Old time chickens didn't live long. They succumbed to starvation, parasites & predators. Modern civilization has prolonged the lives of domesticated animals through good husbandry.. Wild animals do not live long lives. I'm not trying to argue here, I was just stating a fact that earth worms can give chickens "gape worms". I'm not making it up, its a real parasite. You can use the information or discard it. ,From WIKI " A gapeworm (Syngamus trachea), also known as a red worm and forked worm, is a parasitic nematode worm infecting the tracheas of certain birds. The resulting disease, known as "gape" or "the gapes", occurs when the worms clog and obstruct the airway. The worms are also known as "red worms" or "forked worms" due to their red color and the permanent procreative conjunction of males and females. Gapeworms are common in young, domesticated chickens and turkeys. When the female gapeworm lays her eggs in the trachea of an infected bird, the eggs are coughed up, swallowed, then defecated. When birds consume the eggs found in the feces of an intermediate host such as earthworms, snails (Planorbarius corneus, Bithynia tentaculata and others), or slugs, they become infected with the parasite. The drug Ivermectin is often used to control gapeworm infection in birds. "I let my girls eat what they find to. They seem to not eat what they don't like ........earthworms they like so they proved as I was digging in the gardens lol I have to believe that before processed food old time chickens ate whatever they could findand walking outside can cause me to get crushed by a treemy thoughts are this. Chickens naturally eat earthworms, frogs, snakes, grubs, bugs, larvae etc. They don't naturally eat bagged processed food. My chickens eat everything I listed and more on a daily basis and I've never had to worm chickens. just my .02. Well .005 in this economy
