BDutch's bantam flock & natural breeding projects #5 🪺 🪺 and #6

[BDutch]

I found an interesting and serious study (again) on red mite and treatments (what works and wat doesn’t/is not enough info) written for the chicken industry as wel as hobbyists. It’s in Dutch but with a good translation program its no problem to read the interesting parts. https://edepot.wur.nl/35928

There is a English summary in it about the content on page 7: https://edepot.wur.nl/35928#page7

I cant copy paste text from this pdf on my phone, but if you’re interested, I can export it into a Word file and send it by mail (personal message). . Can’t publish a translation because of copyright.

After readjng it I remembered why I don’t use Permethrin. It’s not allowed to use on chickens (eggs) and animals for meat for two reasons: it’s poisonous for humans and its overused so much that many mites are resistant to Permethrin nowadays.

It was useful to read it. Because I use a lot of the biscuit paper to catch the mites. And now I know I can reuse them when heated. 45C seems to be enough to kill the mites and mite eggs. Putting them in the oven for 10 minutes should be enough. A pitty I cant put my coop in the oven. Problem with burners is that the mites flee from heat and you cant reach everything where they can crawl to.

I still find 0-2 mites every day. Today I caught just one. This means there are 1-20 mites according to the Zenner method. Finding 2 mites means 2-200.

 

[MaryJanet]

I found an interesting and serious study (again) on red mite and treatments (what works and wat doesn’t/is not enough info) written for the chicken industry as wel as hobbyists. It’s in Dutch but with a good translation program its no problem to read the interesting parts. https://edepot.wur.nl/35928

There is a English summary in it about the content on page 7: https://edepot.wur.nl/35928#page7

I cant copy paste text from this pdf on my phone, but if you’re interested, I can export it into a Word file and send it by mail (personal message). . Can’t publish a translation because of copyright.

After readjng it I remembered why I don’t use Permethrin. It’s not allowed to use on chickens (eggs) and animals for meat for two reasons: it’s poisonous for humans and its overused so much that many mites are resistant to Permethrin nowadays.

It was useful to read it. Because I use a lot of the biscuit paper to catch the mites. And now I know I can reuse them when heated. 45C seems to be enough to kill the mites and mite eggs. Putting them in the oven for 10 minutes should be enough. A pitty I cant put my coop in the oven. Problem with burners is that the mites flee from heat and you cant reach everything where they can crawl to.

I still find 0-2 mites every day. Today I caught just one. This means there are 1-20 mites according to the Zenner method. Finding 2 mites means 2-200.

I once saw a video of a Dutch invention which ran electricity in a deep groove on the underside of roosting perches. The perches were too wide and the groove too deep for chickens to come into contact with the electricity. But mites were zapped on their way to the chickens at night time.

I thought it was a very clever approach to the problem.

Here's a paper: https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/q-perch-helps-fight-poultry-red-mite

I'll see if I can find the video.

Found it.

 

[ManueB]

I found an interesting and serious study (again) on red mite and treatments (what works and wat doesn’t/is not enough info) written for the chicken industry as wel as hobbyists. It’s in Dutch but with a good translation program its no problem to read the interesting parts. https://edepot.wur.nl/35928

There is a English summary in it about the content on page 7: https://edepot.wur.nl/35928#page7

I cant copy paste text from this pdf on my phone, but if you’re interested, I can export it into a Word file and send it by mail (personal message). . Can’t publish a translation because of copyright.

After readjng it I remembered why I don’t use Permethrin. It’s not allowed to use on chickens (eggs) and animals for meat for two reasons: it’s poisonous for humans and its overused so much that many mites are resistant to Permethrin nowadays.

It was useful to read it. Because I use a lot of the biscuit paper to catch the mites. And now I know I can reuse them when heated. 45C seems to be enough to kill the mites and mite eggs. Putting them in the oven for 10 minutes should be enough. A pitty I cant put my coop in the oven. Problem with burners is that the mites flee from heat and you cant reach everything where they can crawl to.

I still find 0-2 mites every day. Today I caught just one. This means there are 1-20 mites according to the Zenner method. Finding 2 mites means 2-200.

I would be interested to read this, anyone knows a more efficient tool than Google translate which only does page at a time ?

Here flurolaner / exolt is fast becoming the most used chemical solution and it has been recently released in a dose suitable for backyard chicken keepers. It's given in the chickens water once, and once again seven days after. Apparently it's very safe for the chickens and no egg withdrawal. The only downside is that for it to work, the mites need to actually feed on the chickens, so if there are places like very well hidden nests not frequented by the chickens (as in my coop) it won't kill them all.

I'm wondering if a high pressure washer would work in my coop, since the wall are a bit porous and lime washed. Also, is it possible to use it on roosts made with tree branches ? Silly questions but I don't think I have ever actually seen or handled a high pressure washer .

 

[BDutch]

I would be interested to read this, anyone knows a more efficient tool than Google translate which only does page at a time ?

Here flurolaner / exolt is fast becoming the most used chemical solution and it has been recently released in a dose suitable for backyard chicken keepers. It's given in the chickens water once, and once again seven days after. Apparently it's very safe for the chickens and no egg withdrawal. The only downside is that for it to work, the mites need to actually feed on the chickens, so if there are places like very well hidden nests not frequented by the chickens (as in my coop) it won't kill them all.

I'm wondering if a high pressure washer would work in my coop, since the wall are a bit porous and lime washed. Also, is it possible to use it on roosts made with tree branches ? Silly questions but I don't think I have ever actually seen or handled a high pressure washer .

Thanks ManuB for the flurolaner / exolt tip. If the mites are persistent I might go to the vet for a description (not available in the shop). It is a acaricide and insecticide withouth need of redrawing.

The special roosts might work in a chicken farm, but not in my coop.

I had eggs of the mites under the bark of tree branches 8 years ago. Never used branches as roosts after that. Pressure cleaning was no option.

I think that if you can export the pdf to Word, Word can translate the document.
Chat gtp (AI) might be another possibility.

 

[MaryJanet]

I would be interested to read this, anyone knows a more efficient tool than Google translate which only does page at a time ?

Here flurolaner / exolt is fast becoming the most used chemical solution and it has been recently released in a dose suitable for backyard chicken keepers. It's given in the chickens water once, and once again seven days after. Apparently it's very safe for the chickens and no egg withdrawal. The only downside is that for it to work, the mites need to actually feed on the chickens, so if there are places like very well hidden nests not frequented by the chickens (as in my coop) it won't kill them all.

I'm wondering if a high pressure washer would work in my coop, since the wall are a bit porous and lime washed. Also, is it possible to use it on roosts made with tree branches ? Silly questions but I don't think I have ever actually seen or handled a high pressure washer .

I also have never seen or handled a high pressure washer but if you can use one with water that's hot enough, it should work?

 

[BDutch]

I really want to stop this mite invasion because we want to go away on a holliday soon and don’t want to bother our neighbour too much with mite-hunting. So last tuesday I finally bought a Permethrin solution for birds and rabbits.

Permethrin Is not allowed to use in the chicken industry. The shop owners advice is to discard the eggs from the treated chickens for at least 3 days. But Katrientje and the 2 remaining mothers don’t lay. So I could spray them without a problem. And the other chickens dont sleep in the nestboxes where the mites keep coming back.

Tuesday I heated all the sand (and what else) from the nestboxes in the oven. Yesterday I also repaired of the diatom paint were it got thin.

And remember I made mite monitoring rolls of biscuit paper?
They are reusable after heating. The microwave heats anything with moisture in it. So I reckon that all mite, larvae and eggs get killed in the microwave.

I placed 12 monitoring rolls yesterday evening at all places were chicks and chickens sleep. Katrientje was expelled from the nestbox last night. Most chicks slept in the next-box again last night.
And no mite today!

Free ranging. The neighbourhood cats find the chicks interesting but I havent seen any real attempts to catch the chicks. One cat has more interest in the chick feed.

The chicks love it to chill on the high roost in the run in the evening just before sun set.

 

[fluffycrow]

I really want to stop this mite invasion because we want to go away on a holliday soon and don’t want to bother our neighbour too much with mite-hunting. So last tuesday I finally bought a Permethrin solution for birds and rabbits.

Permethrin Is not allowed to use in the chicken industry. The shop owners advice is to discard the eggs from the treated chickens for at least 3 days. But Katrientje and the 2 remaining mothers don’t lay. So I could spray them without a problem. And the other chickens dont sleep in the nestboxes where the mites keep coming back.

Tuesday I heated all the sand (and what else) from the nestboxes in the oven. Yesterday I also repaired of the diatom paint were it got thin.

And remember I made mite monitoring rolls of biscuit paper?
They are reusable after heating. The microwave heats anything with moisture in it. So I reckon that all mite, larvae and eggs get killed in the microwave.

I placed 12 monitoring rolls yesterday evening at all places were chicks and chickens sleep. Katrientje was expelled from the nestbox last night. Most chicks slept in the next-box again last night.
And no mite today!

Free ranging. The neighbourhood cats find the chicks interesting but I havent seen any real attempts to catch the chicks. One cat has more interest in the chick feed.

View attachment 3567667
View attachment 3567668

The chicks love it to chill on the high roost in the run in the evening just before sun set.

View attachment 3567666

Glad you finally got rid of the mite problem. The chicks are growing into really beautiful adults

 

[NanaK]

If you treat with permethrin I would treat a second time in about 10 days to get any hatching mite eggs.

Chickens look happy!

 

[BDutch]

If you treat with permethrin I would treat a second time in about 10 days to get any hatching mite eggs.

Chickens look happy!

Yes, I will ask my neighbour or my daughter if she can come over to our house. I ask the neighbours to check the monitoring rolls too. And to give the water/feed with supplements.

Btw, I didn’t see any adult mite for more than a week now. Only really tiny mite that just hatched.

 

[BDutch]

Second day completely mite free!
We are planning our vacation.
The chickens are less lucky: no free ranging for 2 weeks!

Strange: photos from last week seem to have disappeared from my phone.