I just received my laying age hens this past weekend and this is my first experience in chicken ownership. I used to help my grandmother tend chickens when I was a little girl but that has been a looooooooooong time ago. Thanks to BYC, I believe I have a very predator proof coop and run set up as well as a continuous supply of clean, fresh food and water. I have a 5 gallon bucket with nipples and an 11# feeder that is hung to keep the feed dry when it rains and prevent poopage in the feed. We may tweak the coop a bit; but all in all, I'm very happy with the set up. My question is: Now that I have these 6 ladies, are there any measure I need to take to insure their overall health, such as dusting, worming, vaccinations, etc.? Thanks so much for all the posts you guys have made and the excellent set up for the forum. I could not have made it this far without the knowledge base of BYC!
Different people have very different approaches to worming and dusting for lice / mites. Vaccination is done at hatch as a rule. It's not like a dog or cat (or person) where you re-vaccinate over a period of time. I worm once a year with Valbazen, but I live where the soil is moist and I know there are worms in this soil. Some people never worm; some worm several times a year. Dusting is done when lice / mites are found, or occasionally as a preventive, with 5% Sevin dust or "poultry dust" (which is usually a permethrin/pyrethrin type combination) from the feed store. Some here may tell you to use DE (diatomaceous earth,) which is expensive and has never been proven to do anything but keep feed dry and kill worms like tomato hornworms in the garden, to my knowledge. Here is some reading for you: http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html http://healthybirds.umd.edu/Disease/Deworming Birds.pdf https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/732910/deworming-experience-from-start-to-finish https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...or-crd-parasites-are-rampant/160#post_9991959
