Last week two of my chickens died, so far the rest are fine. Thanks for all the responses. I decided to worm them as one person suggested. Went to Co-op got wormer they said was good. Read instructions mixed wormer with water they really drank it up. Then I was looking at bottle and thought there was something else under the price sticker. Finally pried it loose-Do not give this product to chickens if you are consuming their eggs. GREAT place for the price sticker!!!!!!! I only have 3 that are laying right now so it won't be to great a tragedy to throw the eggs away-but for how long? Does anybody know? The active ingredient is Piperazine. Also can I feed the eggs to my dog and cats or is it bad for them too. Thanks for any help. Dian

-- Dian in TN (rhoffman@nctc.com), November 13, 2001

Answers

Well, someone will likely disagree, but I feed the eggs to my dogs, not my cats. My dogs are always very healthy. It is too easy for the cats to get into the coop, so I don't want them to get a taste for the eggs. I either crack the eggs over the dog food or scramble them for them. I think it is better if you cook them first. Don't know? Just think that for some reason. And I usually wait 10 days or so after I worm them before I eat the eggs myself. A funny thing though, I had to worm them once when I was getting a lot of eggs. I just couldn't stand to waste any, so I put them into the incubator and lots of them hatched. They all seem to be healthy too. I would have thought that it wouldn't work. You never know.

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), November 13, 2001.

The actual withdrawal period for piperazine is 7 days. HOwever with Piperazine you give 2 treatments. The wormer doesn't actually kill the worms but weakens them so they're passed out of the stystem. Meaning that you'll need to give a 2nd treatment 7 days after the first treatment to take care of the next generation of worms. So you should wait a total of 2 wks (from the 1st day you gave the 1st treatment) before you consume the eggs.

Dogs & cats are also wormed with piperazine so the trace amounts they'll consume from the eggs probably won't phase them.

-- Buk Buk (bukabuk@hotmail.com), November 13, 2001.