Worming chickens

[bennysgirl]

So far I've steered clear of the usual worming formulas for chickens because, well, it's toxic, and if I wouldn't put it in my body or my children's bodies, I can't see why I should subject an innocent animal to it.

However, I've yet to come across an alternative solution and I'm pretty sure our dear little Laura has some kind of worms. She's a bit diarrhoeary (is that a word?) and her bottom is dirty and a little matted. It doesn't seem too bad right now, she is bright eyed and happy and is eating and drinking well, but I don't want to leave it and have her get really sick.

Does anyone have any experience or ideas for natural worming for chickens, or should I just resort to the commercial worming products?

[Bronnie]

worms are really obvious in their poops - huge things they are!

a few cloves of garlic (try for organic) in their food each day might do the trick. it's worked the two times my girls have had them

[tamarab30]

Jessica
I was going to suggest the same as bronnie - GARLIC! It is a cure all for just about everything.
Good luck

[bennysgirl]

**slaps forehead** Of course if she was a human I would think garlic, but it never even occurred to me that it would be useful for other animals.

After a poo hunt and subsequent investigation (in hindsight, ewww...) I didn't find anything that even remotely looked like worms, so I'm guessing that I'm overreacting (overprotective much?). I'll give them a dose of garlic anyway, to be sure.

Thank you both so much.

[Nyree]

Yeah - a couple of cloves of garlic in their drinking water

[hanabi]

Condies crystals in their drinking water also worms them, as does cider vinegar (1 tbspn/gallon water). A lot of chooks will refuse garlic water. It's the sulphur that works in the garlic so you can also dose them with a teaspoon of sulphur powder in water. Supposedly, full moon is the time to dose them.

Ground pumpkin seeds are also supposed to work in chickens and humans and so is the dry shaved carrot that is left over when you juice carrots. Good thing about this is the chooks will totally eat it us as food.

Prevention is the best cure though. Plant some comfrey, nasturtium, borage, wormwood, pennyroyal and tansy in your chookyard or wherever they free-range. The chickens will nibble the herbs and keep parasites at bay. We only have comfrey in our garden but our chickens have never had worms.

Oh, and give the coop a good clean out so they can't reinfest themselves.

Alana Moore's book Backyard Poultry Naturally is a good one for all things chook related.

[Bronnie]

I thought the chooks would need to eat the garlic I give them with something, but one of ours just keep eating it all by itself! I wonder if she was the one with worms?

I've got tansy growing too Jodie And rue seeds to plant when I remember

[Jawill]

Hi Jessica,
I was just reading 'Organic Gardener' and it actually had an article on worming chickens! The article said that if your chickens look healthy, have clear eyes, bright red comb & a heavy body weight for their size; they are unlikely to have worms. If the chickens are not thriving & you suspect worms, it said to add some 'insecticide grade diatomaceous earth' to their feed to dislodge the worms - it's made from fossilised silica skeletons of algae!!...or maybe just try the garlic!!!

[emd]

We haven't had any worm problems, but our chooks get garlic in their scrap bucket and cider vinegar in their water. I used to give cider vinegar to my horses too, and although I still had to worm them (shared paddocks) I think it did help keep the parasites down.

[marchbean]

I was told (and used) condies crystals too