This is a quote from a Florida Extension Service article.
The chickens pick up the parasite eggs directly by ingesting contaminated feed, water, or litter or by eating snails, earthworms, or other insects (intermediate hosts) which can carry the eggs.
Here's a link to the article. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/VM015
Unless you keep your chickens in solitary confinement, away from earthworms, insects, and wild birds, there is a great chance they have worms. The contaminated feed, water, and litter means that it has bird droppings in it, like when an infected bird perches above a feeder or a wild bird leaves a deposit in the run. You don't want to eat the eggs from wormy chickens as worms CAN go in the eggs. .
Chickens very very rarely shed worms (seen in poop). If they do, you know all your birds have them. Worms attach to the inside of the digestive tract. Worms decrease the immune system of birds, steal the nutrients, irritate the digestive tract, make the bird more susceptible to other digestive tract illnesses by stressing the good bacteria of the gut, increase incidences of coccidiosis (even in adults), and spread to healthy birds. Not only do they create nutritional deficiencies, but every place that they burrow scars the gut. Every scar is a place where nutrition won't absorb. And breaking the gut liner also opens up the possibility that undigested food can cross into the blood which causes lots of problems. Worms should be effectively dealt with and kept away.
A lot of people recommend worming more. I prefer the more natural method of control methods like DE in between, but giving a REAL wormer twice a year to kill larvae (which DE will never in a million years kill). The larvae of roundworms sit in the lungs (often causing respiratory symptoms) and eventually will become adults. DE doesn't fix the respiratory ones. Once you worm with a broad spectrum, twice per year is usually sufficient - particularly if you try other more natural worm 'control' (not treatment or prevention) methods inbetween: DE food grade, cayenne, VermX, etc.
Other worm prevention methods:
Keeping the grounds dry and clean. Use pine shavings (not chips) instead of hay, put down sand instead of letting them be on bare soil. These methods dry out the ground and worm eggs and bacteria have a harder time existing in those conditions. They keep the birds' area more hygienic and thus more clean smelling. It's WAY easier to clean, too!
For treats like scratch, use in the bedding instead of the ground. They'll fluff up and aerate the bedding for you, have less access to droppings and shed parasite eggs, and will dry the bedding as well.
*Valbazen which is a cattle wormer.It kills more types of worms than all the others combined, And you don't have to worry about a massive worm kill like with piperazine or ivermectin which will sometimes clog the intestines..Valbazen slowly starves the parasites over a 2 to 5 day period..Valbazen is also used for human treatments at 400 mg child or adult..So unless you are allergic to it, it's ok to consume the eggs after treatment, but most I know wait two weeks .. Dosage is 1/2 cc orally to adult large fowl.. 1/4 cc for bantams and young standard breeds.
The ideal way of doing things would be to test three or four random birds in a flock using a "fecal egg count" from a vet to see if you need to worm two or three times a year. That way it's less invasive and lets you know when to treat. For someone trained in that, it would be the best way.
The chickens pick up the parasite eggs directly by ingesting contaminated feed, water, or litter or by eating snails, earthworms, or other insects (intermediate hosts) which can carry the eggs.
Here's a link to the article. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/VM015
Unless you keep your chickens in solitary confinement, away from earthworms, insects, and wild birds, there is a great chance they have worms. The contaminated feed, water, and litter means that it has bird droppings in it, like when an infected bird perches above a feeder or a wild bird leaves a deposit in the run. You don't want to eat the eggs from wormy chickens as worms CAN go in the eggs. .
Chickens very very rarely shed worms (seen in poop). If they do, you know all your birds have them. Worms attach to the inside of the digestive tract. Worms decrease the immune system of birds, steal the nutrients, irritate the digestive tract, make the bird more susceptible to other digestive tract illnesses by stressing the good bacteria of the gut, increase incidences of coccidiosis (even in adults), and spread to healthy birds. Not only do they create nutritional deficiencies, but every place that they burrow scars the gut. Every scar is a place where nutrition won't absorb. And breaking the gut liner also opens up the possibility that undigested food can cross into the blood which causes lots of problems. Worms should be effectively dealt with and kept away.
A lot of people recommend worming more. I prefer the more natural method of control methods like DE in between, but giving a REAL wormer twice a year to kill larvae (which DE will never in a million years kill). The larvae of roundworms sit in the lungs (often causing respiratory symptoms) and eventually will become adults. DE doesn't fix the respiratory ones. Once you worm with a broad spectrum, twice per year is usually sufficient - particularly if you try other more natural worm 'control' (not treatment or prevention) methods inbetween: DE food grade, cayenne, VermX, etc.
Other worm prevention methods:
Keeping the grounds dry and clean. Use pine shavings (not chips) instead of hay, put down sand instead of letting them be on bare soil. These methods dry out the ground and worm eggs and bacteria have a harder time existing in those conditions. They keep the birds' area more hygienic and thus more clean smelling. It's WAY easier to clean, too!
For treats like scratch, use in the bedding instead of the ground. They'll fluff up and aerate the bedding for you, have less access to droppings and shed parasite eggs, and will dry the bedding as well.
*Valbazen which is a cattle wormer.It kills more types of worms than all the others combined, And you don't have to worry about a massive worm kill like with piperazine or ivermectin which will sometimes clog the intestines..Valbazen slowly starves the parasites over a 2 to 5 day period..Valbazen is also used for human treatments at 400 mg child or adult..So unless you are allergic to it, it's ok to consume the eggs after treatment, but most I know wait two weeks .. Dosage is 1/2 cc orally to adult large fowl.. 1/4 cc for bantams and young standard breeds.
The ideal way of doing things would be to test three or four random birds in a flock using a "fecal egg count" from a vet to see if you need to worm two or three times a year. That way it's less invasive and lets you know when to treat. For someone trained in that, it would be the best way.
