Thursday, June 9, 2016

Do you use honey to treat your poultry?

This sad little chick was born yesterday. We are going to call it Sweet Pea until we know whether it’s male or female. We had two hens sharing a basket to lay on the eggs until they hatched. They would each take turns sitting on them so the other one could eat. They also co-mother the little chicks together.

Henrietta with chicks
Mary Poopins with 2 chicks








They really are a great team which is why I don’t understand why after hatching five of the chicks they decided to start killing every one after that. They killed four of the new babies and they tried to kill little Sweet Pea but, it was stubborn and the poor little thing clung to life as best as it could.
The wound on this chicken is pretty deep. Being the overprotective and worried chicken mom that I am, I started asking everyone I knew that knows about chickens how to treat this wound. I was so worried that it wasn’t going to make it. Every single person that I asked except one person told me to use honey! I just couldn’t believe it!  I thought honey would be very bad for it because it’s so sticky. I just knew the hay, dirt and everything else would stick to it and ultimately get it infected. So I decided to do a little bit of research to check this out before I made everything worse with a big sticky mess.
After looking at a lot of websites, I have decided to give the honey a chance. I found out that most people and quite a few vets think it’s better to use honey than antibiotic cream. Also, you have to use raw organic honey because the pollen is where the antibacterial goodness comes from. So I ended up cleaning the wound with warm water and then hydrogen peroxide. After that is when I applied the honey. The honey seemed to go on a lot better than the antibiotic cream. The antibiotic cream usually just slides around when you try to apply it to the wound and especially if it is wet or still bleeding. When I applied the honey, it stayed right in place:) I ended up applying the honey three times throughout the day because I was worried about infection as I said earlier.
When I checked on Sweet Pea this evening the wound looked a lot better! A lot of the redness has gone away and it must be helping because Sweet Pea isn’t hollering like she was most of the day. She actually seems a lot happier. She is walking around just chirping to herself quietly.
So, in the end, the honey won! I have never seen such a drastic turn around like this with antibiotic cream.
D & D's Treasures - Teresa Signature
*Update- Sweet Pea is doing much better! Here’s a picture from the next morning…I have to admit that honey stuff really works!


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