You’ve walked out to the coop and suddenly halt in your tracks. Feathers are everywhere, and it looks like your entire flock has been wiped out by a roving band of vicious minks. A few of your chickens round the corner, looking as if they went head-to-head with the local coyote pack.
Thankfully, your chickens are fine. You’re not the first chicken keeper to be caught off-guard by the feather explosion that signals the start of molting season.
Every year, starting in mid to late summer, adult chickens go through an annual molt. This natural process allows chickens to shed their old, broken, dirty feathers, and regrow fresh new feathers before the chill of winter sets in. These brand-new feathers help chickens stay warmer throughout the winter and survive until spring.
The molting process is a stressful experience for chickens. And the process is painful, for the chickens as well as the chicken keeper. During molt, many birds look like they were on the losing end of a nasty bar fight. They often lose feathers in large patches, act lethargic and depressed, and skulk around the yard like they’re trying to avoid being seen by anyone they know.
Thankfully, we can do a lot to help ease our chickens through molting and support their bodies while they’re hard at work regrowing their feathers, and using medicinal herbs is a great way to start.
Chickweed
Heather Levin
Chickweed is an unassuming spring weed that you’ve likely walked past a hundred times without giving it a second glance. However, this innocuous “weed” can be a marvelous snack to your chickens while they’re molting.
Chickens love the flavor (hence the name, “chickweed”), and the plant is high in vitamins A and C, as well as B vitamins, calcium, magnesium and zinc. It’s also a powerful anti-inflammatory and helps the body feel refreshed and rejuvenated, particularly after a long, cold winter.
The challenge with feeding your chickens chickweed during molt is that this is an herb that typically only grows in the cool days of early spring. Once the hot summer sun blazes, it disappears. And your chickens will be molting in fall. So, what can you do?
The answer lies with your freezer. Chick-weed freezes well, so harvest chickweed in spring, freeze it and then dole it out to your chickens once they start to molt. I do this every year, as we have an abundance of chickweed that grows on our property, and it’s always a special treat for the chickens.
Basil
In addition to tasting divine, basil is a good source of protein and vitamin K, a mild sedative, and is helpful in treating stress, nervousness and irritability. Sounds like the perfect herb for a molting chicken to me!
Basil is best used fresh, as it loses much of its flavor and medicinal properties upon drying. One of the best…