Why Does Perdue Feed Herbs to their Chickens?
When I wrote my first book Fresh Eggs Daily: Raising Happy, Healthy Chickens Naturally back in 2013 about using herbs in my chicken keeping, there weren't many scientific studies being done that proved the benefits of feeding herbs to chickens or that really focused on any homeopathic methods.
Most of the information in my book was based on my own personal observations and results, along with applying the human benefits of various herbs to chickens.
Now, many years later, the studies still aren't out there in large numbers, but something interesting caught my eye several years ago.
Why Does Perdue Feed Herbs to their Chickens?
I don't know how many of you had seen the Perdue commercials where a farmer is standing in his chicken house holding a bunch of fresh parsley and talking about how he feeds it to his chickens. That fascinated me.
Clearly, someone at Perdue didn't wake up one morning and just decide that the company was going to start feeding all their chickens parsley. And then randomly just tossed their chickens a bunch of herbs. That's a huge expense for them, and not something they would do on a whim.
Obviously THEY had done studies and know exactly how much, how often and what benefits feeding parsley offers to chickens.
And this makes me very, very happy.
(I mean I still feel very, very badly for any commercially raised chickens, but at least their diet is getting better - at least at Perdue farms.)
The fact that a large poultry producer like Perdue feels that the cost of adding parsley (and a few other herbs too!) to their chickens' diet is justified (based on scientific studies that they have done) actually does wonders towards validating the information in my book.
It makes me feel like I was on the right track just by applying a bit of commonsense.
In fact, I actually chuckled at this: A reader actually emailed me shortly after the Perdue commercial started airing on TV and told me that she believed that someone over at Perdue had read my book - because now they're feeding parsley to their flocks!
While I would love to believe that my book was the impetus for their switch to a more natural diet, I am pretty sure that's not how it happened. Although that would be super cool......
Now, while I DO mention parsley at least a half dozen times in my book, extolling its virtues as a laying stimulant and an aid in blood vessel development that's jam-packed with vitamins - especially Vitamin B - and protein, I hardly think that reading my book was what made Perdue to start adding herbs to their chicken feed!
Instead, I think their decision was more likely due to the Veterinary Feed Directive being implemented on January 1st of 2017.
As a result of the Directive, many antibiotics for all types of livestock have been removed from feed store shelves and now require a prescription from a vet in order to be dispensed. This has lead to a scramble by many in the poultry industry to find alternative and natural ways to improve the health of various kinds of animals, and especially chickens.
According to this article, Perdue also is adding oregano to their chickens' water and thyme to their feed. Both oregano and thyme act as immune system boosters and natural antibiotics - and yes, I do talk in my book about feeding my chickens both oregano and thyme as well! Perdue is also adding probiotics to their flock's diet to help build good bacteria in the gut - again, something mentioned and recommended in my book.
But I digress. I'm sure that my little book isn't on Perdue's radar. But regardless of the reasons why, Perdue, the third largest poultry operation in the US, is the FIRST to completely eliminate the use of routine antibiotics in their chicken keeping.
Here's hoping that others follow suit!
So, until some of the studies being done by the commercial poultry industry are released to the general public, I'll continue doing what I've been doing - offering my chickens a steady diet of (mostly free-choice) fresh and dried herbs like parsley, sage, oregano and thyme.
Herbs for chickens (what Jim Perdue calls The Scarborough Fair Diet) is a good thing. I believe that a healthier, more natural diet leads to healthier, happier chickens and more nutritious, more delicious eggs for our families.
Health Benefits of Some of the Herbs Perdue is Feeding
Oregano natural antibiotic, strengthens the immune system, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, combats coccidiosis, salmonella, infectious bronchitis, avian flu, blackhead and e-coliUpdate 4/22/2017: To be filed under "You Can't Make this Stuff Up". Coincidentally, I met the Director of Hatcheries for Perdue on my flight back to Bangor yesterday. Turns out, he lives just a few towns over from me. I told him that I loved their ads, had actually written a book about using herbs with chickens and had just written this blog post about it.
He confirmed that Perdue had done a bunch of scientific research into adding various herbs to chickens' diets, and that it was indeed in response to the new Veterinary Feed Directive. We exchanged business cards and went our separate ways - he had the good fortune to be upgraded to first class on the flight! Now I'm wondering if he'll read this post!
