When should I be worming my backyard hens?

Author: Aussie Vet Products   Date Posted:9 September 2014 

Hi,

I have 5 backyard hens, should I be worming them regularly and if so how often?

Melinda

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Hi Melinda,

As backyard hens are natural foragers, they can pick up contaminated faeces from other animals, grubs, lizards and other little creatures which can be hosts for worms that may infest your chooks.

To prevent your hens from contracting these worms, you should use a bird wormer such as Wormout Bird Allwormer Gel.

Using this product once every 3 months can prevent your hens getting any nasty intestinal worms from the garden.

The recommended dose rate is 0.5mL per 100g of body weight. This can be diluted in the hen’s drinking water and should be used as their only source of water for 2 days. For maximum efficiency, you can withhold water the night before worming, and provide the water with the worming gel in it the next day. This will increase the birds thirst and ensure they get the required amount of worming product.

For fussy drinkers, you can also add the wormout gel to a small amount of orange juice.

I hope this has answered your question. Good luck!

Dr Simon