Food/Medication Questions...help?

[Celtictrinity]

Hey everyone!

So, to preface this series of questions, I'd like to point out that the chickens we have are for my daughter's 4-H project. There are 20 of them, all different breeds. I probably don't need to list all the breeds but some of the ones we have are EE's, SLW, Cochins, Brahmas, Delaware, Langshan, Brabanter, etc, etc. I have a very hard time tracking down helpful information regarding the health and well-being of our chickens so I'm hoping that some of you can help me out a bit. A few of these question might be basic but I'm really just looking for good, solid, well-explained information.

There are two issues that I'm the most concerned about at the moment. The first is a chicken's molting cycle. When are they supposed to molt? I should have added that these chickens are just about a year old now. For some reason, I thought that they were supposed to start molting in the fall but the majority of them started molting about a month ago. Egg production dropped off briefly but not much. The other issue that is associated with this one is the fact that some of the chickens that are supposed to be larger and wider look like, to me, that they have lost weight. I'm especially concerned about my SLW hen as she is going to be bred to our SLW rooster. Are the chickens supposed to lose weight during their molt?

So, then in comes my next issue: parasites. I know for sure that we aren't dealing with the standard lice that people usually dust for because I keep a really close eye on that but some people on the boards said that worms can cause weight loss. I've not ever been told to worm the chickens!! Either that or it might have been that they said since we dust the chickens with DE that it would take care of the worms.

Sooooo...should I be worming the chickens with wormer? What product do I use and where can I get it? How long between wormings? How much do I give them? Also, anything I can feed them to get their weight up a bit?

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer!

 

[Celtictrinity]

Oh, and on wormer, I wouldn't think it would be safe to eat the eggs for a certain amount of time. How long?

Thanks!

 

[lorain's fids]

I am new to having chickens, I have had my five since the June 30th, so not quite a year yet. From reading different posts on this forum about worming, some people worm the chickens wether they have worms or not. So what I did I brought a sample of chickens poop into my avain vet to be tested for worms. I was told by my vet that I shouldn't worm unless they have worms, and have a sample tested 3 to 4 times a year. At the end of this month I will bring in another poop sample to be tested again. If you do worm the chickens I do think the waiting period is 14 days to not eat the eggs.

 

[galanie]

They are pretty much supposed to molt in the fall but hatch date may make them be molting now. It stresses their bodies and they use a lot of protien to make those new feathers grow in. To keep them from losing weight you could feed them Game bird food which is around 28% protien for a couple of weeks.

This fall they will probably molt when they are "supposed" to.