Worming and Parasite prevention

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sunchick
So many issues - will I need to give my pullets any preventative medication for gut or skin parasites etc. AnnaB dusts her hen house for red mites, how often do I need to do theses things?

Wendy
Nowhere near an 'expert' on this. I dust for red mite everytime I clean them.
I have an organic wormer Verm-X that I give once a month. Somewhere on this forum there are a few posts about worming Mike was a great help to me.
You may have different parasite's in Antigua than from here.
Wendy

Jill
Wendy's right. You will have different types of parasites to the ones with have here. I lived in Florida for awhile and my hens got all sorts of things. I had to add arsnic to their water every day to prevent something or other, can't remember. But I do remember the dilema - do I really want to give arsnic to my hens and will the eggs then contain arsnic. I was reassured by the county extension office that we would have to eat hundreds of eggs a week to be affected by the trace amount of arsnic.
In the tropics you will have so many more pests to deal with, but don't worry about them. Talk to a few locals that keep hens and ask them what they do. And remember, people have been keeping hens for thousands of years and didn't have all these modern day treatments. I like the idea of using natural things like herbs to ward off pests rather than manmade chemicals to irradicate them.
Good luck

sunchick
thank you Jill and Wendy - I just called our Agriculture department but the chicken guy was out - so I should get the lowdown there. Am off to the local Mango festival on the week-end and hopefully there will be plenty of agricultural guru's around to ask -.