Worming Horses and Free Range Chickens

[wookiee]

My horses are due for their worming and I am concerned about my free range chickens sifting through the manure and ingesting enough of the wormer to affect the quality of the eggs. I know that if you worm chickens directly then there is a withholding period for the eggs. Is there one for this "indirect worming"?

Also, should I disclose to my egg customers (both of them

) that my chickens have access to horse manure from a wormed horse? I feel them organic pellets but DO NOT represent them as organic as I am small time and they free range so they get into all sorts of things.


Thanks in advance, I know BYC will come through for me!

 

[Lollipop]

wookiee , I think I would tell them it`s time for my annual chicken maintainence and that they should buy store eggs during this month(unless they might have worms, lol). Thank them for their understanding.

 

[Rusty Hills Farm]

Don't know how others feel about this, but I didn't use the eggs for about a week when my flock used to roam the horse pastures.

I personally would not feel the need to disclose this to customers. They probably have no idea what "goodies" free-rangers can find. No point in upsetting their tummies with details!

Rusty

edited to add that yearly worming of the flock is an entirely different matter, but wormer in the manure isn't likely to be a problem because all the chicks are eating is the grain and any insect grubs, not the whole "horse apple".

 

[greyhorsewoman]

Horse worming in normally (recommended) every 8-12 weeks, not annually. I never thought about it effecting our eggs.

Most of the our chickens that we collect eggs for sale for are now in a large electried poultry fencing area, but we still maintain a small flock of total free rangers in/around our barn for insect control.

 

[wookiee]

Thanks for your replies. I do worm my horses every two months, not annually. This is the first time I have had free range chickens out while I worm, however.

I plan on picking up the poop in the pasture immediately after worming, so that should help minimize the exposure.

Thanks!

 

[greyhorsewoman]

LOL, I have TEN horses, so I can guarantee you I won't be picking up all that poop every 8 weeks! Besides, we muck the stalls onto a manure pile, which my ducks and chickens frequent. I have no earthly idea how I'd keep them out of there.

We've had free ranged chickens for YEARS now and ate hundreds of their eggs. I gotta say I never thought to worry about half of the things I've noticed on the BYC. We googled this and it says that it breaks down very quickly that it is considered a non-issue even to organic gardeners. The amount one chickens might encounter would be negligible.

(The other side of this coin is that chickens ranging freely around horses is a no-no. We've taken precautions so that none of our horse food or water buckets gets contaminated with chicken poop. Haven't had a problem in 10 years, except for an occasional chicken getting stomped.)