Are your hens laying eggs smudged and smeared with poop? It is possible for hens to lay beautifully clean eggs almost every day. I’ll share the three simple tricks I use to ensure eggs are laid unsmudged and looking perfect! Here is how to get cleaner laid eggs:
How To Get Cleaner Laid Eggs
Just because eggs and droppings come out of the same vent hole does not mean eggs should be dirty. Most of the eggs your hens lay should be free of fecal matter. Here is what you can do to make sure the eggs you are collecting from the nest boxes are much more clean:
Trick No. 1: Worm the Hens
Your flock lives outside, scratching and pecking for bugs on the ground which means they can pick up internal parasites. Worming your flock every year or two is a common practice among chicken keepers and eggs covered in poop are usually a good reminder. (It is believed that poopy eggs indicate the hen could have worms and is in need of a dewormer. This may be considered folklore by some but eggs are laid suspiciously clean immediately after using dewormer.)
Buying & Using Liquid Wormer from the Feed Store
I prefer to use Safe-Guard brand Fenbendazole dewormer for my hens. (Afflink) It is most often sold in feed stores in a 4 fluid ounce bottle labeled as Goat Dewormer. Don’t be put off by the labeling – Fenbendazole is a veterinary safe and FDA approved dewormer for chickens. It is so safe that you can still hatch the eggs collected while your chickens are being wormed.
How to Use Safe-Guard Liquid Wormer
The chicken-safe dosage when using Safe-Guard (usually sold in a 4 oz bottle as Goat Dewormer) is 3 cc per gallon, 3 ml per gallon or roughly ½ teaspoon per gallon. Do not contaminate the bottle of liquid dewormer by sticking a syringe in it. Pour it into a clean cup then syringe-suck out what is needed.
Add the white liquid dewormer to the hen’s water and give it as the only water to drink for 5 days. Dump out the unused water and replenish with fresh water & dewormer mixture every day for those 5 days.
Recipe for 1 Quart Jar of Dewormer Water
I have had success worming my hens using 1/8 tsp Safe-Guard liquid dewormer in 1 quart of water (quart size mason jar) that I then sweeten with 1 teaspoon of Grandma’s brand molasses mixed in. I give this mixture to my hens in a clean stainless steel dog bowl and they drink it quickly, thanks to the molasses, which gives them some extra vitamins. This is a good way to deworm the flock while not disturbing any automatic waterers you have in place. It is also useful for hens who are picky about their water and will avoid dewormer, instead drinking from puddles, which means she misses out on the dewormer treatment entirely. The girls will greedily go for the molasses water mixture so everyone is easily treated. You should still follow the manufacturer’s directions of doing this every day for 5 days and discard anything they don’t drink. (This quart serving size will deworm 6 hens. Double as needed if your flock is larger.)
NEW UPDATE: De-Worming Ducks
SafeGuard can also de-worm ducks! Surprisingly, ducks need a lower dosage than chickens. SafeGuard Suspension 10% contains 100mg/ml (this is the SafeGuard Goat De-Wormer liquid product). Chickens can be given SafeGuard directly with a syringe. Veterinary instructions state that 1 ml of pure liquid SafeGuard straight from the bottle given orally with a syringe is a 50 mg/kg dose and will treat a 4 pound chicken. This is a ratio of 0.25 ml per pound of body weight for each hen. Using 3 ml of SafeGuard to be split among 6 hens puts the concentration at 0.5 ml per hen or near the 25 mg/kg dose. Reducing the amount of SafeGuard to 0.25 ml per duck should produce a 12.5 mg/kg dose that falls in the safe range for de-worming ducks. It’s not perfect math but SafeGuard is named “safe” because small (and even large) overdoses are eliminated quickly through excretions (poop) and do not harm the animal.
Notice that the manufacturer states that after giving to chickens for 5 days you should wait 10 days then repeat again for another 3-5 days. (I have only ever wormed 5 days at a time, not repeated 10 days later but I wanted to share this info!)
Does Liquid Dewormer Hurt the Eggs?
While it is a good practice to discard the eggs your hens lay while they are on a chemical dewormer, Fenbendazole is FDA approved for use in poultry because it does not readily show up in the eggs. (The FDA allowance is 2.4 parts per million maximum residual of Fenbendazole in eggs when there is no withdrawal time.) I typically feed the eggs to the dogs or back to the hens themselves out of an abundance of caution. It is safe enough that you can still collect and hatch the eggs laid by hens that were being wormed.
Trick No. 2: Add Diatomaceous Earth to the Hen’s Diet
Diatomaceous Earth has some gut cleansing and natural anti-parasitic properties. Adding it to your flock’s diet is as easy as dusting meal worms in human food grade diatomaceous earth and then feeding them to your hens as usual. (Affiliate link.) The hens will greedily devour the worms and get a dose of helpful D.E. at the same time.
Does Diatomaceous Earth Hurt the Eggs?
Diatomaceous Earth is not a chemical nor is it a chemical dewormer. It is a fine powder made up of microscopic sharp-edged diatoms that slice up the bodies of parasites on a microscopic level. The hen won’t feel a thing – and neither will you as you add the soft, flour-like powder to the meal worms – but the benefits are visible immediately. Eggs are laid flawlessly clean and are safe for consumption or hatching because diatomaceous earth passes through the digestive system and does not end up inside the egg at all. (Remember, it is more like a dietary supplement and is not a chemical.) It is harmless for chickens and humans to consume. I feed my hens diatomaceous earth dusted meal worms daily when I’m collecting hatching eggs to ensure I get beautiful, flawless eggs for the incubator. It works wonders!
Trick No. 3: Use Straw in the Nest Box, Not Pine Shavings
You may not think the nest box litter matters that much but it does. Eggs laid in straw tend to have a bloom that dries clean and clear without any pieces of straw stuck to it. Eggs laid in pine shavings often end up with bits of shavings stuck to the shell, which is made all the worse if the eggs have poop on them. Refresh the nest box straw weekly or every 72 hours if you want especially clean eggs for eating and hatching.
Which Trick Worked the Best for You?
These three quick tricks are my secret go-to for how to get cleaner laid eggs! I hope you find this information useful for quickly remedying any smudged eggs that are not as nice looking as you would like. If you have any additional tips, please feel free to leave them in the comments below so we can all learn from each other!
According to this USDA.gov document, the parts per million of fenbendazole found inside the shell egg was so low (and below the 2.4 parts per million the FDA allows) that there is NO MANDATORY egg withdrawal period for hens being treated with the proper dosage of fenbendazole (SafeGuard) but you can select to discard eggs if you are most comfortable doing that:
https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/LSFenbendazole.pdf
The dose of the liquid SafeGuard for chickens is 3 cc per gallon, which is equal to 3 ml per gallon or roughly ½ teaspoon per gallon. Use 1/8 teaspoon per 1 quart of water if worming only 6 hens.
Fenbendazole is considered a safe anti-parasitic dewormer for short-term use in livestock. Long-term oral use on animals (daily for 2 years) can have some negative results on the liver, lymph nodes, and nervous system. Fertility can be affected if used for too long on pregnant animals (rats, rabbits & canines were studied). Pregnant humans should not ingest it. Here is a link to the Safety Data Sheet for Fenbendazole 10% Liquid Formulation by Merck where I found this information:
https://www.merck.com/docs/product/safety-data-sheets/ah-sds/Fenbendazole%20(10_pct)%20Liquid%20Formulation_AH_US_EN.pdf
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Just curious, when would it be safe to use the eggs after the flocks five days on the fenbendazole water solution?
Hi Ellen!
Fenbendazole, which is sold under the brand names Safe-Guard and Panacur Aquasol in the US and UK, has no withdrawal period for eggs laid by hens being treated according to this release. Fenbendazole is not known to readily pass into the hen’s egg.
If you feel uncomfortable eating eggs from hens being wormed, the eggs laid during worming can be fed to dogs since fenbendazole is also a dog dewormer and will not harm them. Worms will not get in the chicken’s eggs as the worms are in the digestive tract, not her reproductive tract.
Can this dosage be used for bantam chicks as well?
Hi Sarah!
The dosage in my article can be used for adult bantams like Silkies. You may want to reduce the dosage if you have exceptionally small bantam hens, like Seabrights. SafeGuard is best for chicken chicks age 3 months and older. I would not suggest using it on bantam chicks under 3 months old. Worming adult chickens before hatching eggs from them is better than attempting to worm the chicks. If you absolutely must treat baby chicks, add garlic powder to their chick crumbles to help control intestinal parasites until they are old enough to worm with SafeGuard at 3+ months.
Thanks for the info. I’m currently trying this on my 15 chickens. One of my girls has been having a dirty butt for a while and some of my other chickens just a little bit. I isolated the one with the worst symptoms and found worms (I think tapeworms) in her poop. I couldn’t find a straight answer on the dosage for the safe guard. Hoping this will work for them because I tried giving it to them orally/ or with bread and it’s really hard or they are not interested.
I made up a gallon this morning, and they haven’t finished it yet. Tomorrow I will try just 2 quarts and when they finish it give them regular water.
When I was researching how to administer the safe guard, a lot of people were saying it does not mix with water. Do you think the molasses helps with it not sinking to the bottom? Or is it even an issue for your hens because they down it within 15 min? Should I do just a quart for 15 hens?
Hi Caroline!
The 1/8 tsp Safe-Guard liquid + 1 tsp Molasses + 1 quart water is my secret recipe for getting the hens wormed without fiddling with or messing up any watering system in place! I would make up two quarts for 15 hens and use two clean bowls so everyone can gather around. They are greedy and drink it very quickly, thanks to the molasses. I do cap and shake the jar to combine everything on my way to the coop and the Safe-Guard liquid does not settle out, it stayed in solution as they drank it. I do think that the fast consumption helps the Safe-Guard liquid to not settle out over several hours as it sits. (There is NO WAY hens are going to let molasses water sit! They love the stuff!)
The picture I shared in the article is real, I was really worming those six Whiting True Blue hens that day and they did not leave that bowl until it was gone. Each hen only needs a couple swallows of the wormer each day for it to work. I hope this helps you get everyone wormed easily, too!
what is the best way to clean welsummer eggs to retain the speckles
Hi Bob!
Welsummer eggs are tricky. I run them under cool water and use “magic eraser” extra fine sponges I buy on Amazon (these have no cleaning solution added) to very lightly remove any surface dirt.
https://amzn.to/44OI3sR
If you scrub at all, the speckles will come off but the extra fine sponge used very, very gently under cool running water can often remove straw and feather debris while leaving speckling intact. With Welsummers it is worth keeping extremely clean nest boxes refreshed with new straw every 72 hours, worming the hens before breeding season and then having thick, fresh straw just outside the nest box to help them enter with clean feet to get the absolute cleanest eggs. I hope the extra fine sponge technique helps!
Is there a difference between the Aquasol and the goat dewormer solution of fenbendazole? I keep reading that Aquasol doesn’t have an egg withdrawal but I can’t find anything about egg withdrawal with the goat dewormer solution (like the one you posted a picture of). Thank you for your article! Very helpful!
Hi Liz!
I linked to this USDA.gov document that suggested less than the 2.4 parts per million of Fenbendazole the FDA allows to be present in eggs was actually found in the eggs of hens who had been de-wormed. This means so little, if any, Fenbendazole was found in the egg and they were considered safe to eat, even during and after the hens had been wormed. I have collected hatching eggs from hens who were wormed and the chicks all hatched out fine. It is common practice to discard eggs while worming, and I would encourage you to do whatever you feel the most comfortable with, but I was satisfied that enough testing on Fenbendazole had been done to conclude there is no mandatory egg withdrawal period when hens are being wormed with the correct dosage of Fenbendazole (SafeGuard).
Thank you so much! I appreciate your help!
Does this regimen need to be repeated in 2 weeks like other treatments? Thank you for your time in advance!
Hi Jo!
If you feel your flock is still dealing with parasite issues, you can repeat the treatment but SafeGuard does not specifically require two treatments to work! One 5-day-long treatment has always worked for my flock and I re-treat between 6-12 months later, depending on if I see issues pop up again or not. (I usually worm in late winter/very early spring when I want especially clean eggs for my own incubator hatch!) I hope this helps!
I think you probably know what you are talking about. But, obviously taking two eggs from the 17th and turning one of the sevens into a three to have a comparison picture was blatantly obvious bringing your
character and trustworthiness into question .
The Whiting True Blue eggs shown were being collected for my own incubator, which is why they have dates written on them. I was frustrated by the poopy eggs so I wormed the hens. I even took a picture of the hens drinking their worming liquid. When I collected eggs on the 17th, which I mark before leaving the WTB pen so there is never any confusion, I noticed the eggs were so much cleaner! I grabbed the hatching eggs I had already collected (they were being tilted on my kitchen counter) and put one of the poopy eggs from 1/13 next to a clean egg from 1/17 and photographed them outside on my white potting bench. My thought was that the smaller-batch recipe for a quart of wormer drink and how much it helped with dirty eggs would be something website visitors could benefit from knowing. My entire website is dedicated to helping other chicken keepers and breeders. I know we can’t believe everything we see online but sharing real experiences is so much easier than just making things up! No dates were changed, the poop is real, and SafeGuard really does work wonders for worming hens!
Thank you for your advice and real-farm experience Tay! It’s sad the Dusty had to come at you like that, not necessary at all. Just keep scrolling instead of trolling. I am excited to try what you suggested!
I only have 2 chickens in my flock. both have dirty bottoms and missing feathers and messy eggs. i think its worms would the recipe for the quart batch be too much dewormer for just 2 hens?
Hi Bethany!
The wormer is best when it is mixed up fresh so I would do a half quart batch for your two girls! The recipe for a half quart is: 1/16th tsp SafeGuard dewormer liquid (this can be measured by filling a 1/4 tsp size measuring spoon only 1/4th of the way full to create 1/16th) plus 1/2 tsp molasses and 2 cups (1/2 quart) of water. Shake to combine and discard anything not drank in 30 mins. It is totally fine to increase the molasses and use up to 1 tsp if you’d like to really encourage them to drink it all. The extra minerals and hydration is especially helpful in the heat!
Since this is the proper dilution for SafeGuard, the hens will not be able to overdose, even if 2 hens are splitting a batch that could worm 3-4 hens. There is simply not enough of the wormer in the water mix to harm them.
I hope this helps!
Is the Safe-Guard brand Fenbendazole and then instruction you gave safe for ducks to? My chickens and ducks co-habit together and trying to designate certain one drink from certain sources will be almost impossible. Thank you for your help!
Hi Kristen!
SafeGuard Fenbendazole IS safe for ducks but they need a different dosage than chickens. And believe it or not, ducks need a LOWER dose per body weight than chickens. I did some research and just added a new update to the article because I think this is a great question!
Do you need to use both D.E. and the safeguard regime? If not which one works better and is safer for consuming eggs.
Hi Becky!
You don’t need to use both together. The SafeGuard by itself is an effective worming treatment. DE is a natural way to help your hens avoid parasites after worming with the SafeGuard or DE can be used by itself to worm hens, it just needs to be given regularly over the life of the hen. It is safe to consume the eggs when using either treatment (you can click on the link to the FDA paper in the article and FAQ section for all the testing results on SafeGuard) or you can discard the eggs if you’re uncomfortable consuming them while worming hens. The fenbendazole in SafeGuard is currently being studied for potential anti-cancer properties but extremely few, if any parts per million of the fenbendazole make it into the eggs laid by the hens. DE is mostly silica and has absolutely no way to directly enter the reproductive tract. The digestive tract breaks DE down into silica the body uses as a trace mineral and the excess is secreted in poops.
Here is an excerpt from an article on hens given DE:
“A 2011 study published in the Oxford Journal of Poultry Science suggests that diatomaceous earth has the potential to be an effective treatment to help control internal worms (parasites). Interestingly enough, this was observed in hens that produce organically raised, free-range eggs.Giving two breeds of commercial egg-laying hens diatomaceous earth improved production of their eggs and egg quality compared to control groups, effectively working as a parasite cleanse in the process. The two groups of hens used in the study were found to differ in their resistance to internal parasitic infections, which was observed by examining their gastrointestinal tracts. The hens fed diatomaceous earth had significantly lower incidences of infections. Those fed diatomaceous earth were also significantly heavier in weight, laid more eggs and consumed more feed than hens fed the control diet — plus their eggs had larger yolks and therefore were more concentrated with nutrients.”
It is definitely worth studying the benefits of each and choosing whichever method you personally feel comfortable giving to your hens!
We use diatomaceous earth in our feed and on our bedding. I just discovered Aspen nesting pads and I love them! We’ve found we only need to change them out every 4-6 weeks and our chickens seem to love them too and the eggs are cleaner. We don’t do any antibiotics. Veggie stuff from our garden with their layer crumble and meal worm treats. Everybody seems happy and healthy.