Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

Hey who posted the sign about if you move here to farm land it smell and ths & that?

 

[desertmarcy]

While other folks are building up their flocks, I'm shrinking mine. Culled 3 of my 14 roosters last weekend. Yesterday I noticed my one-and-only named hen was covered in lice. I had moved the pullets in with the laying hens to separate the poor girls from the testosterone-filled cockerels. So all the girls have been exposed to the lice. Ick. Haven't found any lice on the pullets yet, but I will be dusting them soon.

I went off for a sunset hike to clear my head and figure out the best way to handle the invasion. Was thinking I need to cull the infested hen, but didn't really want to. She is kind of a pet. She is always the first one to roost in the evening so I was surprised to find she was not in the coop when I went to close them in for the night. Found her sleeping on the porch. I guess that was her way of telling me it was ok to cull. I processed her last night. She is now resting in the fridge.

Now I am off to scrub down the coop. Oh, joy...

Ugh, sorry to hear about the lice. Any idea where/how the bird might have gotten them? Knock on wood I have not had that problem. What are you going to dust them with? I'd be tempted to go the Sevin route rather than DE, although I've heard DE plus Borax works. I have also heard that the weaker birds are more prone to such pests. Maybe she was going downhill anyway, but sorry you had to cull her.

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
She was an older hen and she was not laying consistently. She had been walking stiffly for a while but I had not found anything specific wrong with her. Duh. Did not look closely for lice, which I should have because her feathers were always kind of ratty. I chalked up the feathers to bad genetics - she was a hatchery hen of uncertain origin, and her plumage has been a problem since the day she arrived here a couple of years ago. She may have had lice the whole time. When I happened to look at her vent yesterday I saw LOTS of louse eggs. Which explained the rattiness of her feathers. (Feather lice eat feather webbing.) Plus, she had been sunbathing a lot more than usual lately. After I killed her I realized that her flight feathers were chewed down to almost nothing. No wonder she was having trouble getting up to her favorite perch. I should have clued in earlier.

I have not seen louse eggs on the other birds yet. It does not mean they don't have lice. The remaining laying hens are pretty skittish and the only way I can check them out is at night when they're on the roost. They are very fluffy and it's hard to see what's going on under the fluff at night by headlamp. I suspect they do have some lice but their feathers have not obviously been affected yet. The major infestation was on the hen I culled. I made the cull decision for the following reasons:

1. It removed that louse population center from the chicken population. If the other birds are not yet infested, there is now less of a chance they will become infested because the affected bird has been completely removed.

2. Dusting birds for lice is iffy. You can kill the active lice, but the eggs remain and keep hatching. So you have to dust repeatedly over time. As the eggs hatch there is a risk of the newly-hatched lice infesting the other birds. If dusting works it takes a long time and there is a larger risk of extending the infestation to other birds. DE and wood ashes in a dust bath may help control numbers of lice, but are not likely to eliminate them entirely. Individual treatment of the birds is necessary to eliminate an active infestation. Dusting birds is a pain.

3. Some birds are more predisposed to infestation than others. I want a flock that is resistant to lice (and all the other yuckies that make chickens sick). If a bird is prone to infestation or illness I don't want it in the flock. Culling is the best way to get rid of those genetics. And the bird is not wasted. You get to eat the results. (As long as you cull before it's really sick.)

4. She made the decision for me. She separated herself from the rest of the flock. It was time for her to go and she knew it. Sweet girl.

I cleaned out their coop/run this afternoon and spread a lot of DE around. Removed two of the nest boxes completely (they're harder to clean) and scrubbed out the remaining one, replacing all the nesting material and mixing in a lot of DE. Now I've got to get some louse powder and dust the remaining birds.

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
I suspect she's had them the whole time I've had her. She's the last of the original hens that I got from a friend who had to move. They all had pretty ratty plumage, but I was a newbie and didn't really know how or what to look for. Reading about lice and seeing pictures of louse eggs is not the same experience as tipping your hen upside down and really examining those feathers around the vent... which takes some getting used to for both the chicken-wrangler and the hen...

Planning on using Sevin. I don't put much stock in DE for an active infestation. I also plan to cull the remaining two laying hens, mostly because I'm tired of them destroying my garden. So far the Java chicks have been more respectful of fencing than the Fayoumi cross hens. The Java pullets should be laying in a couple of months... so I won't have to be without eggs for too long... and I might have some veggies to feed them (and us) if I get rid of the two remaining hens...

 

[pipemum]

Sorry to hear about the lice.


Alright, the 18 chicks I picked up have really exceeded my capacity. I still can't quite figure out what I was thinking. They are way too crowded in the plastic tote. I can put some in a big bird cage that I used for my older chicks, but that's still too many chicks inside the house. I can close up the coop and keep them there outside during the day...but are the nights too cold for chicks (one week old), even closed up in a coop? I won't have heat for them.

Also, if anyone wants some chicks, let me know. I'm in Tucson, on the west side. I have a few RIRs, black copper marans, and cuckoo marans. I have 14 chicks total that I need to rehome.

 

[Arizonachicken]

Hey who posted the sign about if you move here to farm land it smell and ths & that?

That was me.

 

[pastrymama]

the sulmtalers are hatching

 

[MaddBaggins]

As I rounded one of the last corners to my house this afternoon, there was a blue Camry with a BYC sticker on it.
Anyone from this thread? You are right around the corner from my house, you're welcome to come meet/greet and see the flock and taste a homebrew. Kolsch on tap.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I had found 1 mite on one of my girls (8 chickens). I both powdered and used DE, did the cleaning thing. I also watched my girls right after powdering them. I counted a total of less then a dozen in death throws. I fallowed up the next 2 weeks. I still examen about half my girls every day. I have not found any more. I keep their coop dusted with DE now. The problem is my coop (purchased on line) is now falling apart.

The coop I am making will be made with cleaning in mind. It is not going to fall apart. Not sure just how many it will hold. The pent house should make it nice for my girls. In the winter I will shutter the windows.

Pictures of my new pullets ( )

Group picture

Barred Rock #1

Barred Rock #2

Barred Rock #3

Red Sex Link Pullet

Partridge Barred Rock Pullet.

I do not yet know what 1,2 or 3 is yet. They were hatched 5/7. I hope at lest 1 is a pullet. If I can not find a Columbian Wyandotte, and if I have 2 BR Pullets, I will keep them, that will be my 4. If not 2 BR pullets but one then that is where I will have to stop. I am not going to introduce only one in the future. At the first of next month I will post again pictures. If any one has a guest by the picture let me know.

 

[City farm]

I use a combination of wood ash and DE.  It's interesting that a number of ethnoveterinary studies have shown that poultry keepers in the most far-flung reaches of the world also use wood ash.  However, I have yet to find a single study demonstrating its effectiveness.  In contrast, there are a number of studies that show the effectiveness of DE at controlling mites, even with exposure to very small quantities.  DE completely eliminates mite reproduction, but works slower on mite mortality.   In addition to the slow action on mortality, the other downside to DE is that its effectiveness is, in part, determined by humidity levels.  For example, at 75% RH, it controls mites fairly well, but significantly less so at 85% RH.  DE works to kill insects by pulling off the outer cuticle through adsorption.  Once the insect's cuticle is damaged, it is unable to maintain water balance and dies through desiccation.   Our dry climate here in AZ is well suited for using DE to control mites.  The best attribute of mechanically-acting control agents is that the mites can't develop resistance them as they are with many acaricides.

We use DE, however I do use a mask when I am cleaning or around the run.. Not sure but I have been coughing more lately.
All though i like the fack that they can eat the stuff & it provides minerals..
What about their lungs??