Worming Chickens

[LCARTER87]

We have a flock of 11 chickens, 4 bantams and the rest are full size, they are all under a year old. We live in phoenix, and I'm not sure if we should give them worm medicine or not? This is our first flock and we are new to having them, we have read books but we aren't sure since nothing really tells you what you should or should not be doing. None of our girls have had worms that we are aware of so we are curious on how to go about it.

-What type of worms should we be concerned about?
-Our chickens are free range so they sometimes find little worms they dig up and eat < I'm assuming these are just earthworms. Can these be harmful?
-What do we use to worm them?
-How do we go about worming them?


Also is there anything else we should be doing for them besides worming and checking for mites/lice at times?

 

[BamaSilkies]

All chickens have worms it just a matter of whether they have a heavy infestation or not. There are gonna be different opinions on here. Some people dont worm some do. I lost some birds to worms so mine are now on a worming schedule. I do 2 times a year unless its been an unusually rainy season then I do 3 times. I do in the late fall early winter and then in late spring. I alternate what I use. They say that worms dont build a immunity to Valbazen. I use this for one time. The next time I use Wazine(roundworms only) for first dose and then use either Panacur or Safeguard( Equine paste) some people use the goat safeguard because its liquid and not paste) I use the paste because its cheaper same medication and give individual doses because I can do the worming and check condition and for other parasites like lice and mites. You must dose and then again in 10 days. You cant eat eggs from the time you first worm and then until 14 days after last dose. This is one reason I do the early winter deworming because most of mine quit laying around this time. I dont add light in winter for increased laying. Everybody needs a vacation sometime.

 

[B J Hopkins]

I've belonged to other chicken forums and would write in questions, comments. NEVER received any answers. This is so GREAT. I've a question and can find it's already been discussed by many others. I found this thread to be very informative and helpful. Thank you.

 

[rendezvous1838]

I thought it was titles "Wyoming Chickens"
oops... My bad