Brooder in hen house

[ZoomuKeeper]

I live in Florida and we have fire ants. At times I have had ants in the one hen house going after the feed. I am hatching babies as I type and will need to put the brooder in the hen house with electric. I do not have any shelf large enough to hold the brooder so it will have to sit on the ground. Has anyone had any issues with ants killing and eating their chicks? When I worked at the zoo the ants ate off the baby swans feet. So I am a little worried......

 

[azygous]

I would be a LOT worried. I've heard fire ants are extremely difficult to control with pesticide, but I'd give that a try with some permethrin which is safe for chickens.

Another strategy is one I use for my hummingbird feeder. You install a water trap below the thing you want protected. In the case of chicks, it would involve a basin of water on the ground with the brooder on legs which would sit inside the basin of water. Or take cans larger in diameter than the brooder legs and fill those with water, but they need to be large enough so the ants can't make it across the span of water to the brooder leg before they drown.

 

[ZoomuKeeper]

I would be a LOT worried. I've heard fire ants are extremely difficult to control with pesticide, but I'd give that a try with some permethrin which is safe for chickens.

Another strategy is one I use for my hummingbird feeder. You install a water trap below the thing you want protected. In the case of chicks, it would involve a basin of water on the ground with the brooder on legs which would sit inside the basin of water. Or take cans larger in diameter than the brooder legs and fill those with water, but they need to be large enough so the ants can't make it across the span of water to the brooder leg before they drown.

I use permethrin. It is the only pesticide I use. The water trap we did that at the zoo for some of the animals food. we called it floating. I can build a stand out of 1" PVC and float the legs. Good idea Azygous. Thanks