Eglu Cube Coop For Sale

[ajayb]

Noticed hen lowest in pecking order having rear end feathers pecked & eaten by another hen. She looked quite bare, so I bathed her in very dilute Poultry Shield solution & thought I'd try some Johnson's anti-mite spray too. Thought it was possibly just feather-pecking but have since noticed a number of others preening quite a lot and when I checked those that are happy to be picked up, noticed broken off and missing feathers on their chests with redness on the exposed skin (none of these hens is broody, so they haven't been plucking their chests for legitimate reasons!)

 

Having searched the forum, I'm inclined to think it's depluming mite (where did they come from, for heaven's sake?!) and so picked up some Nippon ant powder this afternoon. I see that some folk suggest an egg withdrawal period after treatment and I'd be grateful if anyone could confirm what length that should be, please? Also, I read that Neem Oil (or Neem talc, which sounds even better from the application point of view) might work equally well and presumably not require egg withdrawal? (This would be good, as 6 of my hens lay similarly colored eggs, so I'd have to bin them all even if only treating two of the hens ...)

 

Also, is it possible to feed the eggs to the hens in cooked form rather than throwing them out (I read elsewhere that people did this but - not being very scientific - assumed that you'd be giving them more of the chemical that way, so maybe someone could set me straight on that too?)

 

Thanks!

 

PS Thinking about this overnight - someone suggested putting the Nippon powder in areas where they dust bathe and also in the eglu. Again, maybe I'm being very stupid here, but if they dust bathe in it and you have to have an egg-withdrawal period, how could you possibly calculate that as you won't know for sure when they've had contact?

[The Dogmother]

Neem oil is a natural product, so could only be considered a preventative, although some people have said that it deters lice.

 

Most ant powders contain permethrin, which isn't licensed for use on poultry in the UK (although some vets will recommend it) so strictly speaking it oughtn't to be used on the birds, and you should withdraw the eggs from human consumption for a week after using it.

 

Having said that, I use Buz Busters powder (which also contains permethrin) in my girls' housing and also in their dust bath - it works very well at keeping it all bug-free, but I certainly couldn't recommend that you use it on your birds, this is just my personal preference

[ajayb]

Thanks for this. Given that I've already applied the product, I'll not use the eggs for a week. Can I feed them (cooked) to the hens, rather than throwing them out (or does that just recycle the chemical)?

[The Dogmother]

I would just recycle them back to the hens. My guess is that the residue (if any) in the eggs will be very small.

[ajayb]

Thanks again, Claret - won't feel so wasteful now and the hens will think it's Christmas!

 

Noticed on another (new) post that hens often pull out their chest feathers to cool down - I thought they only did that when broody, so perhaps I've over-reacted. Will keep an eye on the situation and apply vaseline/ sudocreme/ tea tree cream if the skin looks inflamed.

[The Dogmother]

They also do it when they are broody.