Cattle tags for flies?

[TrialNerror]

I think you'd be far better off upgrading your run than using the ear tags. The insecticide on those is pretty gnarly stuff. When we tag our cows we're pretty careful to not touch them and to wash well if we happen to. Do you have a picture of your run? If you'd like to share, I'm sure you can get a lot of great ideas on how to fix it. Or at least help it out!

 

[TrialNerror]

Here are pictures of my coop and run. It's on a hill and the area tends to be kind of wet anyways, we think there could even be an underground spring. I started digging a trench around it but I plan on filling with rocks but then my husband told me I should dig it differently so I quit and just put a couple hundred pounds of sand in the run for now.

We added the raised flower bed in the front hoping it would act like a dam but it didn't work. I tried planting flowers but the girls thought I just built them a giant dust bath.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

Well, if it is an underground spring, you'd probably have to develop and pipe it away from the coop. Does is flood in from the front where the flower bed/bath is or all around?

 

[dalasgalas]

I wonder if the medicine in cattle tags may be too strong for a dinky chicken. I'm thinking hanging them around the coop defeats the purpose, doesn't the medication leach into the bloodstream, and that is how it functions to deter flies?

 

[Sea Wolf]

Buy one or more "Big Stinky" or "Fly Magnet" fly traps. Set them up on the ground near the coop and in the yard. Millions of flies will all die!! They have to be low to the ground to work well but they are amazing.

 

[TrialNerror]

Well, if it is an underground spring, you'd probably have to develop and pipe it away from the coop. Does is flood in from the front where the flower bed/bath is or all around?

It's all around but mainly from the front as it is downhill.

 

[Rick M]

We use the fly strips in coop above the feed areas on both sides and it keeps the fly numbers way down. Cheap and easy to hang from roof out of the way of birds and our heads while in coop.

 

[Meg-in-MT]

If it's all round, then you're on the right track with the trench and the gravel, in my opinion. I would use drain tile (tubing) covered in landscape fabric which will let the water in and not the dirt. The tubing is fairly inexpensive, so just doing it around the coop probably won't cost you an arm and a leg. You could also contact a local excavator to see how much they would charge to install it, they should have a laser to put it on grade.

 

[TrialNerror]

We ended up digging a pretty large trench and filling it with drainage gravel. We just got our first bit of rain since doing that I'm not sure it was enough rain that would have caused problems. Since the flooding dried out, we don't have a single fly down there. Thank you all so much for the input! I've had chickens for 6 years now but I feel why I continue to make every mistake. ‍

 

[cmom]

There are different ingredients used. Diazinon is one used a lot and actually permethrin is also used on some. There are sprays for controlling flies on cattle made with permethrin.
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