Hello there, I relatively new to keeping chickens, I only have two girls and have had them for about 8 months or so, my hubby noticed on the weekend that one of the girls, her poo was a but runny and had worms in it, they were fine like a hair and were wriggly and about 5 -6ml long. I have tried to have another look today but cannot see anything, yesterday my girls ate a lot of spinach from the garden and I have noticed that the poo was a green colour, I guess due to eating the spinach. I have never wormed them and want to start some sort of program so they are in good health. I rang my local fodder store and he suggested a product called Piperazine liquid, does this kill all intestinal worms, is there something that I can use that is better, I went to pick up this product yesterday but it was out of stock apparently and the guy behind the counter seemed a bit disinterested, being new to keeping my two girls I don't know what to do for the best. They free range during the day but get locked up at dusk, they love getting out and about eating worms and bugs etc.
I feed them Red Hen Free Range Layer grain which is in kept in their coop. I have noticed that we have a few birds that hang around and occasionally they have managed to get into the coop when the door has been left open. (we used to sometimes leave the door open for the girls to come and go in the afternoon) but now the door is kept shut. The fodder man said that Wild Birds will cause the girls to get these worms ? Is there a better feed that I can purchase for them, they don't seem to like eating veggie peelings and we do not have many left over food scraps, I am thinking that maybe I should start cooking a few more veggies extra for them. I have tried to give them lettuce & greens but they don't seem interested but love to eat my spinach from the raised garden bed. I have also read that Diatomaceous Earth is good for internal worms and external parasites but how much powder would I use for my two girls.
Sorry for so many questions but I didn't feel like my fodder store guy was much help. Looking forward to hearing your replys. Thanks so much.
