4m x 3m Omlet pen, cube, new auto door still boxed and coop light

[dafdalziel]

Hiya all.

 

I am relativley new to this chicken lark so apologies for the stupidity of any questions I ask!

 

I have three lovely Barnebars who (I hope) are just starting to moult after not giving me any eggs for the last week or so.

 

Due to the lack of eggs, I had held back on treats, especially the mixed corn in the evenings, but on giving in yesterday gave them a small bowl of corn to peck at, and noticed lots of corn weevils in there as well. On further inspected of my near full 25kg bag, it is infested with the little beggars!

 

I have done some seraching, and found nothing of real help on any of the net. Should I consider the weevils a free source of protein for the girls, or condem the bag?

 

Also, what is the best thing to be feeding the girls through this time of change? I feed them layers pellets normally, although it is noted that they never eat as much of these as I expected but do prefer to eat alot of the rest of the garden in which they freerange.

 

Any advice will be appreciated.

 

Regards. Steve.

[Egluntyne]

How old are the chickens?

 

I'd be inclined to worm them with Flubenvet if they hven't been done recently, and keep them confined to the run for a few days, with layers pellets and water only. Free ranging and too many treats will have an impact on their laying.

 

As for the corn, I'd check the useby date and be guided by that. As you say....a bit of extra protein........

[dafdalziel]

Thanks for your promt reply Egluntine.

 

Don't really know how old the chooks are, as they were 'adopted' when I bought the Eglu secondhand, but at a guess, I would suspect at least 2 years if not older. It just seemed strange to me that they all stopped at the same time having had a bumper week on eggs the week before! The first thing I did last week was worm them, and on your advice have now confined them to barracks (for the first half of the day at least! ) so they can concentrate on their own food. They were never prolific layers anyway with 2 tending to give an egg every other day and the other giving 1 egg every fours days or so.

 

The corn is well in date, so I shall monitor that. To be honest, the OH is more concerned if the weevils take a liking to eating the shed of her plants!!

 

The only downside I can see to continued feeding of the infected corn in the presence of weevil poo.

 

Thanks again.

[The Dogmother]

Extra protein!

 

Diatom was first used in the food industry to get rid of weevils in wheat silos - it's totally safe and will get rid of the little devils; wash out your corn container, then sprinkle sone Diatom inside and pop the lid on tightly - that ought to sort them out.

 

A few years back, I imported some flour weevils in a bag of flour bought from Te$co I cleaned out and disinfected the whole cupboard and now keep all the flour in airtight containers.