Lessons learned in my battle with mites

[MCbur-burk]

The tale of garlic being tasted in the eggs is a myth. Unfortunately

 

[wantedman66]

Interesting that you find pepper works for you? I personally have not used cyan, but it is a cure for joint distress; thus, your girls will not suffer from Arthritis.   

I can only speak from my experience and it worked for me,like I said I have a lot of chickens and sell eggs so I will not take a chance on putting anything toxic in them or have too throw out 5dzn eggs to wait for a withdrawl period unfortunately, the majority of people on here probably have an average of a dozen chickens so its easier to treat them on an individual basis

 

[Heme]

Have you ever cut up some chilly peppers and fed that to hens? I wonder if that works also?
Oddly, when it was Rhubarb season, my hens ate the fresh leaves and loved them; but to humans the leaves are toxic?

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Have you ever cut up some chilly peppers and fed that to hens? I wonder if that works also?
Oddly, when it was Rhubarb season, my hens ate the fresh leaves and loved them; but to humans the leaves are toxic?

The oxalic acid in rhubarb leaves are not supposed to be good for chickens either. But the amount in rhubarb leaves can vary depending on various things even the rainfall that season.

Its funny what some chickens like and don't like. Mine seem to dislike sour stuff like rhubarb. I'll have to try offing them some hot peppers some time.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Have you ever cut up some chilly peppers and fed that to hens? I wonder if that works also?
Oddly, when it was Rhubarb season, my hens ate the fresh leaves and loved them; but to humans the leaves are toxic?

Re the Rhubarb Leaves -
I'm thinking that if they have a wide variety of food to choose from, they'll choose to eat things they need.

One year I had regular bell peppers growing in the garden in abundance. Whenever I let the birds into the garden, they ate the PEPPER PLANT LEAVES. Wouldn't touch the bell peppers themselves, but always ate the leaves. At the end of the season, I'd pull up the plants and put them in a compost area and they ate and ate those leaves until it froze and they didn't want them anymore.

The next year, they didn't touch the pepper leaves at all. Still lots of them in the garden but I never saw them even take a bite.

The only explanation I can come up with is that there was something in those leaves that they wanted or needed the one year and it wasn't a need the next.

So maybe that's the case w/the rhubarb...maybe they won't be interested next time around. It will be interesting to see.

 

[wantedman66]

I have fed cut up chilli pepper's and other hot peppers and seeds I've also used ceyyene pepper sauce poured over there food,there is a lot of antioxidants in hot peppers which are very good for both chicken and human immune systems also it makes the host body of the chicken very inhospitable and unpleasant for both mites and worms.

 

[Heme]

Thanks for your reply: As for Rhubarb; I have three varieties and the girls are not selective. They ate all of them down to the red stalks and my wife was furious. The immature stalks died of course and my wife did not have enough to make her favorite strawberry/rhubarb concoction. I know we had a warning about consuming the leaves but as you mentioned; it was a toxic material.

RE: Cyan based vegetables, if and when you test your gals in the future, please let me know what you discovered.

 

[Heme]

Now that is interesting to say the least. I will make that observation this growing season.
We have a feral cat in the neighborhood and it gets into my garden. I was told to sprinkle red pepper around the plants to discourage that pesky fur ball. The hens wander in the day time (cat isn't bothering them) and the cyan pepper was just another part of the dusting routine. Gals messed up my garden just the same?

A local farmer told me to place water sprinklers in the garden that operate on a sensing system. When the hens come by the sprinkler goes off and he said they do not like the water and run away. May give that a try this year.

 

[dawg53]

Put a Hav a Heart trap out at night in your garden with a couple of stinky sardines in it.

 

[enola]

@dawg53
  Curious......have you used this product on your birds?
What is the breadth of your experience using it?
How often would you need to re-treat for an infestation situation?
Does it kill scaly leg mites also?

Dawg recommended Eprinex when I was looking for advice about war on mites. Eprinex works well at the dosages he mentioned. I do a monthly check on my chickens, checking for mites, body condition, feather conditions, and to see who is/isn't laying. I have never had to treat every month, more like 3 times a year. It also works on scaley leg mites.