Diary & Notes ~ Air Cell Detatched SHIPPED Chicken Eggs for incubation and hatching

[chicksooner]

ivomec is an insecticide/wormer, not just a wormer. why i like it over sprays and powders is - it only affects parasites on the chickens. with the decline in the honeybee population i try to watch what i use now.

there are 2 different ways of looking at this:
you can dust or spray your chickens, and worm separately if needed. if you dont need the wormer it is probably a lower dose of poison to just treat the lice/mites.

if you know you have both lice/mites and worms or you are unsure, this is one poison with a 2 time application.

so, is it better to use one stronger poison 2 times, or a weaker poison several times? i cannot answer this question for anyone other than myself. i am not saying this is the best method for everyone else, its my method as the caretaker of 500+ birds. i do not sell eggs for eating purposes, and i usually dont sell my breeders for eating purposes. if i did sell a retired breeder, it would be in a "clean pen" for a month before its sold. by clean pen i mean a pen that does not get any medicines or pesticides - a pen for birds to be eaten.

i do agree other options should be explored, and i do as i can. but when i find something that works well for me, i do get a little hard headed LOL. i would love to see some research on spinosad, and how it does with chickens and killing lice and mites. i haven't been able to find any real numbers.

I totally get where you are coming from. I don't want you to think I am saying you are wrong. We each do what is best for us. I personally keep chemical/medicine usage to a minimum. If I could do everything organically I would but sometimes you just need to kill a bug.

 

[loveourbirds]

I totally get where you are coming from. I don't want you to think I am saying you are wrong. We each do what is best for us. I personally keep chemical/medicine usage to a minimum. If I could do everything organically I would but sometimes you just need to kill a bug.

i do the organic thing as much as i can too, and in most cases organics can work well on small flocks. the problem with organics is you have to stay at it. when you have a flock of 100 or more chickens it becomes a little impractical to rub DE on them each day. (aside from what Oz brought up about it being linked to cancer) i do like using tobacco, but it too can be overdosed.

as far as dusting a nest, i would try to dust the sparrow's nest. it probably wont kill all the mites and lice, but for every one female louse it kills, thats 500 less eggs layed. with the chicken's nest it is best to change the bedding, the lice and mites can hide in the hollow shafts in straw, and sometimes in hay.

something i didnt mention; when we change the bedding we burn the old bedding to attempt to kill any remaining eggs and bugs.

 

[loveourbirds]

Chick #4 hatched last night. The prettiest of the bunch. It's got a leg problem though... I'm going to splint it and see if I can fix it

one of the cutest chicks i have ever seen (next to my DW of course)

. this chick is happy to have a "step mom" like you, if it's leg can be fixed im sure you will get it done.
congrats again on the hatch.

 

[maryhysong]

What do you all use to prevent mites and lice?

I've been having a lot of trouble with both mites and lice this year. The barn sparrows insist on living in the barn with my chickens which makes it almost impossible to prevent mites and lice.

I was using the poultry dust, but I no longer trust it as much as I used too and it takes forever to apply it on so many birds. I know some people use ivermectin. Does it work? I'm going to start doing some research, but I'd love to hear some opinions.

I have what I thought were feather mites but could perhaps be lice; both apparently lay clumps of eggs at the base of the feather shafts. Anyway DE has done not a thing to even slow them down; not even when I powdered the whole pen so it looked like snow, along with dusting all the birds. Quite a job on 80+ of them!

What seems to be working is sulfur. You can get 99% pure food grade on Amazon but I have been using a 90% dust sold at the garden center for mites and fungal disease on plants. I dusted birds about a month ago and so far I have not seen a live bug on any of them although several are still covered with nits. I plan to dust everyone again as soon as I have time to do it just in case those nits start hatching out bugs

 

[cochins1088]

Quote:
There are at least 50 different nests and many of them are far too high to reach even with our highest ladders. I'd also be worried about what all that dust would do to the environment.

 

[loveourbirds]

I have what I thought were feather mites but could perhaps be lice; both apparently lay clumps of eggs at the base of the feather shafts. Anyway DE has done not a thing to even slow them down; not even when I powdered the whole pen so it looked like snow, along with dusting all the birds. Quite a job on 80+ of them!

What seems to be working is sulfur. You can get 99% pure food grade on Amazon but I have been using a 90% dust sold at the garden center for mites and fungal disease on plants. I dusted birds about a month ago and so far I have not seen a live bug on any of them although several are still covered with nits. I plan to dust everyone again as soon as I have time to do it just in case those nits start hatching out bugs

i hadn't thought of sulfur, most chickens lack sulfur in their diet. this might be a good solution. please keep me updated on how well it works.

 

[cochins1088]

Quote:
I'm cleaning out the coop as best as I can. All of the bedding is being thrown into the burn pile.

I've got one last bag of DE to use up, so I'll mix that into the bedding (this time using a mask

). I'll also sprinkle very small amounts of permethrin around.

I've got 20 credits worth of college classes starting tomorrow plus my job, so I'm trying to get everything done today. I'll treat the birds with permethrin for now, and if the lice/mites are still here in a month, I'll use ivermectin.

I'm working on a new set up for next spring and I'll be sure to design it so that barn sparrows have no chance at getting in.

 

[cochins1088]

Quote:
That's very interesting. Might be something to try. Thanks for advice!

 

[ozexpat]

I'm cleaning out the coop as best as I can. All of the bedding is being thrown into the burn pile.

I've got one last bag of DE to use up, so I'll mix that into the bedding (this time using a mask

). I'll also sprinkle very small amounts of permethrin around.

I've got 20 credits worth of college classes starting tomorrow plus my job, so I'm trying to get everything done today. I'll treat the birds with permethrin for now, and if the lice/mites are still here in a month, I'll use ivermectin.

I'm working on a new set up for next spring and I'll be sure to design it so that barn sparrows have no chance at getting in.

just 20 credits.

thats barely part time for you

 

[cochins1088]

Quote:

sorry to disappoint you Oz....

They advised me not to sign up for anymore than 20 credits. Something about not wanting students to over load themselves.