DE

[lazy gardener]

Quote: Good flock management also includes keeping birds off "sick soil". A chicken run that is stripped of all vegetation, left with bare soil that is sun baked cement or a dust bowl when it's dry or a slimy stink pit when it's rainy is sick soil. Allowed to continue for a couple of seasons, it will be difficult to get any thing to grow there in the future because the soil is poisoned with too many nutrients. This type of soil is void of beneficial organisms, resulting in over population of the bad guys. How to fix it? Turn that run into a deep litter. Essentially, you are building a monster compost pile that brings back the beneficial organisms, provides a healthy blend of carbon/nitrogen materials which will simply make all of your chicken poo melt into the compost and feed the beneficial organisms which will in turn keep the bad guys in check. That compost will also provide your flock with healthy gut flora, and cut your feed bill. Beekissed is the queen of DL management in the coop.

 

[shortgrass]

But, see:  anecdotal evidence is still evidence.  If there are no worms evident in the gut when doing a gut dissection, that's pretty strong support that your bird's self worming program is working.  

True! Sounds like a good project for the kiddos


But then someone will want pictures, and I'll have to do it 100 times, once for every one of these threads I get stuck on lol


But you ladies sure save me a lot of typing! Flock health and soil management are key components to be able to use nature to nurture without having to rely on chemical wormers. An ounce of prevention is worth s pound of cure, or in this case, a years supply of wormer


Oh, and since the title of the thread is DE, I might as well add that we do use DE; lots of it. It goes in grain after selling it, it goes in the grain again when grinding it, and it goes in the grain for storage. I also use it in the coop. But I don't rely on it to WORM, per se. I use it more for prevention (AHEM). Helps curb bugs in feed, bugs in the coop, bugs on the birds, bugs IN the birds, who knows; evidently I need some gut poking to check that for "anecdotal" evidence

 

[mobius]

My chickens ate my small rhubarb plant leaves all gone.

Does anyone have a proposition for a "schedule" of feeding garlic, ginger, pumpkin seed etc? I was thinking of offering a little bit of one at a time once a week, say week one ginger, week two garlic, and so on, couple of tablespoons for six chickens...as a preventative. Especially in winter...mine can't forage at the moment...or maybe this should be another thread topic...

And yes, there is DE in even my organic feed.

 

[Beekissed]

My chickens ate my small rhubarb plant leaves all gone.

Does anyone have a proposition for a "schedule" of feeding garlic, ginger, pumpkin seed etc? I was thinking of offering a little bit of one at a time once a week, say week one ginger, week two garlic, and so on, couple of tablespoons for six chickens...as a preventative. Especially in winter...mine can't forage at the moment...or maybe this should be another thread topic...

And yes, there is DE in even my organic feed.

Nope...I don't use nor recommend a frequent or exact schedule for any kind of vermifuge. Using that kind of methodology just renders the vermifuge ineffective and breeds stronger parasites. I'll usually give my dogs, cats, flocks a natural anthelmintic twice a year...going into the winter and coming out of it...if I give one at all. And I rarely use just one kind, often I'll use ginger and garlic together as they have different actions or use them alternately, such as ginger pre-winter and garlic in the spring or vice versa.

There was a time that I never used anything like that at all and the preventative flock/animal management was enough...and still is, for that matter. I just added those things as an added boost to an already effective management practice.

 

[casportpony]

 
My chickens ate my small rhubarb plant leaves all gone.

Does anyone have a proposition for a "schedule" of feeding garlic, ginger, pumpkin seed etc? I was thinking of offering a little bit of one at a time once a week, say week one ginger, week two garlic, and so on, couple of tablespoons for six chickens...as a preventative. Especially in winter...mine can't forage at the moment...or maybe this should be another thread topic...

And yes, there is DE in even my organic feed.

Nope...I don't use nor recommend a frequent or exact schedule for any kind of vermifuge.  Using that kind of methodology just renders the vermifuge ineffective and breeds stronger parasites.  I'll usually give my dogs, cats, flocks a natural anthelmintic twice a year...going into the winter and coming out of it...if I give one at all.  And I rarely use just one kind, often I'll use ginger and garlic together as they have different actions or use them alternately, such as ginger pre-winter and garlic in the spring or vice versa. 

There was a time that I never used anything like that at all and the preventative flock/animal management was enough...and still is, for that matter.  I just added those things as an added boost to an already effective management practice. 

So you do this for one day twice a year? When you do it, how much of the various ingredients do you use?

-Kathy

 

[lazy gardener]

My chickens ate my small rhubarb plant leaves all gone.

Does anyone have a proposition for a "schedule" of feeding garlic, ginger, pumpkin seed etc? I was thinking of offering a little bit of one at a time once a week, say week one ginger, week two garlic, and so on, couple of tablespoons for six chickens...as a preventative. Especially in winter...mine can't forage at the moment...or maybe this should be another thread topic...

And yes, there is DE in even my organic feed.

For the first time, I gave my birds some garlic and ginger in their FF about 3 weeks ago. Nothing measured. But, for the record, i gave them 3 cloves of garlic and about a tablespoon full of minced ginger in their daily allotment of FF for the day. I'm now growing ginger in my livingroom. Have one "stalk" that is about 2.5' tall, and hope to have more eyes sprout in the same pot. If they survive, they will move to the green house for the summer, then be divided and moved back inside during the cold months. It will be interesting to see if the birds choose to "self medicate" with ginger leaves (they smell quite fragrant). They love garlic bulbils, and I have a hard time planting them b/c the birds devour them like they are candy.

 

[mobius]

I just planted some garlic bulbs this Fall!

And had put chopped garlic in FF, it was an amazing aroma (strong) while fermenting and of course they ate it all up. That was a one-time thing a couple months ago.

 

[shortgrass]

Mine is more of a seasonal thing. For instance, I get leftover pumpkins free in late fall and use them to ferment in, seeds and all. I usually get about 30, and they last me about 2 months, since I reuse them a couple times before throwing them in there whole. Ratio, maybe 1 pumpkin per bird?

Summer they get fermented garlic, I usually have extra about then, so I use, I dunno, about a quart of garlic cloves then....

They help themselves to the rhubarb in late summer, so I guess that counts. Ratio...hmmm its a plot with 6 huge plants, covers about 40 sq ft, so a sq ft per bird of whatever you would be there in leaves?

I have wormwood too, but they only eat the tiny shoots, but hey, that's in spring!

They get something or another just about every 3 months.

 

[Beekissed]

That's when mine get pumpkin seeds also...usually fed out in the winter months or just as winter moves into spring, when the pumpkins have frozen, thawed, refrozen, fermenting with each thaw, etc. Then they eat the whole pumpkin, down to the nub. The dogs eat them too and will lick the ground, trying to get every single bit of them.

 

[lazy gardener]

I just planted some garlic bulbs this Fall!
And had put chopped garlic in FF, it was an amazing aroma (strong) while fermenting and of course they ate it all up. That was a one-time thing a couple months ago.

Mine is more of a seasonal thing. For instance, I get leftover pumpkins free in late fall and use them to ferment in, seeds and all. I usually get about 30, and they last me about 2 months, since I reuse them a couple times before throwing them in there whole. Ratio, maybe 1 pumpkin per bird?

Summer they get fermented garlic, I usually have extra about then, so I use, I dunno, about a quart of garlic cloves then....

They help themselves to the rhubarb in late summer, so I guess that counts. Ratio...hmmm its a plot with 6 huge plants, covers about 40 sq ft, so a sq ft per bird of whatever you would be there in leaves?

I have wormwood too, but they only eat the tiny shoots, but hey, that's in spring!

They get something or another just about every 3 months.

You ladies who grow garlic: Here's a tip: When the garlic sends up those scapes, don't remove all of them. Depending on how much garlic you have planted, and whether you want to significantly increase your planting, let a lot of those scapes mature. They will set a bunch of bulbils at the top. You can then harvest them for the chickens: they will eat them like they are candy! Or you can harvest them after they have matured, and scatter them where ever you want to grow a crop of garlic. I always scatter a lot at the base of my fruit trees, hoping that the chickens won't find them all. Garlic is a natural vole repellant, and I also suspect it repels a lot of insects that attack fruit trees, borers being the one I'd most want to send packing, and one that I suspect would be easily deterred by a nice base planting of garlic.

SG: tell me about your wormwood please. Latin name? I bought seeds for wormwood, but not a one of them sprouted. I can find Sweet Annie, but can't find the shorter "true wormwood". Wondering if Sweet Annie or any of the other artemesias would work???