Raising Chickens Herbally

Raising Chickens Herbally I come from a family of farmers on both sides, and that heritage has always felt right to me deep in my bones. It made perfect sense to me.
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Owner Moonlight Mile Herb farm * Creator and formulator of herbal health products for poultry * Herbalist practicing 30 years * Farmer * Storyteller sharing life on the farm stories in rural Michigan
MoonlightMileHerbs.com I right away took to gardening as a small child and it has remained a life-long infatuation. I thought plants were no different than myself as a person, and I accepted this as

truth, as perhaps only a child would. These plants were people in their own right, with their own ways how they lived life, which had nothing to do with me, but, we could still be friends. And this thought extended to everything around me. I have ended up having respect for all other living beings on this planet, whether they are people, animals, plants, trees, stones or mother earth. It comes from my heart and has everything to do with how I move in this world. I started poultry keeping in 1999, on a small 6-acre herb farm in Willis, MI. You may find me somewhat of a rebel. I don’t always agree with conventional "wisdom", especially when it comes to poultry keeping. My opinion is, the current backyard chicken keeping style, is largely defined by poultry product corporations. These entities have and still do, work hand in hand with large commercial poultry operations. Which doesn’t have much relevance to your backyard chicken keeping. If you like to follow a scientific-only path with all the "T’s" crossed and "I’s" dotted, what I do may not agree with you. Not that I don’t respect science, it is just not in the driver seat for me. I am not one to play it safe and dutifully follow a well-worn path. I am a free thinker and like to understand things on my own terms. I do like to play it with a lot of common sense, utilizing my extensive herbal training, with my eyes wide open on nature and with a good communication with my birds. As an herbalist, I want to support my poultry’s health the same way I support mine. This is a holistic approach using a lot of different kinds of herbal methods, using herbs that I harvest and remedies I create. I am an ascribed nativist when it comes to herbs. I think mother earth provides us with wild native herbs (aka weeds) that gives us antidotes to a myriad of health issues we may encounter. Using native herbs this way is even more true and intuitive to animals, who live closer to the earth than people do now. Their natural relationship is still very close, while the gap with people has widened. I started developing herbal remedies for my flock because, quite frankly there were none to be had. I had to either go with the flow and accept veterinary science (which is still not too well versed in treating backyard poultry health) or develop my own. It was a no brainer, except at that point I really had no blueprint in which to follow except for my training as an herbalist. I had to consult the only experts I knew. My birds and the herbs. I thought it would be an easy task to simply make some basic herbal medicine and I would be on my way. I was soon to learn how little I really knew. It soon dawned on me that I would have to see it from a bird’s point of view and have to understand their relationship with not only herbs, but with nature. It took many years of intense observation, working with many types of herbs, and just immersing myself in nature. The products I ended up creating is from all that. It is defined by connection and relationship. It is not only the most effective herbal medicine I could have created for my poultry; it has also included me into my own place within nature. And, it has deepened my love for the earth which is really healing. I hope by using my products you can experience the same, and narrow that gap and feel the love from mother earth. It can be a good point to start the conversation. There is still more for me to learn and do, and I hope you join me on our journey.


~ Susan Burek, Herbalist, Author & Inventor

I made myself stay inside today. You know me, I didn't want to. But I talked some sense into myself to not go outside ...
09/03/2026

I made myself stay inside today. You know me, I didn't want to. But I talked some sense into myself to not go outside into what was probably the most miserabilist day of summer this year. A true dog day. It felt like what I would think the inside of a pressure canner would feel like. So I worked on some paperwork I needed to finish all afternoon. I did poke my head outside here and there.

I did put the Brahmas inside the big pen nursery with the Spangles. Maybe not the smartest thing, but it turned out OK. Integrating can be stressful for birds, and I did it on a very hot and humid day. What I could tell by the end of the day, the Spangles were cowed by the Brahmas and didn't mess with them at all. I think it will be OK. And speaking of integration, more of the Dominique's are going outside, and 3 of them even roosted with the Java's this evening. I think they are still getting used to random peafowl wandering in to eat and drink. Sometimes the ducks will go in there too, but I haven't seen that since I let the Dominique's out. But it is going well.

Another thing I did was to shut the gate to the big pen bird yard. I have a number of Spangles (not those in the nursery) that are coming up missing. I think I have either a fox or coyote that is hanging around for chicken dinner. I betting on a fox. So I mainly want to keep the Spangles inside the bird yard for now. Its not like ranging in a quarter acre yard is going to be hard. So now, the peachicks have to learn how to fly in and out at the gate. The older peafowl and guineas already know how. Since I always had the gate open, they didn't have to learn that. Some figured it out, but the rest I had to open the gate temporarily because mama peahen was already on the other side and she wasn't going to go back to show them how it was done, if they didn't watch her the first time.

Later in early evening I did venture out to the garden area and I at least chopped down the nettle in the Mary garden. So I wasn't totally thwarted today. You know, I just had to. lol

Back in the saddle again. It does my heart good to have a big bowl of maters. I didn't plant a huge garden, and I wasn'...
09/02/2026

Back in the saddle again. It does my heart good to have a big bowl of maters. I didn't plant a huge garden, and I wasn't sure of the crop. But as we get to the end of summer things are perking up and I am going to get a sizeable amount of everything I planted. Not a ton for mass canning, but I should be able to get good amounts for eating for sure. It looks like the cayenne pepper crop will be nice and there are still more beans that are growing. And the tomato crop has picked up too! I will remember this when I am tempted to put in 80 tomato plants next year. Keeping it manageable makes it more fun to garden.

I think tomorrow I will put the Brahmas in with the Spangles. I think they will fit in OK as they are all about the same age and size. They all are still at the age they are not super mature and still fairly young. I actually think the Brahmas will boss the Spangles around. I also have Ethel in there too. The older Spangle roos out in the big pen were chasing her a lot to mate with and she can't see as good with only one functioning eye, so they could catch her off guard a lot. I think that also made her less confident to go outside because it made her a target so she was hiding a lot in the big pen. In the nursery she is in a protected space. I think she likes all the little Spangles too. She is a lot more relaxed.

09/02/2026

Lovely summer evening with honey scented air!

Somehow I missed the memo about rain early evening. Two days in a row. I must be really distracted to miss rain news....
09/01/2026

Somehow I missed the memo about rain early evening. Two days in a row. I must be really distracted to miss rain news. I had planned to work on the Mary garden this afternoon, but then my chicken food got delivered today. I had wanted to store all my food bins in the solar house. So that meant I had to clean it out.

I had to pull out all the litter and scrape the floor a little. It was still in good shape. I took down the roost. I brushed all the walls off with a broom, to get the most dirt, dust and cobwebs down. I am going to have to go back over with a vacuum and wipe down the walls another day. I cleaned off the tops of a couple of tubs that got pooped on. I will probably replace a couple that the mice were chewing holes in.

Then I scraped the dirt away enough so I could shut the door. I wiped the dirt off the windows, but still need to clean it. I realized for he first time, whoever hung the door for me, hung it backwards. The front of the door is facing inside. Someone wasn't paying attention. I didn't notice it because the door has always been open, and in fact I have always been staring at the front of the door. I will see I can get my neighbor down the road help me turn it around. It till bug me until no end if I leave it that way.

But while I was doing all that, the sky kept getting darker and I realized it wasn't that late, so it was getting real cloudy and it was going to rain. So I had to hustle 600 lbs of food back to the pen in my wagon so it wouldn't get rained on. It had been dropped off by my front porch. I made it just it time. Now my hips are sore.

The peachicks are on their way to a new home and now the Brahmas are left in the small nursery. I think I will integrat...
08/30/2026

The peachicks are on their way to a new home and now the Brahmas are left in the small nursery. I think I will integrate them into the nursery with the Spangles to help get them integrated into the main flock one day. Plus I don't need to be supplying electricity to this pen when they can live in a bigger space that has a lamp too. I really like this breed and I think I will get more next year.

I was so focused on canning, I totally wasn't watching the weather and today it rained all morning and off and on in the afternoon. Oops. I needed it to be dry, so I am working inside today. I will be back at it tomorrow afternoon. The rain will help soften the ground to dig up the Mary garden. I should be able to start on that and finish the mowing. I hope I can get all my projects done by Friday so I can start on the sheep yard.

So exciting to finally work further onto the north end of my property. If I can get all the fencing down and get the north end property line cleaned up, I will call it a win for this year. If I can do more like start a brush pile will be a plus. It will be better to work on it early spring with no weeds so I can see where all the branches are to pick up. See less

08/30/2026

Chicken integration!

Today I canned plums, and harvested some of the beans that were dried so far from my garden. I got 7 quarts of plums ca...
08/30/2026

Today I canned plums, and harvested some of the beans that were dried so far from my garden. I got 7 quarts of plums canned. Another first for me, and I am excited to have all this fruit put up. I also froze more cantaloupe. I want to do a little more peaches and plums and got that ordered for next weekend. I also ordered some veggies and tomatoes to start working on making some vegetable stock for soup. I think next weekend is going to be pretty busy canning.

Tomorrow I am finally getting outside to work. I have 3 projects to do before I can get back to work on the sheep yard. 1. Plant the Mary garden 2. Repair the other small pen and 3. Clean out the solar house in the big pen to store the food bins. Yes, I have decided to use the solar house for bulk bird food storage. The birds don't use real regularly, so I think it is a good place for all the bins and tubs. It has a wood floor and solid walls. I also have a door on it so I can shut it to keep the birds out.

Tomorrow also a friend of mine is stopping by to pick up 2 of the peachicks. He is in MI visiting and will pick them up on his way home to MS. They are the 2 that I have housed with the Brahmas so I am not taking them away from a mama, but they might miss their little hens. Once they are gone, I think I am going to integrate the Brahmas in with the Spangles in the nursery inside the pen. I also let the Dominique's out into their pen today. It went pretty smoothly so far, but I think it will take at least a week before they get everything sorted out and feel comfortable in the pen and in the outside yard. I can't wait for them to go outside and start exploring!

I am trying to do some preserving every weekend until it snows. I wasn't able to get any bulk pears or tomatoes yet, wh...
08/28/2026

I am trying to do some preserving every weekend until it snows. I wasn't able to get any bulk pears or tomatoes yet, which I am waiting on. So my last CSA order I got some cantaloupe and plums to freeze. I started out the season just thinking about freezing some blueberries, but now I have added cherries, cantaloupe and plums. I am just playing it by ear.

A lot of this fruit will be added to the daily yogurt. I have just canned peaches and hope to can some pears. I also have a lot of apples and if I have time, I may make some applesauce. I am thinking some Chai applesauce. What do you think?

Today, I finally picked my "first" tomato. I had others ripen before this but the birds got to them before I got the ne...
08/28/2026

Today, I finally picked my "first" tomato. I had others ripen before this but the birds got to them before I got the netting up. So I had to wait a minute. It has been at least 3 years since I have grown ANY, and that almost seems surreal to me. Because tomatoes were, and still are, my thing. I had a couple years garden fail and then my surgery last year. I never missed a year for probably decades, including all the previous years on my farm for the last 27 years. So this makes me happy. I also wanted to show you my new boots, which were way overdue. Love the "berry" color and now my feet won't get wet and muddy from leaky tennis shoes.

Yesterday was a fiasco with Pearl, trying to get her remaining stitches out. After I took her shirt off finally after 2 weeks she promptly chewed and pulled out most of her stitches. Except she couldn't reach 2 that were closest to her. I tried to see if I could pull it out, but it needed to be snipped and although Pearl let me feel around under there, she was NOT letting me come near her with a pair of scissors. So the vet came out and Pearl promptly peed all over my downstairs floor in anxiety. So instead of being bitey, she decided to do that. She gets super anxious in situations that scare her, or hurt her. She gets so wound up, no matter how calm you handler her.

She would not lay down and that is what the vet needed her to do. So she had to be sedated. To pull out 2 stiches. I had a feeling that is how it was going to go down. My vet was a good guy and reduced the charge for only pulling 2 stiches, but I did have to pay for the sedative. After he left I had to mop my floors while she was still out. It took her 3 hours to wake up, but when she did she stumbled over to her kennel and I also went to bed. She was ready to go in the morning, full blast. Me, not so much..lol

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