Friday, June 25, 2010

Worming Chickens

My chickens have not been looking very healthy lately and one of the older hens even had a bit of diarrhea. I make one of my frequent trips to the feed store and it was recommended that I worm them. Now I am certainly not new to country life, but had never even heard of worming chickens. I don't know why it never occurred to me as I worm everything else.
I buy a bottle of Piperazine-17 and get it home to find out there is nothing about chickens on the bottle. Thank God once again for the info on the Internet. I find out I put 1/2 tsp in 4 cups of water. After pulling their water the night before I put in the medicated mixture and keep them in the pen until they drink almost all of it. We can't eat the eggs for 2 weeks but I am giving one a day to the dog as I figure it won't hurt him. The chickens look better and the diarrhea cleared up very quickly.
I plan to do it again in the fall. I have an 8 oz. bottle of this stuff and using it 1/2 teaspoon at a time I think it is a lifetime supply.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting! We are planning to get chickens so I will have to remember this!

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  2. Allison, Ideally you would want to do it before they start laying. And be sure and have your garden fenced if you are planning on letting them loose. They will eat green bean plants and like tomatoes just as they are getting ripe.

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  3. That's a first for me too - thank goodness I don't have chickens! Don't even eat them! Love your painting of Blue Blazes.

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  4. Thanks Liz. We love the fresh eggs!

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