Chicken run floor material

[gtaus]

...putting scratch on top of the bedding to encourage them to dig doesn’t increase illness? Eating on top of poop piles?

Not that I am aware of. The scratching and pecking for food inside the coop helps to move the chicken poo to lower layers of the deep bedding.

There are entire chicken raising systems that put chickens out to pasture after the cows have moved off that grass. The idea is that the chickens will tear apart the cow pies and find good bugs and worms to eat. So, they help to spread the manure fertilizer as they are rewarded with good stuff to eat. Nature has a way to maintain balance.

Digging in dirt to get grub is what they do, so digging in bedding is normal behavior, good for them.
Having fecal samples run at your veterinarian's is good practice, done occasionally. Birds at some properties will have few intestinal parasites, while others will need worming often.
Mary

@Folly's place I have never noticed any worms in our eggs. Do you send in samples to the veterinarian's lab if you don't see any worms in your eggs? How much does that cost? Or, do you just periodically add some dewormer to the feed?

 

[Folly's place]

By the time you see a roundworm in an egg, there may be many, or just one worm in the wrong place. Intestinal parasites in small numbers probably aren't a big deal (according to a national expert I consulted, (Dr. Fulton at MSU) but parasites can be a major health problem, and roundworms are only one variety, just the largest/ most visible.
We haven't had a big problem here, while friends a mile away had dead peafowl. Different soil and a velnerable species.
Mary

 

[NatJ]

Is it safe to assume that one fecal sample is enough for the whole flock because if one has worms they all have worms?

Typically that would be true.

But some chickens may be more susceptible to worms than others, so it is probably a good idea to get a sample from at least two or three individuals, then have the vet test that as if it were one sample.

If they all sleep in a row on the roost, you might scoop up a bit from several spots, and be pretty sure that it came from different birds. Or you can stand around and watch them, and scoop up a few droppings that you see deposited by different birds.

You should probably ask the vet anyway-- they may need a certain total amount, and you don't want to bring them too little, or way too much.