Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

Hopefully someone with a scientific background can explain it better than I, but I think that permethrin is a chemical reproduction of natural pyrethrin. So they may well work in the same kind of manner and permethrin is also deadly to cats. In fact, the number of substances cats can not process is very important compared to most mammals.

As you know I'm using pyrethrum powder in my flock now for a lice infestation ; but I also used for one of my ex-batt's, Blanche, who is close to death and turned out to be totally infested, a canine permethrin and fipronil droplet applicator. To be clear I don't approve the use of this product at all , but I wasn't ready to see my dying chicken covered in hundreds of lice and unable to fight them.

Well, the efficiency is definitely not the same. I'm on my second and third application of the pyrethrum powder, depending on the chicken's degrees of infestation. The number of lice is clearly decreasing, but on the few chickens that had what could really be called an infestation, I still see some lice. On Blanche, the hen that had the permethrin and fipronil combo, I saw maybe dozens of live lice for a few days ; now the only lice I see on her are dead. The product is persistent enough to kill the lice that hatched days after application.

I am definitely not advertising it's use, especially for the Fipronil. It's persistence, while making it more efficient, is also a major reason of the environmental problem. But, I think that if I used pyrethrum powder as a natural alternative exactly following the instructions on the label (two single applications of 2 g a week apart) some of the chickens would definitely still have too many lice to deal with by themselves.
I intend to do more applications for the chickens who still have lice I can see ; I will also use DT and ashes in the dustbath ; and I have a dimethicone spray that the chickens really hate but which I might eventually use on one or two of them.

The insistence for commercial structures on switching between different molecules and type of products is, I believe, also a necessity for backyard chicken keepers.

And folks, for those of you who inspect your chickens more or less regularly, don't forget to look underneath them. The lice were all hidden on their bellies and legs. I had been inspecting necks, vents and underneath the wings with no clue of what was going on.

My two remaining ex-batts. Blanche is in front attempting to dustbathe.
View attachment 3800053
Mélisse is one of the hens that had lice even though she is young and healthy.
View attachment 3800054

thanks for sharing that experience @ManueB ; it's very useful to have realistic rather than optimistic expectations of the efficacy of any treatment we might need to use.

 

[Shadrach]

Lots of ex bats getting a chance
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd13d43nnqyo

Thanks, I didn't have that one on my list.

 

[Shadrach]

Hopefully someone with a scientific background can explain it better than I, but I think that permethrin is a chemical reproduction of natural pyrethrin. So they may well work in the same kind of manner and permethrin is also deadly to cats. In fact, the number of substances cats can not process is very important compared to most mammals.

As you know I'm using pyrethrum powder in my flock now for a lice infestation ; but I also used for one of my ex-batt's, Blanche, who is close to death and turned out to be totally infested, a canine permethrin and fipronil droplet applicator. To be clear I don't approve the use of this product at all , but I wasn't ready to see my dying chicken covered in hundreds of lice and unable to fight them.

Well, the efficiency is definitely not the same. I'm on my second and third application of the pyrethrum powder, depending on the chicken's degrees of infestation. The number of lice is clearly decreasing, but on the few chickens that had what could really be called an infestation, I still see some lice. On Blanche, the hen that had the permethrin and fipronil combo, I saw maybe dozens of live lice for a few days ; now the only lice I see on her are dead. The product is persistent enough to kill the lice that hatched days after application.

I am definitely not advertising it's use, especially for the Fipronil. It's persistence, while making it more efficient, is also a major reason of the environmental problem. But, I think that if I used pyrethrum powder as a natural alternative exactly following the instructions on the label (two single applications of 2 g a week apart) some of the chickens would definitely still have too many lice to deal with by themselves.
I intend to do more applications for the chickens who still have lice I can see ; I will also use DT and ashes in the dustbath ; and I have a dimethicone spray that the chickens really hate but which I might eventually use on one or two of them.

The insistence for commercial structures on switching between different molecules and type of products is, I believe, also a necessity for backyard chicken keepers.

And folks, for those of you who inspect your chickens more or less regularly, don't forget to look underneath them. The lice were all hidden on their bellies and legs. I had been inspecting necks, vents and underneath the wings with no clue of what was going on.

My two remaining ex-batts. Blanche is in front attempting to dustbathe.
View attachment 3800053
Mélisse is one of the hens that had lice even though she is young and healthy.
View attachment 3800054

Interesting on the persistance of the fipronil combintation. The stuff I use for the coop is a combination that supposedly keeps the permethrin active for longer.
I don't know of any method of avoiding repeated treatments when dealing with the chicken; coops can be done in one hit if they are the appropriate types of coops.

 

[BDutch]

Interesting on the persistance of the fipronil combintation. The stuff I use for the coop is a combination that supposedly keeps the permethrin active for longer.
I don't know of any method of avoiding repeated treatments when dealing with the chicken; coops can be done in one hit if they are the appropriate types of coops.

Ever heard of the Fipronil affair in the Netherlands?
A couple of criminals made a lot of money selling so called legal poisons to kill mites on chickens in the egg industry. The crooks got a prison sentence and farmers who used it had a serious loss of income. The eggs had to be destroyed because of the high poison levels. Many farmers choose to destroy the chickens too because they had to wait too long before they could sell the eggs again.

 

[Shadrach]

There was a workday at the allotments today. We have recently agreed to make attandance to 3 work days out of 12 in a year compulsory. There is a lot to do and everyone benefits. Everyone left at midday and I was there four hours today in the afternoon on my own.
The morning lot did quite well and this afternoon I did a bit more.

I found a couple of spinach plants growing in one of the compost bins we are throwing out and I stuck it in the ground along with a few sickly looking parsnip plants. Maybe they'll survive and grow.

 

[BDutch]

PS FYI
an article in English was not hard to find: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2021/04/two-jailed-in-netherlands-for-roles-in-fipronil-scandal/

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

Tea is ready.

Temperature is in the 60s and sunny.

Have a great day!

 

[Shadrach]

Three hours today. It got quite chilly towards dusk.
Dig has got to go. I almost killed him this evening after he knocked Fret over then tried to rake her with his feet. He attacked Mow today as well. He wasn't trying to mate. Mow was eating and he just flew at her. He'll be gone tomorrow. It's all rather sad but this can't go on.

 

[Molpet]

Three hours today. It got quite chilly towards dusk.
Dig has got to go. I almost killed him this evening after he knocked Fret over then tried to rake her with his feet. He attacked Mow today as well. He wasn't trying to mate. Mow was eating and he just flew at her. He'll be gone tomorrow. It's all rather sad but this can't go on.
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Sorry he can't control himself. It makes it easier to harvest them though, for me anyway.

 

[fuzzi]

Three hours today. It got quite chilly towards dusk.
Dig has got to go. I almost killed him this evening after he knocked Fret over then tried to rake her with his feet. He attacked Mow today as well. He wasn't trying to mate. Mow was eating and he just flew at her. He'll be gone tomorrow. It's all rather sad but this can't go on.
View attachment 3801360View attachment 3801361View attachment 3801359View attachment 3801358View attachment 3801357View attachment 3801355

I'm sorry. Unrealized potential.