With the recent chicken discussions.......

[General Lee]

Thought we could discuss care and maintenance of the chickens. My first question is do any of you de-worm your chickens say, once or twice a year or only when you see evidence of worms? Also any coop maintenance like diatomaceous earth in the coop for mite control?

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

Worm ours about every three months. As far as coop maintenance clean nest boxes every month or so and sprinkle DEarth in them. I clean the coop every week and pressure wash a couple times a year. I've seen some never clean and crap was feet deep. I myself couldn't. I'm OCD though. I've got 4 steers that weigh about 600 and they can go in part of the barn at will. It's 10 X 20. I clean it twice a day and shake fresh straw in it.

 

[ning]

I scrape clean regularly and fresh straw a lot. I've considered DTE for the wet season, but most of the time mine find great dirt/dust baths outside. I've never seen evidence of worms in 25 years of having chickens and haven't wormed.

 

[lexluther]

What is the evidence of worms and how do you treat it?
We clean / move it a couple times a year tops, No issues I know of...

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

Poop on the chicken eggs is what I go by as a sign of worms. I use diatomaceous earth. Just mix in about a table spoon per chicken in their feed about every three months. Doesn't hurt them at all. I also dig up and loosen dirt about a half bucket and mix in a couple cups of it and have a big pan about eight inches deep and pour it in there. They dust like crazy in it and keep away the mites. I think there is you tube vids about how to spot if the chickens have worms.

 

[General Lee]

Wow, Never heard of poop on the eggs is a sign of worms. My understanding since the chickens eat of the ground their gonna get worms. Pale colored legs, combs, won't put on weight can be a sign also since the worms are robbing the chickens nutritional value. If the chicken is over run with worms you will see them in the poop piles.

 

[Stimw]

just a side comment, a friend bragged that she only buys "free Range eggs"!
I told her great! They have a diet of worms, bugs, spiders and what ever is left in the other chickens poop!
I told her I prefer the cheaper eggs that eat mostly corn feed!
She said she might re-think her choice! ???

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

Wow, Never heard of poop on the eggs is a sign of worms. My understanding since the chickens eat of the ground their gonna get worms. Pale colored legs, combs, won't put on weight can be a sign also since the worms are robbing the chickens nutritional value. If the chicken is over run with worms you will see them in the poop piles.

It's just one sign and the easiest for me to know they need worming. You can inspect their poop, check their legs, combs and waddles but it's hard for me to notice their legs and combs are lighter than the day before. I really don't sit and dig thru their poop I mostly try and not step in it but if there was worms in it and I can see without getting close and inspecting it I would worm them. Another sign is poop all around their vent in the feathers. Kind of like they got the runs. If I see that I will treat them. I like having clean eggs and if there is poop on them when it's dry out and every thing is clean I know it's time. I try and do it at least every 6 months weather they need it or not. It doesn't hurt them and I always have it on hand for the dust box. I have what I call controlled free range chickens. I have them in a portable coop inside of a electric chicken fence about 40 X 40 and move it every three days to new ground. Have a 4 acre area just for them and takes quite a while before I end up where they started. I can't let them run free because of neighbors dogs, cats, foxes, Hawks, and every other vermin that wants to eat them.

As far as the other comment about free range chickens eating bugs and worms and other stuff, chickens will eat just about anything, they will even eat one another given the chance. They are Dino's with feathers. They are destructive as can be, they can plow up ground like a 200 hp tractor and a 25 foot disk. As far as chickens just eating grains well I've see lots of chicken poop and you can't tell if it was grain they were eating or mice. It just looks like chicken crap. A well balanced diet for a chicken is grasses, grains, and proteins. Proteins how ever it come doesn't matter. That's what makes a good egg. Not a chicken that is in a 2 X 2 cage for its whole life getting some processed feed and never seeing the light of day. After it quits laying Campbell chicken soup gets it.

 

[General Lee]

Kentucyfarmer - Is all you use for worming is DTE? Not a specified de-wormer for chickens/livestock?

 

[General Lee]

just a side comment, a friend bragged that she only buys "free Range eggs"!
I told her great! They have a diet of worms, bugs, spiders and what ever is left in the other chickens poop!
I told her I prefer the cheaper eggs that eat mostly corn feed!
She said she might re-think her choice! ???

Are you being sarcastic? I can't tell lol. Have you ever had farm eggs? Taste way better then corn fed store bought eggs

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

Kentucyfarmer - Is all you use for worming is DTE? Not a specified de-wormer for chickens/livestock?

Yes sir. It doesn't cost that much and it takes care of inside and out side of the clucks. I can't see spending lots of money on a three dollar chicken like vet bills and having a vet test for worms. I try my best to give them DTE every three months but have gone six months probably when I forgot. I had vet come out on a couple calves and he gave them each one shot but the bill mostly was for his expertise and farm visit. The shots was like 14 dollars and total bill was 187. I could imagine how bad my check book would feel for a farm visit for a chicken.

For cattle and hogs I give shots and use pour on wormer. I also have pellets for the cattle you can mix with feed but they turn their nose up at the feed when I do that. Shot when young and pour on when to big to handle.

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

Are you being sarcastic? I can't tell lol. Have you ever had farm eggs? Taste way better then corn fed store bought eggs

Amen!!!!!!!!

 

[ning]

Are you being sarcastic? I can't tell lol. Have you ever had farm eggs? Taste way better then corn fed store bought eggs

No kidding. I've got people who pay $6/doz for my excess.

My chickens eat probably 30% of their diet being store-bought seed mix, and 70% true free range (bugs, seeds, grasses, wife's garden, wife's flowers, wild bird seed, dog's leftovers). The eggs are amazing.

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

No kidding. I've got people who pay $6/doz for my excess.

My chickens eat probably 30% of their diet being store-bought seed mix, and 70% true free range (bugs, seeds, grasses, wife's garden, wife's flowers, wild bird seed, dog's leftovers). The eggs are amazing.

Some people just see pictures of farm animals and live in a steril (spelling) environment. They would gag and puke all over their selves if they came out to a real farm. I once seen a you tube vid that a woman had a couple chickens in a back yard coop and washed the coop everyday, I mean wiped off the roost and had pictures and things like that hung in it. I'm picky and pressure wash mine a couple times a year but I don't wash their feet before they go to bed and put a bib on them when they eat.

 

[General Lee]

I use DTE in the coop mixed in with the pine shavings and sprinkle on the roosts. May just have to add it their feed. I used a wormer you add to their water for a couple days and then you can't eat the eggs for 10 days. I'm down to 3 chickens right now. Had 5 and had more eggs then I knew what to do with. Would like to add 3 more but don't feel like going through the hassle of separating the new ones and dealing with a new pecking order, injuries and squabbles that come with it.

 

[coldsteelva]

Pumpkin seeds are a natural dewormer and attacking the meat of a pumpkin is good for them.

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

I use DTE in the coop mixed in with the pine shavings and sprinkle on the roosts. May just have to add it their feed. I used a wormer you add to their water for a couple days and then you can't eat the eggs for 10 days. I'm down to 3 chickens right now. Had 5 and had more eggs then I knew what to do with. Would like to add 3 more but don't feel like going through the hassle of separating the new ones and dealing with a new pecking order, injuries and squabbles that come with it.

Yeah I found it lots easier and it don't cost that much. Plus mix it in the dust box and sprinkle it in the nest box. It's just an all around treatment for the clucks. We got now 40, 13 are young and in the static coop and run and 27 in the mobile coop and electric chicken fence that I call free ranging. They are my layers and we get between 18 to as many as 23 eggs a day. Little woman sells the eggs and seems we can't get enough to keep the people happy.

 

[EddieWalker]

My wife does all the chicken stuff and she cleans out the coops a couple times a year. Then she spreads DTE on the ground, and then covers that with pine shavings. Our birds are locked up in their coops at night to protect them from predators, and then they free range during the day. There isn't much of a mess to me, but once she decides it's time to clean, it's gonna happen!!!

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I don't really do much maintenance for my birds, I don't even feed and water them anymore. My birds are free range 24/7, I clean out there nesting boxes on a needed bases, seems every 3-4 weeks I dump there shavings and replace with new or if a egg gets cracked, it instantly gets cleaned out.

I started out keeping them locked up in there 11x22 coop (stalls in the barn converted to a coop), then I opened them up to the other stalls 11x24, then I let them free range and this spring I started giving them less water and feed per week to where I am now.

They travel about 30 yards to a creek for water and eat all the grass, bugs and corn left over from the cattle (both mine and my neighbors (10 head total)), there crops are always full and they are fat and happy birds, I see no reason to supplement them feed now.

They have been 24/7 free ranging about 7 months now and out of 28 birds, I believe I have lost 3 in that time. I saw a fox after my hens last week, the cattle chased the fox and after my last count I don't think I lost any, a big maybe on 1 loss.

I noticed that my hens only free range around the cattle in the pasture but I never knew why until I saw the fox and it was clear.

As for cleaning the coop, I do a deep bedding method, I add more bedding once or twice a month and clean out the coop usually once a year, in the fall I collect the leaves I cut up on my lawn and use that as bedding, it works great, besides that I use pine shavings and very rarely straw, I'm not a fan of straw for bedding.

I have 3 feral cats hanging out around the barn, I feed them canned food once in a blue moon and have 25 chickens back there eating all the mice and different critters they can find, I'm happy at the ecosystem back there.

Only thing I have in excess is squirrels (grays and 3 albinos) and groundhogs that I have been trying to kill for 2 years lol, I can't/ won't use a rifle where I'm at, too much liability. Live traps and pellet guns on the ground hogs.

In the last 3 years I have trapped one possum and 2 raccoons, I have seen birds of prey in the area but they just travel and never go after my chickens. I have chased a skunk out of the coop 3 or 4 times in the past year, it's never bothered me, it just waddles out the door and disappears, it goes in the coop at night and sucks eggs that were laid on the ground instead of the nesting boxes. I don't mind the skunk, it won't hurt my hens and they eat bugs and other things, they're good to have around, my dog has a wireless electric fence so he never goes back to the barn or try's to chase animals like skunks, I have only seen the skunk up by the house twice, he traveled down my driveway to the barn area.

I carefully manage the ecosystem on my property, I will take out what I don't want and encourage a variety of wildlife. Grey squirrels have had a population boom around my place, they are running in my yard and trees all day long, so far they aren't bothering anything so I leave them alone, quite a few of the locals feed the albinos and think there neat to have around, more than likely they feed the same squirrels that live or travel on my property, another reason I leave them around, lots of people in my area (I admit myself included) enjoy them. Nobody in my area that I have talked to have had a nuisance story on them. I did throw one in the freezer last fall.