Are you looking for a natural way to kill and prevent parasites in your backyard chickens? This post will show you how to kill parasites in chickens using essential oils!
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How To Kill Parasites In Chickens Using Essential Oils!
Essential oils are not just for people!
They can be used for pets, cleaning your home, laundry, purifying air, purifying water and for animals on the homestead!
One of the things that I love using essential oils on the homestead for, is worms and parasites in livestock!
Particularly in goats and chickens! After all, that’s why I’m the organic goat lady;)
Chickens are one of those animals that are always eating off of the ground. That’s where they get their food, especially free range chickens.
Chickens can have all different kinds of worms and parasites including roundworms, capillary worms, tapeworms, coccidia, etc.
If you want your chickens to be healthy then you need to make sure that they aren’t overrun with parasites.
This is especially important if you are raising your chickens for meat and eggs. Healthy birds make healthy eggs and are safe to eat!
Also, chickens can stop laying eggs due to parasites!
While there are many reasons for a chicken to stop laying eggs, it is definitely a symptom of internal parasites!
At one point my chickens stopped laying eggs. But once I started using essential oils, I started finding more and more eggs each day!
How to use essential oils to kill and prevent chicken parasites.
When using essential oils with animals you do have to be cautious.
Animals are definitely more sensitive to oils than humans.
The key with chickens is to use small amounts!
To kill and prevent parasites in chickens using essential oils, I simply add a few drops to their drinking water.
Yep, it’s that simple!
Add the oils to their water and they will take care of the rest:)
Which essential oils should I use to kill chicken parasites?
I use two essential oils in my chicken’s water.
Rosemary & Tea Tree are the two oils that I recommend.
Tea Tree is a very popular oil!
It is primarily know for its anti-fungal properties. This makes it a great oil to use when fighting mold or mildew.
It has also historically been used to assist in eliminating parasites!
It is one of the gentler oils as well, which makes it an excellent choice for your chickens!
Rosemary is also a great choice for chickens!
Combine this with tea tree to assist your chickens in dealing with bacteria and other nasty things that they pick up!
How much essential oil should I use and how often?
I add approximately 2 drops of each oil to a gallon of water.
So, two drops tea tree and two drops rosemary for each gallon.
I would not recommend adding oils to your chicken’s water every time you refill it. You don’t want to overwhelm them.
I recommend adding oils no more than once a week. It really depends on how often you refill their water.
If you refill daily then add oils once every week or two. If you only have to refill their water a couple of times a week, then add oils every 2-4 weeks.
Quality
You also want to make sure that you are using good quality tea tree and rosemary essential oils.
As an Aromatherapist I would never recommend buying an essential oil at a local store, because I can almost guarantee you that it is not a pure oil.
There are no government regulations on essential oils, so an oil can be diluted by up to 50% and still be marketed as a pure oil.
Using an essential oil that is not pure for your chickens can be dangerous!
If an oil has any synthetic substances, or if the oil is diluted with a carrier, the chickens might not handle it very well.
Which brand of essential oils should I use?
Make sure that you know and trust your source!
If you have a brand that you feel confident in you can use that. If you aren’t sure about where to get tea tree and rosemary essential oils, or if you would like to check out the brand that I use, you can find them on my website Healing Blends For Life.
Where to buy at discounted prices!
If you are interested in learning how you can buy my preferred brand of essential oils at a discounted price check out my Essential Oil page!
Disclaimer:
The information provided on this site is for educational purposes only. I do not prescribe, diagnose or treat any medical conditions. Please consult your health care provider before implementing any of the information provided on this site.
The information provided on this site is completely my own opinion and does not reflect the opinions or beliefs of any other entity.
Any statements or claims regarding health benefits of foods, supplements or essential oils listed on this site have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to treat, cure or prevent any disease.
For more information please read my full disclaimer page here.
Just wondering if you have trued Young Living essential oils?
I have not given young living essential oils to the animals. I personally prefer the Be Young brand. You can read more about why I prefer them on my essential oil page:https://theorganicgoatlady.com/essential-oils/
Can I use sprigs from the Rosemary Bush itself?
I’m sure it would be beneficial, but essential oils are about 100 times more potent than their herbal form, so I really can’t say for sure how effective it would be. If done regularly I’m sure they would benefit from it.
Young Living is all I use for my family! I like to diffuse Thieves in the coop and spray the chips and nests with Thieves cleaner! I know it keeps them healthy! (and smells sooooo good!)
My minipig got mites can this be given to him also
I’m sorry I have no experience in giving the oils to them, so I can’t really advise you.
My husband already puts Oregano in his chickens water as an antibiotic. Would it be ok to add the tea tree and rosemary with the oregano?
If you are using three different oils I would use fewer drops of each so that you don’t overdose them.
What about goats? I live at Virginia, supposedly the parasite load here is awful! I got 2 goats and after 4 months I returned them to the previous owner because I didn’t find a product to battle parasites without contaminating the milk!
If you are looking for a natural dewormer for goats here is one that I make: https://shop.healingblendsforlife.com/collections/essential-oil-goat-care/products/essential-oil-goat-wormer-package
My poor chickens butt has a huge red thing on it. She’s walking slow and humped up any idea of her trouble?
It sounds like a prolapsed vent. Here is an article written by my friend Lesa on how to cure it:
https://www.betterhensandgardens.com/curing-a-prolapsed-chicken-vent/
I hope that helps!
I have heard, since essential oils are so potent, that putting oils in plastic containers may cause the plastic to breakdown. I have a galvanized fount and plastic one. What kind of founts do you use for your water?
Such a small amount of oil in a large plastic container would be fine. I have both galvanized and plastic waterers and I use both.
How do you get the oils and water to mix? I have found that oil just sits on top of water.
Unfortunately this is hard to do. Oil are not water soluble so they do not mix well. The only real solution is to give the water a good shake or stir whenever possible.