Can I feed hens Italian spices.

[U_Stormcrow]

Still more inclined to put it on my chicken than on their food.

 

[Cocosmama]

You can't possibly know the dosage using those ingredients. That makes it slightly more reliable, and slightly more dangerous, than prayer or magic. Nor do the studies (and I've read LOTS of them) look at the effects of regular feeding of the supposedly "good" stuff. It is entirely possible, likely even, that routine dosing simply selects for bacteria, parasites, etc more able to tolerate low amounts of the bioactive ingredients in the mint family, the same way routine addition of ACV to acidify your water selects for bacteria that do better in more acidic environments, and routine dosing of low dose antibiotics selects for germs in hospitals able to disregard it - things we now give lovely names like MRSA.

So, yes you can. Why would you? If you are doing it for antibacterial/antiparasitic properties, its because your Faith trumps your Science.

Hmmm... because most chicken feed manufacturers are adding it into their recipes. Kalmbach does. Why cant I? Read the label of your chicken feed before you start calling people witches.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hmmm... because most chicken feed manufacturers are adding it into their recipes. Kalmbach does. Why cant I? Read the label of your chicken feed before you start calling people witches.

You don't know me from BYC, or you would know that I do read my labels, I hold hedgewitches in higher regard than you seem to think, and nothing I said above is even remotely questioned, being amply backed by study, experience, and known biological processes.

Nor did I say you couldn't. I just said that if you are doing it for antibacterial/antiparasitic properties, you are operating on faith. Paracelsus (16th c, paraphrased), "The dosage is the poison".

Welcome, btw, to BYC.

 

[Noodle22]

There's no health benefits in that spice mi

There's no health benefits in that spice mix.

Not true.

 

[nuthatched]

Not true.

There's no benefits in old, dried Walmart spice mix. If you want to fling herbs at your birds, hit a herb shop.

 

[Penpal]

IN the wild animals will nibble on herbs as needed. If they carry a certain parasite they will feel the need to eat a plant that carries the anti-parasitic for that parasite.

You can feed garlic every day, but most things are on an "as needed" basis. Grow a few plants that you think they need. They will nibble as needed. You may think they never touch the plants, but it just may not be obvious. I have done this for my sheep and donkeys and found someone eating a "noxious" plant once, and never again because he/she doesn't need it any more.