worms

[rubyjane]

first off let me say hello,
i;m very new at rasing chicken I;ve only been rasing chickens for one year. I must say i;m very pleased to have my flock.seems that i;ve been very lucky so far.All my chickens have been laying all winter.And its been along hard one. My chickens mean alot to me and i want to give them the best of care.I;m not sure about worming. how offten do i worm? Do i need to know if they have worms before i worm? Will the eggs be contaminated?if i use a cemicals thank you all for your wonderful help I could not have made this work without back yard chickens forum

 

[NYREDS]

Some people worm on a regular schedule as a preventative, others only worm when they're sure worms are a problem. Worming medications are essentially poison in a controlled dose. They kill the worms w/o harming the chicken. Most wormers have an egg withdrawl period. Wazine which is a common wormer for round worms says it should not be used on egg producing birds at all. IMO why treat a problem you don't know you have. If your birds appear healthy, are maintaining weight, are active & are laying well they probably don't have worms at a harmful level.