Worming Chickens

Chickens need to be tested for worms regularly. If there is a build up of worms in their digestive system that can cause health problems. Keeping chickens in a fixed area as so many of us do, where they are grazing the same piece of ground continually is the worst case scenario as they will be contaminating the ground and picking up worm eggs as they are feeding. Infected hens shed thousands of eggs in their faeces onto the ground and so, the problem gets worse.

How can you tell if they need worming? By using a Worm Count Kit! Using a kit means you’re not worming chickens unnecessarily.

Wormers

I use a product containing Flubendazole when necessary to worm my chickens. This is a proven chemical wormer that kill all common worms and their eggs in the chicken and is the only product licensed for use in chickens feed. In between these times, I use Verm-X which has approval for use in Organic systems – now this is a herbal product which works in a different way – you will need to feed this to your hens every month for it to work. The really great thing about Verm-X is that being herbal, it contains many ingredients that are good for your birds so it can improve their overall health.

Good Husbandry

Practising good husbandry techniques is key, in between worming chickens. We try to rotate our birds grazing area every month so that they get some fresh grass but so the ground also gets to rest (this is one of the major principles in Organic farming) and we  keep the grass mowed short which allows the ultra-violet light from the sun to reach droppings and kill off worm eggs.

cleaning run

Cleaning a chicken run by raking droppings during dry weather.

General cleanliness is of course important so if your chickens scratch around in their own droppings, you should be thinking about cleaning them up, rather than hitting them with a regular dose of chemicals.

Bad Infestations

If you have a bad infestation of worms, you do need to keep in mind that eggs deposited on the ground will re-infect your birds and it is necessary to repeat the treatment before the eggs hatch and grow into adult worms to lay more eggs. This takes 3 weeks for most common worms carried by chickens so I would re-treat after 3 weeks if I suspect a particularly bad case of worms.

Where external parasites are found on the bird (such as Northern fowl mite or lice) a systemic wormer / pour on product containing Ivermectin is useful. This kills a more limited range of worms. Victoria Roberts Diseases’s of Free Range Poultry says it excludes tapeworm and fluke, but these are less common in chickens. It isn’t licence for use on poultry so you would need to go to your vet for their advice.

Please remember this should not replace the advice of a qualified veterinarian who can advise you about worming.

Do you have any advice on worming? Please leave me a comment below.

126 Comments

  1. Please can you tell me from what age i will need to start worming chickens.
    Im hatching my own so im just researching as much as possible.
    Do i start worming when they are old enough to go outside?
    Thanks

    • It does depend on the infection pressure or to put it another way, how used the ground is and how many worms there are in the environment.

      Normally the manufacturers say worm when you first put them out to pasture but here I don’t worm mine until their first autumn in September / October time and again in February / March.

  2. Thank you for such a good informative site. Can you please help? having read your page on worms I have just started to give my girls Flubenvet as it was time to worm them. I have seen within the last two days that one of the hens has a “thin white worm” like in her droppings that had not been there before I started Flubenvet 3 days ago. My worry is that the other hens are now eating the worm and this could start a bigger problem. I am very new at hen keeping. I have been giving them fresh drinking water, but have been told to give them water from my water butts. I have only just started to do this within this week, could this have started this problem.
    Also it is time for me to vaccinate the girls can you let me know what the best product is to use. Thank you for all the good information.

    • Don’t worry, this sounds like roundworms. They will come out in the droppings and look like spaghetti… they vary from 3 to 8cm long.

      Since you used Flubenvet to worm your chickens, they are dead and will not harm your other chickens.

      What does happen is worms will lay thousands of eggs which are passed out in the droppings. These contaminate the ground and your hens can become re-infected after treatment from these. (UV kills them so keep your grass short over the summer). If there are more than one or two worms, I would consider worming again in a month from now. This will kill off any worms that have re-infested your hens before they are old enough to start laying more eggs.

      Changing your hens pasture is another good choice so the ground gets to rest and the worm eggs die off.

      This post by Tim Daniels on the poultrykeeper blog shows a photo of roundworms.

  3. I’m new to chicken keeping and loving it, I’ve got 3 girls that I’ve only had for 3 weeks and today noticed my Bovan Nera gaping and shaking her head, which seems to me is Gapeworm! Should I be surprised that this has happened so soon, the girls are free range most of the time and in their run when we’re at work. I don’t want to be an over worrying new owner but I also don’t want her to suffer, any comments would be gratefully received. Many thanks

    • Is she wormed? If there is any doubt, worm them all with Flubenvet. If the gaping continues then you know to look elsewhere.

  4. Hi,

    Hoping you can help!

    I collected 4 hens from the battery farm where they were set to go to slaughter, on arrival home I witnessed one hen poo and it had a large worm in it, I have been and collected a wormer from my local shop which says it is still safe to eat the eggs when using it, I’m not sure it’s the best wormer as they didn’t have a large collection and I’m very new to this. The hens are in a poor condition but have settled well, eating, drinking and laying eggs after less than 24hrs with me.

    Are the eggs safe to eat with the chickens having worms?
    Can you recommend a wormer and any help in getting them back to full health.

    Many Thanks
    Kelly

    • Flubenvet is the only in feed wormer that is licensed for poultry in the UK. Take a look at my page on it here:

  5. Hi
    We have had our 3 chickens for 18 months now,i first wormed them with flubenvet 1% which I purchased via the internet about 3 months ago after one of them started showing syptoms of a worm infestation(drooped tail,blood in poo and listless)the initial treatment seemed to work,i saw a couple of dead worms in their poo and the chicken which looked ill perked up again.I repeated the treatment after 3 weeks just to make sure.All has been fine although the egg count has dropped off since the treatment… I suspect the initially ill chook has stopped laying,could this be the case,possibly due to internal damage from the worms? also how soon after such worm treatment can I treat them again ie if they show signs of another infestation before a 6 month period? many thanks J

    • You did the right thing re-treating as they can get re-infested quickly.

      If you suspect worms, don’t hang about. 6 months is just a ‘routine’ that most poultry keepers stick to as a precaution but you can worm more often without a problem.

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