Chook Husbandry

It was time for me to conduct some husbandry on my chooks today. First order of business was worming. I bought liquid worm treatment yesterday from a very knowledgeable and helpful gentleman at the local produce and farm supplies store. The one I bought is called Piperazine and I liked the idea of this one as I don't need to discard the chickens' eggs for a period after treatment. It is also easy to administer by putting it directly into the drinking water. I took their water out of the coop after they had all gone to roost last night, and then put just as much water as was needed to mix up the worming dose back into the coop this morning. They were all thirsty and the water got swilled down pretty quickly.




I left the chickens locked in their coop for a little while, just to make sure most of the water was consumed, and then before letting them out to free range, I caught each hen one by one and dusted them with Pestene powder. I did this because I have noticed a couple of them losing feathers over the past few days, and when I examined them yesterday, I saw little bugs crawling in amongst their feathers. Chickens are susceptible to various types of lice and mites and I suspect that these were either chicken lice, or feather mites. Feather mites is my main suspect, due to hens dropping feathers when they shouldn't be in moult.

After these indignities had been visited upon them, the hens were released into the yard to free range where they are currently taking their revenge by tearing my compost heap to bits!