Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[LuckysMum]

A split hatch is completely achievable especially if you are manually turning the eggs. It only becomes tricky when you have to stop the automatic turner at lockdown when you have more than one batch.

Thanks Fancy I'll see if I can get some eggs today.

 

[Teila]

LuckysMum to worm or not to worm? Having been bashed up by a I have had chickens for over 30 years, never wormed them, never had a problem bully on a thread about just that subject, that is a can of worms I now try and steer clear of

Having said that, I worm my gals because I believe that are already enough ways that I can lose one and if by worming them I am reducing those ways by one, I am happy

This is an OK thread for getting both sides of the discussion and I recommend doing some research and making a choice based on what you think is best

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1059889/to-worm-or-not-to-worm-that-is-the-question

 

[Fizzybelle]

Quick question, a follow up dosage of wormer should be another full dose correct?

 

[Anniebee]

Fancy I’m glad you didn’t get the high winds. You were due for a break.

Anniebee How’s Sonya now?

Appps Poor Penny, our silkies have grown up with the Australorps and are fine but there are 6 silkies and 8 Australorps so they are fine. They all cuddle up at night. I can’t even see the silkies.

sjturner congrats on the egg from your fizzle. What eggs are you putting in the incubator.

I put 12 eggs in a week ago and it looks like only 6 and doing anything.

Teila cheeky girls I’m glad you got one up on them.

I have never wormed my girls and I’ve never seen any signs of worms. Should I do it anyway.

Thank you for asking LuckysMum ....

Sonya has improved greatly - one might say ' in leaps and bounds ' which is something she is back to doing. Today I am re-introducing her puppy kibble to the chicken and rice she's been on for her tummy to settle, and tomorrow she should be back to 80% that and 20% rice. After that it's all her own food. Plus continuing of anti-biotic, and a half tspn of yakult, or shallow teaspoonful of yoghurt. She is also on Peptosol but the last dose of that is tonight ... ( like pepto-bismol ).

As for worming - many people have different ideas about it - in terms of how often that is, but they really all should be wormed. Some do it as per the instructions from salespeople, which is I think, a way of selling more product ( every two weeks throughout their life ?? ) .... now that mine are grown, they get wormed approx. every two months.

I think when very young pullets, they should be wormed more often than that. I use a mixture that goes into the water - introduced and left until they have drunk it all, but - not left for more than 40 hours or so. There are tablets that can be popped down their throats, or crushed and mixed with a bowl of mash for individual birds ( that can be tricky, particularly if you have quite a lot of birds ) ... Avitrol Plus wormer tablets.

I only have 3 hens, and once I am out of the worming liquid, I will be doing the crushed tablet thing - as it is easy to separate my 3 to have their individual bowls of food. I don't know how large the tablets are. I did have to administer down one birds throat very tiny a/b pills, which was easy enough. I wouldn't like to think one could choke on a large tablet. Am not looking forward to the winter dose of worming mix in water - as they don't drink a lot during the winter. !!

Might mix a little of that in with individual food, but will have to check if I can do that, safely - and exactly how much each bird gets.

Worms are not always seen .... if they are seen, then I believe a hen showing them in droppings would be heavily infested. More experienced people here could tell you more about that.

Cheers .........

 

[satay]

Quick question, a follow up dosage of wormer should be another full dose correct?

yes

 

[Fancychooklady]

Fancy I’m glad you didn’t get the high winds. You were due for a break.

Anniebee  How’s Sonya now?

Appps Poor Penny, our silkies have grown up with the Australorps and are fine but there are 6 silkies and 8 Australorps so they are fine. They all cuddle up at night. I can’t even see the silkies.

sjturner  congrats on the egg from your fizzle.  What eggs are you putting in the incubator. 

 I put 12 eggs in a week ago and it looks like only 6 and doing anything.

Teila  cheeky girls I’m glad you got one up on them.

I have never wormed my girls and I’ve never seen any signs of worms. Should I do it anyway.

You won't necessarily see signs of worms until your birds are sick. A good one to use is levamisole , there are others on the market that aren't approved for use in poultry. When mixing any wormer up in the water it is best to discard the water after 24 hours, after that time it is no longer effective and even after 8 hours you should stir the water up to prevent the wormer settling on the bottom.
Worms are a threat to the health of all living creatures , whether or not you choose to address them is a personal choice, but an autopsy is the only tried and true way of knowing the extent of damage.

 

[Fizzybelle]

Thanks Satay

Fancychooklady, does the levamisole change the colour of the water at all, or can the chickens detect the flavour? See when I first wormed Agnes I used one that you add to water and it changed the colour which didn't seem to completely put her off, but the taste, she absolutely hated it and refused for ages to drink from water bowls, hence why I like the avitrol tablets, less fussing. Though for the sake of changing things up now and then to stop the parasites becoming tolerant to the medication, I'd like to find another reliable medication. I just want to make sure it's good for sneaking into their water without them catching on. I have some very fussy girls.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Thanks Satay

Fancychooklady, does the levamisole change the colour of the water at all, or can the chickens detect the flavour? See when I first wormed Agnes I used one that you add to water and it changed the colour which didn't seem to completely put her off, but the taste, she absolutely hated it and refused for ages to drink from water bowls, hence why I like the avitrol tablets, less fussing. Though for the sake of changing things up now and then to stop the parasites becoming tolerant to the medication, I'd like to find another reliable medication. I just want to make sure it's good for sneaking into their water without them catching on. I have some very fussy girls.

If you are using the avitrol , (which is not approved for use in poultry ) it covers everything so as a ' rotational ' dose you could just use piperazine which only covers round worm and doesn't seem to put mine off the water. I use the levamisole because it covers most worms . But as I said in a previous post , if you haven't wormed them before best to dose them with the piparazine first , then 10 days later use the avitrol. By doing this you won't kill all of the species at once , avoiding the possibility of clogging the birds system.

 

[Tryinglittleleg]

Gday from NSW

 

[aussie1chook]

Hello, I'm in Victoria about 20 minutes out of Ballarat. Has anyone had any experience with chooks that have deteriorating coordination or lack of balance? I have a barnevelder rooster and hen in quarantine with this problem. They have runny bottoms and it's sticking to their feathers. They are on death row and I'm giving them one last chance with this germicide I purchased today. Please any advice would be fantastic. I only purchased them 1 month ago.