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

[LuckysMum]

Thanks everything I've read says they don't like humans and can't live long without birds.
The stock feeds around here tend to cater for horses and large animals not so much poultry but there is one about 30mins away that has helped me out before, so I think I might go for a drive tomorrow. I just read the article. I hope mine are just normal mites.
Thanks again

 

[satay]

Another blow last night. Went out to a friends for dinner came back and found all my marans and my 10 year old white faced black Spanish dead. Some gone alot just dead missiing heads. The foxes are sure determined this year as they dug under the concrete and the corro barrier. R.I.P girls. I have 1 3 week old female marans and a male left that didn't sell yet. Fingers crossed i can get them up to laying age.

 

[ctrl-alt-doll]

Heartbreaking. I’m so sorry.

Do you have space for a couple of alpacas? They will guard your flock and chase the foxes.

 

[LuckysMum]

Oh Satay That is heartbreaking I hope you manage to keep them out now.

 

[Fancychooklady]

One of my silkie chicks has scissor beak, from what I've read some say cull others give it a chance. At 4 weeks its very noticeable, does anyone have any ideas. I've read it only gets worse.

Scissor beak is reasonably easy to manage. In all my years of hatching I've only had 1. He is almost normal now. Just trim the beak regularly with toe nail clippers. A little ar a time. As for the red mite, they leave the birds at dawn and take up hiding in the coop so during the day is the best time to attack them. Spray every other day with a pyrethrum surface spray and dust the birds. You all know I don't like pestene, but I've finally found an alternative. Yates new tomato dust. They have replaced the rotenone (linked to Parkinson's ) with spinosad. So the active ingredient are sulphur , copper sulphate (fungicide ) and spinosad.

 

[LuckysMum]

Thanks Fancy I will get the tomato dust tomorrow. I've had three showers today. Every time I go and clean up a bit more I have to go and shower I'm so scared of passing it on the babies. I didn't want to use anything that would hurt the birds and no one could give my any ideas. I have bought coopex the man at City Farmers says it will kill the mites. I have been dismantling their nesting boxes because they are made of wood.
Paul just culled the little silkie, I wish I had seen this before. I am on a silkie facebook site and they said to cull. I'm so sad now. It's bin day tomorrow so I asked Paul to do it today. I am feeling like a bad chook mum now, I should have waited. Everything I read said that being so young it would probably involve the skull too as it got bigger so I thought it would be kinder to do it now.
I hope everyone has had a good weekend.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Thanks Fancy I will get the tomato dust tomorrow. I've had three showers today. Every time I go and clean up a bit more I have to go and shower I'm so scared of passing it on the babies. I didn't want to use anything that would hurt the birds and no one could give my any ideas. I have bought coopex the man at City Farmers says it will kill the mites. I have been dismantling their nesting boxes because they are made of wood.
Paul just culled the little silkie, I wish I had seen this before. I am on a silkie facebook site and they said to cull. I'm so sad now. It's bin day tomorrow so I asked Paul to do it today. I am feeling like a bad chook mum now, I should have waited. Everything I read said that being so young it would probably involve the skull too as it got bigger so I thought it would be kinder to do it now.
I hope everyone has had a good weekend.

Oh I'm sorry I hadn't responded earlier. A lot of people don't have the time for ' special needs ' chickens and that would lead to the decision to cull. I must admit that I had considered it with my little guy, but his beak has grown down to almost normal now.
I've found that many of the FB sites aren't very reliable for helpful information as everyone seems to be an expert.
Dont beat yourself up over it , treatment and success varies according to the severity of the condition. You might want to share this pic with them though.
On the mites, yes coopex will get the mites in the coop but get rid of all the nesting material and as I said they feed on the birds at night and hide in the coop during the day so hit them during the day and powder the birds so that they are reluctant to return to them at night . They hatch by the hundreds so you need to be consistent for a couple of weeks to break the cycle.

 

[LuckysMum]

I'll go in every morning when the girls get up luckily I have another covered run that runs of their run so I lock them in there. Coles had the dust so tomorrow I will dust them and coopex the coop and I have bought more natural spray that's pyrethrum based. It's not surface but I couldn't get that I'll try again tomorrow. I have bagged all the flooring and bedding and I'm not sure what to do with it. I usually put in the front garden, I can't burn it I guess it will be trip to the tip. I won't be using deep litter again it's to hard to see if the mice are around. Thanks for the advice Fancy
Thanks for that article I will show the other FB sites. When I told my husband, he told me to stop second guessing and worrying about what can't be changed. But next time I have a problem I won't be so quick to listen to others I don't really know. Thanks

 

[Fancychooklady]

I'll go in every morning when the girls get up luckily I have another covered run that runs of their run so I lock them in there. Coles had the dust so tomorrow I will dust them and coopex the coop and I have bought more natural spray that's pyrethrum based. It's not surface but I couldn't get that I'll try again tomorrow. I have bagged all the flooring and bedding and I'm not sure what to do with it. I usually put in the front garden, I can't burn it I guess it will be trip to the tip. I won't be using deep litter again it's to hard to see if the mice are around. Thanks for the advice Fancy
Thanks for that article I will show the other FB sites. When I told my husband, he told me to stop second guessing and worrying about what can't be changed. But next time I have a problem I won't be so quick to listen to others I don't really know. Thanks

Hubby is right. I just find that on the FB sites people tend to comment blindly without much experience or research. The coopex will do the coop, I only use the pyrethrum based woolies brand surface spray because it's cheap and there is no mixing . I leave a can in each coop for convenience.

 

[satay]

Oh Satay That is heartbreaking I hope you manage to keep them out now.

Thanks I was going to just forget about the marans all together after that attack but i was fortunate enough to be gifted 2 3 week olds today from a new chicken customer.