The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[beginnergirl]

Huh...  I have 4 breeds of young pullets and cockerels, all about 5 months old that absolutely love raw pumpkin seeds and raw pumpkin too for that matter but they eat the pumpkin quicker/better if it's been in the oven for a while.  I cut it up into chunks so it cooks quicker but throw out the seeds by themselves and the birds almost fight over 'em!!!  There's no understanding chickens...not really.

My pullets will jump up and snatch raw pumpkin seeds out of my hand. Started them by braking the seeds into small pieces. They did eat raw carnival squash cut in half but left some. I will try cooking it. They love cooked yams. They ARE funny and temperamental about new food.

 

[hellbender]

My pullets will jump up and snatch raw pumpkin seeds out of my hand. Started them by braking the seeds into small pieces. They did eat raw carnival squash cut in half but left some. I will try cooking it. They love cooked yams. They ARE funny and temperamental about new food.

If you cook it, they will likely eat it all.

 

[Purpletie3]

My pullets will jump up and snatch raw pumpkin seeds out of my hand. Started them by braking the seeds into small pieces. They did eat raw carnival squash cut in half but left some. I will try cooking it. They love cooked yams. They ARE funny and temperamental about new food.

I find that with my chickens too...each house likes something different....one loves apples, one loves pears, one loves only the middle of a zucchini, one likes their apples in slices lol....However, they go NUTS for watermelon!!! Most of them love to finish our old corn cobs when we are done with dinner...and when we weed we throw the pile in the run...they go nuts. One crew even loves maple tree leaves. i also cooked rhubarb and most of them loved that too! They go nuts for oatmeal.

I love when they get so excited about new foods. Hysterical!

 

[Ballerina Bird]

Hi! I am joining this thread as I am interested in learning about natural and non-chemical ways to keep chickens healthy and comfy. Looking forward to hearing what everyone has to say.

 

[CherMoz]

Welcome to this thread Ballerina.

There is a lot of great information posted throughout this thread. You may want to start at the beginning and read through it.

 

[Ballerina Bird]

Welcome to this thread Ballerina.  There is a lot of great information posted throughout this thread.  You may want to start at the beginning and read through it.

Thanks!

 

[lalaland]

welcome ballerinabird!


Today was the last of the three day dose of Molly's herbal wormer. I love that is so easy, you just mix in tablespoons of the herbs into the feed, thats it! then once a week with the booster herbs. no egg withdrawal, no worries about molting chickens when worming.

It is so funny to watch everyones molting pattern. I have to say, I really love it when they do the feather shake and feathers just drift off of them. Seems likemolt has started earlier this year, so I am hoping I don't have a cold november like last one with a couple of hens practically bare-naked!

 

[Leahs Mom]

@lalaland

Please tell us about how, specifically, you use Molly's.

-Why do you worm your birds... have you had specific instances where you've known that they had worms or are you doing this preventatively?

-Do the birds eat it alright when you put it in feed or do they tend to "eat around" it?

-When you use the wormer, do you see any worms in the droppings? How do you know it is working? How do you know you need to use it?

-Anything else you can tell that would be useful for everyone...

 

[lalaland]

ok, here's my take on worming:

all chickens have worms, considered a normal parasite load. When there is a worm overload, the chicken will show symptoms, including not laying, losing weight, poor general condition, etc. These are also symptoms of other issues, just to make it confusing. But lots of people, when seeing symptoms, start with worming. Supposedly, healthy chickens can fight off a worm overload. I am not sure about this, as exposure to too many worms might make that impossible.

If you have chickens on ground where there haven't been chickens before, you will likely not have any need for worming for the first few years. If your chickens are confined to a run, worm overload happens faster because worms cysts/eggs are in droppings, the chickens eat the cysts, and in a run the droppings are more concentrated. worms also supposedly come from wild bird droppings and from earthworms.

Worms can cause permanent damage to the intestines (scarring) leading to less nutrients being absorbed.

Chemical wormers (read pesticides) are scary but effective. Worms are becoming resistant to these. There are also different kinds of worms, and wormers are usually only effective for some kinds, not all. If you use a chemical wormer, you can not do it when the chicken is molting because the wormer will cause scanty feathering, and crooked feathering, which makes it hard for the chicken in many ways including heat retention in the winter. You also can't use the eggs for 24 days (14 days after the second dose).

If I have a sick bird with worm problems, I might chose to do a chemical wormer, but that is rare.

I far prefer a more natural approach.

Some things, like hot peppers, pumpkin seed, cayenne, garlic, etc are helpful in discouraging worms but will not address a worm overload. In my opinion, DE is not a worm deterent but....there is a lot of disagreement on this issue.

I have mareks in my flock, which means my hens have immune issues. Plus, they are on land that has had chickens for 9 years. I do let them free range but not when I am at work, and in the winter they are in a smaller run so droppings are not spread out as much.

I saw a round worm in a dropping, and did the soapy dishwater thing. Ordered molly's herbal wormer. While waiting for the herbal wormer, I added lots of fresh garlic and tumeric to their feed.

Molly's herbal is a very fine powder. I feed mash, that is, a ground grain combo with chunks of corn in it, oats, etc. I mix the powder in it, and I feed the mash wet - I add water or veggie water from cooking, or spoiled milk, etc, until I have an oatmeal consistency. It is a 3 day dose, followed by a weekly booster herbal powder. In 6-8 weeks you can repeat the wormer. I will do that once, and then through the winter won't worry about the wormer since they aren't as exposed to "wormy ground". I will begin again in the spring with a wormer dose, and try to maintain the weekly booster through the summer ( I didn't do that this summer!)

THe chickens eat it up just fine.

If I fed crumbles ( and I would tell everyone trying to go the natural way to stop that and find some decent food that isn't processed), I would likely moisten the crumbles and add the powder. Or, you could mix the herbs with yogurt, but how would you know if every hen got enough?

I've read of people who have used Molly's herbals on their chickens and followed up with fecal floats ( a method to see whether the chicken has worms, you can learn how to do this with a microscope, or you can get a vet to check the dropping sample) and found NO WORMS!!! so I trust this product and have used it two years. It does not kill worms. It makes the gut so inhospitable to worms that they leave - and you sometimes will see live worms in the droppings. This doesn't even make sense to me because it means the worms "know" when to leave, but.....it works somehow!

edited for spelling, etc

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I read an article that said a small worm load was normal and actually beneficial, it's only when the balance gets off the system gets off, I think I read where they gave worms to people with rheumatoid arthritis and the worms helped bring down inflammation. I have never seen worms in my chickens poop, I don't worm my poultry, I do worm my goats and donkeys if I see they need it, chickens live shorter lives than other livestock. My chickens do get fall pumpkins and squash, I do cull any bird that can't fight off an illness.

Some very good points lalaland.