Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
miserable outside — making all the birds around them wet and miserable, and increasing
their risk for contracting respiratory illness and other diseases. It's usually best to sep-
arate your waterfowl from other poultry.
Chapter 1
, Should I Raise Poultry?, provides a
list of considerations for mixing and housing different species of fowl.
Parasites
Although the benefits of free ranging outweigh the drawbacks, all fowl allowed to roam
and forage in backyards and pastures are exposed to a number of different parasites. But
even birds that are penned their entire lives will pick up various types of parasite oppor-
tunists just from pecking on the ground.
Intestinal Worms
Most poultry species get worms at some point in their lifetime. The type of worm they
contract varies, depending upon the breed and the region in which you raise them. You
can usually count on them getting intestinal worms, which measure about an inch or so
(2.5 cm) and look like a piece of white fishing line.
Symptoms
You'll know when your poultry have worms by observing their behavior. A few worms
will not cause them much trouble, but as the intestinal worm population grows in your
birds, they'll become skinny, unthrifty, and will stand around a lot, listlessly.
When picking up a bird with worms, you'll notice that the breast meat around the
keel is shrunken. You'll often see worms emerging from the droppings. You need to do
something rather quickly when you observe this. A heavy worm load takes a great deal
of energy from the bird's body; the animal will not be able to survive cold weather.
Treatment
Worm medication can be given in the water during a time of year when you're not har-
vesting eggs. Usually the best time to do this is when they go into a molt and slack off
on laying eggs. An annual worming never hurt any chicken, turkey, or guinea, but is
usually not needed for waterfowl. Don't do this during the times when you are gathering
eggs, however, as this medication can be carried through into the egg (see Withdrawal
Periods box below).
Diatomaceous earth
is the remains of tiny protozoa that contain silica in their cell
walls. The silica acts like ground glass to cut the bodies of soft-bodied creatures such as
worms and insects. Some raisers have had success using diatomaceous earth for worm
control by sprinkling it onto the feed in small amounts on a regular basis. Never use
more than 5 pounds (2 kg) of this powdery, porous rock per 100 pounds (45 kg) of feed.
Be sure to use food-grade diatomaceous earth, not pool filter grade.
