# Sneezing chicken



## jbond07 (Jun 19, 2013)

One of my white Delaware hens sneezes every time I go outside and feed them at night. The feed is more like the texture of starter feed because I buy locally ground, locally grown, non GMO feed. I haven't noticed her sneezing at any other time. Perhaps she is just getting smaller bits in her nasal passageways? What should I do?


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

She'll be fine....Dels are pigs around food and it's likely that she's digging in a little too much. You can dampen that feed and feed it as a mash one evening and see if it happens. If it doesn't, it could be due to the fine dust of the milled feed.

Had the same thing happen here to a few Del chicks when given milled layer mash dry...sneezed and even had asthma symptoms in one cockerel...but no symptoms like that when they eat the same feed fermented.


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## jbond07 (Jun 19, 2013)

How do you ferment feed? I would imagine a brine would have too much salt.. I do feed them fermented raw milk as a snack (also how I sneak in my diatomaceous earth for internal deworming) and I do lots of fermented foods for myself as well. She doesn't do it when the feed is a bit wet.


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## Bee (Jun 20, 2013)

You don't brine the feed...you treat it like sourdough bread mix. Keep it wet, let it pull yeast spores from the air until it starts to bubble and then just keep feeding it. There is a thread on here about it that explains it and shows pics. 

So, if she doesn't do it when the feed is wet, then I wouldn't worry about the sneezing...some birds are just more sensitive than others to air born allergens.


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