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

[lamiel]

Hi K Spot .
I had an autopsy done on my wonderful Silver Grey Dorking cockerel when he was culled .
I bought the Dorkings and the Exchequer Leghorns when they were about 8 weeks old and they obviously did not have the proper food in their early growth stage .
They suffered from rickets !
I was so disappointed because my Dorking cockerel was really well liked by all the pullets .
There was always one of them with him and they even groomed him .
I have lost 3 so far because of rickets and am trying very hard not to lose another Dorking .
The others have started to lay so I am very hopeful .
They have crushed oyster shells and crushed egg shells as free choice .
I also have 5 special needs chickens .
2 Araucana bantams with scissor beaks who have to have their own coop with a deep bowl so that they can scoop up their pellets/seed .
I also give them porridge with Lucerne chaff because they cannot bite the grass .
Their names are Right Beak and Left Beak .
3 of my Light Barred Plymouth Rocks came at 3 months with deformed feet .
Their names are Right Foot, Left Foot and Both Feet .
They have difficulty holding on to a roost so they are in their own coop with special flat roosts .
All of my chickens free range together every day and go back to their own houses each night .

 

[lamiel]

This is the photo of the Naked Neck pullet or cockerel ??
Can anyone advise me ??
I have another Naked Neck who is definitely a cockerel with a large straight up comb and large wattles .
They are 11 weeks old .

 

[K Spot]

Looks like a cockerel to me, with a rose comb I think? Definitely not a straight comb.

I have two Silver Grey Dorking hens @lamiel . Their names are Bubble and Squeak. Squeak is only recently joined the flock in the past few months, but is settling well.

 

[Steampunked]

Sunny afternoon here in Belgrave, with my daughter helping teach the flock how to fly.

 

[Steampunked]

Well, ugh, it looks like my chooks have lice. No idea where it came from, but there are wild birds everywhere here, and I knew that sooner or later something would happen. It's been warm and wet.

On the weekend I'll drop into the farm store to get some powder and blast everything, blast the chook house, everything, I guess! I hope it's sunny then - everything seems to be a bit worse to do in the wet.

I know it's just lice, but while I'm fine with spiders, snakes, and so forth, I am really, really bad with parasites. They wig me out. UGHHHH.

The chooks do have dust baths and access to a roost with some diatomaceous earth, but I guess organic methods only go so far.

 

[lamiel]

I use a mixture of 2 cups water, 1 cup cooking oil with a tablespoon of dishwashing liquid in a spray bottle for lice in their coops .
It seems to work ok if you spray regularly .
My 2 Araucana bantams (with scissor beaks) came with leg mites which were very hard to cure until I used invermectin drops on their necks .
Luckily they were isolated in a different coop and they did not spread .
I also dusted them for their body lice with cat flea powder which worked a treat .
I will check more carefully when taking on more chickens with special needs .
The lady that had them did not realise that with their twisted beaks they could not pick up the seed that she just threw on the ground to them with all her other chooks .
They were starving !!!
Together they hatched 2 Naked Necks and have gone back to laying 1 blue egg and 1 green egg again .

 

[Fancychooklady]

Well, ugh, it looks like my chooks have lice.  No idea where it came from, but there are wild birds everywhere here, and I knew that sooner or later something would happen.  It's been warm and wet.

On the weekend I'll drop into the farm store to get some powder and blast everything, blast the chook house, everything, I guess!  I hope it's sunny then - everything seems to be a bit worse to do in the wet.  

I know it's just lice, but while I'm fine with spiders, snakes, and so forth, I am really, really bad with parasites.  They wig me out.  UGHHHH.

The chooks do have dust baths and access to a roost with some diatomaceous earth, but I guess organic methods only go so far.

Diamataceuos earth will not impact an infestation. There are many pyrethrum and pemrethrin products on the market that are based on organics and will work.
Before you buy pestine powder research the possible side effects of rotenone to your health.

 

[Sidhe13]

For external parasites i just do a wash in diluted dettol...let them sit for 10 or 20 minutes then rinse....just keep it off their faces.

 

[Fancychooklady]

For external parasites i just do a wash in diluted dettol...let them sit for 10 or 20 minutes then rinse....just keep it off their faces.

Whilst washing birds will drown the majority of lice , depending on how many birds you have , it could be very time consuming and not even the nastiest potions will kill the eggs.

 

[appps]

Hi K Spot .
I had an autopsy done on my wonderful Silver Grey Dorking cockerel when he was culled .
I bought the Dorkings and the Exchequer Leghorns when they were about 8 weeks old and they obviously did not have the proper food in their early growth stage .
They suffered from rickets !
I was so disappointed because my Dorking cockerel was really well liked by all the pullets .
There was always one of them with him and they even groomed him .
I have lost 3 so far because of rickets and am trying very hard not to lose another Dorking .
The others have started to lay so I am very hopeful .
They have crushed oyster shells and crushed egg shells as free choice .
I also have 5 special needs chickens .
2 Araucana bantams with scissor beaks who have to have their own coop with a deep bowl so that they can scoop up their pellets/seed .  
I also give them porridge with Lucerne chaff because they cannot bite the grass .
Their names are Right Beak and Left Beak .
3 of my Light Barred Plymouth Rocks came at 3 months with deformed feet .
Their names are Right Foot, Left Foot and Both Feet .
They have difficulty holding on to a roost so they are in their own coop with special flat roosts .
All of my chickens free range together every day and go back to their own houses each night . 

I had one of my faverolles started to develop symptoms of that not long after we got it at 11 weeks and my googling found in chickens it is linked to introducing the calcium too early. The breeder put them straight from chick crumbles to layer mash very early on and it was only after a few weeks on pullet grower that the symptoms went away.