Warm boot recommendations please

[beach chick]

microwave a good idea, thanks xscrunchee!!

[ems]

I just bought an eglu becuase our wooden house got a horrible infestation of red mite.. Three douses of poultry shield.. they are still running around!!!

Chooks spent their first night in the elgu last night I waited for them to go to sleep in the other coop and and then snuck out and kidnapped each one!

 

I opened up the elgu this morning.. and even after giving it a heafty dousing in pountly sheild and diatom they were crawling everywhere!!!!!! Once the girls were ouside I covered them in diatom through the bars.. and then set to work cleaning out the eglu. Scrubbed it, jet wsahed it, and left it to dry

Sprayed again with poultry shild.. left it to dry. I put a measely amount of amboise in the nest box and smothered it in diatom. I gave them a wooden planter filled iwth very dry compost.. and half a cup of diatom LOL

 

I am hoping I wont have to do this for much longer!

 

Whats I dont understand it I used diatom religiously in teh wooden coop.. I jeyes fluid clean the pen every two weeks.. I cant understand how we got such a naughy collection of mites!!!!

 

I;ve plugged all the screw holes with a puree of diatom too

[The Dogmother]

Sorry to hear that ems.

 

if you read back through this and other similar topics, you will see that:

 

Jeyes fluid isn't recommended for cleaning animal housing; it is toxic to cats and many other animals.

 

Poultry Shield and Diatom are only repellents, they don't appear to be 100% effective.

 

I have bene recommending using the new Total Mite Kill product as that seems to work very well and has had excellent feedback. Ant powder containing permethrin* is very effective when used in the housing.

 

Be sure to treat weekly and then monthly after that, if you have an infestation, then some red mites will be left on the birds after a bloodfeed, so treat the birds too. Johnson's Anti-Mite Spray* is very good for this.

 

*not licensed for use on poultry in the UK

 

I hope that you get it cleared soon.

[ems]

Right bought... Total Mite Kill .. 500 grams.. will treat them as soon as it gets here! I've red mite powder from omlet too. That didnt seem to touch them. I;ve ordered the Johnson's Anti-Mite Spray too .. So hopefully goodbye to greedy mites!!!! I ordered the total mite spray too to treat the house Mites are costing a fortune!!! I've just dont he 3 monthly food bill for all the animals.. That was just under £200... I've spent 50 quid on bulk amounts of diatom and poultry shield to share with a few friends.. LOL Rabbit palace just got a new roof... £50 and now the timber needs to be got for the new chook pen!!! LOL

[The Dogmother]

Did you get the Total Mite Kill concentrate liquid or the powder? The powder is just Diatom, you need the liquid concentrate. Red Mite powder is just a repellant/preventative too, smells nice though.

[ems]

oooooooo.. I will email them and change it!! LOL

[The Dogmother]

Phew! Caught it in time!

 

The total mite kill liquid is in two forms from what I've seen, a bottle of concentrate (the one you want) and then the liquid spray, which looks to be the same thing, just diluted! Clean the housing, then spray/soak with the made-up concentrate and leave to dry.

[ems]

thankyou I got the concentrate !! Will tell you how it goes!!

The old coop is going to get burnt

[The Dogmother]

The old coop is going to get burnt

 

I know someone else who recently went through the same experience; she bought 2 cubes and burned the sheds in the end!

[cluckingmad]

hands up everyone who is now itching along with their chooks

 

 

EWWWWWW! Ah well..... girls will finish their flubenvet treatment tomorrow, then on saturday they are getting a bath (its a week after the red mite powder, seems to have helped but Jemima certainly needs a bath to help her skin)... Have the waterproof jacket and trousers at the ready

[chooksandcrooks]

Hi,

 

Saw a message on a diffeerent post about smoke bombs viewtopic.php?f=11&t=68714#p987640, looked on google and found a farm chemical company which sells them. They can be used in animal housing, homes, farm buildings etc. Has anyone tried them in the hen house?

Can't believe what a bad year its been for infestation am getting a cube in 10 days and will be burning my old hutch. Mites/lice can live in the ground for six months waiting for a friendly body to come along which is why the treatments/preventions need to be kept up even if no signs of them are there.

 

Mites/lice http://www.farmchem.co.uk/pest-stop-fumite-mini-fumer-35gbrbox-24-378-p.asp

 

Jenny

[dappled grey]

Hello

 

I am a new member. Signed up as I have a question about lice on our chickens. Is there a spary rather than power we can use on them? I have read that tea tree is a good treatment, has any one used it on their birds?

 

We have mostly brown hybrid chickens with a few aging black rocks and bluebells. They have a huge pen which they share during the day with two ducks, a drake, gander and goose.

Thanks

[The Dogmother]

Both the Johnsons Anti-Mite Spray and the NetTex Total Mite Kill Spray can be used on chickens to kill lice.

 

Neither of them are licensed for use on poultry in the UK but vets will recommend them. Egg withdrawal is 48 hours.

 

I'd recommend that any sprays are used in conjunction with a preventative treatment from your vet.

[henchick]

Sally looks so under the weather her tail is down and she is slow to move! Are lice life threatening? I have treated her and pressure washed the eglu, changed run floor covering. Can I do anything else?

[henchick]

Two of my hens have keeled over in the eglu and died within 24 hours. Marmite was a chick I reared and Dot was an exbat! Any ideas to the cause?

[The Dogmother]

Sally looks so under the weather her tail is down and she is slow to move! Are lice life threatening? I have treated her and pressure washed the eglu, changed run floor covering. Can I do anything else?

 

Lice, in large amounts, can be serious but not life threatening in themselves. They make the bird anaemic though and affect the immune system so that they can fall prey to other infections. Lice will also be attracted to fatally ill birds.

 

Two of my hens have keeled over in the eglu and died within 24 hours. Marmite was a chick I reared and Dot was an exbat! Any ideas to the cause?

 

No, not without knowing the symptoms and seeing the birds. When were they last wormed, what did you worm them with, what are the symptoms?

[Calamity Jane]

As I am still very green about my chicken keeping skills, could someone advise/reassure me on what has happened to my 3 Light Sussex hens. They are now about 5mths old, I have had them for 8 weeks now. I have been fastidious about cleaning their house (an eglu mark 1) and have wormed them and used diatom powder on everything. At the weekend I noticed they were preening themselves rather a lot and, having read most of the threads on lice etc, decided to treat them. Last night I spot treated them, and this morning they look like different birds !!! Their faces are all bright red (healthy). My question is - do you think this is because they must have had lice and would the treatment act SO quick ? or - is it because they are about to start laying ?

I hope it is because they are about to start laying because I would be upset if I thought they had had lice all this time. I thought their faces were paler because they were still young. Thanks - jane.

[andynjanec]

I feel itchy.Just checked a couple, of birds.One has tiny red coloured mites.I find that if you dust a bird with diatom,the mites all go mad and they all come out.You can really see how big the infestation is then.I have also found that dusting alone only annoys the mites or they become immune.I lost a hen early this year who went downhill slowly over a few months. In the end no matter what I did she died.

[The Dogmother]

As discussed previously in this thread, it really is best to used both a preventative and a spray to eliminate all the lice or mites. A severe infestation will compromise a hen's immune system.

[Happy chickens!]

How far can mites travel?

 

I ask because I promised a friend that I would 'foster' her girls as she hasn't got space in her life for them at the moment and she has just told me that they have red mite - she's bringing them to live here tomorrow! My plan was to have them in their (wooden) coop, with run alongside mine so that the new girls (there's 6 of them, I have 5) can see each other without mingling for a few days. She's going to blowtorch and spray but has done this once, thought had got rid of and they are back with avengence. She has already treated chickens.

 

Now I am in quandary, if I turn her away then am letting her down, but am feeling itchy at thought of the mites. Would I be better not using the coop, treating girls with one of the sprays and just chance them all together?

[The Dogmother]

I'm afraid that it's inevitable that your housing will end up with red mites in this situation.

 

When I used to 'take in' hens I had very strict rules about only using my own housing, and inspecting all the hens as they arrived. Part of the T&Cs was that I could refuse to take in any hens with lice or mites. It wouldn't be possible just to pop your visitors in and hope for the best - there would be warfare! and any mites on the hens would soon colonise your housing

 

You have been very kind to offer and it is totally up to you; this is your situation, flock and friend, but I wouldn't do it - it will take an age to get rid of them in your housing if/when it gets infested, and even longer to get rid of a deep-seated infestation in the wooden housing. It isn't hard to transfer red mites into your own house either

 

Sorry not to be much help and to sound all doom and gloom, but I think it is a lot to ask that you take on infested hens and their coop. Your friend has already tried to get rid of the mites and failed, which means that they have probably been there for a good long while and would be pretty tough, or nigh on impossible to get rid of.

[Egluntyne]

I wouldn't touch the infested coop with a bargepole. Nor would I put the hens anywhere near yours without a period of quarantine, and to give you a chance to threat their mites. Have you a shed or garage where they can live for a short while?

[The Dogmother]

Good idea Egluntyne, although any mites remaining on the visiting hens will soon infest a wooden shed or garage

[Happy chickens!]

Thanks - had a feeling that might be the case. I do have a storage area that could put the new chickens in at a pinch; not ideal, as things are stored in it!! It's got a roof and wire mesh sides, gravel on the floor and used to be used by previous owners for chickens, I don't use it as in darkest part of garden. If put friend's girls in it, then nowhere to roost/lay, wonder if can knock something up....... Then could rid girls of mite - is it easy to do this if I keep them in isolation?

 

I've got plenty of space in the garden, it's the housing that's the issue and then need to be able to move them near the current girls for the intros.

 

If it was anyone else, I would say no, but she's my best friend, got chickens soon after I did and is having marriage problems and the chickens are an issue between them which is why I said I would 'foster', in the hope that in the longer term she can have them back.

 

Rock and a hard place.....

[The Dogmother]

You would need to check this temporary home, wash and spray it several times with something like Total Mite Kill conc, then dust liberally with Buz Busters . Spray all her hens at least twice, a week apart, and treat them with a preventative like one of those mentioned earlier in this thread. It would be hard work.

 

You are obviously a good friend to her, but we'd hate to see you kick yourself if your hens/housing got infested. Always make sure that you deal with your hens first, then the visitors, then change your clothing and spray your shoes. Just good bio-security really.