lyd119 Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 Hi there, It's a week and a half till we get our chooks and it feels like we're nowhere near ready! =] have read about many red mite treatments and we will be definitely getting poultry shield and diatom!! we have a wooden coop so red mites may well be a problem, as we don't want to face the problem and have no other accommodation for the chooks we need a solution that works. i have read that people use jeyes fluid and dettol for prevention. just wondering if any of you had used them and if they were very effective?! Oh and how often should I treat the house with dettol/jeyes/poultry shield/diatom?? Thanks for any help, Lydia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ubereglu Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 I scrub out our chickens' house every week. Also, you say it's a wooden house, what type of roof does it have? If it's felt I suggest you replace it, either with some tanalised timber or use some proofed wood and attach a sheet of roofing material-eg corrugated steel or onduline as felt can harbour red mite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budgies Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 Really wouldn't use either Dettol or Jeyes. Any cleanser that goes white in water is highly toxic to many different animals - kills cats especially. At the very least, it has harsh fumes and chickens have very sensitive respiratory systems - my vet even advised against using "natural" products with strong scents such as tea tree and citronella in close proximity to chooks unless incredibly dilute (few drips per gallon). If you wash the wood down with a proprietary chicken safe cleaner like Poultry Shield, it would be safest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelsea Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 We also clean our cube every saturday and give it a good scrub. When the cube is dry and assembled we sprinkle the inside with Barrier red mite powder (in all the nooks and crannies also) and a light sprinkling of louse powder (in the nestbox and on the roosting bars) we have used this method since day one of chicken keeping as a preventative measure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gamebird Posted July 19, 2009 Share Posted July 19, 2009 I have a wooden ark which gets sprayed every week with Poultry Shield. Make sure you get into every nook and cranny. I also sprinkle diatom on the floor and in the nesting box. So far I've not had any problems with red mite *touches wood*. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
