Will hoey

[Justadmin]

Once a week I sprinkle ground sanitiser (nettex, not stalosan) around the WIR over the wood chippings. I also poo pick the big and obvious bits twice a day all week. The powder smells lovely and just feels "fresh" but I don't want to over do it if it could be bad for the girls health. It doesn't say on the packet about overuse, in fact it says to apply liberally. I plan to change the wood chips completely every 3 or 4 months.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

[Chickabee]

Personally I don't use it too often, but I think it's entirely up to you. I don't think you're over doing it. I do however think that it's one of those products aimed at us non country folk. Keeping at good cleaning and worming routine is most important, along with regular mite/lice checks

[Justadmin]

Thanks Chickabee. How often would you recommend worming? I read every 3 months or so, we got them in March so I've set a reminder for June. Should I do it earlier do you think?

[Chickabee]

Hi, yes I usually do about every 3 months.I Try to fit it in around holidays, when people are looking after them and they are not free ranging. Then they don't blame me

[sjp]

if the ground is in the open i.e. no roof on it with the amount of rain we've had you shouldn't need to sanitise it

[Justadmin]

It's woodchips over a slab base, and it had a roof on it but open sides. So it never really gets really wet in there.

[sjp]

I only use stalosan on slabs and the woodchip as there's no soil to sanitise I can't see the point of using ground sanitiser

once or twice a year I'll clean the slabs with poultry shield

[DaisyAndBobby]

Thanks Chickabee. How often would you recommend worming? I read every 3 months or so, we got them in March so I've set a reminder for June. Should I do it earlier do you think?

 

I would suggest only worming if you really need to do so. I buy kits online and send off a poo sample. I only worm if it comes back positive. I haven't had to worm mine for 3 years now, as all the samples I send come back negative.

[Chickabee]

Yes I used to do that, then one came back positive. Then you get into the whole life cycle of the worm and worm egg, so I decided to worm them instead. Having said that it's very easy and wick to get the samples tested

[The Dogmother]

My run is covered and has Aubiose on slabs. I rake Nettex's ground sanitising powered through it once a week, and replace the contents of the run roughly every 6-8 weeks, or when it starts to look manky. I don't bother with poo picking... life is too short

 

I worm my flock with Flubenvet or Panacur* every quarter. (*not licensed for use on poultry in the UK)

 

I wouldn't have thought that you need to use it more often than that.

[Coolz]

That's really weird as I recently wondered the same thing about the ground powder! I use the ground powder once every fortnight. I poo pick as well just to keep it clean. but recently I wondered if the powder was one of those things that should only be used once a month or something so I feel better knowing others use it as liberally!

 

We have the bark chips on soil and is partially covered. I look for worming signs but so far haven't seen any (touch wood) but I worm them every 6 months or so to be sure. I had read the worms are becoming a bit resilient to treatment so I'm resistant to use it more often when there's no signs but equally don't want them to develop a problem that will take me a while to rectify!

[The Dogmother]

Your routine sounds very good, the only thing I would change is to use wood chips instead of bark; the latter tends to be damp and harbour mould spores.