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Already have a chicken flock?
You want to provide the best care for your chickens. These resources include tools and tips for best husbandry practices.
- Keeping your flock, your food, and your family healthy (pdf 848 KB)
Did you know that even healthy birds, their eggs, and meat can all be sources of bacteria that can make you sick? With some basic hygiene and handling practices you and your family can care for your birds safely.
- Adding new chicks to your flock. (pdf 1,491 KB)
Adding new chicks to your flock is an exciting activity. Whether you are adding to a recreational flock or a breeding line or getting layers or broilers, new additions to the flock can bring joy, but also disease.
Protect your existing flock with simple steps: get new chicks from a reputable source, and, quarantine new birds for 30 days to watch for signs of disease.
- Safe handling of baby poultry . (pdf 175 KB)
Contact with live poultry can be a source of germs and infections, even if a bird appears healthy and clean. There are things you can do to help keep yourself, your family and birds safe.
- As a small-flock poultry owner you will, at some point, have to end your birds' lives because of disease, welfare, or other issues. It is your responsibility to ensure your birds are correctly euthanized and their carcasses disposed of appropriately.
- Euthanasia and disposal. (pdf 252 KB)
Euthanasia is the ending of the life of an individual animal in a way that minimizes or eliminates pain, anxiety and distress. Euthanasia means a good death for the animal. Proper euthanasia, done at the right time, reduces suffering due to disease, pain from injury and distress from ill thrift. .
- The manual Practical Guidelines for On-Farm Euthanasia of Poultry (pdf 1.58 Mb) produced by the Poultry Industry Council offers science and research based guidelines and description of different on-farm poultry euthanasia methods.
- Cleaning and disinfection of poultry premises. (pdf 146 KB)
Effective cleaning and disinfection in between poultry flocks will reduce the likelihood of spreading diseases to your new flock. Follow this four-step process (dry cleaning, washing, disinfecting and drying) before placing new birds.
- Chickens and Bears (pdf 262 KB)
As the number of small flocks in Alberta increase, the number of negative encounters with bears has also increased. By following a series of proactive measures you can be BearSmart and protect your animals, property and family.
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