Any thoughts on breed and gender...age too

[Milkapple]

Lilypad are you in Northern England too!
Only just picked up on that. Gosh i am slow sometimes x

 

[lilypad]

Lilypad are you in Northern England too!
Only just picked up on that. Gosh i am slow sometimes x

Yes I am I'm Northeast though x

 

[Milkapple]

Newcastle way? x

 

[Tricoglossus]

In my experience roosters are always loud. You could try to soundproof your coop to cut down on the noise. Eggs seems to have quite a patch of feathers missing on her back, has Bacon been mounting her?

 

[Milkapple]

I haven't seen him do so, but from what I can gather it can be over quite quickly can't it?
I was assuming she was in moult as she hasn't come into lay as yet x

 

[lilypad]

Quote:
Little down from Newcastle, in Teesside

 

[Milkapple]

Least there are people to chat to about the blooming weather then lol x

 

[Tricoglossus]

Yes they do mate quickly. It just looks like the classic "mounted hen" look. Oh and by the way I'm from Preston in Lancashire, I relocated to Perth, Australia some years ago. The weather's a bit better here

 

[Milkapple]

You are very far from home.Ooh that would be too hot for my blood, but you're obviously very happy with it...the heat that is.
Unfortunately it may be a few factors causing this with Eggs...moulting, stress from moving, possible mounting by Bacon and a suspicion which was confirmed just now after cleaning the coop...Will need some vast measures to sort out mites
Had already let washed and powdered the coop and birds with DE when they initially arrived. Just now when cleaning you can see dead mites in with the DE dust. Already waiting for some other things to arrive which should do the job, going to spray the bejeesus out of the coop and run... but Eggs does not like to be handled and I know the first dusting was not thorough enough for a real infestation. Any ideas to keep her calmer? Or do I just take the bull by the horns and do it? Shame to break the trust we have already mustered.
This has to be under control before the brand spankers coop is ordered x

 

[Tricoglossus]

It may be best to handle her for things like treatments in the evening when she has gone to roost. Chickens are generally quieter then and you can do more with them. Mites can live for 6 months in the environment so you will need to get it really well under control before you get your new coop or they will invade that too. I have heard of using creosote to paint the wooden structures - this kills the mites in the wood and also blocks up the nooks and crannies where they live during the day (not sure if you are aware, the mites only feed on the chickens at night, they live in the environment during the day). Another method, which I have found really useful in controlling external parasites, is to get a sack of builder's lime and sprinkle it liberally over all the areas where the chickens go, then hose it down into the ground. In the dry areas like the coop, just sprinkle it around and get it into all the nooks and crannies. It is really dusty stuff. My chooks didn't seem to mind it too much at all. As for the chooks themselves, those poultry powders I have always found to be pretty useless. The poultry vets will tell you to use malathion, I think you have to either spray it on poultry or use it as a dip for poultry. I have found that Frontline Plus has been excellent in deterring all sorts of ectoparasites in my birds. It is off-label when used in poultry (it's not registered for them) but I swear by it. Just a few drops on their comb and skin of their head every 4 weeks. I had a really bad problem with stickfast fleas until I used Frontline combined with the builder's lime.