Wasps

[Ascholten]

So I moved the cage back on the coop to let them out for an hour to free range and to give them new water. As I slid it back I was greeted by a cloud of paper wasps. I quickly got out of there, and went around the other side of the coop, flipped the top off their nesting box and clicked my tongue, about 20 seconds later they figured it out and all come running out there. This wasp nest was HUGE, it was probably the size of a friggin grapefruit and had about 100 wasps on it. It was NOT there a week or so ago when I put water in before !!

WTF how so fast?

anyways, I sprayed them down to kill them all, changed their water and raked some of the dirt out where the wasp spray hit so they don't get sick off it.

As I put things back together, the girls are out wandering around, as they do when I let them out for their nightly romps thru the forbidden lands of my strawberry totes I am noticing hornets flying around. The ones that were out and about when I killed off the main nest, are now returning, to.. no nest... and are hovering around, roaming around aimlessly.

Lets say, god forbid something happened during the day, the girls got into a kerfluffle or something and pissed this wasp nest off to the point they all come down, and there is nowhere for them to run to?

How many wasp stings can a chicken take before it's fatal to them?

Im leaving their coop open for the night, that way they can run if they need to, or go anywhere. Ive done this before it's no big deal on their part, the biggest deal is they get up earlier than I do, and get into stuff I don't want them to. I figure this should be enough time to get the rest of the wasps around so I can finish the job I started earlier, and give them an escape route if they need it.

Anyone else have wasp issues in their coops, and what do you do about it, besides due diligence of course?


Thank you
Aaron

 

[Blue Raptor]

So I moved the cage back on the coop to let them out for an hour to free range and to give them new water. As I slid it back I was greeted by a cloud of paper wasps. I quickly got out of there, and went around the other side of the coop, flipped the top off their nesting box and clicked my tongue, about 20 seconds later they figured it out and all come running out there. This wasp nest was HUGE, it was probably the size of a friggin grapefruit and had about 100 wasps on it. It was NOT there a week or so ago when I put water in before !!

WTF how so fast?

anyways, I sprayed them down to kill them all, changed their water and raked some of the dirt out where the wasp spray hit so they don't get sick off it.

As I put things back together, the girls are out wandering around, as they do when I let them out for their nightly romps thru the forbidden lands of my strawberry totes I am noticing hornets flying around. The ones that were out and about when I killed off the main nest, are now returning, to.. no nest... and are hovering around, roaming around aimlessly.

Lets say, god forbid something happened during the day, the girls got into a kerfluffle or something and pissed this wasp nest off to the point they all come down, and there is nowhere for them to run to?

How many wasp stings can a chicken take before it's fatal to them?

Im leaving their coop open for the night, that way they can run if they need to, or go anywhere. Ive done this before it's no big deal on their part, the biggest deal is they get up earlier than I do, and get into stuff I don't want them to. I figure this should be enough time to get the rest of the wasps around so I can finish the job I started earlier, and give them an escape route if they need it.

Anyone else have wasp issues in their coops, and what do you do about it, besides due diligence of course?


Thank you
Aaron

When the wasps get bad, I use a flyswatter. It’s usually three or four wasps that decide to build in the coop, but after I kill them they’re gone.
If one stings a chick, it could be fatal. If a chicken gets stung, will probably live (with some swelling) but not if it gets stung several times 4 or 5 perhaps.