[VeggieVirgin]

I've got the 1% Flubenvet powder stuff, which you mix with feed at a rate of 6g per 2kg feed, and feed that exclusively for seven days.

So far, so good.

But my chooks are totally free-range, so they can eat anything else they might find apart from their pellets (they have ad-lib access to a feeder full of pellets).

How can I be sure they're getting a big enough dose of the Flubenvet?

Also, is the Flubenvet OK for other animals? The peacock and wild birds can also get at the feeder, and the dogs and cats have been known to have the odd mouthful too.

Finally, does anyone have a rough idea of the weight of pellets one chook gets through in a day? I really don't know, since I have a big pheasant feeder, which holds almost a whole sack of pellets, and I just keep topping it up as and when.

[Aunt Sally]

Adding it to the pellets will not work if they freerange all day. 

You will have to add the day's dose to a treat feed of some kind which they should have in the morning before you let them freerange.

[VeggieVirgin]

Thanks for the reply.

The problem is, I don't really know how much they should be getting, since the packaging doesn't actually state what the dose is.

[alisonwo]

A lot of people in your situation use grapes which most girlies love.  I use this system too, simply half a grape and dip into the powder, it only needs a light dusting not totally covering in the stuff and feed to the girls individually.  You cannot measure the amount they are taking unfortunately, but lots of us seem to use this system with no problem.

[joyfull]

sweetcorn kernels work as well 

[alisonwo]

Absolutely Joyfull, sweetcorn or grapes you still risk getting mugged as soon as they see the stuff

[Foghorn-Leghorn]

I grate an apple or pear and add the day's dose to it in a dish and feed first thing... 

I can't do the grape thing as some are too shy to feed from my hand and the greedy/more confident girlies just barge them out of the way.

[Aunt Sally]

Thanks for the reply.

The problem is, I don't really know how much they should be getting, since the packaging doesn't actually state what the dose is.

But our poultry FAQ  section has the information:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=4348.msg48401#msg48401

[orchardlady]

I worm my free range chickens with Flubenvet in their pellets and it seems to work just fine so I'm afraid I'm contradicting you Aunt Sally.

I suppose it's quite hard to tell wether it's 'working' or not but my hens are laying well, look bright and healthy etc. etc. so I'm assuming they don't have a heavy internal parasite load.

You need to get away from the idea of how much for each hen. As long as your hens, peacocks etc are eating the dosed pellets and that's their exclusive food (apart from their free range foraging which will not be huge amounts of nutrition at this time of year) each bird will take as much as she needs. So a little bantam will take less dosed pellets than a big Welsummer hen).

[Lindeggs]

I grate an apple or pear and add the day's dose to it in a dish and feed first thing... 

I can't do the grape thing as some are too shy to feed from my hand and the greedy/more confident girlies just barge them out of the way.

My brother-in-law had this problem with his hens.  Only a few would eat out of his hand, and they would get more than their fair share.  Same if he left the grapes scattered around.  Then he discovered that his hens have an amazing talent for catching food in full flight!  So he dosed each grape and threw it to an individual bird, who would catch it in mid-air and swallow it whole!

Clever chooks! 

[VeggieVirgin]

Thanks for all the advice: looks like my chooks (18 of them) should be getting through approx. 16 kg of feed per week, or just over 2 kg per day, which sounds about right.