We use dalmacious earth for ours and they seem to be fine. We only have 3 hens now and for us thats plenty since the pandemic.
If you are using the diatomaceous earth, that should take care of any worming that you need to do, and since it is healthy and not harmful, you can add some to their food any time you want to do that. It kills any kind of worms, because it shreds them up, so the parasites can not get an immunity built up like they can for regular worm medicines.
Thanks Yvonne thats what hubby does and so guess he is right. I just ask him if he thinks they are ok since a couple molted. He said he adds it to the food like you said.
I hope you were being funny cause I got a big laugh off your post,but I'm sleepy and silly today so maybe its just me. I take it you don't have hens?
No hens. My parents had hundreds (okay, maybe dozens but it felt like hundreds) of chickens and I hated the things. Every few years, they would escape their coops and my dad would take a year or so to fix them up again so, in the meantime, everywhere you walked was covered with chicken poop. Plus, chickens are nasty things. We also had turkeys, turkins, geese, and guinea hens. For a couple of years, we had a pet fox and she wouldn't even thin out the herd. As far as I could tell, the fox left all of our animals and birds alone. We raised her from a pup so the cats weren't even afraid of her.
We found a baby red fox in our woods and thought it was a german shepard puppy.,but it had claws unlike a dog. it took over guard duty in just a couple days. Little pup wasn't 6 inches tall and it ran to bark at our dogs or anything that came close to door. Full of flea's we bathed it and it went to sleep while bathing. After a week we set it outside in moonlight and its mama came back and led it away. She didn't want to go,lol.
Now Ken, Chickens are like politicians. There are good ones and there are bad ones but a large group of them are always filliing the place with poop. With regard to deworming hens: the proper procedure is to put a small dab of ivermecterin just at the intersection of the neck with the back so they have difficulty consuming it. I dust mine with diatomaceous earth for lice. I don't do it very often but when one needs it, most do. And chickens are not all dumb or mean. I had a hen that would follow me everywhere telling me everything I was doing wrong. One nite, she followed complaining much more loudly than normal. She would not leave me alone and this was after dark when she should have been in bed. Chickens can't see in the dark so they make it a point to roost before then. We don't have electricity in the barn. I use a flash light to close up and nite. Finally I turned around and stooped down and growled. What Do You Want!?!?! She turned and ran down the stalls to the corner then turned and ran back to me, over and over. I walked down the the end of the stalls and the mounting block was knocked away from the stall wall. This particular chicken could not fly so without the mounting block she could not get to her roost. I put it back and...silence. People are always bragging on Lassie getting people to follow her. Imagine how much harder it is for a chicken!
My poor little mentally challenged silkie rooster is soooo cute you would swear he was created by Jim Henson and the muppets. But he has no common sense although he has made SOME ground since coming here. But last nite when I left, he was the last outside. When I came to feed this morning his little footprints in the snow proved he had not figured out how to get back in through the always open, overhead, sheep door, which is how everyone went out yesterday. He was wet which can get a chicken killed in the cold. I wanted the birds to have true free range so I set them free. Not sure it is as good a plan as It has been in the past. Maybe a bell on him?
Silkies are adorable little chickens, and they always reminded me of the “Schmoos” on the Lil Abner comic strip. They can’t fly like most chickens, so it might be that your silkie just can’t make it up to an overhead sheep door, @Mary Stetler . You might have to put him to bed at night. We had one many years ago that slept with my dog (an Afghan Hound) at night. He would burrow in between Stanley’s furry paws, up close to his chest, and he stayed nice and warm at night.
Shoot! I could have named him Schmooey! Sorry, by overhead, i meant like a garage door that pulls down. he can find anywhere in the pole building to sleep--even in the hay. But he is not that smart.