how best to control flies in the coop

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drika

drika

Hatching
8 Years
May 9, 2011
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Can folk let me know the best way to control flies in the coop before the Aussie summer arrives.......Thank you in advance
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I have been wondering the same thing...I keep my coop and henhouse REALLY clean but of course the flys are still going to be attracted to the chickens...what is everyone using for pest control?
 
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First... WELCOME to BYC!
oooooohh... flys in Australia, I experienced those first hand when we visited last year in October. They were really thick in a couple of the places we visited. My knee-jerk response to your question was "keep everything clean" but after remembering those couple of days I don't think that's the issue. I wish I had a good idea for you!!! But I'll be watching to see what others recommend. Good Luck!
 
Do your chickens free range during the day? Mine do and that helps because they are not even in the coop at all during the day. Your situation may be different. I know you said you keep your coop clean, but here is what I do...I take big flat cardboard boxes (get them from warehouse stores) and fill them with dried grass clippings from my yard. I place them underneath their roosting pole. Every morning, I empty them out into my compost bin and fill back up with clean grass. There is never any poop to clean up otherwise. :celebrateThe rest of the coop is covered with wood shavings. We are in TN and it has been very hot and we have a lot of flies but believe it or not...they are everywhere BUT the chicken coop!
 
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I tried that thing and it really didn't work too well.
It did however do an excellent job of smelling like I had a rotting body in my yard. I don't know what's in the bait, but I would rather sleep in a bed of chicken poo than smell that again.
 
I do clean up the poo under the roost everyother day with a small rake and a dust pan with a handle and sprinkle a little seven dust around and figure I'm also controling mites. I switch up with DE earth every other time. yeah we have some flies but more are outside in the free range space (old round pen @ 100'x75') when it doesn't rain for a week or so. I take a water hose and blast the poo in the outside range space. It does help, and makes the grass grow. I have a secure run with the coop (10x16) and I rake that once a week also. In the run when I rake I put some peat moss and some DE and mix it up good.
 
The easiest way for me has been to make the changes as soon as I see more than a couple of flies, or the coop gets an odor. I scoop the poop under the roosts, where it is always the heaviest. Just the top 2" layer of shavings. Then I stir up the remainder, add DE, then more fresh shavings back on top and add more DE. Then I throw BOSS and other seeds onto the rest of the coop floor with a little more DE and let the chickens scratch and stir it up. In a couple of hours the flies usually leave and the coop smells like pine shavings. I do this once a month, and it only takes 15 minutes. The shavings are about 4 inches deep and I've only changed half a wheel barrow full in 2 months. I've only had a slight odor on humid days and never see more than three flies in there. Three is the limit I want to see before I do the cleaning process. In the winter I will do more of the deep litter method, but the humidity in the summer makes me want to stay on the once a month plan. The only poop you have to be concerned with is under the roosts, for the most part. A poop tray might make it easier, but I have no problem doing it with a shovel as the pine shavings are left deeper under the roosts (6") to allow scraping the top two inches or so off of them.

I've hear Vanilla scented car fresheners work well though I've not tried it yet.


Hope this helps.
 

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