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- #5,071
Bee, I might have mentioned it before, and I'm sure I posted it on another thread at some point because I remember getting scolded for torturing those poor chickens, but....
I remember several times growing up when our flocks would get scaly leg mites. This was almost always right after bringing in new chickens from somewhere. Pa's treatment was always the same.
Pa would go out and pitch a hand full of Sevin dust in the nest boxes, take an old paint brush and coat the peeled pole roost poles with burnt motor oil then catch any chicken that looked like it had mites. He would cut a small square of cloth (usually from an old flannel shirt) and dip it in kerosene then tie it around the legs of the chickens that had mites with a piece of cotton string. By the time the chicken managed to pick the wrap off (usually a couple of days), there would be no sign of mites and the legs would slough off and look as smooth as a baby chicks legs.
Not natural organic products... but it darn sure worked.
Folks get up in arms with me talking about the old timey cures for stuff using petroleum products and poison, but they put diapers on their chickens and let them stay in the house. Not sure which would be the most un-natural?
Not knocking anyone with house chickens. It's their house after all, they can do what they want. But any chicken that comes in my house is ready to cook.
Always wondered one thing though... If you have a diaper on a chicken why would you need a nest box? Wouldn't you just fish the egg out of the poopy diaper?
My granny would use kerosene on any birds that had a cough...hold them down and eye dropper it in....cough gone the next day. I just had an issue with a stray that was severely flea infested and had wrestled around with my dog while playing. The stray was dispatched and my dog was promptly given a bath...with kerosene in the water. Worked miracles and made his coat shine like a new penny...and the smell warded off any further flea attempts. Now, I don't normally bath my dogs on a normal basis but this was one time where he needed a little help.
I can't say enough good things about the Nu-Stock for leg mites and even as a preventative on the roosts. It works on wounds for fast healing and it is said it really works on hot spots...never had any dogs with those but I'd whip out the NS if I did. Pine tar and sulfur....old-timey as you can get!
