If the poultry is healthy, humans are happy
Why do you have to deworm chickens
Chickens, like all other animals that live in the wild, can become infected with parasites and it is therefore recommended that they are wormed regularly. This is done in different ways. Either they ingest the eggs or larvae of the parasites directly with what they find to eat. Or they pick e.g. an earthworm that is already colonized with parasites. There are many ways of infection and many of the little pests are not really dangerous, such as a tapeworm, which is simply there and feeds on what the host eats, but does not really harm it. Unfortunately, it is the other of these nasty little creatures that make our chickens really ill or colonize their organs, destroy them and the chickens can then die as a result.
What products are available for deworming chickens
There are of course the “chemical clubs” for deworming chickens. The big disadvantage is that these products are excreted via the eggs. This means that if you worm your hens with it, in the worst case you can’t eat the eggs for a few months. This wouldn’t matter for a cockerel, but you would have to be very careful that the hens don’t ingest these products. Which is not so practical and you don’t always have to shoot sparrows with cannons. As an organic alternative, you can buy herbal mixtures, usually in powder form. These have the advantage that they have no “side effects” with regard to egg consumption. Used regularly, these herbs work just as well as pharmaceutical products.
Make your own home remedy for deworming
These ready-made herbal powders described above are not cheap to buy and anyone who wants to can make such a mixture themselves. The individual herbs can be ordered in larger quantities on the Internet, for example, where they cost only a fraction of the price in the stores. The herbs create a parasite-unfriendly environment in the intestine so that they cannot colonize there. When buying the herbs, please also pay attention to the Latin name, because many of the herbs are also available in various other species, which then have more flavor for kitchen use, for example, but may not contain as many healing substances. So use the “original herbs” and not the strange new varieties of the 21st century such as mint that tastes like strawberry or cola.
1 part oregano (Origanum vulgaris)
1 part sage (Salvia officinals)
0.3 parts wormwood (Artemisa absinthum)
1 part mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris)
1 part thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
Less wormwood is taken because it is “poisonous” in too high a dose.
If you like, you can add 1 part ginger (Zingiber officinale), which is good for the respiratory tract.
Preparation of the herbal mixture
The herbs are either grated or already in powder form, it is a good idea to pulverize everything if you have a small electric grinder. This makes it easier to stir it into the food – but of course grated is also fine. But please don’t make too much at once, because herbs that are ground even smaller lose their active ingredients more quickly. Around 30g-40g should be enough for a while. Storing it in a dark and dry place is also important, as UV light also destroys some of it.
It is best to mix it into wet feed, as it sticks very well there. So, depending on how many chickens you have, soak 2-3 handfuls of wheat, pour off the water and sprinkle the mixture over it, stir, done. It is recommended to give approx. 1 teaspoon of this mixture per 3 chickens every 1-2 weeks as a preventative measure.