Now is a great time of year to worm your chooks.

There are a few different methods that you can choose from to worm them. It all depends on what works best for you. 

There is a tablet that you can buy online that is effective. Another option you can try is a liquid wormer that goes into the chooks’ water bowl. 

From experience, chickens often don’t drink the water as they don’t like the smell. 

With both these methods, you will need to stop collecting the eggs and eating any meat birds for a set amount of time because they will not be safe for consumption. The time may vary with the different brands of wormers. 

There is also an organic worming mash that I have found effective to help get rid of worms. This recipe is by Paul Healy.

For 20 pullets, heat 2 litres of whole milk to which you will add 2 whole cloves of garlic that have been crushed. 

Then add six hot sweet chillies that have been finely chopped, and one tablespoon each of ground paprika and turmeric. 

You will need to warm this mixture up to a serving heat then let it stand overnight. 

Warm the mixture again in the morning and mix in 2 kilos of laying mash. 

If your birds are really infected with worms, you can add two whole grated carrots per 1 kilo of mash to the mixture. You will then feed this out to the chickens for their morning meal instead of their normal food. 

It is important that you clean out the chook pen three days after you worm your chickens.

This will help reduce the chance of the worms reinfecting your chickens. The clean out should include all bedding, even the bedding that is in the nest boxes. You can add derris dust to the nest boxes to help with lice at the same time. 

A great little tip that can help all year round is to put garlic in the chooks’ water bowl. The chooks may try to eat the garlic so you can put it in a glass jar with holes in the lid.