Fecal Float Questions

[Sue Gremlin]

This centrifuge works great and only cost $75. and comes with tubes. You do need to counterbalance your tube with another tube opposite the one you are using with plain water.
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I have this one too! It works just fine. It's a lot more challenging than my other two because it's so light, so you must balance it perfectly when spinning.
That means if you are using float solution in one tube, use float solution in the other. It should be the same density. (if you use water in one and float in the other, you will get vibrations at least). Fill the balance tube to the same level with care. It really makes a difference.
After all these years I still squint and pray when I start the centrifuge. I also start it out slow and am ready to shut it off if it's wobbly or making a weird noise. In the 90s, my coworker crashed a floor-model centrifuge in the lab by failing to balance it, and the damage that thing did was truly impressive.

 

[Sue Gremlin]

McMasters for the horses. I also did one official McMasters on my heavily burdened chicken to try and get an actual count.

I’ve been using the McMasters slides to help me learn how to focus and move the slide around the microscope, but not diluting it all the way with the chicken fecals to get a chance to see. I had been doing McMasters at 25/gram sensitivity, but coming up clear on a few chickens that I did not think were really clear.

@aart has been pushing me to a centrifuge since the beginning but I wanted to make sure I even knew how to focus a microscope!

So, the less expensive centrifuges that you have to fill after and then coverslip are good enough? I hope so cause most of the swinging style are over a thousand bucks!

McMaster slides are a great way to learn to focus on stuff because the gap between the halves is so huge! A regular slide should be a cakewalk after that.

Yes, the less expensive centrifuge should work just fine for you.

 

[KsKingBee]

I use water in the balance tube with no problems.

 

[jolenesdad]

Super thankful for all the commentary and expertise in this thread.

I picked up Valbazen and will deworm the entire flock. It was a little early for a coop clean out but we started it today anyway. I found the “source”, where water from rains was sneaking past a rotted wood barrier into the area at the back of the coop under the roosts. I’m in gulf coast with constant humidity. wet sand and manure area that can’t dry.

now, can someone help me understand the life cycle of the worms with the double treatment? Here’s my barrage of ?s....

I treat once, it kills all the worms in the bird, but I still have eggs they’ll be shedding and eggs they may pick up in the environment? The second treatment is to wipe THOSE out and then theoretically, they should be gone?

do I need to kill them in the sand somehow? Should I treat the base layer of dirt with something before we bring in new sand?

when should I put the new sand in? After first treatment, after second treatment?

 

[KsKingBee]

The first treatment should kill all the mature worms and the second treatment should kill all of the worms that hatch out after the first treatment. You should achieve a zero count after the second worming if all was done correctly but it will not last forever, that is why it is recommended to deworm every six months to keep knocking down the worm load. The time period can be extended by running fecals to assure that treatment is needed or not needed.

I use lime to help kill the parasite load in our pens. The lime needs to be watered in and after application or you can turn it in with a tiller and reapply. If you are careful and not afraid you can also use a pear burner to sterilize the surface.

 

[Chicalina]

@EggSighted4Life

This debate has prompted me to try and educate myself a bit better. I found this article really enlightening about the US/EU and UK chicken processing issues so thought I'd share it https://www.soilassociation.org/our...uk-us-trade-deal/what-is-chlorinated-chicken/

I don't have the space to rear my own meat, but its great that you do. Like you, knowing where my food comes from and that it had a good life is really important to me. I wish it was for everybody. I am lucky in that I have some local small scale farmers who grow, slaughter and sell direct to the public and who have extremely high animal welfare standards. I try and avoid supermarket meat where I can. But anyway, I've derailed this thread enough. Back to chicken poop analysis everyone!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I found this article really enlightening about the US/EU and UK chicken processing issues so thought I'd share it

Thanks for sharing... I'm not rearing my own meat.. I like beef and bacon, but fortunate enough to try and make environmentally responsible choices as often as possible.

Taken from your link..

"On farms like this, chickens are often fed antibiotics as a preventative measure to stop infection"

A very common misconception, myth, and straight lie.. perpetuated by folks who don't know the US laws or changes made to them.. Careful what you see in the media. Lots of unregulated terms get thrown around and can be very confusing to an average consumer... which is most folks.. If we ran a poll who knew they were eating chlorinated chicken.. many would not. That being said.. many of them are also drinking chlorinated water (not me).. Everything has a reason.. If diluting the bacteria to avoid testing also saves lives.. more than it harms them.. then maybe the plus outweighs the minus.

Antibiotcs are NO longer used in ANY production facility in the US.. per law for eggs or meat. Nor are there steroids making them grow larger faster.. That's pure genetics.. cross breeding.. Organic or not.. this standard is the same.

Please note, I am not here to debate anything, just learn as much as possible and consider it all to just be a friendly discussion.

when should I put the new sand in? After first treatment, after second treatment?

I hate sand... that does not dry out and becomes a giant stinking litter box.. according to my experience...

Consider going with a large particle bark instead.. maybe deep litter or semi deep litter?? Guess it depends on your set up.. Have you already tried that?

 

[jolenesdad]

Thanks for sharing... I'm not rearing my own meat.. I like beef and bacon, but fortunate enough to try and make environmentally responsible choices as often as possible.

Taken from your link..

"On farms like this, chickens are often fed antibiotics as a preventative measure to stop infection"

A very common misconception, myth, and straight lie.. perpetuated by folks who don't know the US laws or changes made to them.. Careful what you see in the media. Lots of unregulated terms get thrown around and can be very confusing to an average consumer... which is most folks.. If we ran a poll who knew they were eating chlorinated chicken.. many would not. That being said.. many of them are also drinking chlorinated water (not me).. Everything has a reason.. If diluting the bacteria to avoid testing also saves lives.. more than it harms them.. then maybe the plus outweighs the minus.

Antibiotcs are NO longer used in ANY production facility in the US.. per law for eggs or meat. Nor are there steroids making them grow larger faster.. That's pure genetics.. cross breeding.. Organic or not.. this standard is the same.

Please note, I am not here to debate anything, just learn as much as possible and consider it all to just be a friendly discussion.


I hate sand... that does not dry out and becomes a giant stinking litter box.. according to my experience...

Consider going with a large particle bark instead.. maybe deep litter or semi deep litter?? Guess it depends on your set up.. Have you already tried that?

No, not in this space I haven’t. I’ve just been doing clean outs every few months, scraping off the top layer of sand when I do. It’s a converted foaling stall that never gets wet.... roof and 20 ft overhangs. Well, it stays dry aside from the leak that we have fixed.

ive been using sand with shavings on top for a while at this coop, before that I did a deep bedding of pine shavings only on concrete. It’s a coop run/combo now inside a barn but on a dirt base now.

I *hate* pine shavings so this bark you’re talking about is intriguing. this is actual bark? Not just a natural mulch? An actual bark... would the landscaping place I order mulch, sand, top soil from have it, you think?

 

[EggSighted4Life]

this is actual bark? Not just a natural mulch? An actual bark... would the landscaping place I order mulch, sand, top soil from have it, you think?

That is my understanding. And since it doesn't compact tight is should in theory dry out much better.

If one were to use standard wood chips, you would want them very large particle.

In my brooder coops I do prefer rice hulls to pine shavings as they kinda grab the poo and hide it away instead of sitting on top.

 

[Chicalina]

Thanks for sharing... I'm not rearing my own meat.. I like beef and bacon, but fortunate enough to try and make environmentally responsible choices as often as possible.

Taken from your link..

"On farms like this, chickens are often fed antibiotics as a preventative measure to stop infection"

A very common misconception, myth, and straight lie.. perpetuated by folks who don't know the US laws or changes made to them.. Careful what you see in the media. Lots of unregulated terms get thrown around and can be very confusing to an average consumer... which is most folks.. If we ran a poll who knew they were eating chlorinated chicken.. many would not. That being said.. many of them are also drinking chlorinated water (not me).. Everything has a reason.. If diluting the bacteria to avoid testing also saves lives.. more than it harms them.. then maybe the plus outweighs the minus.

Antibiotcs are NO longer used in ANY production facility in the US.. per law for eggs or meat. Nor are there steroids making them grow larger faster.. That's pure genetics.. cross breeding.. Organic or not.. this standard is the same.

Please note, I am not here to debate anything, just learn as much as possible and consider it all to just be a friendly discussion.

I meant when you process/harvest your birds, which you said you did. That is the meat I referred to you rearing - chicken meat!

My chickens are pets only, but I totally understand that some people eat the birds they raise! That's fine.

Thanks for the update about the US farming laws/industry. I didn't know the article was incorrect. I'm quite interested in this, as you can imagine, if we do end up importing meat and so should my fellow Brits . But quite honestly, apart from animal welfare/drug/chemical issues, I can't condone the unnecessary food miles of shipping or flying perishable products so far and the environmental impact of that. We have Europe on our doorstep, and we should look there first for food imports imo.

Anyway, I am a risk of getting political, and this is supposed to be a scientific thread about poo! I appreciate your perspective and debate/discussion, tomayto/tomarto!!