We’ve all heard of artificial intelligence by now, but not everyone has used it. Part of the reason for that could be due to the learning curve when trying to apply AI like ChatGPT to real life. Take your hobby farm for example—did you know you can use ChatGPT to save time when planting vegetables, do research on a new crop or animal you’d like to add to your farm, find out what pest is harming your plants, or come up with ideas to make your crops thrive?
Most AI is simple to use, and you only need a few prompts to come up with ideas that could save you a lot of time. Experienced farmers may already know some of the information ChatGPT will provide. But one question can lead to another and before you know it, you’ll have learned something new. Here are a few ways you can use ChatGPT to manage your hobby farm.
Research New Farming Ideas
Have you ever thought about branching out into hydroponics or wondered whether four season container farming could work on your hobby farm? Most of us don’t have a lot of time during the day to investigate new ideas we may have for our farms. But with ChatGPT all you need to do is ask a few questions.
If you’re interested in aquaculture for example, you may want to ask ChatGPT, “What type of fish are best for aquaculture?” or “What type of aeration is best for a pond with trout?” It will share data you can then put to use on your own farm.
Get Ideas on What Will Sell & Where It Will Sell Best
If part of your hobby farm plan is to sell crops or livestock, you may want to know which livestock is popular right now or what type of crops will yield you the most money while taking up less space.
You can ask ChatGPT to analyze a specific market so you can find out what’s hot and what’s not, or do research on crop pricing. You can also find out what is popular on farms in the rest of the world and get ideas for importing or exporting.
Predict the Weather
ChatGPT isn’t like a search engine, so it can’t tell you the weather right this minute. But it can compile historical weather information you can use to make decisions on your hobby farm. For example, if you’re wondering when the best time is to plant tomatoes, you may ask ChatGPT, “What is a planting schedule for tomatoes in Zone 7?” or “What weather conditions could I expect if I plant tomatoes outside in April when I live in Zone 7?”
Both questions will give you answers you can use to set a schedule on your farm. I asked ChatGPT both questions and was told that planting outside in Zone 7 in April was risky due to frost. It said I should plan to cover my tomatoes at night, so I followed up with a question on what the best tomato covers are. ChatGPT mentioned floating row covers and water walls.
A short trip to Amazon later and my order of floating row covers was on its way to my farm.
ChatGPT Helps Manage Your Hobby Farm
The key thing to know about using ChatGPT right now is that there are two versions. ChatGPT 3.5 is a free version with a database from 2021. Chat GPT 4 is a paid version that uses Microsoft Bing to do research.
It also includes tools like Dall-E, an AI drawing tool that can draw whatever you imagine. You can ask it to design a layout for your hobby farm with a garden, greenhouse, barn, crops and a place to park your tractor. A few minutes later and you could be looking at a hobby farm design that will amaze you.
ChatGPT may not be perfect, but it’s easy to use, runs on your phone or computer, and can help you come up with fun new ideas you can use on your hobby farm today.
Happy New Year! While there are still a few more days left in 2023, I’m always excited to welcome a new year and can’t wait to see what 2024 has in store. I’m already making plans for farming projects I intend to tackle during the coming year, what I suppose you could call New Year’s resolutions, though I think of them more as inspiration. I hope they serve as such both for myself and for readers.
I’ve shared my farming resolutions every year since 2016. The goal of this annual exercise isn’t to compile a list of resolutions that must be followed at any cost, but to encourage proactive thinking about fun and productive projects to accomplish during the coming year.
With this goal in mind, here are four of my 2024 New Year’s farming resolutions.
1. Start Pumpkin Seeds Indoors
The growing season on my northern Wisconsin farm isn’t very long. You can count on having frost in May. Frost in September isn’t uncommon either, so plants that take more than 90-100 days to mature are challenging to grow.
That includes many varieties of pumpkins. I love growing pumpkins and usually opt for varieties that mature in 95 days or less, but this year I want to expand my options. That’s why I’m planning to start my pumpkin seeds indoors, underneath grow lights.
By giving my pumpkins an indoor head start before spring frost season is over, I hope to grow varieties that require 120 days or even more.
2. Upgrade My Orchard Fence to Welded Wire
The perimeter fence that surrounds my orchard is built from wood and welded wire on one side and black plastic deer fence on the other three sides. It’s worked great for years, but in 2023 at least one stubborn deer figured out how to nose underneath the black plastic and even push right through it in places.
As a result, I spent a lot of time in 2023 repairing and enhancing my deer fence. I upgraded one of the sides (the most problematic side, from what I could tell) from black plastic to welded wire, and that significantly reduced deer incursions. In 2024, I intend to install more welded wire along the remaining two sides and hopefully put an end to deer invasions once and for all.
3. Repaint Farm Buildings
Some of the older buildings on my farm are in need of new coats of paint. Not only will they look spiffy with fresh paint, it will help protect their wooden sides from decay. It’s going to be a big job, but if I prepare early (there’s plenty of paint scraping to be done) and start painting as soon as the weather is warm, dry and not too humid, I’m optimistic I can make a lot of progress in 2024.
4. Invest in Soaker Hoses and/or Drip Irrigation
In 2023, I purchased garden hoses to span the ~600 feet separating the raised garden beds in my orchard from the nearest water source. It sped up the process of watering my beds and allowed me to water more thoroughly than I could with a 35-gallon leg tank in the back of a tractor-towed trailer.
In 2024, I’m thinking of taking my watering game to the next level with soaker hoses and/or drip irrigation lines. The goal is to get where I can turn on the water and know my plants are quenching their thirst with minimal supervision from me. Then I can take the time I’ll save and spend it on other orchard projects.
What are your New Year’s farming resolutions for 2024?
I’m pretty sure most of us don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our sheep’s hooves … until something goes wrong.So in this wet, cold and possibly muddy time of year, I encourage everyone to think about hoof care and how to prevent problems!
Proper hoof care is essential for maintaining the overall health and well-being of sheep. Just like any other animal, sheep are susceptible to various hoof ailments that can affect their mobility and overall quality of life.
Inspecting & Cleaning the Hoof
The first step in maintaining healthy sheep hooves is regular inspection and cleaning. According to the experts at Ohio State University, it’s pretty important to inspect the hooves to identify any signs of injury, infection or abnormalities.
It’s also crucial to remove any foreign objects, mud or debris that may accumulate around the hoof. This not only prevents potential injuries but also ensures a clean environment for the sheep.
Proper Trimming Techniques
Sheep hooves, much like human nails, continually grow. Without proper trimming, hooves can become overgrown, leading to discomfort, lameness and susceptibility to infections. Keeping on top of hoof trimming is vital!
Sheep101emphasizes the importance of using the right tools and techniques for hoof trimming. But a fair word of warning: You should be cautious not to trim excessively, as this can cause bleeding and additional stress to the animal.
Understanding Hoof Ailments
You can get some really valuable insight about understanding and treating common sheep hoof ailments at Rutgers University’s 4-H Animal Science. One common condition is foot rot, a contagious bacterial infection that causes lameness and swelling.
It’s crucial to quickly identify and isolate affected sheep to prevent the spread of foot rot within the flock. Additionally, the Rutgers experts discuss white line disease, which involves the separation of the hoof wall from the underlying tissue. Regular hoof trimming and proper hygiene are essential for preventing and managing these ailments.
Treatment Options
When it comes to treating sheep hoof ailments, Ohio State University recommends various approaches. For mild cases, topical treatments such as foot baths with antibacterial solutions can be effective.
However, severe cases may require the administration of antibiotics under the guidance of a veterinarian. The key is early detection and intervention to minimize the impact of hoof ailments on the overall health of the sheep.
Preventive Measures
Prevention is often more effective than treatment. Preventive measures will keep optimal hoof health in your sheep. Regular hoof trimming, proper nutrition and a clean living environment are fundamental aspects of preventive care. Additionally, implementing a strategic foot bath routine using recommended solutions can help minimize the risk of bacterial infections.
Proper sheep hoof care is a critical aspect of responsible animal husbandry. Sheep owners really should develop a comprehensive approach to hoof care that includes regular inspection, cleaning, trimming and preventive measures.
If you even suspect a foot issue, it’s essential for you to identify the cause of any hoof ailments right away. Appropriate treatment is essential for ensuring the well-being and longevity of the flock. And if you have any question about what the cause is, call your vet as soon as possible!
As responsible stewards of livestock, we play a crucial role in implementing these practices to promote the overall health and happiness of our sheep.
In total, I have six principles I look for in an ecosystem design that puts sustainability front and center. Today, I want to discuss three of them: site suitability, ecosystem form and ecosystem function. And stay tuned for a future post that round out the top six with my final two ecosystem design principles.
Site-Suitability for the Environment
All ecosystems have plants that are suitable to the environment: i.e. the soil texture (sand, silt or clay), the moisture (dry or wet) and the climate (how cold is in the winter or hot in summer). There are many more life forms in a square mile of tropical rainforest than a square mile of a boreal forest. And each environment has plants that are site-suitable, meaning they can survive and thrive in that area in which they are found.
As gardeners and property owners, it is part of our role as stewards of our landscape to continuously discover which edible and useful plants are suitable to our soil and micro-climates. At the Ecosystem Solution Institute, we are trialling 1000s of edible plants to find those suitable to different climates. At home you can also trial different fruits, berries and herbs and see which do best, then drop the rest.
An ecosystem would never continue to grow something that doesn’t perform well but also wouldn’t settle on only growing a few crops and nothing else. For any micro-landscape (5 feet by 5 feet or larger) in your property you can analyze the soil (clay, sandy or loam), sun exposure (full, partial-shade or shady) and understand the hardiness zone (your coldest average winter temperatures) to find varieties that will thrive.
Ecosystem Form
In all ecosystems you see that life has different forms. We often refer to the form of plant canopies and relative size, the distinct shapes of linear or broadleaf plants and the obvious layering and vertical stacking of their canopies.
For instance, in a mature forest you see larger trees, medium trees, shrubs, bushes, herbs, ground covers and vines. Even in a grassland ecosystem, there is similar layering, although the plants don’t grow as tall. For instance, the native prairie grasslands that used to stretch across North America as the infamous home of the bison had many different grasses, forbes, herbs and flowering plants that occupied different layers from 6 to 7 feet above the ground to only 3 to 6 inches off the soil.
In our yards we can design food forests with layered diversity too! Fruit trees can reach up high, shade-tolerant berries can grow underneath, and herbs and ground covers can abound still farther down. This design maximizes the photosynthesis per square foot of a garden or yard.
In other words, more of the sunlight that enters the footprint of your yard will be taken up by plants and transformed into useful fruit, berries and herbs. You’ll also build new soil organic matter, habitat for pollinator species and nitrogen fixed by legumes.
Consider, as an example, a edible hedge planted along any laneway, property front, or fence line. This design could include layered plants that serve many different functions.
Ecosystem Function
All wild ecosystems have plants and animals that serve different functions, result in companionship between plants that benefits the ecosystem as a whole. Sometimes these “services” take the form of symbiosis, or actual evolved relationships between organisms. An example would be mycorrhizal fungi and many trees, where the trees provide sugars from photosynthesis to the fungi, and the fungi supply water and nutrients more easily to the tree through the roots.
Other times, the relationships are more coincidental companionship. For instance, a berry bush can protect a young fruit tree’s bark from sunscald in the winter. Although this is beneficial for the fruit tree, the berry bush never evolved this specific function. It just happens.
In a similar fashion, having taller trees, shrubs and creeping ground covers help prevent erosion of soil for the whole garden ecosystem. When rain falls, it first hits the higher canopy and then trickles down to the forest floor below. There, ground covers further protect the soil and hold it against erosion! In this case all the living plants are helping retain soil to all of their benefit.
Stay tuned next month, when I cover the final two principles of sustainable ecosystem design!
My grandma picked up a couple huge, beautiful, organic cauliflower heads from the market the other day. She decided that one was more than enough for herself and gifted me one. We love roasting vegetables in our household, and cauliflower is our favorite roasted veggie. The head she gave us was so large that after roasting an entire cookie sheet of cauliflower, I still had more left over, so I decided to ferment it and make some pickled cauliflower.
This recipe is an adaptation of a pickled cucumber, substituting cauliflower instead of pickling cucumbers. The dilly flavor makes this ferment great for chopping into salads, mixing into tuna or just eating as a healthy pickle on the side of a meal.
Yield: 1 quart jar
Ingredients
3 1/2 cups cauliflower florets (about one small head of cauliflower)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 sprigs of fresh dill
1 tsp. whole yellow mustard seed
Brine
1 tbsp. coarse kosher salt dissolved in 2 cups of water
Instructions
Wash cauliflower and cut florets into uniform bite-sized pieces so that it ferments evenly. Pack ingredients into a clean quart jar, beginning with the mustard seeds, garlic, then dill and finally cauliflower.
Mix the brine ingredients together and pour the brine over the produce until everything is completely submerged. Be sure to leave 1 to 2 inches of headspace from the brine level to the rim of the jar.
If you have a small fermentation jar weight, add it to the jar to keep the pickled cauliflower ingredients completely submerged under the brine. Remove any small pieces of cauliflower that float up to the top of the brine.
Fermentation
This is a six-day ferment. Ferment at room temperature, ideally between 60 and 75 degrees F (15 to 23 degrees C), and keep out of direct sunlight. Check on the ferment daily to make sure the brine stays over the produce. This is a crucial step in all vegetable fermentation, as any produce above the brine is prone to mold.
If the produce is above the brine, use a clean utensil to push the produce back down below the brine. Burp the jar daily—unscrew the lid briefly and tighten it back on to allow any built-up gas to release (and avoid jar breakage). This is an active ferment. Foam-like bubbling after a day or two is totally normal and a sign that things are fermenting along, just as they should be.
After six days, taste test the fermented cauliflower to determine if it is fermented enough and that it has reached your ideal flavor. If the cauliflower tastes as it does in the raw form, you will want to ferment a day or two longer and taste test again. Once the cauliflower pickles are sour and packed with flavor, transfer the jar into the refrigerator, with the brine and all.
The pickled cauliflower ferment will last nearly indefinitely, however the texture and flavor will continue to change. Fermentation does not stop once refrigerated, it just slows way down. This ferment is best enjoyed within six months.
Side Notes
If you do not have a glass jar weight, you can improvise by using an easily removable small food-grade glass dish that fits inside the jar. Or, if you have a smaller glass canning jar that can fit into the mouth of the jar you are fermenting with, you can use that to keep the produce pushed under the brine.
If you are unsure if your water is safe for fermentation, you can boil it and allow it to cool to room temperature before adding in the salt to make your brine.
You may use fine sea salt instead of coarse kosher salt if you prefer. Just adjust the recipe to 1 1/4 tbsp. fine sea salt.
This recipe has been adapted from Can It & Ferment It (2017) with permission from Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
After sadly losing two of my original four chickens (Daisy & Charlotte) in 2021, Emmylou and Frances (who celebrated their 7th birthday last May) seemed ready to share their nest. Knowing that they would not live forever, I wanted to provide them with lots of younger siblings, which required a new coop and large run to keep everyone safe from predators.
After endless hours on Pinterest searching for ideas, construction began in mid-June of last year by my trusted craftsmen, Freddi and his dad, Carlos—all based on a photo from my phone. In triple-digit heat, these two heroes completed the house just in time for the much-delayed move-in date of late July.
This article originally appeared in the Nov./Dec. 2023 issue of Chickens magazine as a “Cool Coop” feature. Have a cool coop you’d like to share? Email us a short write-up (~250 to 500 words) about your chicken coop along with a few images to chickens@chickensmagazine.com with the subject line One Cool Coop, and include your name and mailing address. Check out Chickens magazine for current prizes and contest rules.
The story of The Little Dream Farm starts with a cat named Boonce. After Sarah and Chris Bergstein adopted the feline from a rescue in Philadelphia, Boonce sparked what the former calls a “desire in us to want to move from the city, buy a farm and have more land to live with more animals and get away from city life.”
So began The Little Dream Farm, which is situated on 58 acres in upstate New York. Embracing regenerative and organic farming methods, the venture seeks to live in line with the seasons and embrace the pace of the hobby farming lifestyle.
Taking a break from farm duties, we spoke to Bergstein about focusing on flowers and early hobby farming lessons. We also got into the abiding importance of soil health.
Early on, Bergstein came to realize that keeping things slow and steady is a vital mantra for starting a hobby farm. “When you try to take on too many things at once, you are doing a lot of things marginally well but nothing very well,” she explains. “We were given this advice, we didn’t really follow it, and we paid for it in the stress and overwhelm of doing too many things at once.”
Adding that due to herself and Chris working full-time remote jobs, farm duties have to be carefully managed and expectations kept realistic.
“After two years of going hard at trying to do it all, we’re scaling back and just doing what we can do well and leaving the rest for now,” says Bergstein. “It doesn’t all have to get done in your first years—and the slower you go, the more you can enjoy the journey as it unfolds!”
Regenerative farming practices are a vital part of the way The Little Dream Farm is run. “We do not use chemicals on our farm,” says Bergstein, “both in our pastures and fields and in our gardens and growing spaces, and with our animals too.”
Bergstein adds that they always “opt for organic, non-toxic” supplies and continually “ask ourselves what the best approach is to solve the root of a problem rather than just masking a symptom.”
“We do a first till on growing spaces when we’re starting out new [then] incorporate our donkey manure into our larger planting field and leaf mulch into our smaller garden beds,” outlines Bergstein when talking about putting the farm’s regenerative practices into motion. “We’re always working to build soil health and work with nature and her rhythms.”
“The natural world around us can teach us so much if we’re patient enough and observant enough to watch and listen,” she continues. “We are guided by the notion that we’re simply stewards of the land we have—and we’re always thinking about how to leave it better than we found it.”
For the 2023 season, Bergstein says that flowers emerged as the farm’s success story. “I’ve never grown flowers from seed at scale before, so with the help of a neighbor we had a huge patch tilled. I grew 1,500 flower seedlings and transplanted them out into the cut flower patch of 11 four-foot-wide by 33-feet-long rows,” she explains.
“We grew all kinds of lovely annuals and perennials and had a blast learning about each plant, its growing habit, how to save seed, and how to maintain a garden of that size and scale throughout the growing season,” adds Bergstein. “It was a blast!”
Reflecting on the hobby farm lifestyle, Bergstein calls it an “unmatched” way of living.
“Coming from big city living, we love the quiet, slow pace of the little town we live in. And we love the space, the fresh air and that we can go for our daily walk outside sometimes without ever encountering another person!” she says. “It’s a different way of living, for sure, and when our friends come and visit they always ask us, ‘Don’t you get bored or stir crazy out here?’ The answer is no and no: We love the rhythm of living in line with the seasons and that we’re so much closer to nature and so much more connected to what it means to be alive.”
The following excerpt is fromMicrobe Science for Gardeners(New Society Publishers, September 2023) by Robert Pavlis.
courtesy of New Society Publishers
Actinomycetes are called filamentous bacteria, or mold bacteria. They look and grow like fungi but are biologically similar to bacteria. They grow hyphae-like threads that consume resistant organic matter, and they are tolerant of dry soil, alkaline soil, and high-temperature conditions. They produce antibiotics such as streptomycin and actinomycin that stop the growth of other microbes. Some of these are available as commercial drugs.
Actinomycetes tend to be found in decaying organic matter.
They can protect plant roots from disease, and in a few cases they cause diseases such as potato scab. Their affinity for higher temperatures and their ability to decompose tough organic matter makes them an important contributor in hot composting. These organisms are responsible for the earthy smell of damp, well-aerated soil.
Frankia are special actinomycetes that form symbiotic nitrogen-
fixing nodules on over two hundred species of nonleguminous plants. Most are trees and shrubs such as alders, sea buckthorn and Casuarina species, many of which are pioneer species that grow in very poor soil.
Why Does Soil Smell So Good?
The earthy smell that rises after a summer rain is so pleasant that we use it to scent perfumes. One of the compounds responsible for this fragrance is geosmin, and its biology in soil is very interesting.
Geosmin is made mostly by an actinomycetes called Streptomyces,
which makes a host of other compounds including the well known
antibiotic streptomycin. Scientists have been wondering for quite some time why this organism makes geosmin, and they now have
some insight into this.
Streptomyces grow mycelium threads through the pores in soil.
When they run out of nutrients, it is time to move on, and they
form spores. These spores spread by wind and water. As part of the process of producing spores they also produce geosmin, which attracts springtails.
Springtails are tiny critters (hexapods) that get their name from their ability to hop around like fleas, and they have a particular attraction for geosmin. As the springtails rummage through soil looking for geosmin, the Streptomyces spores get attached to the springtails who then spread them throughout the soil. Springtails are jumping Ubers for actinomycetes.
courtesy of New Society Publishers
Microbe Myth: Soil Is an Antidepressant That Makes You Feel Good
You probably saw the error-riddled meme that says, “Soil is an antidepressant. The smell of mycobacterium vacii, a microorganism found in soil, compost and leaf mold, lights up neurotransmitters that release serotonin, a mood-lifting hormone.”
Gardeners were quick to accept these facts, but I had a close look at the science behind this. First of all, there is no such organism; however, Mycobacteriumvaccae does exist.
Serotonin has been well studied and is known as the “feel-good hormone.” It plays a key role in staving off anxiety and depression. So, if the smell from microbes in soil causes higher levels of serotonin, it is quite likely that these smells make us feel good. However, the pleasant smell of soil is due to geosmin which is made by Streptomyces bacteria, not Mycobacteriumvaccae. It is also not linked to serotonin levels.
There is no scientific evidence that exposure to Mycobacteriumvaccae or geosmin changes our serotonin levels. As with most gardening memes, there is a smattering of truth, but most of the message is wrong. Don’t believe gardening memes.
Texas farmer Keisha Johnson talks career transitions, skill sharing, poultry keeping and more.
Hear about Keisha’s career transition from administration and logistics to farming, and her advice for how anyone can take pre-farming-career skills into farm life—”turning your lifestyle into your livelihood.” Keisha talks about growing vegetables in Texas’s hot, arid climate through summer and more mild winter weather, plus her volunteer-potato-growing experiment. (Listen in for her prediction for this winter’s weather!)
Learn about Keisha’s White Broad Breasted turkey breeding—a rare thing for this breed to be able to naturally reproduce. She talks, too, about the realities of keeping poultry, including predator pressure.
Hear also about the Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association and their conference happening at the end of January 2024. Keisha talks about getting involved as a first-year board member and the new skill-sharing and job board they’re working on getting off the ground.
At the very end, Keisha shares her favorite farm meal, sharing a beloved family recipe.
Water belly is a colloquial term for a potentially serious condition in a hen called ascites. Ascites is the inappropriate accumulation of fluid within the body cavity of a hen. To understand this condition and know how to manage it appropriately, we first must discuss anatomy.
Normally, there is a membrane in the back half of the body around the intestines called the peritoneal membrane. There is a “potential” space formed by this membrane that typically has nothing inside it. However, when ascites occurs, fluid accumulates within this potential space.
A unique anatomical feature that is present in birds is the presence of air sacs. Air sacs are membranes that branch off the lungs and are present within the body cavity from the neck down to the intestines. Although they don’t participate in gas exchange, air moves through them to get to the lungs for gas exchange to occur. The air sacs are thin-walled and can change in size based on other structures next to them. This means if fluid accumulates in the belly, it can push on these air sacs, causing an alteration of air flow.
What & How?
Various disease processes can happen that can cause fluid to accumulate in the peritoneal space. But there are four basic pathophysiologic mechanisms of how it occurs.
Decreased Osmotic Pressure
The first to discuss is known as decreased osmotic pressure. There is a process known as osmosis that governs the flow of fluids across a membrane. Large particles on one side of a membrane cause fluid to want to stay on that side of the membrane with them.
In the case of blood vessels, the protein called albumin acts as this large particle. Albumin protein is necessary to help maintain fluid appropriately within blood vessels. If there isn’t enough of it, fluid can leak out of blood vessels. Problems such as liver disease or gastrointestinal disorders could lead to lower levels of albumin in the blood, thus resulting in fluid to accumulate within the intestinal peritoneal cavity.
Hydrostatic Pressure
The second disease process that causes ascites is an increase in hydrostatic pressure. We can think about the heart and blood vessels as essentially a tubing system with the fluid that is running through it being blood. In various forms of heart disease blood may not be being pumped around the body effectively, leading to pressure alterations. This increased hydrostatic pressure then results in fluids leaking out of blood vessels and accumulating within body cavities or within organs.
Vasculitis
The third way ascites develops is by a process called vasculitis. This is where blood vessels are inflamed for an underlying reason, and it makes the junctions between the cells that line the blood vessels not fit together as well. This causes fluid to leak out of blood vessels. Underlying disease processes that cause inflammation include infectious diseases, local irritants and other problems. Various reproductive problems can lead to vasculitis including things such as egg yolk peritonitis, an impacted oviduct, cystic ovarian disease and reproductive tract cancers.
Impaired Lymphatic Drainage
Lastly, the fourth pathologic process that leads to ascites is impaired lymphatic drainage. The lymphatic system in the body is involved in helping fluids that are out in tissues to be taken up and put back into the vascular system. This sort of system is more developed in mammals, but it’s still present to a minor degree in birds.
When a hen develops ascites by one of these routes, the same problem and signs will occur. If a small amount of fluid accumulates it may not cause her to have any signs. However, if a large amount of fluid accumulates this ends up putting pressure on her abdominal organs and leads to compression of air sacs.Signs she can have associated with this include things such as respiratory distress, open beak breathing, panting and becoming easily winded after running around. Some signs are very vague, and she may just be less vocal, acting tired or not eating as well. If you feel her bottom, she may have a very rounded, full-feeling belly. More than likely, she’ll not be laying during this time, but it’s possible that she may still try.
Stephanie Lamb, DMV
What Should You Do
If you find that your hen has a round-feeling bottom, do not try to treat her yourself without knowing why her belly is the way that it is. The reality is, that rounded belly could be ascites, but it could be any number of other problems as well. A mass, an enlarged organ or a large amount of fat can all feel very similar, even to the trained professional who feels chicken bellies every day! You really must get a veterinarian to do a thorough physical exam and some testing to know if ascites is present.
Your veterinarian may want to do a few different tests to tell what is going on in the belly of your hen. I recommend doing one of two tests to diagnose ascites.
The first is an ultrasound. This is very quick and allows the veterinarian to immediately tell if there is any fluid present. It also allows them to know exactly where they need to drain the fluid from. Sometimes this diagnostic test also allows the veterinarian to tell which of the previously described pathologic causes is behind why the ascites developed. Sometimes it does not.
The other test the veterinarian may want to do to diagnose ascites is to place a needle into the abdomen to see if they can draw fluid out. If they can get fluid out this is abnormal and ascites is present!
Now here is where the dilemma comes in that each individual owner needs to decide. Is your chicken a production animal that is a part of your farm? Or is your chicken a pet?
If your chicken is a production animal, you need to seriously consider how humane it is to keep on going with this bird. Once ascites is diagnosed, to treat it appropriately, you must find out why it is happening. This allows you to get the most targeted, appropriate and effective treatments and care done. However, this can become expensive quickly. Your bird may need blood work, cultures, cardiac ultrasounds (echocardiograms) and even exploratory surgery to figure out why ascites is happening.
Yes, all this can be done in a chicken but are you prepared to do it?
If your bird is a production animal, these diagnostics may not be practical. And the other harsh reality that needs to be discussed is that most of the causes for ascites are serious ailments that do not have good outcomes in the long run. Yes, treatments can be done, but not all problems are fixable.
For those problems that can’t be fixed, treatments to keep a bird comfortable and improve quality of life may be able to be done. However, it may be prolonging the inevitable. If you don’t want to do treatments or diagnostics, it’s OK and, even more importantly, humane to consider euthanizing or culling that individual.
If your bird is a pet or has become one over time, you may want to work with your veterinarian and do some of the previously mentioned diagnostics. Once the cause for ascites is determined, treatment options need to be discussed.
In many chickens, the main cause of ascites is a reproductive disorder. Many people think the only cause of ascites is egg yolk peritonitis. This is simply not the case. As we learn more about avian medicine and do more diagnostics, we’re finding that many other forms of reproductive tract pathology can cause ascites. I have personally seen more birds with cancer of the reproductive tract causing ascites than egg yolk coelomitis cases.
Stephanie Lamb, DMV
Treatment
Depending upon what your veterinarian determines, the cause of the ascites will determine what treatments need to be done.
If your bird happens to have:
Liver Disease Causing Ascites: Liver support medications may be needed.
Heart Disease: Heart medications are in order.
Egg Yolk Coelomitis: Anti-inflammatories and possibly antibiotics are needed.
Cancer of The Reproductive Tract: Sometimes hormone therapies, pain medications, anti-inflammatories and omega-3 fatty acids are recommended.
An Impacted Oviduct: She may need to be spayed.
Although treatments may vary, one treatment that all forms of ascites will have in common is the need to have fluid drained from the belly. This treatment can give your bird some immediate relief. If you’re lucky and it’s a simple case of egg yolk peritonitis, one draining may be all that is needed.
Yes, you read that correctly. I said you’re lucky if it’s egg yolk peritonitis, and you may have this problem only once. You’ll read in many places that egg yolk peritonitis is a death sentence and, if it causes ascites once, it will just keep happening. The reality is that information is based off the assumption that all causes of ascites are from egg yolk coelomitis. And as we have discussed throughout this article they simply are not.
Yes, many causes of ascites will be repeated problems (for example liver disease, heart disease, reproductive tract cancers, cysts), but egg yolk peritonitis doesn’t have to be one of those that leads to repeated fluid build-up. In fact, every time I have worked with a bird that has had ascites reoccur, it has had some other cause for the ascites than egg yolk peritonitis. So, consider that fact if you encounter this problem in your hen and she develops this as a reoccurring issue.
One problem that owners have asked me is if they can drain their bird’s belly of fluid on their own at home. My answer for this is that you really need to work with your veterinarian and have them tell you if this is OK to do with your bird or not. In many cases, it won’t be.
Not only does the fluid draining need to be a sterile procedure, it needs to be done in the correct location of the abdomen. If the incorrect location is poked with a needle, it can cause problems and be painful. One owner informed me once that she knew of someone online who would put needles into their hen’s belly and let them walk around and drain the fluid on their own. I must say that this is a highly inappropriate and inhumane to do.
One problem with this is that leaving a needle in the body is leaving a hole in the body that bacteria can climb up into, which could result in an infection. That’s a quick way to make your bird sicker and die faster. The other problem with this is as the fluid drains that needle will start to scrape against the internal organs. This could lead to lacerations on organs and damage, and it must also be highly uncomfortable.
Please don’t do this to your chicken. Get help from your veterinarian if you want to treat your bird. And if you don’t, please consider humane euthanasia or culling.
Ultimately, most of the diseases that cause ascites can become chronic problems that require lifelong management or medications. Occasionally, you may get lucky and have it be a one-time problem. However, working with your veterinarian can help you to determine what the cause is for your bird. And it can help you to determine what you need to do to treat it.
Remember: It’s OK to say you don’t want to treat the problem. But if you don’t, please do what is right by the bird. Don’t let it suffer.
This article originally appeared in the Nov./Dec. 2023 issue of Chickens magazine.
