Garlic clove in water for worming chickens?

[sourland]

Garlic does impact the immune system and thereby provides some parasite resistance, but it is not an effective "wormer." The good news is that your eggs will be pre seasoned.

(Not)

 

[noodleroo]

Quote:
I agree with this. If you use these methods from the beginning of your birds' life, they may be healthy enough to not attract parasites. If your birds already have parasites, these will not work to 'worm' them like the chemical wormers do.

 

[Polly Chicken]

Hello there. I am very interested in the post you made about garlic.I have 35 hens and two cockerels. I would like to know how much garlic I should crush into how much water. Should I change the garlic everyday? can i chop it up and add to their food?
Does the garlic doesn't taint the egg. I swap eggs with friends and our local pub, so eggs have to taste like egg.
Lastly, I have a Chocolate Labrador. How many cloves should I consider giving her?
Sorry, so many questions.
Kindest regards, Polly

 

[Fred's Hens]

Welcome to BYC.

You posted on a very, very old thread, dating from 3 years ago. It might be better if you launched a fresh thread on the topic and see if you get responses that are helpful to you.

Again, enjoy BYC, glad to have you aboard.

 

[Smajeski53]

Garlic is not a reliable wormer. In fact, I have never known that it works at all for this purpose. It is very healthful, however. I have done the clove in the waterer or chopped it into feed occasionally as an immune system booster. I've never noticed a taste in the eggs at all. If garlic does in any way work as a wormer, I'd think you'd have to feed it in huge quantities. They will have garlic breath, LOL!


Pumpkin seed does however have a proven mild preventative effect. The curcurbit in the seeds paralyzes the worms so they can be expelled. Some follow the treatment with a molasses flush so they poop out the worms afterward. Not sure it works on all worms, but chopping it into something they eat or adding it to their scratch mix, does seem to keep the worm load at a manageable level. A recommendation is pumpkin seeds chopped into buttermilk. Not sure why the buttermilk unless it just sets up a good gut condition with its acidity for the worms to get out faster.

I have given my chickens garlic for 60 years and I have seen my hens pass worms the next day or two. Nor do they ever get mites or lice.

I get a lot of garlic from the grocery store produce scraps; I break up the bulb, peel the paper and soak it all over night. I put the pan in their coop and they eat and drink it all in a day.

So I believe garlic is a good dewormer and external parasites.

 

[nuthatched]

I have given my chickens garlic for 60 years and I have seen my hens pass worms the next day or two. Nor do they ever get mites or lice.

I get a lot of garlic from the grocery store produce scraps; I break up the bulb, peel the paper and soak it all over night. I put the pan in their coop and they eat and drink it all in a day.

So I believe garlic is a good dewormer and external parasites.

This is a very old thread that's full of bad, outdated information. If you have questions, you'll want to start your own thread.
Garlic is a very, very, very mild (barely useful at all) dewormer and is deadly toxic to your chickens in any of the levels needed for any type of effective worming.
I'd recommend you get a fecal float to see what you're up against though I'd by your description , its likely roundworm and needs safeguard wormer.

 

[speckledhen]

Garlic is a very, very, very mild (barely useful at all) dewormer and is deadly toxic to your chickens in any of the levels needed for any type of effective worming

Boy, this is an old thread, over 14 year ago, but it came up in my feed, but information is information, so......
I still agree with what I posted and I'll summarize my thoughts after many more years of experience, which don't contradict my original post on the thread in any real way.

These days, I occasionally (rarely, actually) add a small amount of minced garlic to maybe soft food like scrambled eggs when attempting to help an ailing hen, but I never used it in the large quantities for any reason. I still haven't ever used it as a wormer, only a mild immune booster.

Mine are wormed about once or maybe twice each year with a broad spectrum wormer like Valbazen. And I may put ivermection pour-on as a way to be sure they have no lice or mites in between, but again, rarely. Mine dustbathe like Olympians around here.

As I said in my old post, same with the pumpkin seed myth, folks claiming it's the only wormer you need; folks swear it worms chickens and it does have a mild worming effect or preventative function on roundworms only, but that is not all the type worms chickens can contract. Tapeworms, gapeworm, capillaria, etc. can all affect chickens, who by the way, can handle a small worm load if they're very healthy in the first place. If you want to be sure they get wormed, go for the big guns and just bet it done.

The other myth is Diatomaceous Earth is a natural wormer. It can actually harm or kill your chickens if you load a ton of it into their feed, thinking you're worming them. Some feeds already have DE in them to alleviate moisture because it's a desiccant; read your labels. I was made aware years ago of someone who took their chicken to the vet for a necropsy. Though they were regularly fed DE in their feed at over 2% of the feed volume, I guess (it does kill soft bodied bugs, but not necessarily worms). They found huge worm loads plus badly dessicated intestines, which should have been lubricated. My compost pile contains poopy barn shavings which were sprinkled with DE over the time they were being used and earthworms are breeding like rabbits-they're soft bodied, so by all intents and purposes, there should be none of those.
Free range birds generally have lower worm loads than penned chickens. There are some natural wormers on pasture. Dirt lots don't count as healthy free-ranging. I use DE to sprinkle under the roosts lightly during the summer months when humidity is high and don't put it in their feed as a matter of course. A small amount in a 50 lb bag is not usually an issue, but again, some of my feeds already have a small amount in them so not a good idea to throw it into those, IMO.

In small quantities, none of those things-garlic, pumpkin seeds or DE-will harm them, but the key word is "small". I wouldn't depend on any of those three for worming.
I can count on one hand the number of times in 20+ years that I saw actual worms in their poop. Mine do free range on a rotating basis for the few groups I still have and on pasture which sports varied plants, specifically so they can get out of the quite large barn pen that has been defoliated by chickens over the years. You still have to look for signs of worms, even then. We want to help them, after all, not hurt or neglect them.

Natural is great, but only if you can depend on it.

Disclaimer: Though I have a lot of experience and have done quite a bit of research on many chicken-related topics, I will never claim to be an expert on anything because over the years I've raised numerous breeds of chickens, both hatchery and breeder quality, and I have encountered issues that no book on raising chickens has ever addressed. Things happen out of the realm of "normal" all the time with chickens, both in health and genetics.