Worming?

[dawg53]

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if you keep them penned, I guarantee you they'll get worms as well lol. (Unless you have them in wire cages as in commercial operations.)

 

[chezpoulet]

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My sand covered run is 16 x 4 for 5 chickens. Coop has pine shavings. I have a fish fry/spatula on a dowel and a kitty litter scoop, and I clean up every afternoon when the chickens are in the yard. Takes me 10 minutes or so. I need the manure for my compost bins!

My flock is quite tame, and catching them is not the issue. I just soaked the Albendazole in bits of bread and fed each chicken a piece. Dawg 53 was kind enough to confirm dosing schedule in my PM to him. Thanks Dawg!

 

[Oobhakeb]

I don;t think my girls would be very happy if I did not let them free range. They call to me as soon as I pull up from work, wanting to be let out. Dawg, again, thanks for the advice. I will def plan on taking it. Chez, sounds like thats the way to go. I save my poop for my compost as well and have found those shavings break down great! Most of mine are really tame and others are still jittery. Also, I can't believe I never even thought to soak food with the dose! Thats a great idea. The only problem then is them stealing from one another and one receiving too much and the other not enough. Dawg I went to SS the other day to look for the Valbazen. I found Wazine for chickens but the Valbazen was for cattle,etc. Or is it like the Corid (which also didn't list how to give to chickens) and multifuntional?

 

[dawg53]

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Corid is for treating coccidia in cattle but used in chickens for treatment of cocci as well, it's not a wormer. Valbazen is a liquid cattle/sheep wormer...that's what you want for worming chickens.

 

[Pele]

Unfortunately, anything that eats off the ground or doesn't wash it's hands after being in contact with the earth (ie kids) will get worms. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

You can slow it down by fastidious cleaning, but you can't 100% prevent it without putting them in battery cages. As worms can and do migrate into eggs if the infestation gets too bad, it is in the best interest of human health that you do occasionally worm them.

Keeping them organic won't matter to your customers if they crack open an egg and find a tapeworm attatched to the yolk. I know that I would never buy from that source ever again, no matter how all-natural and healthy they claim to be.

So, I worm them twice a year, throw out the eggs for a week, and go on with life content in the knowledge that I am taking care of my chickens' health needs, and the health of my buyers. It's true that free-ranging and organic food is healthier for chickens, but there's no reason to throw out modern health improvements for chickens just because some other modern practices arn't good. It's a classic case of throwing out the baby with the bath-water.

 

[chezpoulet]

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I let them out of the run one by one- as one is done eating the bit of bread with the wormer I put it in the tractor, so no one gets a double dose. Helps when you only have five .

 

[Oobhakeb]

Thanks for all the great responses. I do know Corrid is not for worming but I was thrown off by it not being listed as for chickens when I bought it. I did see the Valbazen so I will worm them with that when they are a little older.

It would be nice for things to be organic unfortunately sometimes you lose benefits by only going organic. I do feed my chickens medicated feed and they are vaccinated and I let them free range as much as possible. I've always been a believer in treating with medication if called for however, I don't imediately jump to medications as an answer. I have found there are a lot of tried and true home remedies for things (not only with chickens but for humans as well) that I do like to investigate further.

I don't plan of selling my eggs, they are purely for my family and I, and to lessen my imprint.