Preventing Coccidiosis and Other Tips for Raising Chickens

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ILLUSTRATION: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
Chickens need to have access to grit, as it is vital for chewing their food.

As a follow-up to our article on getting started raising poultry, here are a few more tips for you chicken-loving homesteaders out there.

Preventing Coccidiosis

Coccidiosis doesn’t have to be a problem for homesteaders who raise chickens. We used to buy .10 or .15 cents worth of permanganate of potash (the price is probably a bit more now for the same amount–2 tablespoonsful) and dissolve it in a pint jar of water. Permanganate of potash looks like freeze-dried coffee, only the crystals are dark purple. After it’s dissolved, you add just enough of the pint mixture to the chickens’ drinking water to turn it a faint lavender.

If you do this as soon as the chicks are hatched, they’ll rarely get the disease because coccidiosis is actually a class of protozoan that live in a chicken’s intestines as a parasite, and the permanganate knocks them for a loop. Of course, if you wait until the birds already have coccidiosis, you’ll have to use a stronger mixture of the permanganate, and you may still lose a few chicks. It’s better to use the potash as a means of preventing coccidiosis from the beginning. Any country drugstore should have it.

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  • Published on Jan 1, 1971
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