Michigan

[chicken grandma]

Quote:
Some excellent points in this paragraph Olive!
Because I am a true 'backyard' chicken keeper with only 2-5 hens at a time and lots of children visiting and handling them, I find it best to check for worms once a year and then when I have had a positive result, I have wormed all of the small flock because while they are individuals, they live in very close community. Before I set up my routine, I had the unpleasant experiences of finding tapeworms in the stool, actually a child called me over to look at it. And I had cracked an egg in the pan to find a round worm in it. So I choose to test once a year and worm if necessary. Also, my hens have all lived from 5-7 years and I understand that if someone eats them when they are one and a half or two years, or has a large flock, then my routine might be unnecessary.

 

[1muttsfan]

The deworming posts have been very interesting. I also would not treat my flock with any chemicals without an overwhelming good reason ( I thing finding roundworms inside the eggs would qualify in my book). One of the reasons I keep chickens is to avoid chemically treated foods. If you use dewormers and treat with chemicals for external parasites there are strict withdrawal times that you must follow to safely eat eggs and meat. Especially if you share with others by selling or giving away eggs.

The only way to raise genetically superior birds is to let them deal with the parasites themselves - this is called survival of the fittest. And deworming does not solve the issue, as the birds are immediately re-exposed to the eggs of the parasites in the environment, so unless you deworm and also move your flock to completely new housing they will become reinfested. Most birds - with the exception of the young, which have not developed immunity yet - can handle normal parasite loads with no ill effects. There are so many things that can go wrong leading to illness and death, and parasites are probably very low on the list of things that will make normal healthy adult birds sick.

 

[babigyrl22]

Good Morning! Yes I agree the worming discussion is fascinating.

 

[RaZ]

Bell peppers were once called mangoes, eh?
I'll have to mention that to the professor today. The class is "Plant Evolution and Classification".

Common names are problematic in identifying things. I'm still trying to find the tree that "rhode" apples grow on.

 

[chickflick]

Quote:
My mom use to make a pickled banana pepper filled with saurkraut. Man it was good. Miss all that she use to make.
These chilly days are really getting on my nerves! Can't go from 96 to 60 within days and be happy about it. Good weather to do gardening in, but these sleepless nights are beginning to wear on me. Just don't have the energy to do much. I did can a bunch of tomatoes the other day. I'm getting two beautiful blue orpingtons from Shelleyb. Can't wait! The two splash I got from chickenstock are doing great.
Hope you all have a fantastic day.

 

[teeville5]

Good morning. I am having quite an unusual day so far with my girls. After I got my big girls out for the day, I went for the young girls. I have a wyandotte with missing feathers so I got a hen saver for her. I put it on her and she does NOT like this thing. She keeps trying to take it off so I keep having to readjust it. It is funny, though, to see her run through the pen with it on because the other girls are apparently afraid of whatever that thing on her back is and are freaking out and running away. It's been quite noisy out there and every time I look I see her running after the others.

Unfortunately, the other half of my eventful day is not a happy one. While I was letting my young girls out I heard a soft coo noise. I looked around and found one of my buffs injured. She was stuck in an awful contorted mess between the wall and a block used to support the perches. She wasn't moving and I thought she was dead at first, but then she moved her head a bit. Some of the other birds also thought to peck at her while she was stuck and her head is raw and bloody. I was so scared to pull her out because I thought for sure something had to be broken, but I got her out only to find my ee Gray Lady underneath her. She was stuck, too, but it looks like only her tail end received some pecking and she seems fine. Either way, they are both isolated for the day (although buff longer) to which Gray Lady is NOT happy about. she wants out, but my buff is basically just sitting there all poufed up. On a good note, though, she did go for the food I offered her so maybe she just needs peace and quiet for awhile.

 

[NovaAman]

Hello!

Hope everyone is good this morning. I just finished reading all the worming/parasite posts, and I will have to take notes, so I remember everything Olive Hill said.

RIR huh? She has so many colors in her, the picture does not do justice. Well, today, she is a little puffed up, but she is actually running around, Tail up, and is eating. Fred (vet)told me to bring her own poo sample in, but he's thinking its an easy fix. He's also thinking that the plants I put down for them to pick thru (potted veg plants) might be a bit of the culprit, but her poop check should tell for sure. But she does seem much better today than she was yesterday. Hoping it was just an upset tummy thats worked/working itself out. That would be cool.

We have guys out front re-blacktoping the road, and my silkies are running all over the yard. The man holding the stop sign and redirecting traffic says to me "OK, I give up, what is it?"
I say "What the chicken?"
"It's a chicken?"
"Yeah, its a silkie."
"A what? Never saw a chicken like that before."
SO, I sent my son over with Minnesota Cuke so he could see her, and he says. "Well I'll be..." LOL

Gotta love chickens. I told him I was going to count them when they were finished so I know he didn't get one. LOL

Gotta go to work. Have a great day all.

 

[Chickmate]

OK, after reading the wormer info from Chicken Grandma and Olive I have decided to go natural as much as possible. It's almost pumpkin season so I'll buy a couple of them for the chickens to ravage and not use the Ivomec. Actually, I have only used it one time and that was after I found they had mites. I dosed each chicken orally once and had planned on adding some to their water on a monthly basis, but now will not do that. I see no indication that any of them are sick, so will just go natural. My dog/cat vet is also a farm vet so I'm sure they will do a poo check for me.

 

[taprock]

Quote:
I'm glad your girls survived. We had a buff Polish who was picked on. Trying to get away she managed to wedge her head in a small opening between the nest box and the wall. We think she broke her own neck. My son was upset she didn't fight back.

My day started out bad. I let all the adults out of their coop then the younger ones out of theirs. I went back to open windows and clean up only to find bloody poop in the adult coop. I also found some in the small coop but by that time the adults had wandered through so I don't really know who is sick. No one is acting it. I really don't want to medicate everyone unless I have to. That means throwing out eggs and two roosters ready to be sent to freezer camp will have to wait. Can adults get cocci? I thought it was just a chick or juvenile thing until they were immune. Right now I have 6 -10 separated in different locations trying to narrow down who it is. If I don't know by tonight I guess everyone gets the medicine.

 

[keyt1969]

Wow, I really like the idea of feeding my birds pumpkin seeds. Our next door neighbor grew a large garden, none of which his family will eat out of (they're so much pickier than me food-wise, I never thought I'd find someone worse! lol) so he feeds the fruits and veggies to our birds. He just loves gardening so he grows it anyway, and he loves feeding our birds!! He just so happens to have many pumpkins back there too, woohoo!!

I'm assuming this applies to ducks too? Anyone know?