Organic Alternatives?

[kiwichick]

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie chicken owner and new to the forum. I got my girls a few months ago and everything is going well. However, I'm not sure what to do about worming and lice control. I run my garden as naturally as possible and I don't really want to use conventional sprays, powders, etc. What are the organic alternatives?

Should I be giving the girls something as a matter of course or only once a problem arises?

Any advice much appreciated.

[CoraxAurata]

Giving garlic in food/ water and ( I think cider apple vinegar added to feed) will help keep parasite burdens down but isn't a substiute for regular worming etc. Hopefully the organic peeps wil be along shortly to tell what they use...

Do tell us what breeds and numbers you've got though we all want to know!

[Dashy]

Hi kiwichick, I'm pretty sure you should be using a preventative for worms going on everything I've read. How much space do your chickens have and how many are there? As for organic, I haven't looked into that sorry.

[Pumpkin Becki]

I know Verm-x is herbal, I can't see any claims about its being organic, but I've attached the link for you to have a read through. They do have 'Rest of World' stockist too.

Verm-X. Natural Control of Internal Parasites for all your Animals. 100% Herbal. No Chemicals.

[frias]

Wecome to the vine kiwichick. In my experience Verm-X doesn't work. Perhaps there are organic substitutes in your part of the world but I find a regular worming with Flubenvet is best.

[bluemoon]

I'm obsessively organic, but I've been using Flubenvet as sadly Verm-ex, I'm told, doesn't work too well. You have to decide what is most important to you; the chickens' health or your organic principles. It would depend upon where you keep them too, I suppose. Mine are on our allotment, with lots of other chicken keepers around, meaning that there is probably more chance of mine picking something up than if they were in an isolated back garden, where I would probably take the risk with Verm-X. As it is though, I have no idea how well or how often my neighbours treat their chooks (or even if they worm them at all), so I'm erring on the side of caution. I've been gardening organically for 22 years, and have rarely 'slipped' (I did once spray a sickly plum-tree to save it), but it is very difficult to stick to a regime which would give you official organic status if you were producing commercially. After all this time, I've come to the conclusion that you can only do the best you can, and occasionally you may have to use something you'd prefer not to. Just use it in the minimal quantities possible and only for the shortest duration of time necessary. Flubenvet has no egg withdrawal time, and I tell myself that this means it isn't too bad.

[Eco-Chic]

Flubenvet is the only wormer which will get rid of gapeworm in chooks. Parasites can be spread by wild birds flying overhead, slugs and snails as well as neighbouring birds.

I believe Diatomaceous Earth (Diatom) is an organic lice, red mite & possibly flea control. I liberally dust the floor of the coop, bedding, perches, ramp and run with it so the chooks pick it up and dust themselves. I shall also put lots in when I give them dust baths during the winter.

I add apple cider vinegar daily to their drinking water (don't use metal drinkers) and garlic powder to their feed one week and Poultry Spice in their feed the next week and hope these will help protect against parasites.

I use Smite to disinfect the coop against red mite. This is not organic, but is essential IMO. Poultry Shield is an alternative.

If you choose not to use these disinfectants you'll need to steam clean the coops.

[Bramble-Poultry]

verm-x is not a wormer per se. it is used to irritate the worms and act as an inhibitor. The only proper way to kill the worms is flubenvet.

verm-x is herbal, but then so is deadly nightshade! As mentioned above, organic is the ideal, but you must decide which is the best for you - a small amount of controlled chemicals, used only for the health and wellbeing of the animals in your charge, or to let nature do what nature does and kill of the weak and infirm.

If we allowed nature to do everything it wanted (which is a sort of eutopia really) then this country wouldnt be able to manage to raise 1million hens a year, let alone the 5 billion a year that are raised each year in Britain.

I would love to be fully organic, but unfortunatly the health and wellbeing for my animals comes first, before my principals.

If anyone can suggest a chemical free method of killing worms in chickens then please let me know, but until then i will use flubenvet

[kiwichick]

Thanks a lot for the feedback - I shall get on to it straight away.

My 3 girls are brown shavers and I bought them as POL pullets from a chicken farm. I didn't realise how much enjoyment I would get from keeping chooks.
As I live in town I have them in a permanent run (I have no spare space to move it around). I am concerned of pest build-up because they are confined.
As some of you pointed out, it's better to keep them healthy than to zealously stick to organic principles.

[Eco-Chic]

I didn't realise how much enjoyment I would get from keeping chooks.

Me neither They are just so sweeeeeeet and lovable aren't they?

[Snadger]

I feed mine dandelion leaves when I can find them as they are supposed to be a natural wormer. I still use Flub.wotchimacallit and diatomaceaceous earth. I like the idea of garlic and cider vinegar, I've just never got round to using them.

[Bramble-Poultry]

go careful with the garlic though snadger. Stick to the recommended dose only. otherwise it will taint your eggs and they will only be good for garlic mayonaise!

when we were just starting out we had some left over garlic bread (jen makes garlic bread that can drop a horse and 20 paces) and we fed it to the chooks thinking it was a treat and might help lower the worm count. The next day the eggs were pretty garlicky - so much so we couldnt use them in cakes or boiled etc as it was too strong!

[di]

There was a thread a while back re natural healthcare...I've found it & hopefully will manage to paste it!
I will say that although we try to adopt a lot of the natural things to keep numbers down in between using Flubenvet,I think the safest most sure way of getting rid is to use a licensed wormer along side the natural stuff.
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...lth_32467.html