On Mon, 9 Apr 2007 18:50:06 +0100, "Brian Telford" <brian@rushford.antispam.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Any suggestions we need to worm our three hens, we have some worm powder
>that says mix with food and feed for 7 days,but they are fed on pellets so
>powder will just collect at bottom of food hopper and not be eaten?
You can get poultry worming tablets that you put down their
throat, and that way you *know* they have gotten the wormer.
More proof will show up the next day, when their crap has a
nice purple color to it. I did that once a month or so for years,
but eventually found that it wasn't killing all the worms. I found
that they were still getting a particular type of worm that the
wormer didn't kill, and on further investigation found that it's
hard to find a wormer that would get rid of them...if I remember
right it was pin worms, but I'm not sure. Anyway, someone finally
told me about Tramisol pig wormer which would and did take
care of the problem. I mixed it with their water for a few days
each month or so, and never had any more problem with worms
of any kind.
I learned about oyster shells the hard ways too...at first providing
none and their egg shells were too thin. Next season I mixed them in
with their feed which was another mistake, and the shells were so
thick that a lot of the chicks couldn't break out of them. It was during
that time I learned that if you help a chick to hatch, it will be weak
and somehow suffer as a result the rest of it's life *if!* it survives at
all. The answer turned out to be to keep a container with oyster
shells, and grani-grit available to them so they can just eat what they
want to, and somehow they always knew how much they needed.
I never had a problem with egg shell strength after that. I never had
problems with feather eating either, and when they moulted there
would be feathers of all types lying everywhere. On other people's
yards I've seen chickens goble up a loose feather before it even
hit the ground, with as much enthusiasm as they would go after
a nice fat insect. It could have been the protein supplement I gave
them that helped with that...I used various things over the years,
but in the end was feeding a spoon full of sardine cat food to each
bird every day. That helped with protein and also oil, making them
shiny and slick.
