⠀ Best thing for getting rid of roundworms in chickens & also preventing??

[tendingwild]

Awesome info @dretd! Awesome, awesome awesome!

I don't use chemical wormers. And I'm not getting into the DE discussion, but I will mention that it's an excellent source of trace minerals, and I add it to my feed, regardless of worms

I could add to what dretd mentions about absorption, but obviously, I don't need to...

I'll add a tidbit about microbes and enzymes though

Not only is PH and absorption critical to keep immunity up, but the microbes and enzymes in a chicken gut are there to help prevent pathogens and parasites.

I don't have the patience with my phone to write a beautifully descriptive narrative like the one above lol, but in essence, wormers are overused to the point that the soil microbes are killed by the wormer too, leading to a horrible catch 22 of cycling through wormers and destroying that delicate ecosystem.

Curcubits(pumpkins, squash, etc) have been shown to kill worm larvae at rates of up to 99% eradication.
http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19540800741.html;jsessionid=F778EBA23FF126D0F1FB27F2F5B2423D

Garlic is another one; its also antifungal and antiviral, so it aids immune response.

http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/20000810165.html

Here's an excellent PDF on wormwood, my final secret ingredient lol
This one is also pretty specific, as its comparing the extract with albendazole, so its a side by side study
http://www.academicjournals.org/app/webroot/article/article1383212166_Seddiek et al.pdf

And another link. This one is all around general organic worming options.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1746-4269-7-21

I have never wormed my chickens with chemical wormers, and never will. It's uneccesary and does more damage than good IMO. Their health is in my hands, and I'd rather they have the immune system to fight off pathogens, and they can't do that if I'm constantly putting chemicals in them.

That and they're organic

Edit* autocorrect

Thank you, shortgrass, for posting this great info! It is exactly what I was looking for after finding some roundworms in my coop this afternoon. A couple of the articles aren't accessible without paying to join cabdirect.org, and I'd really like to read them. Would you be able to post the full reference info (author/title/journal name) for the cabdirect articles so I can look them up at my local university library? Thanks very much! (I hope you get this message. I know the string is pretty old at this point...)