My goodness I don't know how you guys are keeping up with all the post and new members. Its such a busy time right now I havn't been able to keep up.
I have a question what do you guys think is the best for worming anyone ever try any of the natural methods. Also anybody doing a lot of hatching and what will have coming up I am looking for some breeds and can't remember who has what?
This is one of those questions that you will get a lot of different answers to you so just have to wade through it all and see what you think will work best in your situation. That said, here is MY response.
There are a number of different types of worms that chickens are susceptible to getting. Of them all, about the only one you will ever actually see, is roundworm. If there is a gutload, some live worms will be expelled in the poop and they are easy to see - anything that is white and moves around for about 5 minutes after the poop is expelled, is more than likely a roundworm. The other worms they can get are too microscopic to be seen in poop. So - if you see a roundworm you know they have those but if you see nothing it doesn't mean they don't have worms.
The most common (only?) wormer found in the chicken section of most feed stores is Wazine. This is effective ONLY against roundworm. It is easily administered, but I lean away from it because I know if they have anything in addition to the roundworm, it won't do a thing for them.
So, I went looking for a wormer that is broader spectrum and just as easily administered. I did find one that got excellent reviews because it kills every type of worm they could possibly have, but it has to be administered orally, and while that may be practical for a small backyard flock, if you have a lot of birds, it will get tricky to round them all up and give them the oral dose. I have birds that don't like to be handled, and I could just picture trying to get all of them dosed with that. Its name starts with "D" but I can't think of it right now.
In the end, after researching for hours, I read a blog in which a lady had used injectable Ivermectin, except instead of injecting, she put it in the water. She had figured up the dosage to be 4cc per gallon of water. But - she said to remove all other water sources and provide enough of the medicated water to last the flock 2-3 days straight.
The reason I was worming was that I had several hens I knew had roundworm because I was seeing them expelled. Incidentally, I also had a very sick turkey at the time. He was listless, lethargic, had watery poop and was clearly not thriving. I didn't know what was wrong with him, so I had multiple things to worry about. I dealt with the one I could - the worms - while pondering what to do with the turkey. I mixed up enough Ivermectin in their 5-gallon waterer and removed all other water, so they had no choice but to drink it. Within 24 hours, the turkey had perked up and started eating like there would be no tomorrow. He has never looked back and that was around October of last year. I had no idea his symptoms were the result of worms but I can draw no other conclusion given the timing of it all. Meanwhile, I stopped seeing roundworms expelled in the poop of my hens, and they have never returned.
There is a 2-week withdrawal period. As it turned out, due to the time of year and molt, I didn't have to discard too many eggs.
Now, you asked about natural methods. I love to use natural methods as much as possible. However this is one of the things for which I am unlikely to rely solely on natural methods, because unless I do a fecal on each and every bird, I wouldn't have any way to know how effective it had really been. A lot of people advocate pumpkin seeds as a preventative and I see no reason not to offer them pumpkin seeds since they can't do any harm and *might* help to prevent worms. But - there is no natural product that I would truly trust to remove worms once they are established.