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

[Teila]

Good morning folks

To everyone who is feeling unwell or in pain

Fizzybelle when I trapped the toad he had the snap part across his middle and looked squashed and dead. I grabbed a plastic shopping bag and very gingerly [eeew] picked up the trap, opened the snap and dropped the apparently dead cane toad into the plastic bag. As I was resetting the trap the plastic bag started hopping away! Yep, the little bugger had survived!

Susan I also use the Woolworths Low Irritant Surface Spray on Fancy’s recommendation; it works! I still use straw in my nest boxes but keep it well dusted. Unless I have an outbreak, I do not dust the girls but they do have a couple of large dust baths that they use and on their very rare trips to the nest box

they probably pick up some Pestene.

I did have a bad infestation 2 years ago but using the spray and Pestene as a preventative, nothing since [touch wood].

 

[Duckie48]

I know that you are talking rats here, but I have mice 24/7/365 days. I use margarine containers and put a small hole in one end. I put one of those throw baits in and then I tape the lid shut. I do this in the chook pens and in my aviaries. The birds can't see what's in it and haven't as yet chewn it. The mice rarely die in the pens. It takes a lot of rat baited rodent to kill a chook. You can also hide it behind something so they can't see it. I have to watch out as the ducks like to eat the mice.

 

[sjturner79]

Hi, I have a condition that is inflaming all my joints. It is not arthritis and not lupus or anything bad they say as I have been tested for all that. When I asked if they had tested for limes disease they said they don't test for that. I personally know two people with it so it must be common enough to test for it.

They were just giving me drugs to try to see if that alienated the symptoms instead of looking for the cause.

Anyway - that's another story. So they do not know what I have. I am trying not to take medication but I know when I did I couldn't believe how good it felt to be pain free. I sat in my recliner and thought - I'm not lazy, ( not feeling like housework) I'm just in pain! I had no idea how much pain I was in until I wasn't in it.

Not testing for limes disease in Australia is a political thing. The are trying to insist that it's not here and that anyone with it contracted it overseas, however I think if the actually tested everyone With the symptoms in Australia they would find a few thousand cases in people that have never been interstate let alone overseas

 

[sjturner79]

Yeah I used peanut butter on bread on the trap, but he managed to pull it off without the trap going off. I used to use those live traps for when my pet mice got out in my house, worked really well, but I don't want to have to kill the rat myself so I'll pass on those. I might just persevere with the trap again, but ensure the bait is tied on better. There's also another flock nearby, I don't know what house, but I think they're in the street behind mine, I hear egg songs during the day. No idea how they store the feed for their chickens though, and if I'm starting to get rats again because of that or not.

The bread is the problem. They can pick that up. You just wedge some peanut butter directly onto the trap. You need to also have the trap set so that it has the trigger against a wall so the rat can't stand back and set it off before eating the peanut butter

 

[sjturner79]

Hi, I have dusted my girls with Pestene twice 7 days apart. Scrubbed the nesting area and and changed the wood chip in the coop. Sprayed the run with diluted eucalyptus oil. I also dusted the straw in the nesting box. I now notice there skin in so dry its flaking especially around the vent but their combs look dry too. Today I rubbed organic coconut oil on the dry areas. Is there anything else I can do?

Give the chickens warm baths to wash the remaining pestene off and wash or wipe out he nest boxes. Many chooks are allergic to the pestene dust. Put shellgrit or clay cat litter in the nest boxes. If you get signs of bugs or mites spray with the cheapest pyrethrum spray you can get

 

[sjturner79]

Give the chickens warm baths to wash the remaining pestene off and wash or wipe out he nest boxes. Many chooks are allergic to the pestene dust. Put shellgrit or clay cat litter in the nest boxes. If you get signs of bugs or mites spray with the cheapest pyrethrum spray you can get

Give the chickens warm baths to wash the remaining pestene off and wash or wipe out he nest boxes. Many chooks are allergic to the pestene dust. Put shellgrit or clay cat litter in the nest boxes. If you get signs of bugs or mites spray with the cheapest pyrethrum spray you can get

This is the one I am currently using

 

[Fizzybelle]

The bread is the problem. They can pick that up. You just wedge some peanut butter directly onto the trap. You need to also have the trap set so that it has the trigger against a wall so the rat can't stand back and set it off before eating the peanut butter

Thanks for the wall tip, that's a good idea.

 

[MyHaven]

A question to anyone out there who knows about colours. I just hatched australorp eggs from a mixed colour pen - black, white, blue and splash.

Two chicks are white white while half a dozen are the normal yellow. They are two weeks old now and they are all feathering white.

Does anyone know what if the white (almost blue cool white) means anything? All white chickens I've grown before have been warm yellow when they hatch and feather out white.

It's hard to see in the photos but there is a huge difference in natural light.

 

[appps]

@MyHaven The less yellow ones are probably splash. It's more a soft grey at that age.

This was my little splash. Greyish with yellow on the front.

Will all depend on what colour your rooster was as only certain colour combinations will give you the possibility of splash. So in a mixed pen he would need to be blue or splash. White doesn't work at all in the blue/splash/black breeding.

 

[Fancychooklady]

A question to anyone out there who knows about colours. I just hatched australorp eggs from a mixed colour pen - black, white, blue and splash.

Two chicks are white white while half a dozen are the normal yellow. They are two weeks old now and they are all feathering white.

Does anyone know what if the white (almost blue cool white) means anything? All white chickens I've grown before have been warm yellow when they hatch and feather out white.

It's hard to see in the photos but there is a huge difference in natural light.

The whites are likely to be splash to splash breeding. They tend to dilute back to white over time.
It helps to breed a black blue back over your blues and splashes if you are wanting to darken the blues .