
How to prevent bird flu in chickens can seem impossible, but there are several ways to protect your chickens from contracting this deadly disease. Here are six practical and easy tips on how to prevent bird flu in chickens.
#1 Practice Biosecurity
Practicing biosecurity is one of the most important steps in how to prevent bird flu in chickens. But what is biosecurity? And how do you practice it in your flock?
Practicing biosecurity in your backyard flock means taking necessary precautions to avoid the spreading of harmful pathogens that could make your chickens sick. While it may sound complicated, practicing biosecurity is easy and will not only help to protect your chickens against the bird flu, but it also helps protect them from countless other diseases and internal and external parasites.
How to prevent bird flu in chickens by practicing biosecurity is a two-way street. This means you don’t want to bring home diseases from other chickens and poultry to your flock, but you also don’t want to share your flock’s germs with other birds or poultry. Never share or borrow poultry equipment. Stay clear of poultry shows, swaps, etc.; quarantine new poultry, and do not allow visitors to enter your coop and run.
Wear designated boots and clothes when visiting your coop and run to ensure you are not bringing in diseases from other birds to your flock.
How to prevent bird flu in chickens is extremely important, so be sure to practice biosecurity to keep your flock safe.
#2 Bye Bye Birdie
How to prevent bird flu in chickens should always include keeping wild birds away from your flock’s feeders and water founts. If wild birds eat or drink from the same source as your flock, some of the bird’s saliva will enter the water and remain on the feed. The avian flu is spread through bodily fluids, so preventing wild birds from contaminating chicken feed and water is critical.
Another concern backyard chicken owners face when dealing with wild birds sharing their flock’s feed and water sources is that the birds frequently poop while eating and drinking. Bird poop will contaminate the water, and poop in feed may be ingested by your flock.
Leave feeders and water founts in the coop or covered run to prevent wild birds from gaining access to your flock’s essentials. Never leave coop or run doors and unscreened windows open, as birds will quickly realize they can access your chickens’ feed and water through the door or window.
Even if the wild birds aren’t carrying the bird flu virus, they still carry many other diseases and parasites that could make your flock sick.
#3 Strong Immune System
Just like we humans take supplements and choose healthy eating habits to boost our immune systems and prevent sickness, how to prevent bird flu in chickens includes keeping your flock’s immune systems strong.
While your flock may still occasionally become ill, boosting their immune system will not only keep them healthy and safe from the bird flu, but it will protect them against other diseases, too.
There are three ways to boost your flock’s health: The best way to keep your flock’s immune system strong is by feeding them a complete feed formulated by a feed company specific to your flock’s needs, i.e., layer feed for laying hens, broiler feed for meat birds, etc.
Another option when researching how to prevent bird flu in chickens is to consider adding probiotics as part of their daily diet. Choose a probiotic that is made for poultry and preferably water-soluble. Poultry probiotics should contain lactobacillus, a critical probiotic chickens need to keep their digestive tract (the digestive tract is where sixty percent of a chicken’s immune system is.) healthy and running smoothly.
Fresh greens and herbs help to boost a chicken’s immune system and keep them healthy and strong. During the winter season, steeping some of your flock’s favorite spices, such as oregano, dill, basil, etc., into a tea to add to their water will help keep your flock’s immune system in tip-top condition all season long.
#4 Stay Away From Waterfowl
If you have ever searched online for how to prevent bird flu in chickens, you have probably read to keep your flock away from wild waterfowl. While this may seem easy if you only own chickens, for those who also share their home with domestic ducks and geese, this can be more challenging.
Wild waterfowl may not appear sick, but that doesn’t mean that they still aren’t carrying the bird flu. In many cases, the waterfowl simply act as a carrier for the disease but never succumb to the illness.
If your property is frequently visited by wild waterfowl, never allow your flock to free-range to avoid domestic and wild birds from intermingling and digesting each other’s poop. Keep domestic waterfowl off of ponds, streams, and other waterways to prevent your flock from drinking contaminated water. This is critical even if your pond or creek doesn’t have wild waterfowl visitors, as flowing water may be carrying this deadly virus from another pond or creek upstream from you.
#5 Avoid Free-Ranging
Free-ranging chickens are often thought of as healthier, so why does how to prevent bird flu in chickens include avoiding free-ranging?
It is true that access to fresh air and sunshine and the ability to forage for bugs and nutritious greens are excellent ways to help your flock stay healthy, but consequently being allowed to free-range has actually caused some flocks to contract the bird flu.
Chickens allowed to free-range may be tempted to hang out under trees where roosting birds poop and therefore ingest the wild bird’s poop. Not only is this behavior gross, but it is a sure way to make your flock sick.
Free-ranging flocks are also more likely to come into contact with birds that have died. As omnivores, chickens eat anything, including songbirds and other meat. Bad news for your flock if the deceased bird died from the bird flu.
#6 Migration Safety Tip
Migration time is one of the most feared times for poultry owners, as large flocks of birds are more prone to carrying the bird flu than the single robin hopping through the lawn.
How to protect bird flu in chickens and other poultry during migration season is extremely critical, so extra precautions should be taken.
Covering the run roof is one of the best ways to keep your flock safe from migrating birds and waterfowl. When the sky is filled with migrating waterfowl and birds, you run the risk of a migrating bird pooping while flying overhead and landing in your run. (Yes, it does happen.) Covering the roof of the run with shade cloth or tarps will prevent this and give you peace of mind.
By following these steps on how to prevent bird flu in chickens, you can rest easy, knowing you are doing everything you can to boost your chicken’s immune systems and prevent the bird flu from visiting your flock.
This article about how to prevent bird flu in chickens was written for Chickens magazine. Click here to subscribe.