Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[C8yJayne]

I would think the smoke would get them free ranging long before fire anyway. At least in the pen the sprinkler will help keep smoke down maybe?

Yeah thats what I'm thinking and then it will help keep it cool too either way I'm potentially making the wring decision I just have to be at peace with the choice we have made. Thanks ks for your advice

 

[cwrite]

*****URGENT*******
I'm in the adelaide hills near the fires we are evacuating out property the neighbours seem to think we won't get hit. I'm unsure if I should have the chooks and geese free or locked up. Please help!!!

My best guess would be to leave them free-ranging as well so that they have a chance to get away rather than being locked in a building.

that you, your family and animals are okay! There are a few dramatic pics of other animals free-ranging, including poultry with smoke around, not that that means it's the safest thing to do, but they looked ok & can at least move away from the flames if it gets close.

 

[krista74]

Hi all

You may remember me from a few weeks ago, when I popped my head into your thread to ask my fellow Aussies how to cope with a brown snake in my chicken coop. Whilst I am pleased to report that the snake was eventually found and 'humanely relocated' somewhere else, unfortunately his friend (hereby known as Even Bigger Brown Snake) has moved in! We are presently undergoing frequent searches so that he too can be 'humanely relocated' at some point but believe it or not, that is not the issue I come here with today.

Ants. Your regular, garden variety black ants. I have two outside pens where I keep the sick and injured chickens, both currently occupied by a recovering respiratory illness bird (looks like she is doing fine now) and a bird who was operated on for an impacted crop 3 days ago. Miss respiratory bird's cage is swarming with black ants, all through the bedding and around her feeder and waterer. I suspect half the problem is the stinking hot weather we've had, and the forthcoming rain which is predicted, sending the ants into a frenzy.

Anyway, my chook doesn't seem bothered at all but I am bothered about them! Any ideas on how I can rid her coop of the ants? I don't have access to much out here (rural area, hot as hell and quite remote.) I certainly haven't been able to find any "DE" and I don't particularly want to poison my girls - hubby has highly poisonous pest spray but I don't want that near the coops.

Are chickens bothered by ants (that you know, lol)? Any advice appreciated on what I can do to get rid of them. We are in a bush setting so it's hard....

@C8yJayne - my best wishes to you, and anyone else affected by the fires. Hoping you all stay safe.

- Krista

 

[ChristieB]

I've decided to buy de online as I can't find it locally either,
I had my quarantine coop covered in ants too. I had to do a full clean out of all the shavings as they seemed to be going for the fine crumbs from the chook feed that had been buried
http://diatomaceousearthonline.com.au/shop/diatomaceous-earth-food-grade-regular/

 

[krista74]

I've decided to buy de online as I can't find it locally either,
I had my quarantine coop covered in ants too. I had to do a full clean out of all the shavings as they seemed to be going for the fine crumbs from the chook feed that had been buried
http://diatomaceousearthonline.com.au/shop/diatomaceous-earth-food-grade-regular/

OK, thanks. May I ask if the DE was effective? I have heard mixed reports.

- Krista

 

[Fancychooklady]

I've decided to buy de online as I can't find it locally either,
I had my quarantine coop covered in ants too. I had to do a full clean out of all the shavings as they seemed to be going for the fine crumbs from the chook feed that had been buried
http://diatomaceousearthonline.com.au/shop/diatomaceous-earth-food-grade-regular/

If you are already having issues with upper respiratory disease I would steer clear of DE. Sprinkle borax around the coop, or spray with permethrin surface spray. Home brand is $2 a can. I also hang the sticky fly tapes from the ceiling to catch the climbers.

 

[krista74]

If you are already having issues with upper respiratory disease I would steer clear of DE. Sprinkle borax around the coop, or spray with permethrin surface spray. Home brand is $2 a can. I also hang the sticky fly tapes from the ceiling to catch the climbers.

I hadn't thought of that, thank you. I have ordered a 4.5kg bag of the DE (if nothing else, maybe they can use it to fluff around in next Winter!) but I will try your suggestions. I have only had 1 girl with a respiratory issue, but one is enough. Luckily I picked it up early and was able to separate and treat her quickly. She is no longer exhibiting symptoms but I am keeping her penned next to Miss Impacted Crop to keep her company while she recovered from surgery. Her stitches come out in 8 days time so they can re-join the flock together after that.

Thanks again,

- Krista

 

[Fancychooklady]

I hadn't thought of that, thank you.  I have ordered a 4.5kg bag of the DE (if nothing else, maybe they can use it to fluff around in next Winter!) but I will try your suggestions.  I have only had 1 girl with a respiratory issue, but one is enough.  Luckily I picked it up early and was able to separate and treat her quickly. She is no longer exhibiting symptoms but I am keeping her penned next to Miss Impacted Crop to keep her company while she recovered from surgery.  Her stitches come out in 8 days time so they can re-join the flock together after that.

Thanks again,

- Krista

I'm just a little suspicious of anything that recommends I wear a respirator to apply.
As with all things I like to rely more on science than ' hearsay '
I would love to know more about your impacted crop girl. Do you have any before and after pics. How big was the mass that they removed ?? Sorry , enquiring mind . It just might help one of us later down the track.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/05/diatomaceous-earth-de-benefitrisk.html

 

[krista74]

I would love to know more about your impacted crop girl. Do you have any before and after pics. How big was the mass that they removed ?? Sorry , enquiring mind . It just might help one of us later down the track.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/05/diatomaceous-earth-de-benefitrisk.html

Sure, happy to share

My girl is a Buff Orpington, approximately 13 to 14 months old. She is currently in moult, and has not laid an egg for about 6 or 7 weeks.

I noticed that she was a little lethargic last Tuesday. She would stand in the run (never sit, just stand) and stare off into space. Even when I arrived with the treat bucket she just stood there. She is my head hen, and the rooster's best girl, and when she didn't come running for food when either he or I called her, I knew something was up.

I sat a spell in the run with the flock to observe her behaviour and that's when I noticed the size of her crop. Granted, it was the end of the day, but I knew she hadn't just eaten and I thought she looked quite distended. I herded her into the coop, caught her to have a good feel of her crop, and after prising the rooster off my leg (!) I found that her crop was about the size of a tennis ball and very, very hard.

I immediately isolated her (much to the rooster's displeasure) and took her to the vet on the Tuesday morning. Our vet agreed that her crop was impacted and offered to do surgery on her, but made the point that whilst he had seen it done, he had never done it himself. He gave me some liquid parrafin to give her, which I applied to some corn kernels and she gobbled them straight up! I had been nervous about putting it directly into her mouth, you see. The next morning she had passed all the corn whilst roosting but she was still clearly impacted and exhibiting signs of pain. Surgery was scheduled for Friday to ensure the vet had time to read up on the procedure and I duly dropped her off at 8.30am.

The surgery (which cost $280) went well and the office staff made a big fuss about how lovely she was. They don't generally treat chickens and they thought she was delightful! Even the vet said to me "Look, if you rub her back here she will bockle at you!" and sure enough she did. She got an A+ for popularity!

They found some semi-digested grasses, grain, sand and vegetable matter in her crop (which he showed me) but not a big ball of twine-like hay as we had suspected. He said it looked like crop stasis, which can be caused by bacterial infections, yeast issues and Marek's, which is still a possibility. He said that should she pass away in the future, we should do a necropsy to confirm if it is or isn't Mareks, so that we know what we are dealing with going forward. That made me a little sad.

She was sent home with a pain-killer and antibiotics, to take twice a day. I have adopted the salad-dressing approach to these as well, and whist I have successfully given her the painkiller, the antibiotic must taste like crap, because I've only gotten one dose a day into her, and not the two that she was prescribed. Oh well, better than nothing! I find I have better luck with tuna flavoured cat food! That's just between you and I though, ok?!

She seems ok - she does get pain still as it was a fairly big operation, and she wakes me up in the morning making a 'crying' sound, so I dose her straight away then. She sits and rests a bit, but also has a scratch about in the mornings and evenings. Mind you, we have had 3 days over 40 degrees here so she is probably heat affected too. She will not roost yet - probably too painful on her crop. She sleeps in a portable nest box on cooler nights, or crouched in the corner of the coop behind her waterer on hot nights.

She eats, but prefers vegetable matter like cucumber and cabbage, rather than her pellets. I am ok with this as long as she is happy, although I do have a bowl of pellets in there for her. She has a friend in the pen next door so she has company, and she complains loudly to her during the day. She is, after all, an Orpington! Some things never change

At this point, we are 3 days post surgery. I am hoping for the best but also accept there is not much more I can do but keep her happy and comfortable. The surgery comes with no guarantees, and although her crop feels much better (a little swollen but not so hard) if she does have Marek's it will probably get her in the end. I am hoping that is a long way off if that is the case....

I think that's about it! Please feel free to ask any questions if I've missed anything, and thanks for your interest. She really is lovely - but very temperamental sometimes. Her name is Fire Ant!

Oh - a picture? I don't have one with a swollen crop, but here she is before she got sick....



She is the one in the red apron. Her sister wears the blue one, and George is her other half - keeping watch!

- Krista

 

[ChristieB]

I'm just a little suspicious of anything that recommends I wear a respirator to apply.
As with all things I like to rely more on science than ' hearsay '
I would love to know more about your impacted crop girl. Do you have any before and after pics. How big was the mass that they removed ?? Sorry , enquiring mind . It just might help one of us later down the track.

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/05/diatomaceous-earth-de-benefitrisk.html

Not disagreeing with you, chicken chick has some good points that I've filed away for when I pass judgement. But I re read the de site and I only saw mention of wearing a mask (not respirator though that might be mentioned on another site) once on the aerosol can page, doesn't seem unreasonable to need to wear a mask when working with dust I don't think.
I don't believe anything till I've tried it so I'll let you know my thoughts, if it's useless then it only cost me $6 plus postage. Don't see why it wouldn't do the job I want it for when it's worked for heaps of others on this site though, if it controls bugs too then awesome
Like I said I'll let you know

Hope your hen recovers, I've been racking my brain to think of how we got rid of ants in our kitchen, it was gel in a little bottle, you put a couple spots on their regular path they eat and take back to the nest and die. Don't know if it killed them all but they did move out of my kitchen