Ammonia smell in coop-first time owner

[Mercedes55]

I agree mixing it up yourself is very easy, but does depend on how many girls you have. We only have 7 now, last time I wormed them we had 8 and although it was easy to mix up my own it did take me some time as I had to mix up about 6kg and I didn't have a large enough container to weigh out that amount, so had to do it in 3 lots. I am also getting a bit low on Flubenvet powder, so not sure I would have enough to mix up my own this time.

[Julia W]

Thank you dogmother for your advice. I now remember seeing something about not being able to share the worming stuff with others and will heed this warning. Thank you ashjc for your encouragement about mixing the powdered flubenvet with the pellets, I feel a lot more confident about doing it myself now and once this bag has reached it's sell by date then I shall mix it myself in future, I shall just have to cut my losses this time. Taking the easy route is not necessarily the best is it.

[Henergy]

thats what has put me off the pellets - they should really do smaller packs based on the fact that there are lots of us with only a handful of hens

[The Dogmother]

Perhaps they will if everyone emails them to suggest it.....

[Mercedes55]

Well my pellets arrived this morning and I'm sure the use by date is April 2014, unless they've printed it wrong. Most of the ordinary pellets I buy for general feeding have to used within about 3/4mths of me getting them. If the date on the bag is right then I should have got the 20kg and kept them for next time. Silly me

[The Dogmother]

The 10kg bags I've had have had a use by date more in keeping with regular pellets i.e. 3-4 months.

[Mercedes55]

The 10kg bags I've had have had a use by date more in keeping with regular pellets i.e. 3-4 months.

 

I'm reading it off the red plastic label on the back of the pack and it definitely says 30/4/2014. I even got my magnifying glass out to check. Maybe I am reading the wrong bit

[The Dogmother]

How odd, a misprint perhaps?

[The Dogmother]

Just remembered, mine doesn't have a red label as you describe, it has a paper one stitched across the top as with my normal feed.

[Mercedes55]

I looked again, the date I saw was in relation to the expiry date of the Certificate for the product not the actual product itself. On the side of the red label it has the use by date which is September, makes sense now. I couldn't imagine opening up a bag of anything like that and it being okay for 3yrs

[auntielizzie]

Well, thank goodness, last worming day was Tuesday. Gave the girls a weetabix mixed with warm water to celebrate They were very happy. They are enjoying being allowed out again, even though it's done nothing but rain .

 

Interestingly, they have been laying regularly again. They had been a bit erratic before being wormed, which was a bit unusual; I didn't suspect that they actually had worms - it was just on the calendar that worming was due.

 

Presumably then they must have had worms which was the reason they were not laying so well Very interesting

[The Dogmother]

That's probably the cause, plus being restricted to the run without treats always helps - if they eat nothing but their pellets you will always get more eggs.

[dixie chick]

Rather than mixing the Flubenet with pellets, I am going to mix it with the Garvo Alfamix - which they adore and normally only get as a treat..... that way, it should all get wolfed down!