Using herbs in the chicken coop is a well known and beneficial practice, but what about essential oils? Many chicken keepers use simple essential oils around their birds to help ward off pests with homemade coop sprays, or to soothe their faces and legs in a salve. While using essential oils for chickens is a fairly widespread practice, it should always be done safely - and not all essential oils are safe for chickens. 

Using Essential Oils around Chickens

All birds, including chickens, have extremely sensitive respiratory systems, and this is important to keep in mind when using essential oils around them. They have lungs like we do, but they also have air sacs throughout their hollow bones, which they quite literally “breathe” into. This not only makes them lighter, it also allows their body to generate enough oxygen throughout the body for (limited in the case of chickens) flight, which is very energy intensive. Incredibly, birds are 10 times more efficient at breathing than we are. 

This enhanced respiration comes with a price though - like all birds, chickens are extremely sensitive to air quality. This is the same phenomenon that led to the “canary in a coal mine” practice, where miners would bring canaries down into the mines with them - any dangerous gasses underground would quickly kill the birds, giving the humans an early warning and time to escape. For this reason, all birds, including chickens, should be protected from certain essential oils, aerosol sprays, cedar wood, smoke, and mold, especially in closed spaces. 

Safe Essential Oils for Chickens

When used with caution and properly diluted, the following essential oils are considered generally safe to use around chickens and other birds.

• Chamomile: calming
• Lavender: calming and deodorizing
• Frankincense: antimicrobial, and gentler than eucalyptus 
• Geranium: used sparingly, makes a good deodorizer  
• Helichrysum: helps soothe skin 
• Tea tree oil: pest deterrent 

Unsafe Essential Oils for Chickens

Not all essential oils are safe for birds, and that includes chickens. Their respiratory systems are simply too sensitive. Avoid using the following around your chickens and their coop, and instead consider using their dried herb form for their health benefits:

• Eucalyptus
• Pine
• Oregano
• Cedarwood
• Bergamot
• Clove
• Wintergreen
• Basil
• Lemongrass
• Thyme
• Peppermint
• Cinnamon

Tips for Safe Essential Oil Use around Chickens

Aside from avoiding unsafe essential oils around chickens, below are some tips to help keep your flock safe while also reaping the benefits of using essential oils:

• Always dilute the essential oil to at least ¼ of what you might use for yourself to start. 

• Never use diffusers around chickens or in the coop.

• Use the highest quality essential oils to avoid potentially harmful fillers or substitutions.

• When using essential oils in a cleaning or pest deterrent spray, make sure there is plenty of ventilation (which all coops should have anyway), and give the coop plenty of time to air out before nightfall. 

• Avoid using essential oils of any kind in a chick brooder - the brooder is simply too confined a space, and chicks are too delicate for essential oil use to be worth the risk.