Neighbour making formal noise complaint.

[chelsea]

red mite feeds on the hens at night and dont usually remain on the hen (they hide away in crevices)

 

Sounds like lice eggs to me. Lice looks like small grains of clear rice and the eggs are usually cluster like at the base of the feather.

 

We have used Johnsons mite spray (blue tin with budgie on the front ) for lice and its worked really well - lice free in 24 hours. Available from pets shops/pets at home. There is egg withdrawl when using it and spraying is a 2 person job.

[Electricbarbarella]

it is obviously the day for it. Stripey has lice, I only found them when I went to wash her fluffy knickers as they looked a bit grubby.

I have used johnson lice and mite powder on all the hens, the house, hich I have scrubbed to within an inch of it' life and disposed of all te bedding.

I have s"Ooops, word censored!"ed out all the auiose from the run and disposed of and moved the run to fresh grass, I am wondering if I have to do it all over again tommorow.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Lice here too .

 

Just discovered them on Milly today . ES held her while I snipped off the feathers with yucky eggs on them then a quick spray with Johnsons Anti-Mite spray.

 

Checked the other two who seem to be clear but they got a quick squirt too. I plan to cover them in Red Mite powder tomorrow & give the eglu a good cleanout on Saturday .

[Electricbarbarella]

Is it the wheather, or where do they get them from?

I have not trimmed any feathers as the eggs looked so close to the skin that i wouldn't dare.

I am feeling very and like a terrible chicken mum right now, I thought I was keeping them so clean.

My garden look awful, the plasticlawn edging that I had in the run all got torn off when I moved it and I don't know whther to oput any more aubiose dwn or not.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

From what I've read, it's nothing to do with being clean - they get them from wild birds so if they freerange a lot they're more likely to get them. So it's nothing you or I have done wrong, it's just one of those things.

 

It was a 2 person job but I did snip the feathers off - carefully . Those eggs are revolting .

[alexgirl73]

Same here

 

How long do you have to withdraw the eggs for when using the Johnsons spray?

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I think its 2 days but there are people who ate the eggs (before they knew about the withdrawal period) and they were fine .

 

I'm assuming that you have to not eat the eggs for 2 days each time you spray your hen? If you do it every 3-4 days, that's a lot of eggs to bin .

[alexgirl73]

hmm, you're right! And as we have just got new layers I think my OH would be VERY unhappy to be told he wasn't having eggs again for a few days I might just go to the farm store and buy louse powder.

[Jules.]

My girls had lice fro the first time last month- I discovered them whilst in the middle of a hen party showing my guests how to check for lice

I dusted the hens with Diatom- didn't work, so I got the Johnsons lice spray & they have been clean ever since. The egg withdrawal period is 2 days- I gave my girls a thorough spray It it only took the one application- I followed Kate's advice to spray the back of the neck, the wing pits & the fluffy knickers with extra spray than the rest of the hen.

I didn't clean out my run afterwards , but I did spray inside the cube really well, & shut the door on it for about 1/4 hour to let the spray do its work.

 

The hens catch the lice from wild birds, especially pigeons ( of which we have lots around here), & so its nothing to do with being a slovenly hen mummy.

 

Re the eggs that I had to withdraw, I fed them back to the hens as scrambled eggs, so they weren't wasted.

[Electricbarbarella]

I think I may have over done it, I now have a huge bald patch in my lawn were the cube was on aubiose, and the cube is not where I want it and it looks weird.

[HENthusiastic]

I am in love with Oscar!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Well, you can't have him, he's mine . (He is really adorable and very friendly )

 

[GKH]

oh my i'm quite a new to chook mummy and i thought i was doing okay. i 'm not sure what i'm looking for - is it like when rabbits have blowfly around their bums?

one of my girls is bald (ex bat) so she should be easy to check , one has feathers not so easy one one has a broken leg which she drags around but she lies down alot so her belly is bald and she gets poo on her belly alot. I bathed her for the first time yesterday which i didn't think she liked very much i feel a little overwhelmed !!

[HENthusiastic]

awwwwwwwwww bless him. He looks adorable. Is he a hampster? (Excuse my ignorance) His ears look huuge!

[Jules.]

GKH you will know lice when you see them- they are like little grains of white rice moving at 100 miles an hour.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

HENthusiastic, yes he's a Syrian hamster. Born 6th June, we got him on 5th August .

 

GKH, I'd never seen lice/eggs before but there was no mistaking them .

 

The critters :

 

 

The eggs - the ones I found weren't so numerous but were in a much smaller ball shape on the shaft of the feather very close to the skin :

 

[Ain't Nobody Here]

I've decided to dust my girls with Diatom tomorrow rather than another squirt of Anti-Mite spray. I've checked them and can't see any beasties. I'd rather not lose any more eggs so won't spray them again just now.

 

Diatom does say it treats lice but it implies it's more for use on the housing than the birds. I don't see why it wouldn't work on the hens though.

[Chicken Licken]

Diatom is most effective as a preventative but I never managed to get rid of lice with it. Barrier louse powder is homeopathic (lavender and tea tree) and does not have a withdrawal period for eggs. I tend to mix a bit of diatom and some louse powder in the nesting box when I do the hemcore in it and this seems to do the trick. Touch wood - no lice yet this summer!!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Thanks, ChickenLicken .

[Donna_0]

We've had an three eggs from two girls in a week..I thought it was the weather!

Well, hubby has been the one that picks up the girls and I do the checking, only yesterday I managed to pick up Margot for the first time. I stood and had a cuddle and spent a bit more time checking her back when I found...LICE

I've been dusting them once a week in Diatom and have been putting it in their bedding and eglu. She wasn't covered in them, because I checked all over her back this time and only found them in a few places. We also checked Barbara and she had a few too I was going to go and buy some more Diatom powder, but I think I might get some of the spray as suggested on this thread, so if you put at the back of the neck, under the wings and on the fluffy knickers with a quick spray all over does this mean the lice always go where it's warm (like on cats) so they will all find their way there?

pesky things it's made me itch ever since, but theres a plus side..I can now pick my girls up without any assistance!!

 

-Barbara 28/07/08

-Margot 04/08/08

Edited August 31, 2008 by Guest

[GKH]

thanks to Juls and aint "Ooops, word censored!"ody there i thought working out how to use this forum was bad but the piccies are much much worse

 

many thanks for the advice

dont mean to be rude with delay in replying but sometimes i just can't get on- line

GKH

[Donna_0]

Just a quickie to say that i sprayed the girls yesterday with Johnsons anti mite spray (got it from pets at home in the caged bird section) the creepy critters were literally falling off as the spray was hitting them

Margot is now as I type sat in the nesting box for the first time in over a week (shame we can't use the egg though), so I think the lice have been got rid of

I will only use diatom now for inside the eglu, as I was dusting the girls down once a week and it seems to have not kept the lice at bay.

I would definately recommend the Johnsons anti mite spray

 

-Barbara 28/07/08

-Margot 04/08/08