How Quickly Does Albendazole Work?

[Lizzie]

Hi

 

My remaining ex batts really seem to do well when they are given a dose of zolcal in their water each day - the moment I stop or reduce the dose, they stop laying / have problems passing the eggs.

 

My new little hens are not going to need zolcal in their water, but what can I do to help the older girls ?

 

Any advice gratefully received

 

regards

Liz

[The Dogmother]

It won't do any harm to give them all soem Zolcal, but your ex-batts will have tired egg tackle and will need the extra boost to help their contractions when laying.

 

The Smallholder Group's BHWT feed contians extra calcium and they would all do well on that.

 

I am sure that you've thought of it, but be aware that it's far harder to integrate ex batts with other hens than regular chooks - they are just less aware of the hierarchy.

[Lizzie]

Hi Claret

 

Thanks for that, they do have ex batt crumb and interestingly the young chooks love this more than the pellets they were being fed on with their breeder.

 

I have put full dose of zolcal back in water so am hoping they all get back on track again.

 

I have bought hybrids of a nice nature (there were two breeds that we could not have) and will not even begin to try and integrate until they have reached 22 weeks and started laying as advised. Even then we will take things very slowly.

 

Hope it is going to be ok

 

Anxious mum

 

Regards

Liz

[The Dogmother]

My girls love that crumb too, but I found that feeding them exclusively on that caused soft shelled eggs. If I cut it with regular pellets though, they seem to be fine.... and it's much cheaper.

[Lizzie]

Hi Claret

 

Sorry, but just to confirm, you mix ex batt crumb with pellets or similar ? They have crumb, mash or pellets but are concentrating on eating the crumb most of the time !

 

I also want to give them some lettuce or apple, is that ok ? say late afternoon ? they do have grass but thought they might like some other fruit / salad stuff.

 

Many thanks

Regards

Liz

[The Dogmother]

That's right, I used to alternate sacks of either BHWT crumbs or regular layers pellets, but using the BHWT feed all the time caused them to lay soft shelled eggs (there was a thread on this subject a while ago), so now I buy a 20kg sack of pellets and a 5kg one of BHWT crumbs and mix a bit of the latetr in.

 

Treats, especially vegetables are good for them if they don't get to free range and pick up greens that way. Cabbage and dark green veg are best. Keep all food apart form pellets to a minimum though and only at the end of the day to ensure that they eat all their pellets.