Most healthy birds should be able to handle a reasonable worm load, and it's considered natural. The belief is when a chicken becomes unwell the worm population grows out of control. Upon death when examined there are lots of worms so it's assumed to be the cause of death when it never was. I have also seen mites and lice get out of control on unwell birds. I certainly don't know everything, but always like to look at things from a natural point of view. Worms gain nothing from killing their host, they die too.I beg to differ. This is a necropsy picture of a 3 month old free ranged chick that was looking a little off. -Kathy