Smart Feeder - Light sensor values

[percy049]

Firstly, are there any ways of helping prevent fox attacks? Also, how can foxes get into your garden?

 

Secondly, our chickens. One of them (Bessie) is coming out of her moult, while the other 2 are still in the middle of it. Recently, one of them has started bullying and pecking Bessie. None of our chickens have fought before, and Bessie's being pecked when she goes near the treats, so she isnt getting much. When Ruby (the bully) goes near Bessie, she runs away from her. Considering they are in a moult, they aren't eating much 'proper' food, and we dont give them many treats either. All the chickens are free to roam all round the garden, and they prefer drinking muddy water to clean, is this normal!? All of chickens have lots of yellow mites/lice (I dont know the difference), what can I use to get rid of them?

 

Thanks.

[Lavenders_Blue]

Foxes are extremely agile and can enter a garden simply by climbing a fence. If you know you have foxes in your area, you will need to be extremely vigilant and keep your hens in their run unless you can keep an eye on them whilst they are free ranging in your garden. Another option is to buy electrified netting for your hens to free range within whilst keeping the fox at bay.

 

It sounds like your hens have lice. They are yellowy brown in colour and easy to spot with the naked eye. Johnson's anti mite spray (works on lice too!) is your best bet. You can buy it online or from pet shops. You will need to part the feathers and spray down to the skin as the spray needs to make contact with the lice to kill them. Treat again a week later to catch any louse eggs that have hatched and then keep an eye on your hens in case any stray lice are still hanging around.

 

An egg withdrawal period of 48 hours applies after each treatment with this spray.

 

Hope this is helpful.

[percy049]

Yes it is thanks! Our chickens havent laid any eggs for about 4 months for some reason. we've searched the garden and only found 1 stray egg. however, our chickens do clucking noises as if they need to lay an egg, but dont! we feed them the right food (hopefully), and our vet said they are probably just spoilt!

[..lay a little egg for me]

Lice infestation can prevent them from laying eggs, so it might be that. Do you worm your chickens regularly? Worming with flubenvet sometimes results in increased egg production. I think too many parasites takes too much out of the chicken so she hasn't got enough energy for eggs It is true that overweight hens don't lay, but if you are feeding them the right food, I'd guess it is the lice (and perhaps worms) that are the problem. The bullying might be related to the lice too, as it might have started with one girl pecking a louse off the other and they got into the habit. I also think that the pecking order can change when they are moulting as they are a bit out of sorts during the moult and the girls lower down in the order see a chance to move up while the ones at the top feel they have to work to keep their position! Of course, they don't lay during the moult.

 

Drinking muddy water seems to be preferred over tap water for chickens, cats and dogs in my experience!

 

Foxes are as agile as cats so anywhere a cat can get in so could a fox.

 

I'd recommend electric fencing as the best way of protecting your hens, but you do need quite a bit of space for it. A friend of ours had 6 chickens taken by a fox the other evening just before they took themselves off to bed. They were behind the electric fencing but it was not switched on at the time so it shows how important it is to keep the fencing on! The only other effective method is a well-built walk-in run, but it has to be made so the fox cannot dig under the edge, bite through the wire or force its way through any gaps.

[percy049]

Thanks for all the advice! We do worm our chickens regulary with Verm X, so it must be the mites then! Thanks again!

[..lay a little egg for me]

I have to say that the experience of many forum members is that Vermex is only a preventative and worming with Flubenvet is needed to clear out the worms at least twice a year. There have been many tales on the forum about people who used Vermex trying Flubenvet and finding lots of worm in their chickens' poo during the worming process . I'd strongly recommend worming with Flubenvet as well as treating for mites and lice.

[percy049]

Thank you, where can you get Flubenvet from?

[Wolfie]

You can buy Flubenvet online. We used "Xeno 450 easy to use spot-on pipette for birds over 800g" for our hen when we discovered lice on her. Again, you can buy this online. Dead easy to use (as their blurb said!). The lice were running around the poor hen, applied the pipette under the feathers on her skin between her wings, and the next day - the lice had gone. Deaded! Very satisfying!

[percy049]

We've got some Johnson's anti-mite spray... but for how long, and where, do we spray?

[Egluntyne]

Under the wings and on the feathers around the vent. As this product is *not licensed for use on poultry in the UK, the manufacturers recommend an egg withdrawal period of 48 hours.