[maninvan]

Hello again, And yet another daft question. My new girls are only 17wks old and i need to know when do you start worming them? Or do you use cider vinegar in the drinking water to keep this at bay which ive been told keeps their guts clean. Ive found auntie's poo chart quite usefull as panic seems to set in everytime something isn't the norm And one of the hen's droppings made think it's time to start worming, I would appreciate any advice on this please, ta Andy.

[hillfooter]

You can worm them now.  Use Flubenvet there's a recent thread on worming with 2.5% Flubenvet but I'd use the 1% unless you have a large number to worm say more than 20.  

When you start largely depends on their exposure to potential worms.  If they are raised as chicks on virgin litter away from other chx and wild birds they won't be exposed but as soon as they are outside and particularly if the ground has been used for chx in the recent past (within say 9 months) they can be exposed.  Also the wild bird population can introduce worms.

ACV won't be in any way effective against worms and frankly IMHO is of no value for anything much.  It's an old wife's remedy which you either believe in or not.  

It might help to encourage them to drink but I've trialed using two drinkers with fresh water and with ACV in at the same time and I haven't found they drink the ACV first in fact the reverse if anything so I don't even think they prefer it.  It's always difficult to say they prefer this to that as chx always make a dash for the last thing you offer them it's part of a flock survival instinct I'm sure is the reason they do this.  If you throw a large handful of corn to them and then a small one in a different place they will leave the first one and dive on the second one even though there's less.

HF