DISEASE PREVENTION
Preventing Disease = Good Biosecurity Measures
Biosecurity refers to any measures designed and regularly practiced to prevent the spread of disease onto your property and into your flock. In simpler words, biosecurity includes any action that helps protect the health of your flock, such as maintaining coops and pens or using a footbath when visiting your flock. Biosecurity typically follows three steps:
- Isolation: keeping your birds in a controlled environment and away from other animals
- Traffic control: limiting people and equipment that enter and exit your birds’ area
- Sanitation: disinfecting people, materials, and equipment that come into contact with your birds’ area
LATEST BIOSECURITY BLOG POSTS:
To Wash or Not to Wash your Eggs? That is the Question
The discussion among backyard poultry owners about whether or not to wash the eggs you get from your hens can be a close second to politics or religion when it comes to conversations that don’t end well… Seriously, for some reason this is just one of those topics people get really adamant about. So Should I Wash My Eggs? Big picture, no matter what people say online, don’t wash or dunk your backyard eggs.
Digestive Issues in Chickens
We all want to make sure our chickens are happy and healthy. Just like us humans, diet and nutrition are essential for the overall health of chickens. The following article focuses on the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of chickens and how best to keep our birds happy and healthy with respect to diet and nutrition. Gastrointestinal Tract of a Chicken From start to end, a chicken’s digestive tract is quite different than our own, though
Cleaning and Disinfecting Your Chicken Coop
Maintaining a clean coop is important to reduce the potential for disease transmission. To maintain good sanitation, you will need to periodically clean your coop. Good sanitation includes proper cleaning and disinfection of your coop. Big picture, proper cleaning and disinfecting (and we’ll go over the difference between the two) are crucial in order to prevent exposure to multiple infectious diseases including Marek’s disease, Salmonella and ectoparasites like mites. As an example, let's say your
Marek’s Disease: the Scourge of Poultry Everywhere!
You finally have your coop up and running. Your cute feathered friends are clucking away. You’re practicing egg-cellent biosecurity measures and feeding the right diet but what else can you do to protect your birds? SoCal Nestbox aims to provide you with helpful tools, such as Find A Vet, on our site along with articles (like this one!) to support your happy and healthy human-animal bond. We are here to share important information with you
Biosecurity at the Feed Store
A feed store is a great place to pick up food, bedding, and equipment for tending your flock. On the other hand, it may also be a place to bring home disease to your flock. Owners of sick birds may unknowingly carry infectious germs from home with them while they shop. If the store staff isn’t careful, they can carry poultry diseases from bird to bird. Be aware of the biosecurity practices at your feed
Biosecurity Tips for Any Flock Size
We take precautions to protect our health every day. We wash our hands, throw out expired food, and stay home when we are sick. But what about the health of our flock? That’s where bird biosecurity comes in. Biosecurity is vital to ensuring that your flock -- no matter their size -- stays healthy. For bird owners, it is especially important to have proper biosecurity measures in place given that diseases can quickly spread through