I love it! Summer loving hens!

[gritsar]

I have 13 LF hens. Okay, a few of them have gone from LF on up to just plain fat.

They are 2 years and 2 months old.
I had a minor mite problem, solved.
I just went over my egg keeping chart for the past two weeks and it's the same all the way thru - 10 eggs one day, 3 the next, 10 eggs one day, 3 the next, etc. etc.
These tells me a few things.
1 - it's likely that all of my hens are laying every other day
2 - three of my hens need to get with the game and synchronize with their sisters
3 - since it hasn't been below 90 degrees in the past 2 weeks, they must really love summer

They did good thru their second winter, but not this good.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Weird, I've been looking at mine thinking they look a bit skinny. Not unhealthy skinny, just slimmer than normal.

I love charting my eggs. (my DH thinks it's ridiculous) I know who lays each egg. Well at least until my Ameraucana's start laying - I have 4 of them and they all look the same, Black! But I've noticed some funny patterns: 1 girl will lay 4 days then off a day then 4 days then off, etc. My brahma usually lays 2 days, day off, 1 day, day off, 2 days, day off, etc.

I started selling my extra eggs, and I'm now paying for all the feed with egg sale money, so I'm a happy camper!

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Have you wormed them?
ETA: It was my DHs idea that I start charting mine, LOL. I've gotten pretty good about telling who laid which egg, even though all I have right now are the brahmas.

 

[Happy Chooks]

No, I haven't. Funny you mention it though, I was just looking through the poop thread for clues, and thinking of worming them, just to be sure. Guess I'll have to start looking into it.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I went back and forth on worming, finally decided to worm them once a year right along with the dogs and the cats.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
I went back and forth on worming, finally decided to worm them once a year right along with the dogs and the cats.

What do you use? I see recommendations when I searched to use Wazine followed by intervectin. Why not just use the intervectin to begin with?

 

[fishermans wife]

I follow this thread when worming my chickens - threehorses is very clear on when and why and how. Hope this helps!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2525157

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I went back and forth on worming, finally decided to worm them once a year right along with the dogs and the cats.

What do you use? I see recommendations when I searched to use Wazine followed by intervectin. Why not just use the intervectin to begin with?

I used to ask myself the same question - Why use wazine at all? Why not bring out the big guns to start with? The idea being that if your chickens are heavily infested and you use a broad spectrum wormer, the load of all those dead worms can actually kill the chicken. So it might be prudent to use the wazine/broad spectrum initially, but after the first year I feel it's safe to just use the broad spectrum. If you have just wormed the previous year, there shouldn't be any heavy worm load.
This past year (I worm in November, less eggs to discard since laying is down between seasons) I used ivermectin because a neighbor that raises cattle gave me some. The year before however I used valbazen (albendazole). I think I like the valbazen better. Given orally there's no need to make sure you are getting down to the skin through all those feathers, like with the ivermectin.
Using the valbazen, it's 1/2 cc given undiluted orally; 1/4 cc for bantams.
It was easy to accomplish the administration with my DH helping. We went into the coop before letting the chooks out for the day. He'd grab one and open its beak (hint: gently tug on the wattles, the mouth will open), I dosed them with a needle-less syringe and then DH turned the dosed one out the door.
Discard eggs for two weeks is the general rule, but as valbazen is commonly used to treat humans with parasites, I'm not sure how strict you have to be about that.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Thanks for the info, sorry to hijack your thread.

Where do you get valbazen? My chickens are a little over a year, and we're in the dry climate of CA, do I need to do the Wazine or just the valbazen? I really don't want to be without eggs for 28 days.

ETA: but I don't want to kill them either.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I bought the valbazen at the farmer's co-op. It's in the cow and goat section, since its a wormer for them. You use if "off label" for chickens, just as eprinex/ivermectin is.

I used only the valbazen the first time, but my chickens were only 10 months old at the time.

No problem on the hijack. We all learn things when we share info.