Worming??? (De-worming???)

[CARS]

The more and more I use the search feature, the more and more I am confused.

Many posts state that if you have your fowl on ground they need to be wormed (or is that de-wormed?). I have never done this before.
I finish off my meat birds in the same outdoor run year after year.
When the cornish aren't in the run I let my layers take over to keep the grass mowed

Should I be worming my meat birds?

Doesn't the meds kinda defeat the purpose of raising healthy meat??

DE keeps getting mentioned. How many people mix this in with their meat birds feed???

Does the short life span of a Cornish not give worms/parasites a chance to invade????

 

[Judy]

I've never raised Cornish X, but would not worm them if I did/ever do. I've got a flock of 15 week olds and am thinning down the roos for meat. When I get down to the roos I am going to keep, hopefully soon, I plan on worming the rest of them, including the layers who are a year old. This will be the first time I've wormed any of them. I'll probably worm the flock once a year, unless, of course, I suspect an infestation.

I suppose you are correct that it should be "de-worm." We do get lazy with our speech.

And it certainly seems to me that Cornish X do not live long enough that a real infestation is likely. I figure that chickens are going to have some worms/lice/mites, and it's just a matter of keeping the numbers in check, plus feeding them well to keep their health up. I use DE in the coop, on the birds, and in the birds, in the hope that it helps control parasites.

I'm sure there are about as many opinions on worming as there are people on this board. If there is a standard of care for backyard flocks, I haven't seen it.

 

[becky3086]

I seldom de-worm any of my chickens. When I do they quit laying for MONTHS!

 

[CARS]

So no one does anything with their meat birds??? Good.

 

[saddina]

What my grandparents do is sort of a field rotation. The coop sits in the middle of 4 pens, with a door to each. The meaties and hens are rotated thru them 3 weeks at a time, by the time the meaties make a circuit it's freezer time. By the time the hens go thru much of what was there has dried out (the dry and 100+ temps aren't hospitable to much). If anything showed signs of worms we'd treat them, but nothing ever has.