Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[nuttyredhead]

Ok I need some advice from those who have been around awhile!

Worming??? Anything that really has no withdrawel? What is the best to use?

 

[thebirdguy]

I have never wormed a chicken in my life... That being said, a lot of people do worm in a variety of ways... If I were ever to do it, I would use Diatomaceous earth..

 

[centrarchid]

I kept birds 30 years before worming first time. It can improve productivity but similar result can be achieved over longer haul by culling those birds heavily impacted. I breed my own birds which enables selection for resistance.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Dawg53 is your chemical worming expert. Send him a pm.

As far as organic or natural techniques, it depends on what you wish to accomplish. Cucurbit seeds are effective against round worms. Other "brews" have been used for ages and these can be found by googling worming homeopathic remedies and such. Most involve tannins, black walnut, etc.

 

[southerndesert]

Valbazen has very short withdrawal and Albendazole the active ingredient (about 10% I think) is also used for humans in some cases. That said we rarely worm unless we know there is an issue through a fecal test at vet or seeing worms in poop which is rare for us, but we recently had a tape worm issue and Valbazen is broad band and kills all worms a chicken may get and the only commonly available wormer that will get the tape worms.

Though chemical worming is not on my list of favorite things to do we have to from time to time....

 

[jvls1942]

I have heard that red (cayanne) pepper in their feed kills worms. I have never de-wormed my chickens..
I have never found any worms in any chickens we butchered.

I doubt that you can specifically raise a worm resistant chicken..

I used tobacco for de-worming goats..I just bought a cheap bag of long cut tobacco.. I don't know if you can get chickens to eat tobacco..

.jiminwisc.......since 1966

 

[CarolJ]

Quote:
I read that cayenne pepper would get hens to start laying again after molting - tried it, and the two quitters both laid the next day and have been laying regularly since. Could be a coincidence - who knows. I doubt it would hurt to try it for worms.

 

[jvls1942]

Quote:
I read that cayenne pepper would get hens to start laying again after molting - tried it, and the two quitters both laid the next day and have been laying regularly since. Could be a coincidence - who knows. I doubt it would hurt to try it for worms.

not a co-incidence.. they said, we better get to laying or she is going to hit us with that red stuff again..

 

[Dusty Chicken]

perchie.girl :

Quote:

It is nice to feel welcomed into the community Perchie.girl! Thank- you​

 

[centrarchid]

The following is relavent to use of cayenne as a dewormer. I did an experiment a few years back with largemouth bass. I made four diets all identical except for the type of filler used which made up 10% of diet. Fillers were as follows; cayenne pepper, paprika, tumerec and cellulose. Fish were fed all they would eat twice daily for a month which was long enough for them to nearly triple in size. One of the things I looked at were how many worms fish had in their guts. The worms were very similar to those infecting chickens. It was assumes the cellulose had no effect on worms. At end of study all fish were cut open so worms could be counted. Worms were present in virtually all fish and no differences were associated with the type of filler used.

Someone needs to do a similar study with chickens, otherwise the "wisdom" here is unfounded and may well result in people wasting spice and time without achieving desired worm control.

With all the compunds / feedstuffs, organic or otherwise, proper tesst need to be made to make certain that we are least in the realm of voodoo where when we think something works it actually does even when we do not know how.