Worming before culling meat birds?

[r709shackleford]

Hi,
Want to know what people do with their meat birds? Do you worm them a week or two before culling? Maybe give them some vitamins? Some alternative diet? Lots of DE or garlic?

Also, would you do anything differently if some of the birds in your coop recently had lice? A few birds had it bad, most just had some. One had mites for sure.
All the sick birds I got are getting treated. I have taken in a number of unwanted birds just before winter. Some are too old to lay. Some just don't lay, still trying to guess why. Have a few roosters young/old. Etc etc.

Just want to know what people do. Since I found mites and lice, I have been paranoid

about eating meat birds. I feel that I should give them some de-wormer....or treat them somehow. Primarily because I don't know how most of these birds spent their lives. I want my flock to be healthy. And have safe meat to consume. Lastly, my wife is breastfeeding, so I would be skeptical about using crazy chemicals that "kill everything" type of stuff.

Any ideas are appreciated! Newby here.



Edit: Does cooking chicken at a certain temperature, kill all bugs, worms, diseases inside?

 

[jdywntr]

Most medications require a 14 day withdrawl period before eggs are eaten or birds are butchered. I would only worm them if you have evidence of worms.
I've never had lice or mites on my birds but they are an exterior parasite so treating for them would not affect the meat. You can even dust them with DE to treat it.

I had the same concern about getting unwanted birds from people and not knowing what they were eating, if they were medicated etc. If in doubt, I would wait at least 2 weeks after getting them to butcher to ensure no medications etc were in their systems. I'd probably start them on DE too.

Most things should be killed as long as you fully cook the bird to temp. Internal temp of 165

 

[r709shackleford]

Most medications require a 14 day withdrawl period before eggs are eaten or birds are butchered. I would only worm them if you have evidence of worms.
I've never had lice or mites on my birds but they are an exterior parasite so treating for them would not affect the meat. You can even dust them with DE to treat it.

I had the same concern about getting unwanted birds from people and not knowing what they were eating, if they were medicated etc. If in doubt, I would wait at least 2 weeks after getting them to butcher to ensure no medications etc were in their systems. I'd probably start them on DE too.

Most things should be killed as long as you fully cook the bird to temp. Internal temp of 165

Most things die at 165 deg. I like the sound of that. Then what about the rest. Is there a better temperature that say kills the typical 99.9% of things?
Also, how do you like your Jersey Giants, I saw it lists you own some? Tnx!

 

[jdywntr]

A higher internal temp would likely result in dry meat. 165 is the USDA recommended temp. I don't think that any higher would help. I'd treat for lice/mites and then make sure to rinse really well after processing, just in case. Instead of just deworming, you may want to take a sample to your vet to see if they do have worms.

I've only had the giants for a few months. So far, so good. I did lose a number to predators during the day. I don't know if they were too young to free range or if they aren't the brightest.

I haven't lost any of my older birds though so who knows.

I'm raising them for meat and will be processing some of the culls soon so I'll have to see. I got them because they were available locally. The cockerels are huge already and I did lose my BO roo so I figure if the giants breed the BO hens, maybe I'll get something that grows a little quicker.