To worm or not to worm that is the question.

[Pork Pie]

i should add that i de-worm all new flock members and youngster when they reach 8 weeks old. Unless i have de-wormed the rest of the flock within the past 6 months - they all get a dose.

CT

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Uh i still havent dewormed any of them they seem healthy and very happy. My husband was laughing when we got home yesterday because as soon as i spoke the entire flock was at the gate demanding my attention.

 

[shortgrass]

Olddoglikehens, donrea, shortgrass yall are the first on here to tell me you dont worm. I fall more in line with yall simply because i believe God designed them to beable to take care of certian things. In the wild they had to deworm naturally so i agree with yall i just kept reading deworm deworm. I have a friend who hasnt dewormed ever she had her flock three years. So thereis that. And ct i get where your coming from if you see an issue to treat it. But if there no issue why do so many treat regularly? Thats what has me confused. For us we would lose a lot of eggs which in my book is just wasteful. I am not sure i am ok with that part.

Well, in my book, that's the start of it. God takes care of them, the chickens. And He takes care if th worms. They have a place in life too, and they actually have a role to play, so eradicating them, plus whatever else might be eradicated in the process is not trusting God


Ok now that that's said lol


I also have education to back my thought process up.. My folks raised me on the ranch with cattle and kind of forced me to go to college for it My dad was my Agronomy professor, lol, so I've had a good 30 years of soil drilled into my head. The soil is the beginning of life, so killing it is doing a great disservice to the ecosystem.

We depend on the dung beetles to keep poo in the pastures cleaned up. When we worm, we inherently kill the dung beetles that we need to feed on the poo in the pasture. The chemicals destroy precious microbes in the chickens gut, that they need to be able to fight off pathogens, so worming has an effect on their very RNA structure. It does irreversible cell damage and will mutate DNA in subsequent generations.

Who knows what effect these chemicals will have on the soil, the plants, the birds, and ultimately US.

Too many unanswered questions there


Nature, God, however... Has put plants, microbes, bacteria, minerals.... All these little tiny worlds to take care of His bigger worlds He makes plants like Wormwood, Dill, Garlic, curcubits(pumkins, etc) that already help curb infestation already, and He gave the birds a brain and instincts to know to eat these things when they're in season to medicate themselves

Also, I am positive that there are worms out there, they HAVE to be. But an INFESTATION means that I messed up somewhere and does not, to me, mean to bring out big guns and kill everything in sight, but to look around me and see where one of those ecosystems got out of balance, and fix it ASAP.

I don't worry about worms because I can't! Lol I take care of the worms too, so they don't make trouble for me lol


Edit to add* oh yeah, and my dad would never leave me alone if I wasted all that money on wormers lol; I'm not cheap but I don't have that kind of money to waste

 

[Ridgerunner]

Shortgrass, do you have any studies that show the effectiveness of those natural dewormers on chickens? I don’t mean “I feed mine Garlic every day and have never had worms.” I don’t feed mine garlic every day and I’ve never had roundworms or tapeworms. That kind of proof doesn’t prove anything. I butcher several times a year and always open up some intestines looking for roundworms and tapeworms. Haven’t found any yet.

The closest I’ve found yet was a study on goats at Delaware State and one of the Maryland universities. An organic goat producers organization paid for a study to try to find an effective organic solution to reduced productivity caused by worms. It was not an effort to find something that would kill every single worm, just keep the numbers under control so the goats could put on weight more efficiently. The last conclusion I saw was that pumpkin seed showed the most promise and needed further study.

There is a funny story around that. The first study with pumpkin seeds showed no effect whatsoever, but then someone noticed they were eating around the ground-up pumpkin seeds. The pumpkin seeds were not being eaten. To test it they had to drench the goats so the pumpkin seeds were ingested.

I understand what you mean by giving them a lot of room so there is not a parasite build-up, but a lot of people on this forum don’t have that option. I understand that we are not talking about them having some worms, we are talking parasite load. They can handle a few, it’s when the numbers build up that problems occur. I also understand that wild birds and other animals have the same issues and we are not out there treating them. Nature does have ways to manage this, but again the vast majority of people on this forum do not have the quality of forage for that to work for them.

A lot of people don’t like to use chemicals, but in a backyard flock with very limited room what other options do they have when they have an infestation? I don’t have enough confidence in any of the ”natural” methods to recommend any and I certainly don’t know dosage or how to make sure they actually eat it. One of the problems is that different pumpkin seeds have different strengths of the effective chemical. The dosage could vary depending on what pumpkin you choose, let alone using cucumber or squash seeds.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Lol kinda sound like my parents on that. Lol we dont have to money to really deworm them, i was just wondering if it was a must type thing or not.

 

[aart]

@Beekissed cited a slew of links of studies on the pumpkin family seeds as dewormers....maybe she'll share those here?

 

[CrazyChicken69]

Food grades diatemaceous earth is supposed to be a effective and organic dewormed for animals.

Its very effective for external bugs like fleas, mites and ticks.

 

[nuklee0]

Food grades diatemaceous earth is supposed to be a effective and organic dewormed for animals.

Its very effective for external bugs like fleas, mites and ticks.

Do you just add DE to their feed?

 

[aart]

Quote:

Food grades diatemaceous earth is supposed to be a effective and organic dewormed for animals.

Its very effective for external bugs like fleas, mites and ticks.

This is not true, tho often claimed to be.
DE does not do it's job when wet.

Might help deter external bugs...but don't count on it.
If you already have an external parasite infestation, DE will not eradicate it....you will need bigger guns.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

A healthy chicken or any animal will have a healthy parasite load, there are studies about how parasite are beneficial and how the human lack of leads to many diseases. I personally don't want worms, but the problem comes when an animal becomes unhealthy and the parasites get out of control, people will blame the parasites but usually it's a problem with the whole system, or some type of organ failure, so worming will never fix the underlying problems, so just worming is a bandaid. I have chickens that live to be around ten without any intervention from me. I will continue to not worm and cull any poultry that can't remain healthy or recover from things on it's own, it builds a healthy and robust flock.