Chicken boarders

[katiew7103]

OMG just found 4 out of my 6 chickens are infested with lice. Have been out there for past hour powdering them all carefully changing straw and generally sprinkling powder everywhere.

My questions are these;

 

1) I am using a general red mite powder for use on lice too, is there anything better and how does it work?

2)How do i shift the egg clumps at the base of the feathers they are rock hard?

3)1 of my chickens has a dirty bottom do I wash this and if so how soon after I have treated with the powder?

4) On the tub of powder it says for heavy infestations to retreat in 5 days is this correct or should I do sooner?

 

 

Another question but not related to this topic. I have an automatic hen house door, opens when light shuts when dark. One of my hens chooses to sit on the perches inside my secure walk in run instead of going in the house. Is it ok to leave her there for the night or should I put her in the house with the other chooks?

 

Thanking you in advance for your help.

Katie

[chick wiggle]

Hi there

You need to get Johnsons anti mite spray, it kills lice and you all you do is spray their necks, under wings and vents and then again 5 to 7 days later. There is an egg withdrawel with it about 3 - 4 days i think. mite powder is really just a preventative.

 

A couple of mine perch outside at night and i just pop them back in the house as i think its still a bit cold on a night for them, but mine are a silkie and a pekin so a bit more susceptible to the cold.

[ejaym39]

Hi, just thought I would advise you to be cautions about leaving the chickens in the open at night, even when inside their pens or house. We've had chickens for 18 months with no problems at night. Our ladies always go into the house in their pen. Pen is locked but house inside always been open. We have just added three new chickens and two of the ladies don't like the other chickens and choose to sit on the perch inside the pen at night. Two nights ago, a fox must have sented the birds outside and ate through our wire mesh, (or it had a set of wire cutters). I always thought our mesh was pretty good but the fox got through and sadly got one of our ladies. Luckily the ladies made such a noise, woke me and the sight of me in my dressing down scared the fox off, but not before he killed one and tried to pull it through the hole. I can only think that seeing the chickens through the fence gave the fox the energy to get throughthe wire.

[shoura]

Hi Katie,

I've just found that one of my girls has lice with rock hard aggregations of eggs at the base of the feather below her vent....and all her bottom feathers were all matted with poo and eggs

I half filled the kitchen sink with warm water with a little Ecover WUL in it and gave her a good wash, mainly her underparts but basically as much as I could. I then rinsed her in warm water, then blow died her with my hair dryer! She was very quiet and actually seemed to enjoy it! I got her knickers looking clean and fluffy again but I couldn't get rid of all the lice eggs as they were so hard and I was afraid of pulling her feathers out if I s"Ooops, word censored!"ed too vigourously, so I gave her a good spray with Johnson's anti-mite spray and left it at that. I think I'll have to spray her again in a few days when the remaining eggs hatch....an dpossibly again after that...

Funniley enough I managed to inspect my other girls too today and the other three are OK---I would have htought if one had lice they all would!

I also gave the coop a good clean and spray with insecticide...

Hope this helps!