Despite all of the garlic and pumpkin seeds that I’ve been feeding the chickens, it seems they have worms. Maybe that explains why I’ve been getting 2-3 eggs a day from 24 hens!!! I thought they were just taking a long time recovering from their molt. So, after dusting the whole hen house, laying boxes, roosts, etc. with Diotomacious Earth (to kill any external mites, parasites, and sundry mean little buggers), I put on my witchy cap and stirred up a brew to knock the worms right out of them. I got the basic recipe from Valerie at DoubleGRanch.
Mix one cup of Diotomacious Earth (food grade) with 2 cups of Flax Seeds in a food processor. Add Olive Oil until you have a nice chunky, dry-ish consistency. I also added ~1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1 head of garlic, and 1/4 molasses. Spread this out in their food trough and watch them go crazy!
I’ll be giving them this mix for a week or so…. hopefully this will bring them back to health!
How does one know the chickens have worms? I hope mine don’t.
I noticed bloody droppings, which is a sign of worms, and then I actually saw a worm in one of the droppings… I hear it’s pretty common to happen after a rainy summer like we’ve had.
Did this work? We’re about to get chickens and I’d like to file this away for possible future use.
As far as I can tell, it worked well. No more bloody poops or obvious worms in sight. I’m sure it also helps that they are in their new, much larger coop!