Green original cube and walk-in run for sale

[gavclojak]

I took two of my 5 girls to a poultry vet who gave them a check over and prescribed the spot on, for my hybrid ex batts it was 7 drops to the back of the neck, she gave me a huge bottle which will last ages and the cost was just over £10.00....bargain and so far no problems ( apart from me thinking the preen gland was a tick!!) i chose this as i didn't feel confident enough to hold them upside down and coat them with powder.

[sadietoo]

Don't feel too badly about having mite in your wooden house...Eglus are not immune, and I have had Red Mite in my cube this year and once you have the mite you realise just how many nooks and crannies there are inside a cube. And whilst yes, you can take them apart completely, ( I have twice this year so far to jet wash and poultry wash ), it isn't as quick and easy as they would have you believe...fine if you enjoy laying upside down under the cube to get at the screws underneath!!!. Admittedly it is the first time I've had a mite problem in over four years of chicken keeping in a plastic coop, but they are proving a complete pain to get rid of completely I found some more yesterday not many but it doesn't take them long to come back in numbers.

I know some things aren't safe to use around cats which is why I've stuck with poultry shield, Red Mite powder and DE, are the products you suggest feline friendly Dogmother? Also I hadn't heard of putting spot on on the chooks themselves. Our vet isn't a specialist poultry vet, and will make me sign a promise not to eat eggs from chickens treated ever again...so I'd rather not ask them for it. I note someone uses the Kitten one....any idea of the doseage or does anyone use anything else?

 

Thanks for reading, your advice as ever is very welcome

[gavclojak]

Ah that is strange, my poultry vet recommended an egg withdraw of two weeks so i made the most of the egg withdraw and combined it with flubervet, she gave me a medicine record chart too and i think you can download it from her website at http://darwinvets.com/

 

I agree with the comments about the cube, i take it apart weekly and hose it down but i dont unscrew it, i then use poultry shield i also clean out the poo daily and wipe the roosting bars daily with baby wipes.

[The Dogmother]

Your vet will recommend a sport-on, their choices vary from a cat spot-on to Ivomec Eprinex, which is a cattle pour-on... none of which are licensed for use on poultry in the UK. Have a read through the lice sticky at the top of the clinic section.

[sadietoo]

Thanks DM and gavclojak. I don't think our vet is quite as enlightened as yours gavclojak....From previous experience with other problems, if it's not licenced to use on poultry they tend to prefer not to try it

[The Dogmother]

See if you can find a chicken-savvy and/or farm vet.

[gavclojak]

Hi sadietoo

To be fair, my dog vet by his own admission didn't know anything about chickens so I asked and my poultry supply shop and they recommended one. I now have a vet for my dogs and one several miles in the other direction for the girls!!!

[patsylabrador]

I was just wondering if there is a difference with mite problems according to where you live. We've had a wooden coop which is 4 yrs old now and no sign of mites, lice or anything. Do other people who live in cities or large towns have the same or less problems than those in the countryside?

Their coop is under an old pear tree but the run is covered and I remember reading that under a tree is a bad idea because of insects/rotten branches.

I grew up in a country village and played in haystacks etc and would come home covered in odd tiny creatures - I was always in trouble for that - but I wondered if there are more things in the air in the countryside. Carbon monoxide probably kills them here!

[PoachedPlease]

Patsy I am wondering why I haven't got red mite too. I have a big wooden coop that is part of the WIR so no way can I get an eglu...I haven't seen my chickens act strangely, but could I have mite anyway? They sit on the floor at night and hate roosting.

 

I haven't been spraying either...and live on the London boundary.

 

Having read a post on here recently about bringing in mite from wood chip I wonder if that is part of the problem? I use sand..anyone got thoughts on that?

 

Xx

[mdjo]

Earwigs are a natural predator to red mite - in fact they are the only natural predator. Stories abound on the internet about how effective they are.

We have hundreds in our wooden coop - they are a protected species in our garden

They do no harm to the girls, and they cant see them during the night when they're active, although they do catch a few when we open the door in the morning.

If you don't have any earwigs in your coop, roll up a piece of damp newspaper and leave it on your lawn over night to attract some, then simply transfer to coop. This probably only works as a good deterrent with wooden coops as they like dark, slightly damp places and hidey holes.

We dont use any anti-mite products except a touch of DE in the nest boxes (careful not to put in anywhere near the earwigs are as its harmful to them also). We have some lino under the bedding and they live under there and in the natural wooden gaps in the walls / joints.

We open up all the doors and nest box roof after laying to let the UV do its work. We also remove the perches each day and put them in the sunshine too. Weekly complete bedding change (we use Dengie Fresh Bed straw). No red mites so far, fingers crossed.

Might be worth a try before burning the coop and/or giving up completely.

[minature]

Well this morning I went down to let the girls out and I had several large clumps of red mite (as expected) so I did the whole poultry shield process again. then after a random conversation with my mum she wondered if household flea spray would work, so I thought I would give it a go. I only had about a quarter of a can left but sprayed it round the worst bits and along the edges, and when I went down tonight to lock them up, there were only a few mites wondering round. I have bought another can of flea spray and I am taking the house apart tomorrow and spraying everything.

In for a penny and all that!!!

I will let you know if it works

[keyhole kate]

Sadly cubes and eglus aren't immune but boy are they so much quicker and easier to clean and get rid of an infestation I had my first ever infestation in my cube last year they are revolting nasty itchy things as The Dogmother said separate clothes are a must I suspect they had spread from a small wooden coop I had my mummy and chicks in all my own fault as I didn't want to put my spare eglu together I found they had even got into the air space in the cube roof and panels where there are holes left from the injection moulding process of manufacture and in round the back panel bolts. I stripped the cube down to back in the box condition then jet washed and finally used a handheld steamer to blast steam into the nooks and crannies and the air space put it in the sun to let the UV rays finish off any I had missed. I now dust with DE at every clean religiously as well as putting it in the girls dust bath and they get a liberal dusting occasionally at bedtime too

[The Dogmother]

[quote name="minature".............then after a random conversation with my mum she wondered if household flea spray would work' date=' so I thought I would give it a go. I only had about a quarter of a can left but sprayed it round the worst bits and along the edges, and when I went down tonight to lock them up, there were only a few mites wondering round. I have bought another can of flea spray and I am taking the house apart tomorrow and spraying everything.

In for a penny and all that!!!

I will let you know if it works[/quote]

 

The fly/flea spray will work if it contains Permethrin, as does the total mite kill stuff.

[jjiande]

Not sure if I should post this on the Omlet forum, but here goes... We have a Solway eco mini hen loft in an Omlet WIR. The solway coop is made out of recycled plastic, and was a lot cheaper than an eglu. So far it's been brilliant and really easy to clean: I take the top off each week (takes ten seconds), empty the bedding and newspaper all out and then spray it all with poultry shield before blasting it with the pressure washer or the hosepipe. Then I leave it to dry for a few hours.

 

We haven't had our chickens long, so for all I know red mite might well be just around the corner, but I've been really pleased with this coop. The company are based in Scotland, and were really good: they delivered to us in E. Anglia for free and it only took a week or so from ordering.

 

Good luck.

[jackian]

I am thrilled you wrote this .. I received my Solway a week ago because I had to burn my wooden coup because of red mite .I have 4 chickens at the moment crammed in a small coup for 2 at the moment .But will they sleep in the Solway ? No ! But an egg was laid in there today so I live in hope.

It is so practical and the service was great and it was my price I could not afford any more . .

[jjiande]

I am really really pleased with my Solway. I ended up having to put my chickens into it for a couple of nights, as they'd been used to a cheap wooden coop before that which was just impossible to clean (we only had it three weeks before I lost patience). The chickens seem to love it now: they don't roost; they just cuddle up on the floor, but they did that in the last coop too, and they are still quite young. I also like the look of the Solway coops: I think ours looks a bit like a little old-fashioned caravan!

 

I wish I'd done my research properly first time round: it would have saved me a lot of hassle, but with the Solway and the WIR now, I think we've cracked it...

[Redwing]

the product Perbio mentioned earlier in this thread is excellent, I understand its the strongest 'over the counter' product available

 

Creosote is fab but the substitute version works quite well too

 

Neat thick bleach is also very good, painted on to all joins and cracks and allowed to dry before the chickens are put back in

[duncan4]

I havnt experienced redmite as yet.

 

I have an Arkus and a greenfrog, both made with recycled plastic.