Has anybody used "liquid bluing" to treat their chicken's water?

[Silver surfer]

Yes, I have used Mrs Stewart's Bluing in new chicks water founts since 1980. An old school farm breeder turned me on to it after my very first batch of new chicks started dropping dead for no apparent reason. I returned to the breeder and asked him for advice, he told me to put 2 drops per quart of bluing in the new chicks water. It worked beautifully, we never lost an other chick. We are starting a new batch of chicks next week and I plan to use this method to keep them healthy. The quote from MSB web site states, "Since 1883 we have never received a report of a sick or dying animal as a result of using MSB in such ways." There may be more modern solutions, however this one is tried and true for me.

 

[pdirt]

I get my cayenne pepper from an Indian spice supplier in a powdered form. I mix about 250g - 500g with 20kg of chicken feed that consists out of yellow maize, sunflower and sorghum. I only do this with every third or fourth batch - say once every 4-6 months. I don't know about the seeds of the cayenne pepper and I assume they get grounded up together with the rest of the pepper, but one thing I know is that my ladies is very healthy! Now whether this is due to the cayenne pepper I don't know, but somewhere I must be doing something right.

I have learned a lot from the native folk here in our country and one thing I have learned from them is that we interfere to much with mother nature and we should let her have her course!

Regards
Albert

Thanks for sharing your recipe, Albert. It's not the first time I've heard of people using cayenne or red pepper for chickens worms. Is there something you notice that tells you it works...I mean, are you seeing dead worms in the droppings after feeding them this mixture or something like that?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Busy bee Lady]

I use Mrs. Stewart's Bluing to whiten my laundry, and I know some people who use it to brighten their chickens' feathers before a show, but I saw on the Mrs. Stewart's website that people also add bluing to livestock water tanks and bird baths.

Supposedly, it inhibits the growth of bacteria and algae and keeps insects from hatching in it.

Has anyone used it for their chicken's water? If so, how much do you use?

My grandfather always used Mrs. Stewart's bluing in his chicken's water back in the 1940s and 1950s. He added enough blueing to turn the water a light to medium blue color. To my knowledge, he never had any sick chickens even though he kept a good sized flock on his small farm. He was a third generation farmer.