D & E, calcium and electrolytes to give your chickens a very healthy cocktail! My chickens literally “flock” to it! Haha!
The next product I’m going to talk about is Flock Fixer. I give my chickens Flock Fixer in times of stress. Flock Fixer includes both prebiotics and probiotics. In stressful situations, the bad bacteria can take over the good bacteria which leads to our systems getting stressed and sick. Flock Fixer gives the chickens the good bacteria as well as the food (prebiotics) for the good bacteria to get them through weather changes, flock changes or sickness without their systems getting too overwhelmed. It’s incredible and has literally saved two of my chickens!
Lastly, we will talk about the Prebiotics + Probiotics. These is a great way to get the good bacteria into your chicken’s systems quickly. One packet to a gallon of water and you’re set! It also contains organic cinnamon essential oil for a tasty treat for your flock!
These are just three of the ways I incorporate these prebiotics and probiotics into my flock. The Strong Animals Chicken Essentials product line also includes treats like Happy Tract that include prebiotics!
Raising backyard chickens is such a fun adventure! Keeping them healthy and happy isn’t too hard if you have access to the products they need. You can find Strong Animals Chicken Essentials at most local farm supply stores as well as Amazon and Chewy.com!
Until next time,
–The Wing Lady